China Hrm

Some of the cultural characteristics exhibited in China are described as a typical oriental society which is a highly hierarchical and collectivist culture (Cooke, 2013). Confucianism that rooted in Chinese tradition influenced the attitudes of Chinese thought including their way of doing business (Jacobs, Guopei & Herbig, 1995). The objectives of the paper are to identify the socio-cultural characteristics of Chinese workers and to make comparison of the work attitudes between Mainland Chinese workers and Hong Kong workers. From the evaluation, this paper will suggest possible and realistic solutions for human resource management in China.

Socio-cultural Characteristics of Chinese Workers

Large Power Distance

Power distance refers to the “the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 1980, p. 45). China had a score of 80 out of 100 in the aspect of power distance under the Hofstede’s scores of 5 cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 2001). It indicates that China has a high power distance culture that focuses on the prevalence of practices of conformity (Matusitz & Musambia, 2013). In the workplace, Chinese workers accept that power between them is unevenly distributed. They accept leader’s authority and rarely challenge it (Humborstad, Humborstad, Whitfield & Perry, 2008). In addition, managers tend to adopt autocratic leadership and issue directives instead of involving employees’ participation in the decision making process (Rosenzweig 1994). Furthermore, Hofstede (1997) states that “large power distance means centralized control” (p. 35). Therefore, centralized decision making mechanism is commonly found in Chinese operations. Top level of management makes most of the decisions and provides major directions to the company while Chinese workers are mainly responsible for carrying out the decision made by them. To conclude, with high power distance culture, Chinese organizations are generally autocratic, centralized and hierarchical in nature.