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Cultural conflicts lead to job hopping
(eastday.com)
Updated: 2004-09-23 09:09 Culture differences with
Western bosses is the main reason many highly paid Chinese managers at local
foreign ventures leave their jobs, a recent research report suggests.
The report, which was co-compiled by George B. Graen, chair professor of
international management at the University of Louisiana and professors from
Donghua University, tracked 150 Chinese MBA graduates and senior managers in 33
local foreign ventures over the past six years.
About 48 percent of the surveyed Chinese managers with a bachelor degree quit
their jobs during the six-year research period, saying that the biggest problem
was their foreign bosses don't understand the Chinese way of thinking.
The turnover rate was only 24 percent for managers who said their boss has a
strong understanding of Chinese culture, the report said.
For managers with a lower education, the contrast was especially sharp
between those with a CEO who understands Chinese culture and those without.
The research suggested that 24 percent of managers with a college degree
resigned their jobs over cultural conflicts with their bosses. However, only 12
percent of those with a more localized boss changed jobs during the six year
study.
"Interviews with those managers revealed that personal competence and culture
acceptance by Western bosses are the major factors forcing them to change jobs,"
Graen said.
"But the latter is more critical and more trouble-causing because many CEOs
simply didn't realize that," he added.
Expatriates sent to work in China, according to Graen, are expected to do two
jobs - both leading the company to achieve economic growth and helping to
integrate the joint venture into Chinese society and markets. But many Western
bosses know little about the country and don't consider it important to learn,
local managers said.
"Our ideas are constantly ignored and we are treated as second class citizens
in the company," said Kelvin Zhou, market director at a local US pharmaceutical
company.
"I could not stand that any more and just quit," he added.
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