BAT employees do not call their boss or name, but use classmates and flower names. Or carry forward the martial arts culture? Or is there more to it? Why don’t European and American companies do the same? This article will take you into science and explore the truth.

BAT form of address

  • Tencent: English name, such as Pony, Mujihuang (Hen yellow);
  • Ali: Flower names, such as Feng Qingyang, Xiao Yaozi and Lin Daiyu;
  • Bytedance: first name + students, such as Yiming students;

Tencent Intranet community to discuss English names

The official explanation

Tencent’s explanation:

In Tencent, there is no habit of calling “General X”. Internet companies pay attention to the flat organizational structure, and one of the key words of Tencent culture is “equality and respect”. So, in order to weaken the concept of superior and subordinate, English names have emerged in a lighthearted and pleasant way.

Bytedance explains:

In order to avoid the sense of form to bring oppression to the grass-roots nodes, we weaken the hierarchy, the first is not allowed to call — “boss”, “so-so”, “teacher”, this kind of call once out, a lot of ideas can not emerge. They may be inclined to hear what the “teacher” has to say before they can say it themselves.

Management theory

In Chinese culture, “naming names” is a sign of disrespect. You can feel this discomfort if you call your elders by their first names.

Surname, people born also. The ancient divine mother, feeling the day and son, so called the son of heaven. — Shuo Wen Jie Zi

Therefore, Chinese people tend to use these titles:

  • Surname + position/identity: Mr. Ma, Mr. Yang, Uncle Zhang/Aunt Zhang, to show respect;
  • Surname + elder brother/elder sister: Elder sister Zhang, elder brother Wang, some river and lake spirit, clique taste;
  • Lao + surname: Lao Zhang and Lao Li. Between levels, addressing people older than themselves means kindness, while superiors addressing subordinates means kindness with hierarchical pressure, such as leaders greeting the doormen.
  • Xiao + family names: Xiao Li and Wang, indicating kindness with hierarchical pressure, such as leaders greeting drivers;

There’s a problem with these names: The Power Distance Index, or PDI, refers to the acceptance of unequal distribution of power by members of lower ranks in organizations such as households, companies, communities, etc.

pdi

The power distance index of Russia and China is very high, and Korea is also not low, which led to the Korean Air 801 disaster.

time801

The co-pilot suggested, “Do you feel like it’s raining harder? In this place?” What it really means: Captain, you decided to make a visual landing with no plan B. The weather outside is very bad. The engineer hinted, Captain, weather radar played a big role. This is not a good night for visual landing. Look at the weather radar: there is danger ahead. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

As a result, 228 people were killed in the plane crash, and The Korean side invited David of Delta Airlines to carry out reform. The first measure was to comprehensively improve the English level of all crew members, and set the working language as English, and get rid of the honorable name of Korean.

It can be seen that a high “power distance index” will lead to: great pressure and difficulty in speaking freely.

In “obedient” organizations such as the army, honorific titles such as “company commander” and “chief officer” are appropriate, because objectives are clear and military orders are mountains, which must be fulfilled at the cost of one’s life.

In companies, especially “innovation-focused” technology companies, where innovation often has no known goal, adopting titles without hierarchical pressure can help lower the “power distance index”, promote equal communication and spark ideas.

This is the reason why Chinese companies don’t call their bosses or their names, while English speaking countries such as the United States and Britain don’t have this problem, just call their names.

What are the three options

As the management of a company, we have to make a choice at the very beginning: which address scheme is suitable for our company?

English name: for foreigners, not for Chinese. It is suitable for companies whose employees generally master spoken English. It is usually an international team or overseas business, and it is necessary to hold meetings and send emails with foreigners frequently. Formal English names are required.

Most Chinese companies do not hold meetings with foreigners, and employees generally cannot speak English. If they use An English name, their colleagues will not be able to remember it and no one will shout, which makes it meaningless. Moreover, if they contact foreigners with this name, they will be laughed at. It is recommended not to use English names in this case.

According to an article published by The Washington Post in the United States, people in China and other parts of East Asia have always found unconventional English names amusing and amusing to foreigners. In general, it’s best to avoid food related names such as Candy, Lolly or Sugar, which are often thought of as’ retarded girls’ or ‘dancing girls’.

Name: Chinese culture is a good idea, but it can be awkward and difficult to remember (especially since many engineers are socially awkward and it can take months to remember the names of everyone in their group), depending on the company.

First name + classmate: the simplest easy to remember, recommended use.

conclusion

This is part of “Engineer Culture: Equal Communication”.

Friends should pay attention to their own business or as managers, do not indulge in the pleasure of being called the boss/boss of the power, depressed the innovative atmosphere of the team, affect the company’s recruitment attraction.

The resources

  • Tencent is willing to tolerate these weird English names
  • Yiming Zhang: To be a CEO, avoid rational ego — Source Code Capital
  • Chapter 7: Ethnic Theories of plane Crashes (Douban.com)
  • International product design: Hofstede’s culture dimension | everyone is the product manager (woshipm.com)

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