Modelo de Calidad de Vida

Organisational behaviours are not universal. There are many aspects of business that are culture- specific such as ideas of fairness and justice, allocation of rewards, motivating factors, stress factors, use of groups and teams and leadership styles (Furnham 2005, p. 608). From the definitions used in this thesis, these would be employability skills but not necessarily those expected of a new graduate. At the process level of selection there are similarities due to legislative practices and policies that have an ―homogenizing effect‖ (Furnham 2005, p. 610).

For a Chinese graduate looking for a job, family management means that researching an

organisation‘s background is critical and often difficult: organizational charts and job titles are not necessarily a reliable guide to determining the decision makers, decision making responsibilities can be poorly defined and lack transparency, and job descriptions may be vague. ―Hiring decisions are often based simply on personal recommendations, with background checks consisting merely of phone calls … to close friends or trustworthy contacts. In traditional Chinese businesses, a potential employee‘s personal reputation is infinitely more valuable than a formal record of achievements…‖ (Chen 2001, p. 32). It is possible that with the complexities surrounding the various Chinese business models, a greater range of employability skill sets are needed in China than in Europe and Australia.

Peppas and Yu (2005), as mentioned in Chapters Two and Five, identified a lack of research about current hiring practices in mainland China. Their study compared Chinese and US employer ratings of specific attributes and Chinese students‘ perceptions of the same attributes. In particular, from the list of 26 job selection attributes originally developed by Hafer and Hoth (1981) ―statistically

significant differences were found between the mean ratings of the Chinese students and the Chinese employers for 11 attributes and between the Chinese students and US employers for 15 attributes‖ (Peppas and Yu 2005, p. 86). The Chinese student sample nominated loyalty, self-confidence, oral communication, enthusiasm and punctuality as most important; Chinese employers put motivation, initiative, knowledge of the company, leadership and loyalty; the US employers ranked enthusiasm, initiative, motivation, oral communication and disposition at the top. There was no mention of modesty, but Smith and Wang (1996) argued that there was a traditional Chinese tendency of responding in the middle range when ranking the strength of a statement.

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Modesty also relates to framing individual achievement, another culturally laden concept about which both the employer and graduate need to be aware. The realisation of personal potential is valued for its contribution to the growth of the company and the pride it can bring to the family (Chen 2001, p. 70). ―Even when Chinese do adopt Western management and strategy practices, they are likely to apply their own style, one of the most salient features of which is low-key behaviour‖ (Chen 2001, p. 104). They ―tend to deflect attention from the self to preserve harmony and balance, whether this means finding subtle or less offensive ways of saying no, giving credit to others, or contextualizing individual accomplishments in a wider, long-term frame‖ (Chen 2001, p. 104). This cultural value will impact on how the employer views both the graduate‘s job application and, as the low profile approach carries into dress codes, the interview, if there is one. This research will examine the employers‘ perceptions of appropriate behaviours for new employee such as being patient, modest and discrete. All cultures have an understanding of the need to promote one‘s self, but there are different ways of making the point and different interpretations of what is acceptable.

A skill not mentioned by Peppas and Yu (2005) is the ability to negotiate. Perhaps it is not regarded by employers or graduates as appropriate or relevant at the job selection stage or perhaps it is considered too sophisticated for new graduates. Yet it is a skill used to a greater or lesser extent, either consciously or intuitively, and is intrinsic to the graduate attributes of Australian universities. A new graduate from Victoria University would be expected to employ negotiation strategies in order to solve problems relating to professional practice, to work effectively in a team, to deal with social and cultural diversity and certainly when challenging the opinions of others. Negotiation skills are not taught as a process but rather as an interpersonal skill that encourages critical thinking and logic in an oral setting. The end result may be a harmonious compromise or there may be tension; knowing which is more appropriate for the setting would be a useful employability skill.

In the business world the process of negotiation can be an advanced employability skill and is likely to have a formal as well as informal component. Stark, Fam, Waller and Tian (2005) believe that a better understanding of the current Sino-Western negotiation process could enhance business

relationships and help western (New Zealand) businesses capitalise on the growing Chinese consumer market. Ulijn, Rutkowski, Kumar and Zhu (2005) deconstructed the negotiation process further and explored the emotions and national culture of negotiators and the resultant behaviours; their premise

being that emotions motivate behaviour, shape negotiator expectations, and create a climate that may

be either conducive to or an inhibitor of successful negotiations.

4.6 Summary

This chapter proposed a variety of influences on business and educational development in China and suggested a number of ways to explain what is happening. Some obvious changes have occurred

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since the hierarchical decision making of a socialist economy when responsibilities within the bureaucracy shifted regularly, manpower training and job assignment were not well coordinated; and the curricula did not produce the graduates with the skills needed by society (Zhang 1998, p. 263). Now, ―regardless of the type of enterprise, the general trend is toward a clearer definition of ownership, greater separation between owners and managers, and a movement away from a purely social organization toward a socioeconomic or largely economic entity‖ (Chen 2001, p. 162). Chen (2001, p. 177) argues that successful businesses in China need to combine service and profit.

