Modern Trends in Chinese Society - Term Paper Example

PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE IN BUSINESS IN CHINA Public Relations Practice in Business in China Introduction China, commonly known as the People’s Republic of China, is a country found in the East part of Asia, originally, “Communist China.” China has a number or records in the world. Naming a few of the unique record of China, it covers a land area of about 3.7 million square miles hence second largest in the world (Shandwick, 2004). Another feature of China is that it is the most populated country worldwide with an approximate total population of about 1.3 billion. The high population requires for economical utilization of possessions to satisfy the needs of all people. China has enjoyed political stability resulting from minimal opposition from citizens and legitimate governance. Historically, China has remained intact for around 5000 years hence high levels of developments achieved. The prolonged existence of stability is due to achievement in building healthy public relations between the citizens. There is widespread interdependence of all the people of China whereby there is communal responsibility rather than individual. This means that most of the roles are collective and focus on the success of the whole country rather than individuals (Shandwick, 2004). Like other countries of the world, China experiences cases of violence due to rising conflicting ideas among the leaders. A single party known as “The Communist Party of China” (CPC) governs China. The party provides leadership to the country’s 22 provinces, 5 sovereign regions and 4 directly governed municipalities. There are two other notable governing regions Hong Kong and Macau, which are also under CPC. The capital city for China is Beijing. China’s landscape is not favorable for traditional agricultural practices because most of the land lies in the desert. The terrain in general is rugged and hilly. The land proximity forced most of the Chinese to practice peasant farming for survival (Culbertson, 2006). The practice of peasant farming ended in 1970’s as an initiative by Mao Tse-tung to change Chinese Society. Mao suggested adoption of Western technology to end poverty. Adoptions of western technology and public relations have improved the economy of China to the present state. The purpose of this essay is to address the bond between the Chinese culture and public relations. This addresses the people of China way of life and their relationship. Another focus is the impact of media in promoting public relations in the country, and impacts of public relations to business development in the country (Culbertson, 2006). Finally, the essay focus on modern trends in Chinese society in providing openings in business and challenges faced in practice of public relations. Overview of public relations in China will help to understand the cultural practices of Chinese and explore the opportunities available in business industry. Chinese culture and public relations Hofstede did most of the work on cultural practices and beliefs in China. He explained the main cultural dimensions relating Chinese culture and public relations. These dimensions include power distance, femininity and individualism or collectivism Hofstede, 2001. The study by Hofstede was barely in China and in the Western countries too. The issue of Long-term Orientation, however, was evident in China than other Western countries in which the study took place. Hofstede affirms that these dimensions determine the stability of nations particularly in China and India. He argues that the cultural values and relationship between people influence business growth, in the country. In focusing on the issue of power distance, for example, Chinese culture upholds power of the older people in the society. This forced every child to obey both family and traditional rules in older days. Similarly, in the present world, every Chinese learns to obey his seniors. In places of work, it is a norm that all the junior staff recognizes and respects their leaders in all sectors of the economy. Nobody has the power to challenge authority, as this will be against the country’s working principles (Caywood, 2012). In pursuit of respect to authority, Chinese culture ensures that there are good public relations in the society in order to achieve best customer services. In China, there is no individualism. Most of the country’s values are collective and put emphasis on harmony. Nobody in China should show arrogance in relating with other members in the society. Arrogance is the most arrogant action. In performing any duty, whether family or national, every person works whole-heartedly towards service to the whole community. This promotes business activities in the country whereby production of goods for use in the country is of high quality and satisfies the consumers (Caywood, 2012). Traditionally, the social structure of China was a large family. Male sex dominated the population, but this trend is changing with the number women increasing. Presently, due to increased population, there is regulation on the number of members per family. The change from an emperor-governed family setting to a small family has led to excellent planning skills required in business (Hackley & Qingwen 2001). This means that any Chinese by default becomes a good manager. Breach on the rules governing family sizes leads to double taxation. A small family forces the citizens to develop interpersonal skills in relating with one another. This is because there is interdependence between families as no single family can serve all its members needs. In focusing on Uncertainty Avoidance, Chinese has developed use of