Aldo Lau

MAR 452 Export and Import

April 8, 2004

Chinese Medicine

            Traditional Chinese Medicine in the modern world is rapidly gaining popularity and recognition as an alternative medication.  The medicinal field of science actually holds no differentiator between the practices of the Western tradition against the Chinese tradition, but each has its own distinctions.  Traditional Chinese Medicine includes acupuncture, herbal remedies, and maintenance of the chi within the human body system.  The antiquated practice of medicinal science in China has been revamped and standardized by the government of the People’s Republic of China.  In an increasingly internationalized business economy, the Chinese people in their world Diaspora have brought with them the arts of Traditional Chinese Medicine and incubated its global market.  The awareness and demand for Tradition Chinese Medicine strengthened under the gradual liberation of world trade with China.  The herbs required in the medicine potions can be found throughout the world, but they are still popularly imported from China.  To consolidate the global market demand and guarantee the best quality possible, the Chinese government has implemented measures of quality control to assure the safe consumption and value for Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

            Traditional Chinese Medicine is known for its distinctive approach to cure the ailments of the internal body.  Herbal medication is an effective art of healing that has little if any side effects.  Chinese civilization has long viewed sickness as an internal imbalance in its energy derivatives from ingestion of external food sources.  To treat this sort of disorder, one would only need to ingest another food source with the opposite type of energy to recover the balance.  There are no two illnesses of exact cultivations within two different body systems.  Everyone is sick for a different reason and maltreatment of their bodies.  The decay of trade barriers and isolation of Chinese markets have led to myriad opportunities and development to the industry of Chinese herbal medicines. 

            The People’s Republic of China has formed a system for Chinese herbal medicines that is accountable for its production and circulation.  The production of Chinese medicinal materials is the base of the system, Chinese herbal medicament industry is the main body, and the Chinese herbal medicament commerce serves as the link for the three.  China is richly endowed with more than the 5,000 determinable medicinal herbs as their pool of medicinal resources.  For the production of Chinese medicinal materials, the government and business stakeholders made available more than over 600 bases across the country.  China has a domestic output of about 400,000 tons of Chinese medicinal, produced every year on approximately 5 million mu of land.  Chinese herbal materials are processed from over 1,500 plants produce.  China claimed more than 4,000 Chinese patent herbal medicines in over 40 drug forms in its 684 pharmaceutical factories for herbal medicaments within its soils.  In 1995, there were more than 30,000 wholesale and retail shops for herbal medicines in China.  Chinese herbal medicines are desired whenever proven effective and made possible.  It is a preferred medication.  Across international borders, citizens around the world regardless of ethnic descent increasingly demand Chinese herbal medicines.[1]

Regulation and documentation procedures in China have been adapting to reflect the needs of modernity.  The State Administration of Chinese Traditional Medicine, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, State Administration of Import and Export Commodity Inspection and Customs General Administration have collaboratively created and placed into effect the quality registration, inspection and releasing system of traditional Chinese medicines to be exported.[2]  Effective ever since May 1, 1996, the State Administration of Chinese Traditional Medicines (SACTM) would delegate inspection responsibilities to regional quality inspection organizations.[3]  All herbs and its extraction derivatives to be exported, along with their manufacturing enterprises, are to undergo strict inspection before attaining qualification and deport from the borders of China.  Quality registration certificates will be verified and issued to those who meet all the necessary requirements by the State of Administration of Chinese Traditional Medicines.[4] 

The foreign corporation that imports must file an application for the proper Chinese authorities to insure the quality of the Chinese traditional medicines.  In their application, copies of the supply contracts of the production enterprises and the quality registration certificates of Chinese traditional medicines must be submitted.[5]  The commodity inspection authorities must verify Chinese herbal medicines that are to be exported.  A commodity inspection certificate will be issued to prove compliance with the Chinese traditional medicines if all requirements are fulfilled.  In accordance to the relevant provision, the production enterprises will also be published.[6] 

The name list of Chinese traditional medicines to be exported accompanied by their production enterprises, which are approved for quality registration and inspection, is published once a year.  The State Administration of Chinese Traditional Medicine, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and State Administration of Import and Export Commodity Inspection makes available the publication annually.  Included in the contents of this publication are the names of production enterprises, varieties of Chinese traditional medicines, specifications, trademarks, quality registration and testing organizations.[7]  Foreign corporations that have business ventures and trades with Chinese traditional medicines must be transacted with those production enterprises, which manufactured the exports with approval for quality registration. 

