Chinese MBA students in Buffalo compare U.S. and Chinese industry

Business America, Dec 7, 1987

Chinese MBA Students in Buffalo Compare U.S. and Chinese Industry

Zhang Xu-chao, a student in the State University of New York at Buttalo's China MBA program, quoted English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton when asked to compare U.S. and Chinse business practices: "I am not a great man; I just stand on the shoulders of a great man.'

"All the world should realize this idea; everyone should introduce new ideas,' said Zhang, 30, who worked for the Chinse Ministry of Coal Mining before enrolling in the SUNY-Buffalo program nearly three years ago. "If we (China) close the door (to new technology and ideas), we will be left behind. The different (economic) systems learn from each other.'

Zhang and fellow MBA students Zhan Jia-fang and Zhao Ermin all pointed to the opening of China to foreign business and technology in 1978--a move they called the "open-door policy'--as the catalyst for an economic system they say is slowly closing the gap with the U.S.

The students are among the 46 Chinese in Buffalo completing the final semester of the three-year MBA program. They are taking management courses and spending two days a week as interns at local companies.

Zhang, Zhan, and Zhao, who are particularly interested in human resources issues, noted some similarities between Chinese and American businesses in motivating workers.

Motivation of workers is considered an important aspect of Chinese economic reform, said Zhao, 40, the vice director of research and development for an electronics company who is an intern at Standard Oil Engineered Materials Co.

In Chinese factories, where the head of the factory is also considered an employee, workers are told they should work harder because they are working for themselves, said Zhan, 38, the personnel manager of an air separator equipment company and an intern at Gibraltar Steel Corp. "In America, they tell the workers the same thing; they must work together or the factory will close. We're getting closer,' he said. "We're using the same psychology to get people to work harder.'

In fact, the concept of employee participation in a company, which in the United States often develops as profit-sharing, came to the United States from Japan, said Zhang, who is an intern at Graphic Controls Corp. But the Japanese learned the concept from the Chinese, he added.

The students noted that before they started the MBA program, they had assumed there was frequent turnover in the American workforce, with employers constantly firing and hiring workers. That is not the case, they discovered.

In China, where employees had enjoyed life-long employment, the government now has given managers the right to hire and fire, said Zhang. However, managers seldom fire employees for the same reason American managers hesitate: company morale, he said.

Corporate culture is very important, he said, noting management and workers are considered family in both systems.

"We're getting closer (to the same business ideals),' Zhan said.

"After all, we're all human beings,' Zhang added.

Money is just one factor that can be used to motivate workers, Zhao said, recalling a conversation he had with an American salesman. The salesman told him he had taken his job because he had the personality for sales and he liked the freedom of traveling and the challenge of meeting his sales goals, Zhao said.

Challenging work and recognition for a job well done are also important in motivating workers, the students said.

"In China, sometimes we emphasize one side (money),' Zhao said. "We should learn how to combine the two sides to meet the psychological needs of people.'