indirect words in their conversation. This behavior creates ambiguity to western countries. For example, most of their conversations confuse other people because they may say, “yes” when they mean “no”. The use of confusing language blocks the western countries from borrowing business ideas and using them in developing their products (Hackley & Qingwen, 2001). Long Term Orientation is a government management plan that ensures that there is a 5 to 10 year business strategic planning. The formulation of the country’s objectives takes place early and strategies to the apprehension of the goals. Long term planning put China ahead of other countries, and this has led to success in business activities. The planning also involves preplanning in building good public relations with the potential buyers of the products. The indexes explained in the latter paragraph all comprise changes in cultural practices that affect public relations. Many changes have taken place with collective responsibility, for example, encouraged especially in developed cities (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). There is low power distance index in business corporations as it is the case in government. Individualism has also reduced with considerations on public demands given priority. In general, Hofstede analysis of culture and public relations is true and influence business performance in China. Dynamics in cultural beliefs has contributed to business growth in the country. Overview on Chinese public relations The government of China realized the importance of public relations in business and formed a number of societies dealing with public relations. The main area of concern by most of these associations is a translation of visitor relations and offering of tour guides to visitors (Shandwick, 2004). Unlike the western countries, China gives priority to Political strategy in building new ties with other countries. The need to strengthen on building public relations led to increase in number of institutions offering public relations studies in learning institutions. Studies done in 1992, show that there was an influx in public relations leading to decline in marketing (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). After a short time, performance in business declined attributed to high instances of corruption during publicity process. The government tried to control the downfall in business by closing the institutions offering public relations services. After a few years, however, the fruits of public relations (PR) became evident leading to increased earnings in PR services in the year 2000. The growth was due to a number of factors. The government realized the growing cases of corruption in business and, therefore, decided to make all government procedures public. The increase in media coverage and advertisements all focusing on PRs also led to the change in the downward trend (Shandwick, 2004). The government introduced adult education on the need for having PR skills to all people. PR studies incorporation in curricula for adult education in aim of creating awareness to all people was welcome. The business world experienced changes due to the rising number of new ventures. The new businesses wanted to create a good PR to both its customers and the government hence reviving PR in the society. New ventures encouraged communication between customers and producers resulting in building of PR. Communication between managers and other employees need a good relationship between the two for effective performance (Shandwick, 2004). Public relations societies China has about 150 PR societies formed by the government. The societies spread from the local level to national level. The purpose of these societies is to publicize the new profession and attract people’s interest in studying public relations. A number of activities have taken place through the societies. These include competitions on PR case studies, seminars and surveys. An example of the societies is Public Relations Society of China (PRSC) formed by the government. PRSC has a mandate to address government policies on public relations. The major challenge faced by these organizations is the perspective of most people that the societies are government projects (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). Public relations education There are a number of challenges facing Chinese PR education. The new profession gained a lot of popularity in its first introductions in early 1990s then declined. Presently the trend is gaining popularity and has a promising future. There is diversity in PR education. This is because the course is in other professions such as journalism, personal communication and other communication related disciplines. PR skills also present in almost all degree programs and technical colleges. The purpose of offering PR education in many areas, in China, is to equip as many people as possible with the new professional skills (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). Mass mobilization Campaigns to mobilize people in various issues form the main strategy of Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The purpose of mobilizing people is to create a spirit of hard work and educate people on the government’s new strategy of promoting business. During these campaigns, successful models in PR act as the role models of the people encouraging all people to join the drive. This is a move to create awareness in the business dynamics. The government, through the assistant from business agencies, produces several publications, which they distribute to people to read. The publications are effective since the government decentralize and ensure they reach the whole republic. The