The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) is the hegemony in decisive matters regarding Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Besides the tedious labor of working out department rules and regulations and supervising their administration, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine formulates the guidelines, policies, laws and regulations for Traditional Chinese Medicine.  At times of disaster, pestilence, and military requirements, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine is able allocate emergency funds and loans.  The organization guides the therapy, nursing, rehabilitation and health care of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  It is also responsible for the integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western medicine and nationality medicine.  The production and trade of all Chinese medicines are under the supervision of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  In a perpetual strategy to intellectually enhance and delegate the knowledge of all Traditional Chinese Medicines, the organization organizes personnel training, scientific research, technology development, and protection of intellectual property rights.  To foster a globally synergistic relationship, the development of international scientific exchange and cooperation receives substantial attention.  The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine is also responsible for the creation of export and import plans of Chinese herbal medicines.[8]

The exponential gain in popularity of Traditional Chinese Medicine is due to word of mouth recommendations by friends and relatives.  The benefits and effects are promoted in the most personal and convincing medium.  Chinese herbal medicines are made available to the public in a wide range of prices.  There are some potions that are expensive, but most can even be found below the price of over the counter drugs, which can validate that Chinese traditional medicines are relatively more affordable.  Consumers of various social statuses can be served and have their needs satisfied.  Traditional Chinese Medicines can be a cheater alternative to the rising price of modern medicine.[9] 

Traditional Chinese Medicine is an emerging global industry.  As an alternative medication that is preferred, it is by no means without the need for regulation, corporate accountability, and responsible management.  The effectiveness of these potent remedies is derived from the essence of the herbs.  Fake herbs and counterfeit extraction medication is a prosperous plague that have caused the death and illness of numerous consumers.  The practitioners and manufacturers of Chinese herbal medicines must receive qualifications against international standardizations.  As in China with its awakening to health security of the present market, the world can only benefit from growing importance and administration of natural medication.

Sources Cited:

1)      http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/china.traditional.medicine.circular.1996/doc

2)      http://www.satcm.gov.cn/english_satcm/zhongyao.htm

3)      http://articles.ibonweb.com/magarticle.asp?num=388

4)      http://www.taotoearth.com/links_laws_asia.html

Aldo Lau

HIS 241 Modern China

April 8, 2004   

The Change of Communism

            The meaning of communism underwent different interpretations through its usage by different leaderships at various time periods.  Before 1949 in China, communism was a cohesive ideology that enticed brotherhood and camaraderie amongst the diverse Chinese population to strengthen itself as a unified nation against external invasions and internal weaknesses.  In the post-1949 Maoist era, communism was a destructive mechanism to subjugate all potential rivals of Mao.  In the subsequent era of Deng, communism is the paradox that is at once both the tool for advancement and constraint for the Communist Party.  Communism in China has been above all else the political philosophy of the then current head of state.  

Before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, communism was a theological force used to unite the people of China against the common threats that endangered its survival as an independent civilization.  China faced both the perils of external conquests and internal maladies.  Communism was the defensive shield in repulsion of foreign imperialism and capitalist exploitations.  Communism was also the remedy to the retrogression of the Chinese sovereign state.  The detailed principals of practical communism were not a significant matter.  The majority of the population remained uneducated about the true meaning of communism.  The masses of Chinese people only knew communism was guiding their civilization in the creation of a new China.  The establishment of a unified Chinese nation for the Chinese people, free of foreign influences and civil warfare, was the coveted dream of every citizen of China.  Any and all sacrifices to achieve this dream under the communist cause were deemed insignificant.  To become a communist was the equivalent of becoming a patriot.  To be a good Communist and Chinese patriot was to bare arms and join the fellow countrymen in the revolutionary struggle. 

