SIEMENS

Zao shang hao” are Zailiang Tang’s words of welcome to the course participants. The eight Siemens employees who have gathered here at a conference hotel in Munich are listening intently to the instructor, who works for the company’s own academy — the Learning Campus. Only Mirna Harms is a little skeptical. She has been working for over a year on a project with Chinese colleagues, so what can she really learn at this seminar on “International Cooperation with a Focus on China”?

For Siemens, with its local workforce of more than 43,000 and sales of over €5 billion, China is a key focus of international cooperation. This makes it all the more important for the company and its business partners to understand one another. Communication can quickly become a fiasco if it runs up against cultural barriers. That’s why intercultural training courses are an important component of internal education programs — not only with regard to China, but also for other countries such as India, Thailand, and the U.S.

“Most cultural training courses teach too much culture and not enough business,” says Tang, who trains administrators, project managers, and technical specialists from Germany who interact with Chinese colleagues or work in China. What should a traveler bring along to China? “Lots of curiosity, a bit of uncertainty to keep you on your toes — and the Shanghai Taxi Guide iPhone app to avoid getting lost in the city,” says Tang with a wink.

Participants in his courses aren’t given a catalogue of facts to be doggedly memorized; instead, they are taught social skills with a specific cultural flavor. Understanding and being understood, facial expressions, gestures, body language, and emotions are important. How should I behave in conversations and conflict situations, give presentations, and engage in negotiations when I’m far from home? — those are the kinds of question participants want answered.

Tang, the Asia expert, believes his job is to provide participants with some basic orientation by explaining, for example, how history and social change have shaped Chinese thinking. Each of the workshops, which last three days on average, begins with an overview of Chinese culture and history, which Tang cleverly combines with information about important industrial locations in China.

Reading Gestures Correctly. Even Mirna Harms, a young German-Bosnian engineer, is now listening avidly to the instructor’s expert lectures. The chief engineer of a China project at Siemens Industry Rail Automation in Braunschweig, she has been working daily with colleagues from Siemens Ltd. China since November 2009.

Together with China Railway Signal & Communication Corp., Siemens is equipping the first subway system in the metropolis of Chongqing, which, with a population of 30 million, may be the world’s biggest city. The new subway line is expected to significantly relieve traffic congestion in the city. Siemens is supplying the subway’s switch tower, train control, and operation control technologies. The first 14 stations will go into operation in the summer of 2011. Harms was initially unsure whether the seminar would help her, as she felt she already knew the country and its people since she had made several trips to China. But now she says she feels more confident about reading Chinese gestures. “It’s really interesting to see which situations I intuitively interpreted correctly or incorrectly,” she says.

Harms has already learned one thing. She would often plan something on the phone with her Chinese colleagues and then find out the work wasn’t finished by the agreed time. “If a German colleague doesn’t check up on a project’s progress, to the Chinese that means the work isn’t important, so it slides down on the list of priorities,” Tang explains. This is partly due to the fact that Chinese society is developing very rapidly. Things change every day, so priorities for various activities are reassigned daily. Now Harms no longer waits until the deadline; she checks up more often in order to make sure her task stays high on the list when schedules are rearranged.

One question Tang always hears about is the role of women. And indeed, the seminar covers the culture of gender. “As a rule, a career woman will have no difficulties in China,” he says. “If she does the same work as her male colleagues, she receives equal pay.” Harms knows that from experience. “It’s much more common to see women in technical professions in China than in Germany,” she says. The same cannot be said about India or Arab cultures.

Intercultural communication has been a focus of academic researchers for over 20 years. At Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich there is even a department for this discipline. Prof. Alois Moosmüller, the department chair, counsels companies to introduce extensive programs in intercultural skills training. “The aim is to prepare employees for the global business world, make them sensitive to other cultures, and enable them to engage in self-reflection,” he says (see p. 52). It’s not enough to know that in China a business card is handed to someone with both hands, or how to properly eat spring rolls, or that belching is considered praise for a good meal, for example.

Indirect Communication. Experts at the Learning Campus therefore use role play and complex case studies to hone participants’ intercultural business skills. In one class, Tang plays the role of a Chinese employee and one of the participants plays his German boss. Afterward, Harms and the others analyze the situation, deduce what is behind the behavior, and talk about feelings and the intention of what was said.

“The goal is to sensitize participants to cultural issues. We do that through training courses in communication, presentation, and management styles for many different countries,” says Robert Gibson, who has been teaching on the Learning Campus from its inception. He’s referring to matters such as one’s attitude toward hierarchies and the way one expresses an opinion, addresses a problem, or deals with conflict. For example, in China it’s advisable to speak about problems indirectly and avoid going on the offensive — an approach that Europeans, and especially Americans, are not accustomed to. In China, indirect communication usually gets you to your goal faster. In genuine crisis situations, Germans often refer to the fine print of the contract, whereas Chinese try to arrive at a balance of interests on the basis of the actual situation. Tang explains that in negotiations Germans reveal their positions too early, while dismissing the step-by-step concessions made by the Chinese as a “salami tactic.” The two cultures also differ in the way they deal with complex issues. “One thing I’ve learned is that presentations to Chinese colleagues should start out with a detail they are familiar with,” says Harms. “That’s a good basis for explaining a more complex system.” Working by means of references is a well-established component of Chinese culture. “Once I know that, I can organize my business activities completely differently,” Tang confirms.

German employees are used to separating private matters from business activities, but in many cultures the contrary is true. “If you don’t develop an emotional connection with a person, you can’t work with him or her,” says Tang. In China, guanxi — one’s network of personal contacts — is very important, and it’s mainly built up outside the workplace. Whether you’re being interviewed for a job or meeting a business partner, you should always check to see whether the person you’re talking to knows somebody you also know. If so, the conversation will immediately become several degrees warmer. For people traveling to China, it’s a big advantage to know somebody there who can integrate them into such a network.

A common language will not in itself prevent intercultural misunderstandings. “Just look at British people and Americans. They speak the same language but can still completely misunderstand one another,” says Tang. Harms, who speaks English with her colleagues, says, “You may think a matter is completely clear, but it’s clear on two completely different levels. Our trainer vividly explained this kind of situation, where people are talking at cross-purposes.” It’s the difference between what people say and what they mean.

At the end of the day-long seminar, the participants go to a Chinese restaurant. In this authentic, relaxed atmosphere, Tang casually offers additional tips — for example, don’t eat everything; politely leave a bit of rice in your bowl. Mirna Harms has repacked her imaginary suitcase for her next trip to China — with a much larger portion of intercultural business expertise.