Autobiography of My Work Experiences

¶ … autobiography of my work experiences at a number of Chinese firms. I present a thorough analysis of several Chinese firms wherein I have worked. These companies will be analyzed using concepts from the book "Concept of the Corporation" written by Drucker.

Discussion of the author (s) concepts that one is using.

With regards to managing the workforce, Drucker stresses that all kinds of businesses eventually relate to people, not capital. Therefore, leading and administering people so that they are able to maximize their output and consequently improve corporate productivity. He emphasizes that rewards, compensations and promotions ought to be based on the performance and productivity of the workforce. The top management should lead from the front by including on-the-job training facilities and constantly changing and altering the business processes with the changing external and internal environment. Top management should also look to diversify the workforce to further motivate the staff and improve working spirit. The management should constantly inform and remind the workforce of the big picture and build common grounds to resolve conflicting interests within the company.

3. Analysis of Organization.

A general overview of the Chinese firm

Chinese to management believes that an approach based on resource identifications and analyses on the types of resources possessed by a firm can give it a competitive advantage over its competitors. One feature of Chinese businesses that sets it apart from other businesses is probably the way their business is managed. The Chinese culture has a strong foothold in the social process. The Chinese businessmen have resorted to managing their business as if it was their family.

Chinese businessmen consider the family as the fundamental component of lucrative market position. Even when it came to financial loans, techniques of management and marketing strategies, the concept of familism was applied. Arguably, the autocratic style of Chinese leadership improves the common ownership of family wealth in terms of business performance. The goals and objectives of the entrepreneurs are transmitted throughout the organization because of its vertical hierarchical structure that facilitates downward communication. However, the autocratic leadership allows for partial business set up and interaction. Moreover, in such a business, when the leader uses his personality or charismatic power, it can reduce transaction costs and opportunism.

These Chinese businesses are characterized by three things. Firstly, the common ownership of the family wealth enhances the power of the patriarchal figure in the business. Generally, things that are possessed by people are taken into account when calculating family wealth, even if the individuals own some part of it. Families, which were not very rich made use of human capital to attain their goals as they could not use a lot of financial capital.

When the resources are combined, the family members are compelled to stay together. A Chinese set up is characterized by high moral values, brotherly sentiments and the sense of obligation to come up to the expectations of the family members. Also, family training helps in centering the aspirations of all the members to one common goal of family business.

Secondly, Chinese firms are characterized by paternalism. In other words, the individuals interfere with other members on the justification that they will be better off with the decision made by the interfering individual. I found out that in most of the businesses, the owners or directors considered the employees of their firm as family members. The findings of the survey also indicated that the business showed great social and economic responsibility towards its workers.

The Chinese entrepreneurs believe in playing the role of a father figure when it comes to leadership. The benefits given to employees are given as favors or gifts and the owners of the firms have a direct interest in the activities of their employees which may not be related to work. Also, the employees are discouraged to form their own unions or groups. Even more so, the workers know their position in the vertical hierarchical structure and the significance of each position. They are more prone to accept the fact that they are on a lower level than some people and on a higher level than the others. This acceptance is exhibited in their personality and their attitudes at work.

The benefit of having a vertical structure is that employees come to believe that the superior-subordinate relationship is authentic. The higher authority is hard to repulse or challenge. The authority to make decisions of superiors is rarely contested and the guidance of leaders is sought and their decisions carried out. The industrious subordinates work with loyalty and motivation in return of the guidance provided.

The third distinctive feature of Chinese firms is that it hugely indulges in business interaction and partiality. A business needs to buy and sell, exchange information, borrow money and ask for advice so the creation of wealth in one unit cannot be managed separately. Because of that, linkages and connections need to be formed if one's own purposes and goals are to be achieved. The Chinese culture has actually evolved and become the focal point of the dynamics of the Chinese business networks. The Chinese business firms pay special attention to routinely transactions so that the business networks can run reliably and efficiently.

Social contacts are an integral part of the Chinese business. It is essential for them to know the right people who can be relied upon to serve their purpose. In fact, from what I have observed, the people they interact with are more important than the knowledge they have. The business partners or members are extended trust and regard in the firm. This practice centers on personal obligations, the maintenance of reputation and image. Nepotism or partiality, which apparently results from the close-knitted family structure of the firm, is used to offset the problem of trust. Chinese have immense trust in their family members while they trust their friends only as long as mutual interdependence last. People who do not fall in either of the groups are regarded with equanimity and no assumptions.

