More than 2,000 years ago in China, the one of the most famous philosopher who was called Xuncius used the metaphor of water and boats to identify the linkage between people and emperors by stating that “ Water floats and sinks boats”, suggesting that water(people) can sink boats (emperors). As a result, even though social stratifications and feudalism existed in China for thousands of years, emperors realized the importance of public opinion and building harmonious relationships with people. In Chinese basic moral and ethic, harmony and the doctrine of the mean dominated in the traditional society, and also, the metaphor of water and boats is the most apparent propositions on public relations even if nobody specifies the definition to linking with the PR.
As we know, China is a traditional civil country in the long history, it is impossible for the Chinese scholars and governor to accept and apply all western perspectives of public relations practice, the reason is that China has its own exceedingly complex culture and ethical systems developed for about 2,000 years, that is to say, as a PR practitioner , whatever you will do in China, you have to consider the current conditions , even as a native PR consultancy who is planning to involve the different regions in China also has to make himself or the clients adapt to the local cultures. This is also what PR people called localization.
According to Krishnamurthy Sriramesh’s Public Relations in Asia (2004), the characteristics of Chinese public relations practice have its own unique and distinct points: applying the personal influence model, integrating into the Chinese polity and committing to localization are three salient characteristics of public relations in China. In particular, the first one has more essential effects on the PR practitioner’s behaviors, That means, we must understand the PR environment in the different countries with the local characteristics and culture, that will help us to make out the PR strategy in the special regions.
At first, with the unique characteristic in Chinese culture of maintaining harmonious relationships with people, relationships are more critical and require more distinct obligations in China than in the West. As a result, in China the major function of public relations is viewed as a form of building and cultivating guanxi, the Chinese version of the personal influence model, which is very evident in Chinese public relations. Because of competition from international public relations agencies, Chinese practitioners have started to think about how to manage guanxi ethically. For instance, the director of Shanghai communication office is truly the head of PR mission operation, under the personal model, the PR practitioners should finish the PR task by the regular ways, but also, they have to rely on the director’s behavior in the social activities to maintain the relations with others through exchanging gifts, favors and hospitality.
On the other hand, the PR practitioners place on integrating their agendas into Chinese policies through good relationships with different levels of the government. The government serves as the largest and most influential agency with the primary purpose of fostering and regulating social development. Therefore, Lu’an Group should always be sensitive on the relations with government, because without the government’s supports, enterprise can not do anything at all in China. Unfortunately, there is also the “guanxi” existing between the enterprise and government, especially ,whether the relationship is healthy or not depends on the personal relations and connection of my boss at most of time, even if we also make more greater efforts in the PR practice. And also, to maintain with the people working in government department, is not only to do what the PR professionals should do daily, but also try to explore more deeper and wilder relationships as the personal emotion to touch these people.
Anyway, to maintain and develop more healthy relationship with the stockholders are not simply, because it is not just only a consideration in the PR field , more important , you have to localize yourself into the Chinese culture and ethical tradition. Meanwhile, the government is the most important target for any companies who are planning or had involved in the China market, the government is the final key factor who can make changes on your PR practice. Furthermore, “Guanxi” is the unique chrematistics in Chinese society and playing an essential role in the PR management even if the Chinese version of the personal influence model, which is very negative in Chinese public relations, as a PR practitioners, we have to respect the fact that had been existing in China for thousands years, then we may find the way to resolve the influence on it, to make “Guanxi” perform the positive effects than negative one.
Reference:
Sriramesh, K.( 2004). Public Relations in Aisa. Singapore: Thomson
As we know, China is a traditional civil country in the long history, it is impossible for the Chinese scholars and governor to accept and apply all western perspectives of public relations practice, the reason is that China has its own exceedingly complex culture and ethical systems developed for about 2,000 years, that is to say, as a PR practitioner , whatever you will do in China, you have to consider the current conditions , even as a native PR consultancy who is planning to involve the different regions in China also has to make himself or the clients adapt to the local cultures. This is also what PR people called localization.
According to Krishnamurthy Sriramesh’s Public Relations in Asia (2004), the characteristics of Chinese public relations practice have its own unique and distinct points: applying the personal influence model, integrating into the Chinese polity and committing to localization are three salient characteristics of public relations in China. In particular, the first one has more essential effects on the PR practitioner’s behaviors, That means, we must understand the PR environment in the different countries with the local characteristics and culture, that will help us to make out the PR strategy in the special regions.
