Question 22.Explain guanxiwang and what ethical issues might arise for a Western business committed to high ethical standards when drawing upon guanxiwang in China to get things done.
Dan Mintz, founder of DMG, one of China’s fastest growing advertising agencies, credits guanxi for his success.  Mintz established connections with two Chinese who have access to high ranking government officials.  Through these guanxiwang, or connections, Mintz has been able to get permission to shoot advertisements in locations that are usually closed to foreigners. Guanxiwang comes from the word Guanxi which means relationships, although in business settings it can be better understood as connections. Guanxi has its roots in the Confucian philosophy of valuing social hierarchy and reciprocal obligations. Today, Chinese will often cultivate a Guanxiwang means relationship network, for help. Guanxiwang refers to a network of exchanges or transactions between two parties and beyond. Goods and services such as physical products or favors exchanged can be anything of value and mutual benefit to the parties concerned, for example, raw materials, promotion, gifts, information, facilitation and so on. Guanxiwang obtains when one set of separate, personal and total relationships between two individuates, A and B, and another set of such relationships between B and C are interlinked through the common agent, B, acting as a witness and facilitator.
As a result, the originally total and personal relationship transforms into a complex network of social exchanges with such interlinkage extended into other sets through numerous common agents like A, B and C. Therefore, it can be concluded that guanxi is not simply, as many believe, one of the key features of Chinese culture or one of the key ‘themes’ which depict cote aspects of Chinese values, it is the mother of all relationships. Because reciprocal obligations are key to the process, some people suggest that Western companies…