...JOCM 11,4 282 Foreign companies and Chinese workers: employee motivation in the People’s Republic of China Terence Jackson Centre for Cross Cultural Management Research, EAP European School of Management, Oxford, UK and Mette Bak BASF, Shanghai, China Introduction: the challenge of motivating Chinese employees At the end of 1978, during its “third plenum”, the Chinese Communist Part Central Committee gave economic reform top-level priority. Following the Second Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress on 1 July 1979, foreigners were permitted by law “to establish equity joint ventures together with Chinese companies, enterprises or other economic organizations … within the territory of the People’s Republic of China, on the principle of equity and mutual benefit” (PRC, 1987). Since the beginning of these economic reforms in 1979 the Chinese economy has exploded, with an average annual growth rate in GNP of 10 per cent over the last decade, with the attainment of 20 per cent in the coastal areas designated “special economic zones” (EIU, 1994). Foreign direct investment more than doubled between 1987 and 1990 (Kelley and Shenkar, 1993), despite a slow-down after the Tiananmen Square incident, with an estimate of more than 150,000 joint ventures in China. Much of this investment comes from Hong Kong (68.2 per cent in 1992) and other countries of Eastern Asia, with European countries, and even the USA (with 4.6 per cent in 1992) badly represented. Despite this...
Words: 9095 - Pages: 37
...as way of understanding employee motivation in contemporary Chinese business Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a famous psychological theory developed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. This theory says that there is a hierarchy of human needs which reflects their motivations. He divided human needs into five hierarchies: physical needs, security needs, social needs, self-esteem and self-actualization needs. He stated that human motivations approximately change through these five levels. As a result, it has been considered as a useful tool in management in western countries because motivation is an important factor of human behaviors. Motivation plays an important role in employment. Well motivated workers work harder with higher efficiency and have a stronger sense of participation. However, some criticisms point out that Maslow’s theory may not be able to applied in some other culture contexts like China because it is based on a narrow research with particular targets in America. That is to say that Maslow’s theory is not correct in all nations because of cultural differences, especially in China. This essay will give a critical evaluation of this theory by considering its advantages and defects of Maslow’s theory to see whether it is useful in China. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is generally useful and makes a great contribution to business management. There are several advantages of Maslow’s theory. First, this theory clearly reflects human motivations and is widely acknowledged and applied...
Words: 1383 - Pages: 6
...Running head: GOAL ORIENTATION IN CHINESE WORK DOMAIN Study Goal Orientation in Chinese Society in Work Domain CHEN Yulin (2007937472) The Department of Psychology The University of Hong Kong June 30, 2008 Contents Abstract 2 Introduction……………………………… …………………………………………………. 3 Cultural Difference regarding Motivation 5 How to Induce Learning Goal Orientation? 6 A Distinct Pattern in Chinese Society? 8 A Developmental Pattern of Goal Orientation 9 More about Performance Goal Orientation 10 Method 11 Results 13 Discussion 15 Summary and Implication 20 Limitations and Further Research 21 References 23 Appendix A 28 Appendix B 29 Appendix C 30 Appendix D 31 Appendix E 32 Appendix F 33 Abstract The study of goal orientation is usually conducted in Western society. In attempt to extend theories related to goal orientation and Yu’s (1996) study on cultural difference in motivation to Chinese work domain, in this research, 75 working people from Mainland China were invited to complete a set of questionnaires on goal orientation, work climate, task complexity, work experience and marriage status. The relationships among these variables were examined. Contrary to hypotheses, learning goal orientation positively correlated with autonomous work climate but did not correlate significantly with task complexity. Work climate had no effect on participants’ performance approach goal orientation but task complexity was found...
Words: 6801 - Pages: 28
...needs as way of understanding employee motivation in contemporary Chinese business. Maslow identifies human needs in a pyramid that is formed from five layers. He presents these layers as physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. These needs are structured in hierarchical order (Sultan, 2004). Depending on Maslow’s theory, every need must be met so that individuals can develop to a higher stage. Managers can stimulate their staff by offering special returns that help meet the need. If a need has been met, it will not act as a strong impetus. After that, employees shift to a higher tier in the hierarchy of needs and concentrate on meeting those needs. An individual will meet basic-level needs before altering behavior to satisfy high-level needs. As Geren (2011) states, employees in contemporary Chinese business also have low-to-advanced levels of needs. Despite the fact that Maslow had not thought over cultural diversity that exists in human requires, the theory can be well applied to understanding employee motivation in current Chinese companies if it is adapted to accommodate the varying circumstance, and it provides insights for Chinese managers into what motivates employees. This essay is going to talk about the assessment of Maslow’s theory as way of understanding employee motivation in current Chinese business, and show in which situation that the theory can be well applied to Chinese business. References: Adler,...
