Background: the company
Limited is a joint venture between an American company headquartered in Texas, Viditec and a Chinese State owned enterprise, Shanghai Video and Audit. The company manufactures analog telephone handsets and the founding overseas partner was the Siemens group who sold their share holding to Viditec in 2001. Over 700 staff are employed in an assembly plant in a large industrial zone in Pudong, Shanghai. Some 500 of the employees are engaged in manufacturing operations and the overwhelming majority are female. Split shift working means that assembly can take place twelve hours a day. The company adopts the Working Hour System of Comprehensive Calculation in assembly plant, which means each operator works no more than 168 hours per month. The comprehensive calculation system must be registered and approved by the local government office according to the labour regulations. The other 200 employees work in research and development, quality control, logistics, sales and marketing, and the support functions including human resources and finance.
Hui Qin Lu, known throughout the organisation as Jingle Lu, started working for the company as a secretary and subsequently moved to a junior role in its human resource department. In 2005 she took a year out to gain a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management at Bournemouth University, returning in 2006 to take up the role of the Manager of the Human Resource and Administration Division. She has a staff of ten reporting to her.
Much of the challenge of the job involves reconciling the Western and Chinese approaches to human resources. The Chinese partners wish to see western management methods in place on the factory and the General Manager has years of management experience in European companies. However the State Party Trade Union is the organ for workforce representation and Jingle Lu’s job involves maintaining a delicate balance between the various stakeholders. Her main priorities across a wide range of responsibilities are: training, developing better employee relations through joint agreement, and cost control.
Planning training
One of Jingle Lu’s main activities has been to introduce a more systematic approach to the identification of training needs and the management of training. She has prepared an annual training plan for the company based on detailed interviews with line managers and representative staff. This has led to the production of a training course catalogue which is made available as hard copy and on the company intranet. Nominations for participation in courses can be made electronically through the intranet.
The major initiative has been the introduction of a series of one day courses held every Friday at the Dong Hua University premises. Between five and ten employees participate at a time and they can range from middle management down to factory operatives depending on the subject under discussion. Typical topics would be communication skills, presentation skills and sales and marketing. The events are delivered by a firm of external consultants, Zhong-Ke consulting who are Chinese nationals (instruction is in Mandarin Chinese) but who have experience in western teaching. Indeed Jingle has remarked that when she attended an early one-day event:
“The instructor discussed the difference between human resource management and personnel management and it reminded me that the topic was covered in much the same way as my lectures at Bournemouth University.”
Generally Jingle Lu sees little difference in terms of the content of the subject matter, but remarks, in common with others, that Chinese learners:
“Are more used to instruction and are deferential to the instructor.”
She is keen to promote more participative and active styles of learning. One initiative is to encourage those who have attended events to share their knowledge with colleagues in short workshops held on the company premises.
Operative work can be characterised as routine production. Training is on-the-job, is the responsibility of line managers and is monitored by senior production managers. There are three grades of payment for operative staff and they can only progress if they acquire and complete an assessment in the relevant skills. Jingle Lu therefore feels that the processes in place are effective.
The influence of the joint venture, and the training delivered by the Zhong–Ke consultants, mean that the line managers would understand the concept of coaching. However, pressures of time and the routine nature of the job means that, at present coaching is not given a high priority on the shop floor.
Reconciling individual and organisational objectives
Recently one of the senior managers completed an MBA at Shanghai’s Fu-Dan University. Although this was self-financed it has led to an internal demand for company support for recognised qualifications. The ACCA accountancy qualification, for example, is highly regarded. While there is a willingness to encourage staff development, there is also a need to contain costs. The situation is made more difficult because there is currently draft human resource legislation from the Chinese Government which would limit the ability of companies to reclaim funding for the costs of external training for staff who leave. The draft law would appear to limit employee repayment to employers for employer-provided training of full-time, off-the-job technical training of six months or more. Changes under the draft law could result in fewer training and growth opportunities for the employee.
One practical step that Jingle Lu has taken is to introduce a mini-MBA training event. This will involve two days a week attendance over a four-month period. It will be delivered by the Zhong–Ke consultant and replicate, at a less intensive level, the essential theories, practices and techniques taught on the MBA. A certification will be issued but it will not achieve formal accreditation within the University system.