Recently in China Category

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

By KATHRYN KING-METTERS and RICHARD METTERS

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But those perceptions may be outdated and wrong.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.

Everywhere you look, markets are setting new records and going to new places.

US GDP is about $10 trillon a year or about one half of the global GDP so we have a big lead over everyone else but China is changing things very quickly indeed. Just look at that chart since Bush took office!

The Internet was not conceived or designed to become the commercial juggernaut that it is today. The dilemma is that as the Internet grew, its flaws as a commercial platform became more apparent at the same time it got harder to fix because there are increasing numbers of systems to migrate.

Even though scientists have been designing new systems, you cannot just install a software patch and reboot. It's just not easy to rebuild an airplane while its flying.

So what event will be large enough to force a dramatic shift in Internet architecture? It could be China.

I have heard Lefties in the USA basically call China the devil because they have the audacity to do exactly what we have done instead of doing better than us.

On the one hand, I share their concern for the environmental damage caused by a billion Chinese consumers. On the other hand, I understand that China's main concern is jobs.

It is too easy to criticize others from the wealth and luxury of our country. In the world outside of the Star Trek Federation, people need money to feed and cloth their families. Starvation kills you in a few weeks but pollution takes many years...

Just this weekend I heard that 1 job in 10 in our country is directly related to the auto industry. If anything, I would expect the USA, with all of its power and wealth, to lead the way in stopping car use. I find it disingenuous for us to blame China for something we cannot do ourselves and I dont see any signs of us changing.

This article does a good job explaining the economic issues around cars and pollution. And we can expect to see the $7,000 Chery cars for sale in this country soon.

Having never been there, China is a land of mystery. We are constantly hearing things about China. They are taking our jobs. They are fabulously poor. They are fabulously rich. And on and on.

This is one of those articles that points out how poor China is in comparison to the USA. Half the country does not have heat! Bringing China to the standard of living we enjoyed in the 1950's is a Herculean task (and a huge market opportunity). Last I heard China was building over 100 new power plants, this year!

With all the talk of outsourcing in this country, it is easy to forget that the developing countries taking our jobs have their own problems.