Words: 447 - Pages: 2
...Country Culture Affect Motivation Efforts Abstract: This thesis focuses on the influence of different country cultures on motivation by giving the definition of motivation, explaining two types of motivation, and comparing the cultural differences between China and the USA and at the same time tries to apply all the findings into human resource management in modern companies around the world. The key point of this thesis is the way country cultures affect intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Introduction: With the rapid development of globalization process, the economic exchanges between different countries are increasing. Social cultures vary greatly from country to country. So the motivations can be affected distinctly in different culture. In the 21st century, the competition among enterprises has turned into human resources. Therefore the motivations of human are significant. Human Resource Management is getting more important in business nowadays, because people and their knowledge are the most important aspects affecting the productivity of the company. 1. Country culture can affect motivation: According to web, motivation is the explanation about human behavior, such as actions, desires, and needs and which can also be defined as one's direction to behavior or the reason people repeat a behavior, which can be generally divided into two types: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Just as its name implies, intrinsic motivation means the inner motivational...
Words: 1657 - Pages: 7
...method of doing business to a certain degree to the area in which they are doing business. Culture plays a large role in the motivational scheme, weather you look at America as a salad bowl or a melting pot the country has applied its own influences upon different ethnic groups as to what works for motivation and what will not. Knowing this now tells us that we must examine what works for the cultures in the purest sense on their original soil. This will not only help us in the sense of a global expansion, it will allow us a basis of comparison back at home as well. In recent years when someone mentions manufacturing, invariably China comes to mind. This manufacturing powerhouse boasts a labor base of almost 1.3 billion people. With a limited infrastructure they have been able to undercut most developed countries bids when it comes to manufactured goods. When it comes to motivation the strict structure of the government and more importantly Chinese culture come into play. It has been noted that while China focuses on moral motivators for the average worker, “that extreme reliance upon nonmaterial incentives causes morale and production to suffer” (Riskin, 1973). As the Chinese continue to advance their methods and infrastructure something else has happened. Riskin notes that the tenants of communism do not mix well with large scale business or as Edwin Reischauer stated “I think Mao or else people close to him . . . just did not want to admit that people were people and...
Words: 1945 - Pages: 8
...Managing Employees Wal-Mart Organizational Issues Instructor: Dr. Mitra Asif Student Name: Phunsuk Wangdu Submitted on: July 7, 2015 Wal-Mart Organizational Issues and Situation Analysis Phunsuk Wangdu Index Introduction 3 OB issues and situation analysis 3 Conclusions 7 References 8 Appendices 12 Introduction Wal-Mart stores Inc. is the world’s largest retailer with reported gross earnings of 460 billion U.S. dollars for 2014. It has 4,281 stores in the United States and over 11,100 stores worldwide. Wal-Mart hires more workers than any company in the whole world; in 27 different nations around the world it has hired over 2.2 million workers. The interest on Wal-Mart stems from their ability to provide products to its customers at relatively low prices, earning them a competitive advantage over other retailers, since their products sell five times more than other American stores. However this has involved both positive and negative effects on the long term. These sales at low prices to customers have been achieved as a result of their low cost imports and high integration with foreign suppliers from various countries around the world especially China. Due to the high volume of imports a large number of small businesses have been destroyed together with jobs in the manufacturing industry; the US economy has been affected by an increased trade deficit and the local manufacturing sector has also been affected by this growth. Moreover, Wal-Mart...