At first, with the unique characteristic in Chinese culture of maintaining harmonious relationships with people, relationships are more critical and require more distinct obligations in China than in the West. As a result, in China the major function of public relations is viewed as a form of building and cultivating guanxi, the Chinese version of the personal influence model, which is very evident in Chinese public relations. Because of competition from international public relations agencies, Chinese practitioners have started to think about how to manage guanxi ethically. For instance, the director of Shanghai communication office is truly the head of PR mission operation, under the personal model, the PR practitioners should finish the PR task by the regular ways, but also, they have to rely on the director’s behavior in the social activities to maintain the relations with others through exchanging gifts, favors and hospitality.
On the other hand, the PR practitioners place on integrating their agendas into Chinese policies through good relationships with different levels of the government. The government serves as the largest and most influential agency with the primary purpose of fostering and regulating social development. Therefore, Lu’an Group should always be sensitive on the relations with government, because without the government’s supports, enterprise can not do anything at all in China. Unfortunately, there is also the “guanxi” existing between the enterprise and government, especially ,whether the relationship is healthy or not depends on the personal relations and connection of my boss at most of time, even if we also make more greater efforts in the PR practice. And also, to maintain with the people working in government department, is not only to do what the PR professionals should do daily, but also try to explore more deeper and wilder relationships as the personal emotion to touch these people.
Anyway, to maintain and develop more healthy relationship with the stockholders are not simply, because it is not just only a consideration in the PR field , more important , you have to localize yourself into the Chinese culture and ethical tradition. Meanwhile, the government is the most important target for any companies who are planning or had involved in the China market, the government is the final key factor who can make changes on your PR practice. Furthermore, “Guanxi” is the unique chrematistics in Chinese society and playing an essential role in the PR management even if the Chinese version of the personal influence model, which is very negative in Chinese public relations, as a PR practitioners, we have to respect the fact that had been existing in China for thousands years, then we may find the way to resolve the influence on it, to make “Guanxi” perform the positive effects than negative one.
Reference:
Sriramesh, K.( 2004). Public Relations in Aisa. Singapore: Thomson
3 comments:
Cultural PR is really interesting. Having studied Asian Management and International PR in past units at Curtin, I've learnt that communication requires a different approach than it would in Australia. "Guanxi" in reality is just the most traditional form of public relations. Look at it, it's building relationships for within business.I may never work in China but I think in my future career in Australia I'm going to mimic a bit of the guanxi theory.
Hi Tony,
I am Youshrina from Mauritius. I enjoyed reading your entry. I could get a clear overview of PR in China. It made me remember the module "International PR". Your entry highlights one major issue: Culture in PR. Whatever we have learnt in PR so far derives mainly from western perspective and many of us who would like to work for international companies later on will surely realise that many of these western theories don't fit in the local country where we are practising.
That is why we have to consider Hofstede's Cultural dimension before doing business in other countries. I believe, since China is a collectivist society, exchanging gifts to strengthen relationships is acceptable there. But if you take the U.S. for example which is an individualistic society, exchanging gifts could be frowned upon as bribery and unethical practice. Even here in Mauritius it is like that sometime.
Though it has been suggested that we should apply a universalistic approach to the PR profession so as to give it a degree of professionalism, I still believe that a relativistic approach might be better as we should take into consideration the local culture and the government when practising in a foreign country. Whether we like it or not, culture and government legislative will definitely impact on the way we conduct PR activities and build relationships with key stakeholders.
I think culture and external forces is one aspect that most of us forgot to highlight while sharing our experiences. Thanks for sharing it Tony.
Cheers
Youshrina ;)
Dear all, thank you for your kindly replies!
For Jess. Barrett, I guess that you are studying in Australia, actually, this is also my puzzle about this topic - Culture in PR. Because I never live in Australia before, so in my image, the Chinese "guanxi" is not popular in the Australian society, I mean, in terms of the different cultural background, I don't think the definition or theme of "guanxi" would be accepted by the people, you know, "guanxi" just like what I considers is more or less related to break up the ethical system, this is so sensitive for a PR practitioners to consider, in my opinion, you must be as much as carefull on this, obviously, reputation for PR professionals sometime means the credibility in the industry, you can't initiate the "guanxi" unless you have known the key logic in this Chinese culture, if not, that might make the negative influecne on your operations. Hopefully, you could handle it by your own controls.
For Youshrina Mungur, your opinions is opening my views in PR, and also, I agree your perspective on the comparing between China and U.S., you know, we could not change it , have to adapt to it.
You know, PR is a social science that doesn't like the mathe, I mean, there will not absolute anwsers in this industry, in my personal viewpoint, the best is workable one obey to the laws, so maybe it works in China, but not in rest of nations. That is why we could say, PR is a kind of tradition.
By the way, could you give me some links on the "universalistic approach" and "relativistic approach", what is the differences between them?
Anyway, thank both of you! welcome to the sharings with me!
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