Dealing with a business culture other than your own is challenging at the best of times, but particularly so when the new cultures is the polar opposite of your own.

All the major issues, like management, time, hierarchy, authority and process, work in reverse. Other issues, like Face, may not even exist in your own culture, and can only be learned through direct experience.

China is just such a market for Westerners because it is radically different on many of the major business and life issues; one of the most important of which is task focus.

There are two approaches to tasks and prioritization: sequential and synchronous.

Coincidentally the split is basically North East Asia-Western Europe, so it ties in well with European and American companies operating in China.

Sequential time-is-clock-time, time–is-money-time, time-is-in-short-supply-time. Not surprisingly it is a favorite of the Swiss, who invented the type of clock that we currently use. Tasks are done step by step, one by one, with no deviation from the sequence A-B-C-D-E …

Synchronous time is cyclical time where things happen in ‘good time’ or ‘in due course’.

If it doesn’t happen then maybe it wasn’t its time, or things just weren’t ready. Multi-tasking is the norm and the priorities are adjusted according to the ease or convenience of the current task compared to others.  Again, not unsurprisingly this is the preferred approach in China, Korea and Japan. Or at least was.

It is at the fault lines, where two cultures meet, that things get interesting. Newly arrived
hiring managers hold the sequential business model in their head, so when they approach
the hiring process they tend to go forward step by step, psychologically committing at each and every stage.

They also assume that candidates do the same.

Unfortunately, the people they are hiring often approach the process in a synchronous manner, where they don’t psychologically commit to the next stage just because they have completed the previous stage. In the synchronous system there is always a quick exit point, often multiple exit points, and people stop moving forward when no exit point is available.

Only at this stage do they really commit.

The result is a high incidence of candidates appearing to be interested in a position but then disappearing from your radar. In other cases candidates actually sign a Job Offer but fail to turn up, because they have been multi-tasking in the hiring process and took another offer.

The worst case scenario is where candidates turn up but resign in a very short time. This is surprisingly common in China and it is a worthwhile exercise to mentally prepare for it.