Words: 3622 - Pages: 15
...personality also changes with situation. The organization’s environment and situation require leaders to be trusting and astute. It also reflects emotional intelligence (EI). EI includes self-awareness (know how you feel), self-management (manage your emotions and impulses), self-motivation (can motivate yourself and persist), empathy (sense and understand what others feel), and social skill (can handle the emotions of others). Good leader should have high EI scores, which leads to high performance. Emotional quotient (EQ) is said to be a measure of a person’s emotional intelligence. Excellent leader should manage (show or hide) his emotion well through the EQ. To be open or to conceal, it depends. In which situation should a leader be open? For example, in culture knowledge management, leader should be open. It’s better for organization when employees all know and understand the organization’s culture. They will know what they can do is compatible with the organization’s culture, if it is managed well by leader. Then do it. It’s good for the development of an organization. In another case, a leader should also be straight-out when share knowledge. Advanced knowledge and technique must be shared with employees timely. All information about the organization should be shared, too. Then the organization can...
Words: 3703 - Pages: 15
...the company. Chinese market is always described as ‘mission impossible’ by many foreign executives. However, Kapicic who is the managing director of a multinational pharmaceutical company could take over a poorly run company and turn it around by carrying out some major transformation in the firm as changing the organizational culture, replacing key personnel and instilling in the workers a strong sense of motivation and productivity. Follow Kapicic, he thinks that “It is always about people management and respecting the local culture”. Therefore, he decided to restructure the Activis’s organizational culture: Organizational culture reflects the shared and learned values, beliefs, and attitudes of its members (text book). He realized his immediate task was to restore his employees’ confidence because of so many negative comments. With his success, his workers now work as a team, they come together to solve the problem and also take responsibility for it instead of “a lot finger-pointing” like before. Additionally, he also needed to balance the demands of his parent company and the local market. On one hand, he tried to pursue his top manager that practices must take local circumstances into consideration. As a result, he appreciates those managers who put more effort into understanding Chinese people and culture and the way its government worked. Therefore, he is also known as “China market expert”. For this reason, he just hired Chinese person to fulfill into all...
Words: 3206 - Pages: 13
...PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS: MOTIVATION AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES - LITERATURE REVIEW – INTRODUCTION Many literatures in the past have served as string evidences of the need for the right approach towards the management of people within an organisation. In lieu of being able to improve the performance of an organisation, taking into account the management of its workforce, difference approaches and frameworks have been introduced. For instance, Bolman and Deal (2008) introduced four major frames which are significant for the management of firms as it presents ways on how to understand how an organisation operates. The four frames which have been introduced include structural frame, human resource frame, political frame, and symbolic frame. In this literature review, the focus of the discussions which will be made will be the human resource frame, specifically, an understanding of how motivation and individual differences becomes essential in such context. DISCUSSION The human resource frame is commonly used in having an understanding of how organisations work basically because of the psychology and counselling components included in such. This frame places an emphasis on the subsystem of the organisation, with focus on different factors such as motivation, training, needs, hiring, commitment, and socialization of people who are working within the organisation. More importantly, the...
Words: 2639 - Pages: 11
...Employees Involvement Strategy Executive Summary Leading and managing people are an important concept in HR now days. Every company follows this concept in order to retain the employees along with that to have a proper flow of work within the organization. On the other hand maintaining an employee involvement strategy is also an important task of every organization. The given study will help to generate an idea about the mentioned countries which are China, India and Germany address the related issues regarding leading and managing people. By conducting these studies an overall idea about the communication strategy of the organization will also be identified. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Employee’s Involvement Strategy within the Organization 3 Concept of Leading and Managing People 4 Theoretical exploration of potential opportunities/challenges in China, India and Germany 5 Communication Taking Place in the Organization 7 Relevant scenarios in terms of opportunities and challenges of HR 8 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction One of the main notions of the given study is to provide a brief overview about the topic related to leading and managing people. The situation of this study is designed in such a way where it has been told that after getting a promotion to be the head of the HR department with its other branches in China, India and Germany it is asked to do a research study in which it is important to...
