Let's go on commenting on "French management" a book written from an Anglo point of view.
French managers tend to regard their Professional life and their personal life as separate domains.
An obvious observation is the relative absence of joking (ribbing, self-depreciation). French managerial humour is often based on intellectual or linguistic finesse. It is not generally meant to facilitate bonding but to display cleverness. Understanding a joke in France sometimes feels like passing an intelligence test. At work the French put a heavy emphasis on keeping up apperances, on being conscientious and credible. The average British manager can laugh off a mistake because he/she has been selected on the basis of 'character', not cleverness. Inded the ability to handle failure is seen as an affirmation of managerial courage.
French bosses rarely spice up their presentations with anecdotes or jokes: authority is not something to be taken slightly.
Unless talking to a close collegue, the French do not appreciate inquiries into their personal lives because it might restraint their freedom and independence.
Corporte efforts to engineer friendship (team building), trust and commitment are regarded as manipulative. During a seminar, GE urged managers to wear T-shirts emblazoned with the GE slogan 'Go for One'. French managers felt humiliated to be forced to wear uniforms.
Team building is an overt attempt to forced comradery.
Empowerment, "this so-called autonomy makes individuals accountable for decisions previously tken by their bosses - and this is not what the French call freedom".
As a Scottish head of a French company complained: "Professional conviviality is non-existent in France. In England or Scotland, everyone goes out out for a drink together after work, before heading home. That's unthinkable here."
In France, activities like the Friday night 'beer bust' or the team picninc which seem perfectly natural in the US, may fail misreably in their team building goals. The enforced good-heartedness of such activities is likely to be seen as manipulative. In the French mind, the lesser investent of the self is considered a mean of preserving personal choice independence and individual dignity - a ay of protecting oneself from abuse and exploitation.
It's understandable that Chinese employees' relational need is not met in a French company. The first expectation they usually raise in our "Working with the French" training is: how can I make friends with my French colleagues.
How do the French 'oil the wheels'?
Greetings are important social rituals: shanking hands and kissing for women.
Feeding rituals: as in China, having lunch together is regarded as the best means of facilitating open communication and building up trust.
The requirement to stay late is not uniform - it increases with rank (noblesse oblige). Thus the hours spent are more or less proportional to organizational standing. On rung down from the CEO, for top executive there is an unwritten obligation to be around for as long as the boss might need them. He would not take kindly to them not responding to a call at 7:30 pm. There is a more subtle explanation that has to do with the rather formal approach to management exhibited by French managers. Since they do not fraternize much outside the office, it is only at the end of the day (or over lunch) that they loosen up (a little). This is when information get passed on and when many of the key dicussions take place. Staying late is a key opportunity for informal exchanges, for cultivating networks, for picking up the boss's intentions, and aligning one's own objectives- then non-participation in this process may be very damaging to womens careers.
Other important rituals:
Tu and vous - Even if the use of first name becomes far more usual tha before, and email correspondence means less formalized forms of address. However there is stil a high difference between tu and vous that reveals our culture still values power distance. The rituals are a means of situating the participants and defining their respective roles, thereby leaving them in no doubt as to which one has the upper hand. Authority in France is vested in the role - it does not emanate from the individual charisma.
The grandes vacances (summer holidays) are still 'sacred' in France - and anyone who disagree should try their hand at setting up a meeting in the July/August period. Holidays are a barrier protecting personal life from professional intrusion.
