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Work Design

Work Design. Work Design. China has a large and diverse workforce Many sectors Examples: High Tech Internet Industrial Manufacturing Industrial and manufacturing are prominent: Traditional structure and hierarchy Guanxi Narrow Tasks Unskilled labor

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Work Design

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  1. Work Design

  2. Work Design • China has a large and diverse workforce • Many sectors • Examples: • High Tech • Internet • Industrial • Manufacturing • Industrial and manufacturing are prominent: • Traditional structure and hierarchy • Guanxi • Narrow Tasks • Unskilled labor • Fordism

  3. Work Design • Before look at the work design, need to understand: • Hierarchy and interpersonal relationships entrenched in culture • Wu Lun – 5 relationship principles outlined in Confucianism • Emperor-Subject • Father-Son • Husband-Wife • Elder-Younger • Friend-Friend • Importance of roles and the types of relationships that are defined by those roles • “Knowing your place” Harmonious relationships between roles

  4. Work Design • Manufacturing • Factory production • Assembly line production • Menial work • Low wages • Long hours • Poor working conditions • Unenforced labor • standards • Unskilled labor • Many uneducated • migrant or rural workers

  5. Work Design • Let’s visit Foxconn, a Chinese electronics manufacturing factory: • 8 am – 5 pm officially, overtime from 6 pm – 8 pm (or when production quota reached) • 1 – 4 “off” days a month • Work training = indoctrination • Company culture, obedience demanded, “cogs in a machine” • Many people, but work is solitary • No talking, must have permission to leave post

  6. Work Design • Routine and mundane tasks • E.g. connecting wires, inserting screws • Overtime and overwork • Cases of insufficient pay or above 36 hrs/month limit • Unpaid ½ at beginning of workday • Little compensation • Entry-level wage equates to roughly $ 0.86 USD / day • Workers insulted and possibly abused by supervisors • Employees fined if they don’t finish eating lunch

  7. Work Design • But… • Government initiatives to improve the education and skill base for workers • Increasing availability of of primary and middle school education • Development of adult education opportunities • Vocational training programs • Increasing labor skills training and apprenticeship • Pre- employment training • Work specific training programs

  8. References http://www.chinatechnews.com/2006/02/21/3447-279-chinese-high-tech-companies-exported-over-us100-million http://www.jstor.org/stable/30034727 http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/ http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_40/b3701119.htm http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/26/content_326356.htm http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/beijing-life-tile-worker-pictures/ http://www.businessinsider.com/life-inside-a-chinese-gadget-factory-2009-7 http://daltonstate.academia.edu/BaogangGuo/Papers/74184/China’s-Labor-Standards---Myths-and-Realities- http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?id=31932

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