The Nature Of Work Between Beijing China

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The main purpose of this report is to analyze the changes to the nature of work in Beijing and Singapore. The second section discusses the major changes in the management approaches in Beijing for the last 50 years (from the 1950s to 2010s). Following third section talk over the major changes in Singapore. The fourth section provides a detail analysis in the areas of organization structure, work/life balance and technology and organization; and discussed the impact on the society, organizations and patterns of work. The fifth section examines the 3 aspects in second country of Singapore. The sixth section provides a comparative analysis between Beijing and Singapore. The last section predicts the potential changes in Beijing in the next 10 years.

2. Summary of change to work in Beijing in the past 50 years (from 1960s to 2010s)

Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world. The population as of 2012 was 20,693,000.Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by urban population after Shanghai and is the nation’s political cultural, and education central.it is home to the headquarters of most of china’s largest state-owned companies, and is a major hub for the national highway, expressway, railway, and high-speed rail network. The Beijing Capital International Airport is the second busiest in the world by passenger traffic. So it takes a significant position in China’s development, and distinct impact on the change to the nature of work in China( Beijing-China, n.d).

The management approaches in Beijing has changed significantly from 1950s-2010s. The first emerge are classical management perspective. This perspective actually includes two different branches: scientific management and administrative management (Griffin, 2007).

In the early 1950s, Beijing uses administrative management that concerned with managing the total organization to improving productivity of organization (Khorana, 2009). The reason for this approach is because Chairman Mao announced a second Five Year Plan to last from 1958 to 1963. This plan was called the Great Leap Forward, and the major purpose to develop agriculture and industry. Mao has convince of that that both had to grow to allow total economics to grow. Industry could only prosper if improve productivity, while the agricultural needed more manpower to increase output. To allow for this, China was reformed into a series of communes. By 1959, through practice has proved that it was obvious that the Great Leap Forward had been a failure（The Great Leap Forward, n.d）.

The trench continue into the 1980s and there was shift towards Contingency Approach, also known as situational approach, is a concept in management stating that there is no one universally applicable set of management principles by which to manage organization. Organization are individually different, face different situation, and require different ways of managing. Contingency approaches remain less common than change management approaches (Bruce, Patrick, Montana & Charnov, 2008). For instance, the reform and opening-up policy was established under china’s specific situation. Which was initialed by Deng Xiaoping at the end of 1978. It represented a great turning point of profound significance in the history of China. And the main objective have been, made to readjust the economic structure, and reform the economic and political systems, and increased communication with other countries. Deng said: ‘China has to step by step, creating a road with Chinese characteristics, a road that will lead to socialist modernization." Since 1979 the situation in China is the best ever (ChinaOrbit.com).

This is evidence due to the presence the country of Xiao gang which is the birthplace of China’s rural reform, it is the richest village in China yet. And some of the special economic Zone’s existing and well development approved the successful of China’s reform and open-up policies as well. Such as Shenzhen, Guangdong and Fujian province.

3. Analysis of detailed of Beijing

This report discuss the following three major sections study of people, organization and society.

Organization structure

Lifestyle - quantity V.s quality of life-work / life balance

Technology and Organization

3.1 Organization structure

Organization structure is the pattern of relationships amount position in the organization and amount members of the organization. Structure makes possible the application of the process of management and establishes a framework of order and command through which the activities of the organization can be planned, organized, and controlled. It is also defines task and responsibilities, work roles and relationship, and channels of communication

(Mullins, 2005).

Since 1990s, the economy’s structure has changed to Market economy from centrally planned economy slowly. In which decisions regarding investment, production and distribution are based on supply and demand rather than embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority. The market become more freedom, worker’s motivation reach higher than ever, that is depth influence the organization structure. Therefore many personal companies or organization has been established and take place of state-owned enterprise. Therefore increase the market competitive and efficient of organization.

For instance, many successful Chinese companies have a hierarchical organizational structure where top leaders control the company direction. It is like a triangular, top-down communication from top decision makers to employees. That means only the top executives are making decisions for any project. Managers and workers are the ones who will follow the order, implement the plan, monitor progress and report back to the leaders. In a sense, they are like "worker bees", but they are very efficient in production, especially project tasks that demand precise execution and reach ambitious goals with results. Perhaps that's why and how China became the world's factory in the recent years.

