Bulletin Number Three 1985

their professional skills are quite similar to, their western counterparts before business formation. It may take a long time for the formation idea to foster, but the process will speed up once the decision to form the business is made. Substantial progress may be made in only a few months. Risk is seldom a deterrent. 3. Local entrepreneurs are mostly motivated by economic considerations. As a group, independence has been cited as the common desire. 4. Compared with executives, local entrepreneurs are more willing risk-takers. They also possess a higher sense of achievement. When asked if they are willing to be employed again, the answers are mostly negative even i f the salary level is high. On the other hand, a large percentage of executives expresses a strong desire to set up their own business if and when the opportunity arises. 5. Most problems faced by the local entrepreneurs are finance-related. Less problems exist in the production area. This finding agrees with those of western researchers. 6. Both groups of executives and entrepreneurs surveyed exhibit similar views on Chinese style management. They are quite different from those hypothesized by Western management scholars. Local executives in particular do not believe that there is a lack of team spirit among Chinese managers; that rewards are based on loyalty rather than performance; and that supervisors are usually the sole decision-makers. In addition to the above observations, which we had presented in the 1984 Seminar on Chinese- Style Management, we have completed a series of association and causal analysis of the data — something which has been lacking in most western studies. We expect to finish the full-scale comparative analysis as soon as the data from China are screened. Enterprise Management and Industrial Relations in China -Peter K.N. Chen China has introduced important reforms in the area of enterprise management in the past few years as part of her modernization programme. A series of studies is undertaken to trace the development of the enterprise reform and the trends of industrial relations in China. Labour management greatly affects the productivity of enterprises. Under China's present social, political and economic practices, one important aspect of labour management is the relations among the factory managers, the workers and the Party Branch Committee, and, in the case of factories with foreign investments, the foreign investors. My studies therefore focus on changes in the management system, personnel practices, new roles of the factory managers and industrial democracy within the enterprises. Enterprise management reforms in China have been carried out along the following lines: 1. Reinforce specialization and professionalization ； 2. Raise the technological standard; 3. Reinforce the economic auditing system; 4. Raise labour productivity and profitability; 5. Improve cooperation between management and administration in enterprises; 6. Reinforce political, economic, managerial, technological and cultural education; 7. Implement incentive systems, reinforce spiritual and material awards, and improve work conditions and welfare of workers; 8. Implement the system of responsibility from the manager down to the grass roots; 9. Learn the advanced and modem technical and management know-how from advanced countries. Dramatic changes in labour management are taking place in the enterprises of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and, more recently, throughout China. The responsibility system has been changed from Party Branch Committee leadership to factory manager leadership; the wage system has been modified, and the individual contract system is becoming more important. Managers are chosen by democratic election by the workers and under new criteria which emphasize also technical and managerial expertise. The emphasis of the changing relationship among the managers, the party cadres and the workers differs from the traditional emphasis of the Chinese labour movement, resulting in a new industrial relations pattern. The personnel management practised in the SEZ factories with foreign investment seems to have changed the attitudes of the Chinese workers working in these factories and raised productivity. This kind of personnel practices could become a model reference for factories in the non-SEZ. The possible effects of these changes on Chinese enterprise management and China's industrial relations have been analysed and the research findings are contained in the following books: The Labour Movement in China (1840 - present) (in press) and RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 23