After 1949, Mao bore communism as the weaponry of conquest in his political campaigns.  Communism was no longer a belligerent force for the Chinese people to liberate their indigenous soils, but was to become the foundational principals for a systematic government.  Under the leadership of Mao, the Communist Party was able to defeat its enemies in war, but proved fallible in governance.  When the authority of Mao was marginalized as a result of his failures to manage the prosperity of an entire country, Mao altered communism to become his personal arsenal to remonstrate his impotence at public administration.  Communism once promoted the advancement of China in a modern world, but during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, communism propagated mass ignorance and complete Maoist domination of the heart and mind on the collective population.  Communism in post-1949 China was an internal purge of the Party members who are condemned for taking the capitalist road.  The necessity of a pure socialist state was but an excuse for Mao to purge his opponents within the Party and those with questionable loyalties to his cult.  The Maoist era emphasized the strengthening of a cult of Maoism to uproot and convert those without Mao Zedong Thought and absolute loyalty in following his leadership.  Mao demanded blind loyalties from the mass populace, and valued ignorance among his followers to do his exact bidding.  To be a good Communist and Chinese patriot was to worship Mao as the equivalent of a deity. 

Deng interpreted communism as the impregnated force that will give birth to new achievements for China, yet simultaneously also as the constraint of continuity for the Party.  Communism in the Deng era stresses more on building China to become a modern nation and management for perpetual prosperity.  It is a strategy to emancipate the Chinese minds to achieve the four modernizations of economics, science and technology, and management.  There was an emphasis on freedom of thought, democracy, and pragmatism.  Deng wanted to recover the trust of intellectuals for both the Party and the communist reformations.  Reforms were only to be conducted on the terms of the Party, and it was to be at all times under their direct control.  There were also limitations on the progression of democracy and human rights.  The Communist Party cannot totally and blatantly reject communism because it is the source of legitimacy to govern the Chinese people.  Communism is the present stabilizer between innovations for the future and legitimate mandate to govern since the past.  To be a good Communist and Chinese patriot was to reform the country for tomorrow within the boundaries of the Communist Party.

            Communism is the theological embodiment of a socialist dream, yet it has been a political instrument all throughout Chinese history.  Prior to 1949, communism was used to assemble the mass population of a shattered China to halt the onslaught of aliens, and cure the ailment of the Chinese nation.  In the Maoist era, communism was bent into an assault organ for Mao’s monomaniacal quest to become the supreme authority.  And in the Deng era, communism was a compromise between the Communist Party and the Chinese population with its present reforms.  The interpretations of communism before 1949, in the Maoist era, and in the Deng era, were all manipulated to fulfill the interests of the political authorities of their respective eras. 

Aldo Lau

HIS 241 Modern China

March 25, 2004

Wild Swans: Birthright

            The international bestseller Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang, is a personal reflection of the tumultuous times of twentieth-century China.  Chang attests to the struggles of her family, shared by countless millions of others, in a nostalgic journey back in time.  Accounting for three generations of her family, Chang relives the experiences of her grandmother, her mother, and herself in the formation of modern China.  These three Chinese women were strong characters, yet ordinary nonetheless.  Their epic adventures were vastly different but reflective of their respective time periods and environments.  Her testimonial work of literature provides eyewitness accounts for the economical, social, and political helplessness of the Chinese masses to the turbulence of history.  The intricate web of social relationships and interchanges between characters both reveal the subtle cultural changes unique to Chinese psychology in the whirlwind of time.  Wild Swans is a trilogy that thoroughly explores three generations of family history seized by the environmental and cultural maelstroms that millions of Chinese people faced in a century of incessant upheavals. 

            Chang’s grandmother, Yu-fang (1909-1969), is representative of the Chinese populace who are attached to the dogmatism of traditions and customs.  Her philosophy of life and traditional upbringing augmented a firm homage to the Confucian values.  Yu-fang was born and raised in a time of martial law.  The revolutionary father, Doctor Sun Yat-sen, was dead before his dream of a Republic of China was consolidated.  A unified country was yet to be established after the 1911 revolution, and “the new republican government soon collapsed and the country broke up into fiefs.” (Chang 23)  In order to insure his swift rise in the political echelon, Chang’s great-grandfather used Yu-fang as the bribe and wedded her off as the concubine of a warlord general.  The Chinese had no such notion of love between two affectionate individuals.  “Marriage above all else was seen as a duty, an arrangement between two families.” (Chang 23)  Individuals whom acted upon love without the approval of the two families were ostracized from society, and also tainted their entire lineage with shame and disgrace.  Yu-fang had only one alternative to a mandated marriage to General Xue Zhi-heng: suicide. 

