Kevin Lim, Reuters, Nov. 3, 2008
From bankers to factory staff, workers in the West face the bleak prospect of losing their jobs as a global recession starts to bite. For colleagues in the East, the pain is more likely to come through a pay cut.
Human resource experts say cultural differences explain why Asian firms try harder to preserve jobs in difficult times, which will stem unemployment and may help keep Asian economies afloat at a time of slowing exports.
The more paternalistic East Asian attitude may also make it easier for firms to recover quickly from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, leaving some experts predicting a Western shift to Eastern flexibility.
“In the Confucian mindset, the right thing to do is to share the burden. There’s that sense of collective responsibility whereas in the West, it’s more about individual survival,” said Michael Benoliel, associate professor of organizational behavior at Singapore Management University (SMU).
In Hong Kong, senior staff at CLSA, the Asian brokerage arm of Credit Agricole, have agreed to a voluntary pay cut of up to 25 per cent to stave off the threat of redundancy. CLSA made similar cuts in 2003 when business slowed due to SARS.
A Western CLSA employee, who declined to be identified, told Reuters he accepted the cut because he would have looked like “scum” in the eyes of his colleagues if he did not agree.
{snip}
In contrast, Western counterparts often felt compelled to make dramatic statements to show investors they were serious about cost-cutting, Pang said.
U.S. firms from General Motors to Goldman Sachs plan to lay off workers by the thousands, but at the Asian units of Western multinationals, job cuts will probably be less severe.
{snip}
Employment law in East Asia tended to favor employers, allowing them to be more creative, and there was also government and public support for measures that help save jobs.
Singapore, for instance, encourages firms and unions to develop “flexi-wage” packages that allow employers to adjust salaries according to economic conditions.
{snip}
The policy has kept the city-state’s unemployment at a low 2.2 percent, versus 1.7 percent in last year’s fourth quarter.
Japan’s jobless rate was 4 percent in September, up from 3.8 percent in January, while Hong Kong’s was flat at 3.4 percent. But U.S. unemployment is expected to have jumped to 6.3 percent last month from below 5 percent in January.
WEST MEETS EAST?
Experts say that while there are noticeable differences in labor practices in East and West, the gap will narrow as more firms become more multinational and competition forces firms to adopt the best practices of rivals from abroad.
Aquent’s Pang noted many large Japanese firms no longer offer jobs-for-life, while Western multinationals now employ a large number of people in Asia.
“With the trend of major Japanese companies being run by non -Japanese CEOs, slowly but surely they are starting to adopt more of a Western management style and philosophy.”
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on November 3, 2008)
Comments
Contrary to what a lot of people on Amren (including the leaders of this site) believe, Asians aren’t necessarily “better” than white people; they are just different. And of course by “Asian” I strictly mean Northeast Asians.
When Jared Taylor wrote his article on the Japanese people a year or so ago, I think he went a little overboard in his praises of Japan, leaving the reader to think that Japanese people are overall better than us. They aren’t.
He spent so much time talking about how the Japanese create the best operas and symphonies in the world while not acknowledging the obvious fact that since white people invented opera we are obviously superior in the field. He went into the same garbage when talking about the Japanese making the best cars in the world, and having the best baseball teams etc….even the best science (???not sure what that means??).
In any case, it seems this article may be trying to give the same false message. Asians work collectively which benefits them but it also hurts them. For instance, this is why they haven’t proven to be as creative as whites in the sciences etc….Whites on the other hand, are more individualistic, which in turn hurts us but also helps us.
“Human resource experts say cultural differences explain why Asian firms try harder to preserve jobs in difficult times, which will stem unemployment and may help keep Asian economies afloat at a time of slowing exports.”
Actually, in hard economic times, this isn’t a bad idea. At least giving employees the option of a temporary pay cut until hard times are over may lessen the blow of a depression. However, in the East there is much more cultural and national loyalty, whereas in the West, culture or national loyalty does not matter. It’s all money, money, money when it comes to the elites and the rest of society be damned. American elites will happily destroy the US as long as they can fill their pockets.
“In Hong Kong, senior staff at CLSA, the Asian brokerage arm of Credit Agricole, have agreed to a voluntary pay cut of up to 25 per cent to stave off the threat of redundancy. CLSA made similar cuts in 2003 when business slowed due to SARS.”
I am not one to be on the Asians are the “most advanced” people of the earth bandwagon (i.e., I can and will continue to be critical of them despite their “superior” average 105 IQs) and this largely stems from the knowledge that they do have, an almost hive-like propensity toward conformity and group worship. However, here I think that Western executives/management and employees/labor would do well to take notice of this business practice and emulate it.
I am the first to champion Western individuality and the creativity and industry it fosters; I deeply believe that it is the competitive edge that has led the white race to remain the planet’s dominate socioeconomic and technological force. It does explain why, despite their slight IQ advantage, Asians remain secondary to Europeans in so many spheres. But that does not mean on the flip side, that the West has nothing to learn from the East; far too often: greed, truculence, and brutality govern the Western workplace, both from management and employees. It is a hopelessly Darwinian mind set, that allows for redundancy and strikes, job cuts and unrealistic demands for pay hikes at all costs, without gauging the economic circumstances at a given point in time.