3.2 Work / Life Balance

Work-life balance is a concept that supports the efforts of employees to split their time and energy between work and the other important aspects of their lives. Work-life balance is a daily effort to make time for family, friends, community participation, personal growth and other personal activities, in addition to the demands of the workplace.work-life balance is assisted by employers who institute policies, procedures,actions, and expectations that enable employees to easily pursue more balanced lives (Susan.M, n.d).

In today’s Beijing’s society, career matters. In fact, even before globalization, career has been at the forefront of most people’s minds. Today, most employees and executives suggest that some of the main pressures in their lives are work-related. Concerns over long hours and striking a work-life balance are issues which have long burdened individuals with growing responsibilities at work.

A 2012 survey of executives working in China, conducted by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), the survey highlights that, executives are still faced with the challenge of adjust their career and their family life. The corporate ladder has become more competitive than it has ever been. Executives are expected to compete on a global platform for positions. The AESC survey conveys that personal and family life are the most important factor in an executive's life, and having a demanding career does not necessarily mean that personal life has to suffer. Interestingly, executives suggested that flexible working conditions were more important to them than paid time away from the office, suggesting that perhaps a more balanced life can be achieved through this method (Langley, 2012).

3.3 Technology and Organization

Technology is found in its various forms in small and large businesses, the service sector, state institutions, manufacturing companies, educational establishments and so on. As categories the variety of conceptions into some of the key perspectives on technology in an organizational context. Current generations od information and Communication technology (ICT) are inherently flexible; they therefore allow a good deal of choice with regard to how and for which purposes they are utilized in the organization in term of such matters as working practices, skill and control, and job design (Mullins, 2005).

Information and Communication Technology(ICT) improve the efficiency of business processes deeply, more and more organization are paying increasing attention to helping their managers acquire the necessary knowledge and skills for better managing such change. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have over the last 25years become an important vehicle for organizations to introduce improvements to their business performance.

Especially in this context of a fast growing Chinese economy and its opening market it is important. Many companies using real-time communication tool replace email, and many social media was integrated to company’s daily operation. Today, in comparison to the gamut of social media platforms available, email is considered slow and outdated. Social media enables rapid exchange of information which, in turn, speeds up the execution of tasks on hand.

4. Analysis of detailed of Singapore

4.1 Organization Structure

As in all Asian countries, organizational structures tend toward the hierarchical. For example, many Singapore companies originated as family run businesses and this adds weight to the push for respect for seniority. The CEO of a family business will tend to be the oldest male. Thus, within traditional Singaporean organizations, all core decision will be made at the very senior level, those decision being delegated down the chain of command for implementation. And the middle tier would not against with senior management, as this would infer lack of respect therefore, it is important to ensure the right level of contact within an organization if influence is to be brought to bear on the decision-making process. It is also important to ensure that senior people are dealt with by contacts of similar status.

4.2 Work / Life Balance

Singapore’s changing demographics such as the rise in dual income families and other social and economic trends such as an increase in female workforce participation rate, longer working hours, an aging population, and falling birth rates. Hence Singaporean should transfer more to their family.

This can be approved by the following speech. Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap, Member of Parliament for Aljunied. He pointed out that 40% of Singaporeans' time is spent at work. And the Government must improve on work-life balance policies if Singaporean families are to prosper. He said that the civil service should take the lead when it comes to making sure Singaporean parents have enough time for their children. Such as official working hours should be reduced from 46 hours to 40 hours (RazorTV, 2013).

4.3 Technology and Organization

As Singapore applies advance technologies earlier than Beijing. In recent years a number of organizations have adopted an open systems architecture and moved away from being locked into particular computer suppliers/manufactures, thus flexibility is also achieved by using telecommunications to link different makes and models of computers together, both within and across the same and different organizations and workplaces. On the other hand, Singapore tend to make the workplace more social. This can approved by a report conducted by Market Research Company Nielsen that said 70% Singaporeans interact with social media via their mobile phone. That is 23 point above the global average of 47 %. Evidently, the rapid rise of social media has been facilitated by the widespread availability of smart devices penetrating the workplace. For example, the real-time communication tool is considered much more efficient then email. A mutually social media tends to more collaboration-oriented, breaking down barriers between various department and tapping into their potential.

