Necesidades en el acceso a la Educación Primaria

In the course of globalization, multinational corporations, after more than a century of evolution, have changed many of their strategies along with the innovation of communication, technology and development of humanity and management philosophies. At the beginning of the 21st century, the so-called ‘golden BRICS’ countries (O'Neil, 2001), namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, became newly revived economic giants and started to attract MNCs’ investments. The strategy of human resources management and industrial relations are the initial factors for the effective management of MNCs’ subsidiaries, within which culture and language can either hinder or promote the smooth flow of HRM/IR practices.

This research focuses on the culture and language barriers in MNCs’ employment relations in the context of the economic boom in China, a country with 5000 years of history, accumulating strong cultural features and an unique language structure. By capturing some typical examples of the barriers of culture and language on internal and external IRs and HRM practice, this research expects to find an efficient and pragmatic solution for harmonious employment relations in MNCs.

Chapter One is a general introduction to the research, which aims to illustrate the objective of the research in three dimensions: a framework for the research, the research focus, and the research strategy.

Chapter Two states that Anglo-Saxon Culture (ASC) is one important concept being adopted in this study. To an avoidance of too much ambiguity, this research analyses the

differences of Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Saxon culture, and explained why choose ASC as comparative research subject. It has significance for the research perspective moving from Euro-centric or USA - centric interpretation to an indigenous Chinese interpretation.

Chapter Three is the research rationale, which includes two parts: culture/language and industrial relations/human resources management. This chapter is the core part of the research, not just giving the definition and characteristics of items relating to culture, language, IR and HRM, but also explaining its internal connections, the significance of the research and the conceptual models for further research.

In Chapter Four and Chapter Five,a series of empirical cases are collected and discussed in an effort to illustrate the following research achievements: first, how culture and language function in multi-national companies in the developed countries, and how they function in companies in developing countries as well. Second, what valuable findings from previous empirical studies can offer some help in this research? Third, are there some shortcomings or uncertainties in these empirical studies? This chapter ends by explaining that few previous studies have focused on the cultural and language barriers in the fields of industrial relations and HRM in developing countries, such as China.

Chapter Six profiles industrial relations in China from the early 1920s, the eve of the collapse of China’s last emperor, to the contemporary period dominated by the communist government. It explores the functional changes of three actors – government, management and trade unions – in different economic systems, and the challenges they faced in the transitional period from the planned economy to the current marketing system.

Following the models from the literature review and findings from the empirical studies, Chapter Seven presents details of the research design and methodology. A hypothesis created with reference to the classical research findings is set as the base for further qualitative and quantitative studies. The approach to data collection is given in detail.

Chapters Eight present and discuss the research findings by analyzing the data obtained from questionnaires, interviews and other sources. The SPSS statistical software was used to compare the opinions from hypothesis in the previous chapter with the information from two hundred questionnaires. Furthermore, the second part of Chapter Eight focuses on the qualitative findings from the interviews with people in the relevant industries. More specific discussion of the researcher's contribution to the models on cultural/language functioning in IR/HRM is provided in this chapter, which verifies the standpoint proclaimed in Chapter One.

Chapter Nine continues the discussion from previous chapters and finalizes the outlines for Chinese cultural features which come from previous in-depth research. It points out that contemporary Chinese culture has three main resources: traditional value which affected by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, communist ideology, and impact of western culture after Open Policy in 1980. More importantly, the research analyzed the relevance and irrelevance factors with Anglo-Saxon culture resources.

Findings and conclusions from this research are presented in Chapter Ten. Apart from the general review of MNCs in China, and the impacts of culture and language on IR/HRM, further and continuous research relating to non-verbal actions, migrant workers in Chinese MNCs, and the problems faced by Chinese MNCs in other countries are discussed in this chapter. It also addresses the implications and limitations of this research and provides recommendations for further studies.

Dissertation Structure

1. General Introduction and Research Objective

2. Chinese Economy in Transition and Anglo-Saxon Culture in the

Chinese Context

3. Literature Review: Culture and language Studies

5. Literature Review of Empirical Studies

6. Industrial Relations in Contemporary China

7. Research Design and Methodology

8. Data Analysis of Empirical Research

10. Findings and Conclusions 4. Literature Review: IRs and HRM Studies

Chapter Two

Chinese Economy in Transition and Anglo-Saxon

Culture in the Chinese Context

In the past three decades, the dramatic changes of China economy have caused attention and interests by both academians and MNCs practitioners. It is necessary to illutrate the significance of China's rise and its role for world economy. Furthermore, MNCs is a linkage to set up China economy with world economic development. Anglo-Saxon Culture (ASC) is one important concept being adopted in this study. To an avoidance of too much ambiguity, this research analyses the differences of Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Saxon culture, and explained why choose ASC as comparative research subject. It has significance for the research perspective moving from Euro-centric or USA - centric interpretation to an indigenous Chinese interpretation.