Firms play an important role in handling the coordination hassle that arise because of instability and ambiguity. The Chinese businesses have developed several ways of adapting to the uncertainty of the external environment and one method of dealing with the improbability is to maintain a certain amount of flexibility and acceptance to change in the firm so that it facilitates the adaptation of the firms according to the changes in the influential factors of the surroundings. The Chinese firms that are usually small are thought of as flexible organizations that can respond rapidly to the hugely unpredictable environment. These firms are in a better position to offer variety to their customers as they can take orders that are not homogenous in nature and require different specifications and features. These firms work on innovation and try to research and develop new products to survive and grow in the increasingly competitive world market.

The flexibility and the firm's readiness to change is noted quite a number of times but another integral aspect of these small scale Chinese businesses is that they are capable of reducing the transaction costs or the costs of coordination. These two features of the Chinese businesses set it apart from other firms and contribute largely to its success. Its ability of being flexible and bringing a decrease in its coordination costs is actually because of the way their organization is structured and how the internal and external communication is carried out in business networks, also known as the internal and external capabilities of the business.

As mentioned above the Chinese firms are flexible because of their uncommon organizational structure and their internal and external communication networks and methods. The Chinese entrepreneurs use human relationships and the bondage of trust to bring flexibility. The Chinese businessmen believe that in order to maintain social relations for the business, it is important to upkeep strong family business connections. According to them, the trust or the ties between the members of the family can help in taking quick decisions with accordance to the changes in the environment.

The advantages of this business set up are also observable when it comes to human resources and fund management. Normally, a business has to go through an extensive exercise of recruiting and selecting if it wants to hire additional staff for difficult times. If it is a recessionary period in the economy, it faces difficulty in reducing the number of workers due to its inability to bear the personnel costs. When it comes to Chinese businesses, they become a huge source of support and human capital when extra work needs to be done. The ease with which family members can be called on to help during the peak season makes the firm more flexible and more suited to respond to an ever-changing environment. Likewise, when finances are running low, family members can be relied upon to contribute easily. Like in other businesses, it saves a lot of hassle of issuing shares in case of a company and it eliminates the delay banks cause when applied for loans.

The internal coordination of these Chinese firms is also different from others. The members of the family firm believe in following implied statements rather than the expressed statements. Even though, this might involve the workers trying to find out what was actually meant of a statement and it might increase coordination costs, it allows a lot of room for flexibility. The employees can make changes in decisions without being too much accountable for them. This type of extended communication has great consequences on competition as the friendly dealings and communication between the owners and the workers lead to better mutual understanding and aspirations which facilitates the learning process of the members of the family firms.

I observed and experienced that coded information can be easily transmitted to people through short trainings as the codes and symbols are clearly defined and can be memorized. Tacit knowledge is assumptions or information that a group of people know generally. This type of knowledge is difficult to identify and transfer. My experience shows that, as the workers work in a close-knitted network, tacit knowledge can be transferred over a period of time due to high interaction. Apart from that, these Chinese firms find it easier to transfer tacit knowledge than other firms as they do not have a similar internal communication network. This difference makes the Chinese firms more competitive.

The other feature of Chinese firms, as mentioned before is their ability to reduce their coordination costs which is facilitated because of the bond of trust between the family members or the employees of these firms. Accordingly I observed that individuals need to be familiar with each other before leading to the development of trust or distrust. When trust in a network is established, problems due to uncertainty can be avoided to some extent. That is why, these firms depend more on family members as the source of important resources such as capital and human resource.

The family network can also be relied upon to work efficiently in the absence of any regulatory association or establishment because it creates its own norms and regulations. Another characteristic of the Chinese business firms is that the workers or the family members have higher access to information about each other which facilitates a higher effective performance and personality appraisal. They are more likely to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and can also easily impose their own decisions upon those whose goals are not aligned with that of the firm. I have seen that these factors can sometimes reduce cost as they are faster and more effective than the formal modes of communication and are more apt.

I have further experienced that organizational efficiency is achieved when family members are employed in the business because it tends to reduce the coordination, transaction and administrative costs. These businesses were not very big in size so they were easily controlled or monitored. Most importantly, the patriarchal style of leadership motivated the members as they got the needed guidance and objectives were made clear to them. One of the strengths of Chinese firms that I observed was that an influential business notion of an employee may keep them away from non-conformity of the rules of the organization. Therefore, if the business owner uses the informal channel of communication to his advantage and transfers tacit knowledge to other members, the employees can extend cooperation and work collectivity for the advancement of the organization.

