AM Lecture 2

Other studies and remarks on Chinese management

Mitsuhashi et al. (2000) summed up the practical implications for Chinese enterprises:

• The over 45s have experience but little skill, the 25s-45s lack both skills and experience, and the under 25s have potential skills but no experience
• They argue for the need for performance management, involving individual job objectives, performance targets and measures, regular feedback on progress and individual training and career development and reward outcomes. But how can this be done when there's resistance
• Younger people are more willing to change, but to wait until the current generation leaves would take too long

Wei et al. (2003) examined the profitability in 208 privatised companies and found improvements in performance only in those where State ownership was less than 50%.

Zhao and Zhu (2004) made a broad study of labour force characteristics. Although there is evidence of continuing political selection, promotion processes have become increasingly rationalised. This leads to:

• Increasing role of education
• Noticeable age restrictions
• Active replacement of old bureaucrats
• Great impacts on vacancy-chain effects on promotion patterns

However, processes are slower in the State sector, as SOEs are still resistant to change.

Conclusions