East Asian businesses often go out drinking. Why is this such an important part of corporate culture, relative to other world regions?
A month ago, I didn’t know. Now, after my interviews with people in China and Korea, the answer is very obvious.
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Collective harmony and hierarchy are strongly idealised across East Asia. Communication is thus implicit and indirect. Conflict aversion and emotional suppression make it harder to learn what someone else really thinks. So what’s the solution?
Alcohol reduces people’s inhibitions. This promotes social bonding and information-sharing. As argued in Edward Slingerland’s book “Drunk”, it benefits businesses! But this exact same cognitive shift also elevates risks of sexual abuse. Women may prefer to leave early. By doing so, they miss out on homosocial boozing and schmoozing.
Late night in Seoul, my photo
Communication Norms
Cultures vary in how much they value direct or indirect communication. In “The Culture Map”, Erin Meyer helpfully details the global heterogeneity of communication styles. Americans are extremely direct, they say what they think. Brits are a bit more subtle. To be polite we sugar-coat criticism, in ways that can be confusing for outsiders. Japanese are even more indirect: one must read between the lines.
The Dutch and Israelis are famously direct. They don’t mind confrontation, so usually speak their mind and take no offence. By contrast, East Asians are more likely to value collective harmony. This means that they avoid direct confrontation, so artfully use be more subtle and diplomatic language.
Communication styles vary significantly, even within Europe. If one doesn’t understand this cultural heterogeneity, one is likely to misinterpret the indirect English or be offended by the direct Dutch.
Meyer 2014
East Asian communication is especially indirect. One must learn to interpret subtle cues. In Korean, this is called ‘nunchi’. Among other things, this means anticipating others’ wants before they are said out loud.
East Asian societies are also more hierarchical. Korean school children typically bow to their teachers, and use more respectful language when communicating with elders. Korean adults also abide by age-based seniority.
In societies that idealise hierarchy, speaking one’s mind is downright impertinent. Whereas the Swedes talk far more frankly, since they regard themselves as a society of equals.
Collective harmony, conflict-aversion and strict hierarchy cumulatively entail extremely delicate use of language. For reasons of decorum, it may be better to keep one’s true feelings suppressed.
Koreans students told me that in university seminars they usually avoided conflictual topics, like gender or military conscription. If a man is talking with a female friend, he might share his personal experience of conscription, but not necessarily criticise institutionalised discrimination. This preserves the peace.
Even if direct confrontation is viewed negatively, people still want to communicate! Koreans often described an enormous disjunction between their conversations with friends (normal and polite) and online comment boards (extremely aggressive). When posting anonymously, Koreans speak their mind.
Indirect communication clearly creates a conundrum for the corporate world. If talk is suppressed, how do you build trust and rapport?
Colleagues go drinking, so they can talk candidly.
A Chinese businessman recently explained the importance of corporate drinking. He spoke entirely in Mandarin, translated via Microsoft Translate:
How do you build trust with a new person?
You will have a lot of entertainment.
Why is entertainment important?
If it’s a Chinese state-owned enterprise, this is really important. If the leader and the leader invite each other to dinner, they basically have to sing.. Singing, drinking and bathing are really important… It’s not very comfortable but you have to, if you want to make more money in China, then you basically have to do it.
Do women go to the entertainment?
Usually, the leaders of men and men get together, and when he goes to karaoke bars, he will definitely find some women. Sing and dance with them, drink wine..
There are many cases that the customer did not want to purchase our company’s products (when I was in the SOE), but due to drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking for a long time, the customer, finally chose the product from our company.
A Korean software engineer similarly explained that nights out enabled business conversations:
I usually go with my boss to a meat restaurant, or maybe we have a drink together. This is more important than you think… We have dinner two or three times a month…
Now, I usually say things that I can't say in the company, things that I can't say officially
For example, perhaps the boss is pushing this business, but the business is not going to go well, and we talk about the direction of the company.
Given Korean ideals of respectful hierarchy and non-confrontation, directly voicing disagreement is improper. As I observed, it actually makes other people feel uncomfortable. Alcohol loosens these inhibitions and allows more direct communication. In a culture that values collective harmony, drinking makes business sense. Colleagues go drinking, so they can talk candidly.
Risks of Sexual Assault, Oggling, and Victim-Blaming
Freed from their inhibitions, drinkers loosen up. They do things they wouldn’t do in polite society. This holds for both business conversations and sexual mores. In Hawon Jung’s excellent book “Flowers of Fire”, she shares stories from women who were molested by male colleagues on corporate nights out. Of course, none of this is unique to Korea. In UK academia, I know of a case where a male professor had too much to drink and put his hand on a PhD student’s thigh.
Work colleagues may also hire ‘entertainment’. A Korean professor told me that her colleagues once went out for barbecue then onto a bar. When she arrived later, she found them with an adoring waitress. They brought her in from outside. Horrified and uncomfortable, she promptly left.
Women who drink may also be blamed for assault. In Japan, Shiori Itō went out for dinner with a man who offered to help her get a job. He drugged and raped her. Later, she spoke out publicly. But because they had been drinking, the Japanese public was not sympathetic. A Japanese economist explained,
She spoke in front of everyone, the backlash she received was pretty severe. “You got drunk with this guy, so what do you expect? You invited this. And some women said, you should not have gone out. She went through this terrible backlash.