The Chinese civilization was still ignorant of human rights and gender equality.  The inferiority of the female sex was still a common belief.  “Only a son could perpetuate the family name – without him, the family line would stop, which, to the Chinese, amounted to the greatest possible betrayal of one’s ancestors.” (Chang 22)  Yu-fang was a daughter that was unable to perpetual the family name.  She was born with the presumption to become the property of another family after marriage.  Her consent was unnecessary as she was given away to become a concubine.  The subjugation of women was also a prevalent practice.  The ideal figure Yu-fang embodied was not considered essential for a good marriage, “her greatest assets were her bound feet, called in Chinese ‘three-inch golden lilies’ (san-tsun-gin-lian).” (Chang 24)  Bound feet was a desirable practice because it was “suppose to have an erotic effect on men, partly because her vulnerability induced a feeling of protectiveness in the onlooker.” (Chang 24)  It also represented social prestige in the sense that it was unnecessary for the women to labor about, and a life of luxury was affordable within the household.  Chang’s grandmother, along with all the women in China at that time, was treated with regards as a property within the institution of marriage, and also endured the painful abuses to her body in the process of foot-binding.    

Marriage is considered to be a ceremonious event that is to be performed with extravagance in traditional China.  In the following passage, Chang vividly describes the procession of her grandmother’s wedding ceremony:

“On the day of wedding … In front came a procession carrying banners, plaques,

and silk lanterns painted with images of a golden phoenix, the grandest symbol for

a woman.  The wedding ceremony took place in the evening, as was the tradition,

with red lanterns glowing in the dark … Making a lot of noise was considered essential

for a good wedding … My grandmother was splendidly dressed in bright embroidery,

with a red silk veil covering her head and face … visiting all four gates, as a full ritual

demanded, with her expensive wedding gifts displayed on carts and in large wicker

baskets carried behind her.” (Chang 31)

The correct performance of rituals and opportunity to lavish publicly were very important in traditional Chinese culture.  Rituals show filial piety towards the ancestors of the family.  An opulent ceremony reveals the abundance of finances within the household, and also reflects their societal status.  It was only appropriate for a warlord general to supply a good wedding to match his reputation and communal expectations.  The Chinese culture was still foreign to the axiom that the ultimate fortune of a woman was not in a good wedding of huge expenditure, but in a union of two individuals that have discovered the divinity of love.

Yu-fang’s life as a concubine was identical to one of incarceration within a brothel.  The main duties of a concubine were the provision of sexual services and reproduction.  “Wives were not for pleasure – that was what concubines were for.” (Chang 30)  Yu-fang was a virtual prisoner within the Xue household, with all her time spent in leisure.  “Throwing mah-jongg parties was a normal part of life for concubines all over China.  So was smoking opium, which was widely available and was seen as a means of keeping people like her contented – by being doped – and dependent.” (Chang 34)  In the ten years that Chang’s grandmother was married with General Xue, they had been together a total of three times.  The rare union between the two was due to both the ongoing war between the Kuomintang warlord fractions, and her insignificance as a concubine.  Under the brief republican governance of a shattered China, women were still suppressed through gross injustice into an inferior social class.