Also, if the entrepreneur tackles the modes of communication well and adopts a problem-solving attitude towards the employees, the workers will be then less prone to follow their own individualistic goals and will learn to think collectively in terms of the organization as a whole. The formation of a family firm depends on the attitude and leadership style of the entrepreneurs who when use their charismatic powers, serve to be a motivational figure for the workers of the firm. This type of leadership style motivates the workers to be dedicated and diligent so that they begin to pursue the goals of the organization.

Practically, the family firm has shown to reduce its transaction costs in three different ways. One way is when the family members have a clear ideal about the organization's goals so that they can focus on it. If the important people in an organization are programmed to strive for family wealth and that is the foundation for most of the decisions made, then it is not hard to coordinate the performance of the other employees in the firm. Secondly, the motivation level among the family members tend to be high when they are all driven by a shared objective and the time comes to work overtime. Also, the family members tend to be encouraged when the need for executives becomes apparent and value is attached to their position. Lastly, as the workers of the firm are all family members, they are less likely to cheat or deceive each other which in the long run increases the likelihood of all the information being kept confidential.

When the employees of the firm are given the same attention and value as of a family member, they are more likely to be obedient and rarely follow their own separate goals while working in the firm. Apart from that, the workers might even take up other activities that may bring benefit to the firm like taking a training course on their own to enhance their performance or to learn a new skill. It is only when the employees are led to feel alienated from the rest of the organization and are just asked to accumulate profit for the firm that they pursue goals which may not be aligned with the organization's targets.

The conventional rules and regulations of the organization have their own significance and the developing law and contracts cannot be expected to replace them. Since there are no regulations offered by the state, these firms resort to their own cultural norms and traditions. I also observed that these entrepreneurs also interact with other networks. Subcontracting is one significant form of business networks from them as it has led to their growth and development in the past. The accumulation of small-scale firms into one large industrial concern is achieved through subcontracting.

The advantages of subcontracting as I have observed are that subcontracting not only facilitates static efficiency but also achieves dynamic efficiency for the organization. Competition is encouraged due to easy entry into industry because the units of competition are small. Chinese businessmen believe that only those organizations should spend on change, which have a capacity to pay off well. Bringing about change is not cheap so the change which may not have high returns in the future should be minimized. The ability of the Chinese firms to take necessary steps to adjust change according to the adjustments in the environment depends on the way they study the environment and the market, the actions of competitors and how proactive they are with regard to transformation.

Analyzing Chinese firm using Drucker's perspective

The most important fact of the employees working in these Chinese firms is perhaps their familiarity with each other. A workforce which is made up of a majority of similar members over a long period of time will not only get used to each other but also understand each other and cover up the flaws that the other members might have. There will be an excellent level of workforce spirit and loyalty.

I have observed that perhaps one of the best ways in which workforce are maintained over a long period of time is by making sure that all the workforce members share the same goals and objectives. The managers also assess the cost-benefits of the existence of the workforce as well as make sure that the workforce that is being selected is the best in its form and is most suitable to achieve the long-term objectives of the workforce. They also carry out a constant analysis about whether the workforce is working at its best and if there needs to be any modifications due with the passage of time.

There is no doubt as to the fact that each workforce member has certain principle procedures and pattern that they follow in their work environment. Even though on the surface these might seem very casual but the application of these procedures is what makes a workforce unified, consistent and effective and perform at a high level.

Perhaps one of the most important tasks for an efficient high performing workforce is the ability of problem-solving. Problems usually are tackled by the whole workforce or one individual of the workforce depending on the spectrum of the effect of the problem. Usually problem-solving deals with the workforce coming up with practical and immediate solutions so that the overall performance of the workforce is not affected; or it mainly deals with tackling unforeseen circumstances and adapting to them to avoid loss in form or shape.

When the workforce shares the same objectives and goals and wants to succeed within the same setup that is when they are most inspired to work hard and find effective solutions that might not be so simply achieved. It is solely the task of the manager to make sure that the whole workforce is on the same page and to allow them the space to be creative and original when coming up with effective solutions. It is also partly dependent upon the presentation of the problem that can inspire a workforce and this representation is also the manager's job. Also, the workforce is made to feel that they can come up with a solution even if at first it doesn't seem likely or takes a long time. This encourages the workforce members to hone their abilities and then work together with each of their stronger attributes to come up with the likely solutions.