Words: 3128 - Pages: 13
...Divya Gulati 15P201 Rahul Kasera 15P221 Soumitra Joysula 15P231 Human Behaviour in Organizations Submitted to: Prof. Radha Sharma Submitted by: Group 1 Abhinav Srivastava 15P181 Ashutosh Pandey 15P191 Aviral Jain 15P192 Divya Gulati 15P201 Rahul Kasera 15P221 Soumitra Joysula 15P231 Values & Ethics in Organizations Values & Ethics in Organizations Contents 1. Background 1 2. The Concept of Ethics and Values 1 2.1. Values 1 2.2. Ethics 1 2.3. Role of Leadership in Organizational Ethics and Values formation 1 2.3.1 Moral Spill-over Effect 1 2.4. Organisational Ethics 1 2.4.1 Basic Elements of Organizational Ethics 1 3 Motivation theories for building ethical organisations 1 3.1 Stakeholder Theory 1 3.2 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation 1 3.3 Incentive Theory 1 3.3.1 Reinforcements in Incentive Theory 1 3.4 Operant Conditioning Theory 1 3.4.1 Modifying Operant Behaviour: Reinforcements and Punishments 1 3.4.2 Operant conditioning for changing human behaviour 1 4 Industry Practices 1 5 Values & Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Perspective 1 5.1 Considerations for Evaluating Values of another Culture 1 5.2 Comparison of business cultures between China and USA 1 6 Case Analysis 1 6.1 NAICOM may sanction operators on unethical practices in insurance 1 6.2 Unethical and unauthorized medical practice - an alarming situation 1 6.3 Analysis and Recommendations 1 7 Conclusions 1 ...
Words: 9695 - Pages: 39
...According to Chevalier (2007), the motivation defines as a force of moving enthusiasm towards within individual, not an outside to enhance workplace management. Actually, it arrives from the theory of hierarchy of needs which is one of the main criticisms of Abraham Maslow’s “eupsychian” approach to management. The critical point of Maslow is that people can only be motivated by unsatisfied need. When people’s basic need is satisfied, they are motivated by the next higher level or abundant needs. This theory is known to be successful adopted and developed for managing working environment in United States. However, it is wondering if the needs theories of motivation are appropriate in other parts of the world such as Asia. This essay will examine some discussions about this issue to clarify that question. Colvin & Rutland (2008) claimed that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a content of motivation theory which its model identifies five basic needs categories constructed ascending hierarchy order to clarify them as arranged elements to arise employee’s motivation. They are psychological needs, safety need, love and belongings needs, esteem needs and lastly needs of self-actualization. Normally employee’s lower level of needs is requested to be satisfied before the progress of seeking into higher level gratification. Due to the fact that the most difficult part of motivating approach in workplace’s supervision is satisfying the mutual benefits between employee and organisation...
Words: 1894 - Pages: 8
...HCA-250 Motivation and Organizastional Culture Paper Motivation and Organizational Culture Paper Kimberly Y. Curry University of Phoenix (Axia College) HCA-250 Dennis Matricardi March 11, 2012 Motivation and Organizational Culture Paper Today’s topic of discussion is the role management should play in workplace psychology. In this discussion, I will be discussing a situation with Chinese immigrant by the name of Ayame Nakamaura. Ayame Nakamura is employed as a project manager for a pharmaceutical company. The management style for this pharmaceutical company is confrontational, and interferes with Ayame’s cultural beliefs. This particular style of management makes Ayame’s ability to receive feedback difficult to obtain, and affects her motivation to perform. In this discussion I will explain the role management Ayame should play in workplace psychology, how Ayame’s cultural beliefs might affect the way she receives feedback, and describe motivation techniques that could be implemented by management to increase Ayame’s motivation. As we know psychology is the study of human behavior. This includes the human thought process and human emotion. Psychology gives us an understanding of human nature and the way we interact with other people. When you combine psychology and the workplace together, it is basically the way an individual thinks and act in the workplace towards other employees. Management is an individual who supervises others work progress on the job...
Words: 312 - Pages: 2
...the production plant to China as a wholly owned subsidiary under the CLAYTAN Group due to cost-reduction motive. The implementation of minimum wage rate system in Malaysia, lower transportation cost, and the form of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) induce the company to expand its production plant to China. China and Malaysia categorized under high context communication style. However, certain degree of adoption is still needed. In term of negotiation, collectivism society such as China and Malaysia are more concern about in-group. The high power distance of both countries prolongs the negotiation process. When it comes to decision making process, high power distance of China and Malaysia also prolongs the decision making process. Employees always have to refer back to their superior to make decision and give instructions. CFC can control its’ subsidiary in China by output control. The culture distance between Malaysia and China is...
Words: 3220 - Pages: 13