5. Comparative analysis between Beijing and Singapore

First at all, as above mentioned in all Asian countries, organizational structures tend toward the hierarchical. For Singapore, the most typical organization structure is family run business .this mean that all the top managers is the family member and every business decision made by the family to maximized the wealth of the family. The advantage of family structure is has a trustworthy, reliable and stable leader group. On the other hand, it seem a bit backward. Those non family employees are short promotion opportunity, so there are a high turnover rate in the executive level. But the companies in Beijing has less affected by hierarchical compare with Singapore’s. With the booming of the economy, the companies in Beijing has to take a modern organization structure. They may look like a family business ,but it is totally different with Singapore’s. For example, the family provide the capital only and hire a preprofessional team to run the business, the family not suppose to intervene in daily operation. It is undeniable that the modern structure more suitable with contemporary society.

Second, the concept of work/life balance become more and more popular. That can be explain by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, he hypothesized that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs which can simply describe as following:

Chart 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Singapore as a developed country, it is provide a relatively stable and abundant live to citizen, most people has a suitable job and happiness family. From another perspective, Singaporean’s life move forward to esteem and self-actualization level Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. For example, most Singaporean will travel to foreign counties during vocation rather than work overtime. But the condition is quite different in Beijing, most people shift from safety to love/belong level. Employees must work hard in case of lose job, and work more than 8 hours everyday. Due to China pension policy, employees would like to save more than 50% of the salary, that is to guarantee have a good life after their retire. Therefore, employees in Beijing spend more time on work than Singaporean.

Technology play a significant role in the society progress in worldwide, greatly improve the working efficiency. Especially the information technology shortened distance between people and organization, which most companies build a strong network to link each other basis on Internet. Singapore has more advanced and mature Internet structure that covering each corner. So Singapore tend to make the workplace more social, and companies has own IT system,the employees can work more flexible wether at home or office. In spite Beijing has those technologies, due to the backward of the community as whole. Company may has all the modern technologies within their company, but out of the company is different. Otherwise, there is a gap between those new technologies with the employees, due to worker is unfamiliar to the system. So compare to Singapore, Beijing need to enhance employees training of IT knowledges.

6. Predictive changes in Beijing for the next 10 years.

Through above analysis and comparison, we can predictive the change in Beijing for the next ten years. Firstly, organization structure in Beijing tend to western management models which are system-oriented or computer-technology-like relationship performance measure and reduce emotional management. Company will have a dynamic organization structure, those companies operate in a very fast changing environment where employees are empowered to communicate and get the job done.that means employees are working in an open environment with open circle communication. They can chat with someone in the hallway;they can go to company Internet to search for information; they can walk up to a different floor and search for someone who can answer his or her question. Basically, employees are working in a dynamic environment where they have to find creative ways to sole problems and deliver results. Performance reviews provide individual and team measures with incentive and bonus.

Secondly, with the remarkable improvement of people’s living standard, work/life balance become more important and challenging in the next ten years. Because the pursuit of work-life balance reduces the stress employees experience.when they spend the most of their time on work-related activities and feel as if they are neglecting the other important components of their lives,stress and unhappiness result.work-life balance enables employees to feel as if they are paying attention to all the important aspects of their lives. Hence employers will assist employees to experience work-life balance by offering such opportunities as flexible work schedules, paid time off policies, responsible time and communication expectation, and company-sponsored family events and activities. And managers are important to employees seeking work-life balance. Manager should support employees in their pursuit of work-life balance, and create a work environment in wich work-life balance is expected, enabled.

Thirdly, technology play an increasingly important role in the change to the nature of work. Those companies in Beijing have to emphasize import advanced science and technologies in the next ten years. Beijing will spend large amount of money to improve the network infrastructure. such as, the mobile operators should make 3G/ 4G more universal, even the free internet service covering each public area, that enable to tend the workplace to social. Perhaps that make the work more flexible either by place or time, by the way , it is also possible to adjust the work/life balance. From other perspectives, technologies should not only improve the hardware but also improve the software. It is mean, Beijing should reinforce the training of employees with higher requirement, skill and knowledge. Based on a clarified understanding the technologies, manager will conducting in multiple dimension like decision- making or human resource management and so on.

7. Summary

By study the changes to the nature of work that have occurred in the past 50 years and then critically compare the nature of work in Beijing and Singapore. This report forecast how the nature of work may change over the next ten years as well. It is undeniable that Singapore more ahead Beijing as a developed county, so Beijing still have a long way to go. And to some extent the changes to the nature of work is a symbol of society progress. Those changing meet the needs of human in all aspect of life.