The cross cultural and communication studies analysed suggest that Confucian ideas persist and Hofstede‘s (2004) comparative study of perceived goals of successful business people showed that the national component in goals is robust and unlikely to disappear. Therefore goal conflicts between leaders from different countries, and between expatriate leaders and their local personnel, are predictable. The cautionary note is that some management practices are not attributable to Chinese values but to how industry is controlled and to the system of state ownership.

Developing skills that are important to employers in China, such as negotiation and maintaining face, are a reason for internationalising the curriculum, at least for VU‘s Chinese B Bus graduates who could then promote their embryonic or even established skills to employers in China. However, before they can do this they need to be aware of the value of the skill for the specific context, and the curriculum needs to allow students to discuss, practice and implement the complex components of each skill in a realistic setting. Employers could also be educated so that the skill is investigated as part of the selection process.

A final comment concerns the language used when writing about business practices and

characteristics that might be deemed Chinese. In the paragraph below there are terms and ideas that have occurred repeatedly in the literature reviewed in this chapter. Some have been highlighted:

excellent leadership emanates from knowing and observing a complex ethical code, more often than not explicitly based on Confucian teaching. The managers often noted that this is something more than a mere list of virtues: ―The nature of virtuous leadership is complex and multifaceted.‖ These values were praised as keys to success both in historical examples and in the autobiographies of modern-day business heroes. The most frequently cited virtues by the managers were: Act as moral role model (by far the most important), Kindness,

Trustworthiness, Benevolence, Learning, Harmonious relationships, Obedience, Filial piety, Righteousness, Collectivism, Loyalty, Persistence, Selflessness, and Wisdom (Gao et al. 2008, p. 12).

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Without labouring the point, the language itself shows different emphases between Australia and China.

HRM theories inform the current study as graduating students now apply for jobs, in a dynamic market-driven environment, requiring knowledge about selection processes that is not general or common, with business structures and processes that may not be comprehensible or comprehensive. Furthermore, the decision regarding the graduating student‘s employability involves a complex interplay of an organisation‘s culture and other factors determining behaviour and decision making by the employing person or team. Job choice by the graduate and selection by the employer may be constrained by social, economic and political factors plus ability, age and education, which can be modified further by personal attributes, skills and interests. The next chapter will examine methodological approaches for this thesis.

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Chapter Five Methodology

5.0 Introduction

This thesis aims to examine employer perceptions and priorities for specific characteristics when employing new graduates in China by addressing the following research question: What qualities and skills does a Chinese graduate with an Australian Bachelor of Business need for employment in China? The question is operationalised through a focus on what is and is not developed in the curriculum:

1. What characteristics, general attributes and workplace skills being developed in the B Bus curriculum are particularly valued by Chinese employers?

2. What characteristics, general attributes and workplace skills are valued by Chinese employers but not developed or included in the B Bus curriculum?

The research requires a framework for understanding the Chinese workplace that Bachelor of Business graduates are entering, such as state-owned enterprises, small to medium sized Chinese owned businesses and multinational corporations. Therefore it must also assess the attitudes and values of employers with probably differing goals and outlooks - depending on the type of business - to employers in Australia. In analysing these attitudes it is important to consider the broader political and economic context, such as China‘s membership of the WTO and social changes in China. The research examines how these have impacted on graduates‘ preferences for certain jobs and employers‘ preferences for particular graduate profiles. The hypotheses examine the role of curriculum, how explicitly it develops certain skills, and how environment and teacher dependent it is in developing skills other than content knowledge:

1. If Chinese employers, reflecting Chinese culture in general, value the traditional curriculum, then Chinese graduates of a western curriculum will not meet Chinese employer requirements unless they display appropriate Chinese employability skills.

2. If Chinese employers see the limitations of a wholly traditional curriculum; that is, they want a partially western one, then there will be some skills that they perceive as important in the western curriculum.

3. If Chinese lecturers were teaching the curriculum with the skills required by the Chinese workplace in mind, then the perceptions of Chinese lecturers and Chinese employers regarding certain skills and qualities will be similar.

4. If Australian universities have graduate attributes embedded in curricula that are not relevant in China, then Chinese lecturers and Chinese students will perceive these skills as less important; and

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5. If students completing the VU Bachelor of Business in China or in Melbourne aim to find work in China, then they will similarly value the same skills and qualities.

This chapter considers the possible research paradigms that could provide a lens for exploring the research questions and the conceptual model presented in 5.1. Social phenomena research issues, socially constructed meaning, the use of Adaptive Theory as a method of analysis and the extant theories of power, education and culture are highly pertinent as they help the researcher understand her own perspective as well as ensure other ways of knowing are considered.