            Yu-fang finally found her purpose in life with the birth of Bao Qin (b. 1931), Chang’s mother-to-be.  General Xue was soon at his deathbed due to serious illness.  Yu-fang, being born a female and married as a concubine, “had no rights.” (Chang 39)  With an internal struggle for power by the general’s wife and other concubines, Yu-fang feared that her daughter would be stolen from her or worse.  The household of General Xue was no environment to raise her daughter.  In an act of decisive courage, Chang’s grandmother escaped house arrest with her daughter and fled as far as her will carried her.  It is only through a force so innately divine would such an obsequious woman forsake all societal damnations and worries of consequences for such a risky venture.  This force was none other than a mother’s love for her offspring.  General Xue passed away later in the year, but not before he granted Yu-fang her freedom with his final words.  “This, for its time, was exceptionally enlightened, and she could hardly believe her good fortune.” (Chang 42)  The good fortune of Chang’s grandmother continued, as she was able to find true love and remarried later as a wife proper to a Manchu, Doctor Xia.  Yu-fang regarded the successful upbringing of Bao Qin as her greatest achievement in life.  The lifestyle of Yu-fang provides the basis of contrasting tradition with modernity.  All throughout the latter years of her life, she would be unable to find middle ground between her lifelong antagonism for the cultural adage and the Communist values of society. 

            Bao Qin’s childhood is one tainted with multitudinous warfare.  In her early years, Chang’s mother experienced the helplessness of civilians to militant authorities.  Her home village, Jinzhou, and its natives were defenseless against the victimization of various waves of invading forces.  The Japanese, Russians, and Chinese Nationalists, all shared identical and belligerent qualities.  Murder, rape, and plunder were all common and rampant practices among the unfortunate denizens.  The Chinese people were a scattered civilization, without a nation, and ripe for exploitation.  “Twenty years after the republican revolution there was still no unified nation to replace the rule of the emperor, nor, in Manchuria, did the people have much concept of being citizens of something called ‘China.’” (Chang 37)  The ultimate liberators were the Chinese Communists, where their courage, nobility, and egalitarianism were the harbingers of peace and stability to the land.  Bao Qin thought that these unsung heroes were a sight of grandeur and majesty, but their keen adoration of frugality radiated an appearance that “looked poorer and scruffier than beggars.  She was disappointed because she had imagined them as big and handsome, and superhuman.” (Chang 78)  She would later admire the commonness of the communists in contrast to “the casual extravagance of the Kuomintang elite while people were starving to death in the streets.” (Chang 98)  Chang’s mother was soon converted over to the communist cause.  In the performance of her patriotic duty, Bao Qin played the roles of a spy, a communism propagandist, and a valiant soldier.  Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communists were able to unify the country, restore economic stability, and administer a government of order.  The Communist Party was finally able to claim victory in the revolutionary war, and the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949.

The establishment of a communist state meant monumental social changes for the people of China.  After thousands of years of subservience, Mao had emancipated the female sex in the wake of a modern China.  “The new Communist moral code … in a radical departure from the past, enjoined that men and women should be equal.” (Chang 127)  In the tireless labor towards a complete socialist revolution under the vision of Mao, Bao Qin soon found herself attracted to another devout communist, the incorruptible Wang Yu.  After much trails, Chang’s parents were able to join one another in wedlock.  The institution of marriage shifted from its traditional notion of a mutual agreement between two families, to a permitted “talk about love” and view of marriage by the Communist Party and government.  “The Communist Party was the new patriarch” within the family. (Chang 127)  “The Communists were trying to institute a frugal approach to weddings, which had traditionally been the occasion for huge expenditure, far out of proportion to what people could afford.” (Chang 132)  The union of Chang’s mother and father is exemplary of a revolutionary marriage contrasted with the traditional wedding of Chang’s grandmother. 

Chang’s parents dedicated their entire lives and sacrificed selflessly to the creation of an egalitarian China.  Wang Yu was legendary for his strictness and principals as a stout communist.  His philosophy in life was never to abuse his powers deemed in any way inappropriate.  His family and relatives faced equal treatment under his jurisdiction, as would any other unknown civilian.  Chang’s mother “thought bitterly that he always seem to act against her interest and that he did not care whether she lived or died.” (Chang 176)  Bao Qin had lost her first baby in a miscarriage from over exhaustion, and deteriorated her health permanently in an endless trial to prove her ardent communist membership.  It would fortuitous when Bao Qin gave birth to Er-hong/Jung (b. 1952) with her lungs undamaged and did not threaten her life.  Jung Chang grew up herself with her childhood days as one of Mao’s Red Guards.  Chang was a sentinel in blind vindication to the ideologies of Mao.  The following passage describes the adoration and gratitude of the general Chinese populace for Mao’s leadership of China:

