Building Trust between American and Chinese Business Negotiators

Abstract

Purpose — This chapter focuses on trust-building between American and Chinese business negotiators in the U.S.–Chinese collaborative projects through the work of ethnic Chinese employees. These ethnic Chinese employees can be effective trust-builders who can prevent dishonest behaviors in negotiations and implementations of projects in China through adequate corporate policies and training.Design/methodology/approach — The data were collected through semi-structured personal in-depth interviews through years 1994–2004 in the United States and in Hong Kong. The data were further validated by the author’s recent six years of field work in mainland China (2006–2011).Findings — The work explains how 36 Chinese expatriates in the United States and 24 Chinese executives in Hong Kong established trust between the U.S. negotiators coming from an individualistic, goal-oriented, low-context culture with a mature market economy and a well-established legal system and Chinese negotiators coming from a collectivistic, relationship-oriented, power-driven, high-context culture with an emerging market economy and an embryonic legal system. Many Chinese expatriates and executives have learned to entwine affect-based trust (feeling) and cognitive-based trust (information) with the Chinese representatives but cannot convey the affect-based trust to the relationships between American and Chinese representatives. Many Chinese expatriates and executives can use their affect-based trust to ask for reciprocity from the Chinese representatives and discern how to leverage on valid information provided by both sides. The social consequences of breaking affect-based trust relationships in the context of the Chinese culture are well above the norms to facilitate honest relationships between the U.S.–Chinese collaborative projects. The affect-based trust between ethnic Chinese employees and Chinese negotiators is transferred to defer dishonest behaviors in negotiations and projects when these ethnic Chinese employees perceive to have authority to mobilize American corporate resources in the negotiation processes.Social implications — American corporations need to enhance the effectiveness of their ethnic Chinese employees as valuable honesty builders in negotiations and implementations of projects in China, where there are weak institutional policies and structures to punish dishonest organizational practices.Originality/value — It is important for American corporations to develop a shared understanding between American representatives and their ethnic Chinese employees in the context of U.S.–Chinese cooperative project negotiations through corporate policies and training programs before a team of American representatives is formed.

Citation

Lai-Ling Lam, M. (2013), "Building Trust between American and Chinese Business Negotiators", Vissak, T. and Vadi, M. (Ed.) (Dis)Honesty in Management (Advanced Series in Management, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 293-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1877-6361(2013)0000010017