use of local authorities in governance makes distribution of informative materials possible (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). Although the government controls the media, it sometimes uses the same media to reach a wide range of Chinese. Media plays a major role in promoting the link between the geographic states of China with the locals. The media pass information to areas that may be inaccessible. Though media reporters may experience critics from most people, media remain effective in communication (Scotton & William, 2010). Information may pass through print media demanding support from the government for printing or editing information, or though live broadcast. When media houses are publishing information related to government objectives, the government offer commissions to the clients encouraging them to advertise more. In the end, information reaches many people across the country (Scotton & William, 2010). Challenges of public relations in China PR in China is facing a number of challenges. The business is young having being in existence approximately for 20 years. One of the challenges is the age at which professionals in the area are fall (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). Statistics show that a majority of professionals offering PR consultancy services fall under the age of between 25-27 years. Most of the business organizations claim that the young generation lack enough experience to offer consultancy services. It is also difficult to make new consultants acceptable to offer advice to their peers in new ventures (Scotton & William, 2010). The second challenge experienced in PR is the role of media. Most of The clients in need of PR services first approach media houses. There is increasing trend of using media houses to communicate details concerning various products rather than approaching PR consultants (Regester & Judy, 2008). Global corporations in China mostly use journalists in their product advertising. For example, campaign done by Weber Shandwick for a group of companies. Weber was more experienced in selling out companies hence most preferred by most corporations than other journalists. This made the rising new market strategy of building PR at the first point fail to succeed (Regester & Judy, 2008). Public relations industry relies on journalists following the trend in other business ventures (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). This made the business of PR to grow rapidly since it seemed not unique from the other strategies. Most people thought that even the PR specialists recognized the role played by the media in product promotion. The media houses have a better marketing strategy. The other challenge is that most of the Chinese have not yet seen the importance of creating PR with customers (Regester & Judy, 2008). In fact, most of Chinese does not understand what PR entails. PR studies comprise entertainments hence not different from other professions like journalism. Solutions to the challenges In order for the upcoming PR consultants to compete with journalists in the business, consultants are gaining expertise in balancing imaginative campaigns. PR consultants are coming up with strategies to outdo the journalists by bringing unique approaches in product marketing. PR consultants are taking advantage of government control on media houses, which delay the airing of messages to customers (Reuvid & Yong, 2005). The trend of contracting media by most clients is presently changing. The control by the government is to ensure that the focus is only in government information hence forcing investors to use PR consultants in product marketing (Heath & Gabriel, 2000). The need to pay journalists for them to market products many stipends is attracting opposition from many organizations. Paying of stipends may make sense due to low salaries paid to the journalists (Heath & Gabriel, 2000). Problem arises when journalists take the cash and fail to air information due to government interference. Payment is not a guarantee to airing information since there is no freedom. With the challenges facing use of media in reaching out customers, use of PR consultants is gaining popularity. There are efforts to study landscape and culture of people in different regions before selection of an appropriate method of product marketing takes place (Jiang, 2007). Finally, it is evident that public relations faces geographic and media challenges. However, there are thrilling progresses in working out the challenges to promote PR. The new industry has a future of developing and becoming the means of reaching out new customers of Chinese products. It is also worth to note that of late, the government of China has made progress in marketing its products especially in developing nations through building public relations across the border. Bibliography "Hong Kong." In Media: Asias Media & Marketing Newspaper, 19-29. Haymarket Business Publications Ltd, 2009. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2012). Caywood, Clarke L.. The handbook of strategic public relations and integrated communications. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Professional. 2012 Caywood, Clarke. The handbook of strategic public relations & integrated communications. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1997 Culbertson, Hurg. Public relations in mainland china: An adolescent with growing pains. Newyork: Tyler and francis. 2006. Print Hackley, Carol Ann & Qingwen Dong. "American Public Relations Networking Encounters Chinas Guanxi." Public Relations Quarterly 46, no. 2 (Summer2001 2001): 16-19. Hackley, Carol Ann, and Qingwen Dong. 2001. 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