The WSJ today had an article about research on workers in China. It turns out that Chinese people care about more than money. Hmmm. That took research?
If you dont know the concept behind Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you should. In a nutshell, money is the most important thing in your life until you have enough to satisfy your basic living needs of food, shelter, etc. Even with the migrant workers mentioned in this article, that amount of money is surprisingly low.
It stands to reason that every human being has a desire to be connected with others and to have their life mean something. Beyond the salary and the benefits, jobs give us something to belong to, something larger than ourselves to be a part of. Whether we are aware of it or not, most of us need that association. We need a tribe.
I am glad that research is showing that people, whether they are in China or the West, are more alike than they are different. In China's case, it is also interesting to consider how quickly the culture may be changing compared with say India or Latin America.
Misunderstanding the Chinese Worker
Western impressions are dated -- and probably wrong
July 7, 2008
Wall Street Journal
Ask multinational firms to describe what motivates Chinese workers, and the responses are remarkably consistent: Money is the only thing that matters.
"Chinese have zero loyalty to their employer," one executive at a manufacturing firm told us. Said the general manager of a Shanghai hotel: "The most important motivator is money."
But those perceptions may be outdated and wrong.
Some of the disconnect between Western managers and Chinese workers stems from the fact that multinational companies formed their opinions of Chinese labor from their interactions with migrant laborers, whose main goal is to make enough money to give relatives back home a better life. Migrant workers account for a big chunk of the work force in China's special economic zones -- areas with more liberal economic laws where Western companies first set up shop in the early 1980s.
Although Western firms have since expanded into parts of China where workers have different goals and values than those of migrant laborers, many Western managers continue to cling to the belief that all Chinese workers value salary equally. Research conducted by academic Geert Hofstede decades ago and repeated in classrooms and by consultants ever since points in the same direction.
We believe, however, that major cultural shifts in China have changed workers' attitudes dramatically since Dr. Hofstede collected data on China in the mid-1980s as part of a world-wide study into how workplace values are influenced by culture. Major societal shifts -- the result of policies such as China's one-child rule -- have reduced the role of family, government, religion and neighbors in social networks. And with fewer opportunities to be part of a group or something larger than themselves, many Chinese workers are looking to their employers to fill that void.