“It was under Mao that China became a power to be reckoned with in the world,

and many Chinese stopped feeling ashamed and humiliated at being Chinese, which

meant a tremendous amount to them.  In reality, Mao turned China back to the days

of the Middle Kingdom and … enabled the Chinese to feel great and superior again

 … national pride was so important to the Chinese that much of the population was

genuinely grateful to Mao, and did not find the cult of his personality offensive,

certainly not at first.” (Chang 262) 

Chang was seduced by Mao’s charisma and virulent campaigns to mobilize the masses.  In her years of naivety, Chang believed it to be her mission in life to bring about a world revolution upon the capitalist world.  The masses perceived Mao as their entire world, and Chang was no different as a child.  Bao Qin, Wang Yu and Chang were about to realize how hopelessly optimistic their dream of a golden utopia forthcoming due to the communist revolution was. 

Power corrupted Mao to become a monomaniac for dictatorship.  Mao demanded ignorance and absolute authority.  The Communist Party focused on conformity within societies, where individualism was condemned for its unpredictability.  There was no longer such a concept as a personal or private life.  Life only existed in the context of politics.  Loyalties to Mao and the communist cause were not to be divided or ambiguous.  China was governed through constant suspicion and fear.  It did not take long before Mao and his fraction of the Communist Party demonstrated its inability for economic management.  China was rapidly thrust into an illusional reality of mass production with steel and miracle harvests.  In actuality, only useless chunks of metal were produced and crops were moved constantly from one plot of land to another.  The Great Famine erupted upon the unsuspecting nation, and reduced the Chinese population to mass starvations or cannibalism.  One would sell their own child for food: ‘Daughter for sale for 10 kilos of rice.’ (Chang 97)  In extreme cases, one would even eat their children for sustenance: “Eventually it came out that he had killed his own baby and eaten it.  Hunger had been like an uncontrollable, force driving him to take up the knife.” (Chang 234)  In the aftermath of these national blunders, Mao was marginalized into political seclusion, yet nothing was to prepare the country for the onslaught of his return. 

The Cultural Revolution reflected how China was a mere political playground for Mao.  “The lesson was that Mao’s authority was unchallengeable even though he was clearly in the wrong.” (Chang 229)  In his return to power, Mao provided the mass populace channels to release all their hatred, angers, frustrations, and violent qualities.  The poem “The Four Seasons” by Lei Fend describes best at how fully manipulated minds were during the Cultural Revolution:

            “Like spring, I treat my comrades warmly.

                Like summer, I am full of ardor for my revolutionary work.

                I eliminate my individualism as an autumn gale sweeps away fallen leaves,

And to the class enemy, I am cruel and ruthless like harsh winter.”  (Chang 257)

In Mao’s great purge of his political rivals and usurpation of power, he unleashed an unstoppable force that brought about the fall of Chang’s parents and led to the eventual death of Wang Yu.  In reflection of his life, Chang had these words to say about his father:

            “I thought of my father’s life, his wasted dedication and crushed dreams.  He need

not have died.  Yet his death seemed so inevitable.  There was no place for him in

Mao’s China because he had tried to be an honest man.  He had been betrayed by

something to which he had given his whole life, and the betrayal had destroyed him.”

(Chang 479) 

The death of Mao bought the Cultural Revolution to an end, and with that, brings about a closure to an ignominious chapter in Chinese history.  It is also in this tragedy that inspired the rebirth of another life.  In summary of very own past, Chang reveals her ultimate revelation to the purpose of life:

            “I contemplated my twenty-six years.  I had experienced privilege as well as

denunciation, courage as well as fear, seen kindness and loyalty as well as the

depths of human ugliness.  Amid suffering, ruin, and death, I had above all

known love and the indestructible human capacity to survive and to pursue

happiness.” (Chang 504)  

Chang derives from misfortune the ability to independently think for herself, and strives to take flight in search of her identity.  Writing has been an expressive channel for her since childhood, yet have been suppressed due to external environmental factors.  In pursuit of her birthright, Chang left China to obtain a Ph. D. in linguistics from York University in 1982, the first person from the People’s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British University.  Through her unrelenting search for the truth and academic scholarship, Chang reclaimed her past and immortalized the history of her family with Wild Swans.