Far better it is to keep a workforce intact and reduce costs by pay cuts (particularly if management leads by example)and foster future reductions in training expenses later. Indeed, a 25% reduction in pay would stink for the employees, but far worse is a 100% one and a pink slip!
Sometimes we (employers and employees both) need to remember that, reasonable cooperation can be far more fruitful than rambunctious conflict!
A major reason is because Asians are loyal to their own people. Unlike Whites who destroy their own people and favor africans, asians, hispanics and middle easterners.
America was like this once. My Dad worked for Allis Chalmers. At one time it manufactured most of the bulldozers and earth moving equipment in the world as well as trucks, cement trucks and other construction vechicles.
Allis Chalmers was very subject to business cycles. My Dad was in personnel and every time there was a down turn he spent a lot of time rescheduling for part time work rather than laying people off. So nobody was really laid off. Maybe they were reduced to 18 hours per week, but they kept their jobs, medical benefits etc.
But Allis Chalmers was sold to Fiat which was sold to the Saudis and has disappeared.
If Allis Chalmers were still around I have no doubt that all the Americans would have been let go years ago and illegal hispanics hired in their place.
I’m on the side that maintains that a constant push for economic growth is at the root of our instability and one of the main reasons the West can so easily excuse their disasterous promotion of importing third world hordes.
Isolationism has become a dirty word, like “racist,” but the proven fact is that it is only homogeneous nations that can increase or decrease their self-sufficient productivity, depending on their NATURAL rise and fall of birth rates, that have any real hope of continuing their societies for centuries.
Just look at this country. We’ve become an expansionist empire that requires economic growth to provide the monetary oil to keep the imperial engine humming, but worst of all, it necessitates the importation of warm bodies, and all of it together keeps us on the edge of disaster constantly.
We’re barely more than 300 years old since any sizeable civilization began to any appreciable degree, and we’re on the verge of collapse already, with 1/3 of our population third world non-whites who despise the white majority and want us to give up our own country.
This country cannot and WILL NOT survive in its present form, and I believe we are in the process of seeing first hand its economic and societal collapse.
For all the hype about the efficient, tough and correct American way of doing business over the years, what has it ever done for this nation besides bankrupt it? Did the millions of jobs and thousands of businesses sacrificed by Corporate raiders,(excuse me, Equity Investment Managers),over the years ever help the U.S. economy or Americans in their communities in any postive way? Sooner or later, someone has got to see the shear criminality and moral bankruptcy involved here.
Actually, cutting pay is preferable to cutting jobs, in my opinion.
I’ve always advocated a labor market in which applicants would interview for a job, and the best 5-10 would be asked to make a salary bid, with the lowest winning the position. Sure makes a lot more sense than the idiocy and humiliation most job seekers face today in applying for professional positions—second and third “stress” interviews, decisions made for the flimsiest of reasons (what color shirt he wore, etc.), not to mention the cost of this gauntlet to both the employer and the hire.
To Courtney at 7:23 PM: I think what Jared Taylor said in that article (“In Praise of Homogeneity”, if I’m not mistaken), is that Japan had good opera, baseball, and cars despite not following the “Diversity is our strength” mindset advocated by Western economic “experts”. I don’t think he ever said that the Japanese had the best opera, or the best baseball, only that they were capable of having those things without a “diverse” population.
“But Allis Chalmers was sold to Fiat which was sold to the Saudis and has disappeared.”
Another victim of globalism! All this globalism got into gear in 1945 and has gained momentum ever since. After America’s victory in 1945, Wall Street had (most of) the world at its feet. The world was it’s to plumder. But now the tables have turned The world is commencing to plunder us!
The bottom line? Money has no loyalty, no nationality. Capital will go wherever it can find the best advantage.
“For all the hype about the efficient, tough and correct American way of doing business, what has it ever done for this nation besides bankrupt it?
True. The raiders helped only those who did the raiding.
The blunt fact is that American businesses are not in business for the benefit of America. They are in business solely for the benefit - and to serve the interests - of those who own them. Anyone else can go rot!
Any comments, Mrs. Smythe?
Cutting pay is a good solution in some instances. But in others, people should be let go so that they can move to the more productive areas of the economy, rather than being stuck in areas that are struggling. When labor moves to the areas with the most potential for growth, the economy will be much better off as a whole.
I had a friend who worked for a company who simply terminated any part-time or people who were moonlighting from other countries and then cut all their full time employee’s hours from forty to thirty-two during a really bad recession. Half of them were scheduled off on Friday and the other half on Monday.
She said that everyone was bellyaching until they saw their paychecks. All of them took home more money with thirty-two hours than with forty hours. Furthermore, they all enjoyed having a three day weekend, or an extra day off to run their personal errands. They were all sorry to see the economy rebound the next year.