Night time Seoul
The Corporate Drinking Trade-Off: Comfort Versus Career Progression
In societies where direct communication is widely disliked, drinking is the one time in which people are sufficiently free to share their true thoughts and feelings. Leaving early comes with costs. One forfeits collegial bonding and information-sharing. Workers must then choose between comfort and career progression.
Men also face this trade-off. They may also dislike corporate drinking and heterosexual entertainment, but they’re far less likely to be sexually harassed or feel quite so uncomfortable about other men oggling pretty waitresses.
Women and men thus face a trade-off. As a woman from Nanjing explained to me,
“My friend in the pet industry says you have to drink a lot to build trust with men in business, but it’s not nice. They trust people when they’re drunk”
Why don’t women push for a more inclusive work culture?
In societies that idealise collective harmony, challenging superiors can be deeply offensive. When chatting to two professionals in Seoul, I introduced a little role play. In a hypothetical company meeting, I politely put up my hand and said,
“I would like to propose that we end our company drinking culture. When people drink, they may make mistakes, do things inadvertently, which can make others uncomfortable”.
I spoke softly and gently; I really endeavoured to be placid. But my Korean friends were shocked. Sang-hee grimmaced, “It lacks nunchi”. Minjun (her male friend) was equally puzzled,
“I would be amazed. I mean this positively. But why is that person imposing their views on others? Why don’t they just drop out?” (translated)
To ease their discomfort, I suggested a more sympathetic story. “Let’s suppose her boss was drunk and put his hand on her thigh. She doesn’t want to confront her boss, but wants to solve it indirectly”. Sang-hee was still displeased, adding
“We care about the opinion of others”.
Does Corporate Drinking contribute to Sexist Discrimination?
Let me present a hypothesis, which I am curious to see tested empirically:
If something is fundamental to business success, it is rationale to hire and promote people with relevant skills.
Drinking is central for many East Asian firms.
Men may be better drinking buddies. If they’re more willing to partake and collectively enjoy the entertainment, they build up rapport, business acumen and insider knowledge.
Men may also be stereotyped as better drinking buddies.
So, I wonder,
Does reliance on corporate drinking encourage an employer preference for men?
On Little Red Book (a Chinese social media app), women have reported this exact bias. The screenshot below states:
A company came to recruit. They prefer a male who failed four courses over a women. A guy said they only want men who can drink (because drinking is part of business deals).
TLDR
I suggest that in societies with ideals of hierarchy, non-confrontation, indirect communication, and collective harmony, it is very impolite to speak your mind. Drinking provides a valuable opportunity - both within and across firms. People loosen up, share their true feelings and build rapport.
However, alcohol consumption also comes with side-effects. When people loosen up, they may be more sexually forward and make advances (which are not necessarily reciprocated). Seeing this, women may prefer to leave early - especially since they could be blamed for that impropriety. In a trade-off between comfort and career-progression, they may choose the former.
This is an untested hypothesis, but companies may even see men as more productive workers, because they are better drinking buddies.
What’s the solution?
If schools and firms explicitly encouraged more direct communication (as does happen in many international East Asian firms), maybe alcohol would be made redundant?
The section on China rings very true (I live in southern China, though I don’t do business, so I don’t know the business drinking world well).
I think there is one underexplored element, though, which is the level of separation between work and private life; or alternatively, the distribution of pleasurable activities across work and private life.
In China, I’m often struck by the disconnect between what many men say about business dinners - that they’re a chore - and the enthusiasm with which they engage in business dinners. At least some portion of men are doing it not because they have to, but because they enjoy it.
At the same time, I find lots of Chinese businessmen quite hard to talk to, because they don’t have much going on in their personal lives. Few hobbies, less time with their children than I do, and little inclination to talk about personal topics beyond the prices of prized possessions (“Look at this new gold watch. It cost $10,000.”). They only want to talk on the topics of their business, shared business acquaintances, and business entertainment. My feeling is that they regard the workplace as the natural locus for pleasure and interest (the fact that pleasure may well include hiring sex workers further cements this); home is more a place for duty.
The "what the British say->what the Dutch understand" thing is a bit how I feel as an East Coaster talking to Midwesterners.
The section on China rings very true (I live in southern China, though I don’t do business, so I don’t know the business drinking world well).
I think there is one underexplored element, though, which is the level of separation between work and private life; or alternatively, the distribution of pleasurable activities across work and private life.
In China, I’m often struck by the disconnect between what many men say about business dinners - that they’re a chore - and the enthusiasm with which they engage in business dinners. At least some portion of men are doing it not because they have to, but because they enjoy it.
At the same time, I find lots of Chinese businessmen quite hard to talk to, because they don’t have much going on in their personal lives. Few hobbies, less time with their children than I do, and little inclination to talk about personal topics beyond the prices of prized possessions (“Look at this new gold watch. It cost $10,000.”). They only want to talk on the topics of their business, shared business acquaintances, and business entertainment. My feeling is that they regard the workplace as the natural locus for pleasure and interest (the fact that pleasure may well include hiring sex workers further cements this); home is more a place for duty.