Aldo Lau

MGT 341 Comparative Management Systems

March 30, 2004

Managing A Multiethnic Work Force In France

Some of the general cultural and historical differences among these workers that will make it difficult to run a harmonious plant are inclusive of a foreign environment, management inaptness, a multiracial workforce, historical conflict, religious variance, and miscommunications. 

Expansion of operations into the market of France is a change that will have to be managed efficiently.  Headquarters have just acquired a manufacturing facility that makes parts for the French automobile industry.  Top management will have to decide on the type of operations to which the French economy will best accommodate.  An effective and efficient plant takes essence from the compatibility of the strategies implemented, such as whether the operations should be an independent plant with managers and philosophy of the indigenous region, or shall it import management expertise from the human resource of headquarters.  The plant will also encounter innumerable legal and political hurdles unbeknownst to foreign managers in a new business environment.  Such hindrances include the processes to the legal establishment of a plant, accounting methods for profitability and losses, hiring and laying off of employees, salaries, wages, and benefits computations, health and environmental regulations, taxation, and corporate responsibility to the community.  French citizenship and all its associated benefits would have to be applied to employees of the native populations in the past French colonies.  These external variables mentioned above are potential issues that may or may not affect the harmony within the plant and its operations.

French managers have been historically incompetent at properly handling the cultural differences to a work force of myriad backgrounds.  The employees at the newly acquired plant include first- and second-generation immigrants from Vietnam, Algeria, and Morocco, as well as French natives.  Corporate tactics will be rendered obsolete as the workers are employed in a hostile working environment.  The management of the plant will be perceived as no more than illegitimate leaders in an increasingly competitive business environment.  A diverse work force within the plant under bad management will result in an atmosphere of hate, suspicion, and destructive competition.  Segregation of social groups and violent reactions may result from the ignorance and misunderstanding of the general staff of employees.  A remnant history of colonialism and repression will also help to perpetuate the feud between rival fractions. 

A different valuation for cultural ideologies and communication means foster an ambiguous working environment.  The diverse ethnic groups of employees are also from different religious backgrounds, including Roman Catholicism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Islam.  The different religious practices and believes will instigate suspicion upon the staff of the plant.  Religion is also the foundation for interpretation of transmitted messages to make sense in their cultural sense, which allows capacity for confusion and obstruction of cooperative relationships.  Communication would also be a major problem within the plant and the workers.  The workers all speak their distinctive native languages, although all of them are familiar with some French.  The messages of the sender would be subconsciously translated into the receiver’s native language.  The complexity of lingual translations and different conceptualizations for ideas will result in the bewilderment of the employees and a disoriented plant.

Consultation with American managers about coping with and mediating these disruptive differences suggests the outsourcing of management expertise, employment of native professionals in legal and environmental field, internal educational trainings on world cultures, theologies, and languages, standardization of a corporate culture, and provision of readily available means to conflict resolution. 

  The alleviation of chaos within a professional work environment requires strategic leadership that sets standardizations for roles, responsibilities, and ramifications to all employees of the corporate echelon.  It is reasonable and vital to outsource management from a more historically capable region of multiethnic and change managers.  There will also be the need to employ legal and environmental consultants to provide assistance in the fluid flow of operations to profitability within the French market.  It has been predetermined that it would be more cost-effective to retain the full staff of assembly line workers.  There should be a corporate emphasis on creating synergistic cooperation between the various groups of employees.  In the alteration of labor hours, the plant will incubate a friendly atmosphere of tolerance, understanding, and constructive professional relationship building.  Trainings on world cultures, theologies, and languages will enlighten the perspectives of all the workers within the plant.  Education on world knowledge will also help to set the basis for standardized communication.  Out-of-work social activities sponsored and encouraged by the corporation will allow opportunities for teamwork and trust to evolve and applied back to the efficient operations of the plant assembly line.  Lastly, counselors will be accessible for problem shooting and resolution of any conflicts of interest that arise between different groups of employees.  This new conglomerate of changes imposed within the infrastructure of the plant will establish a new corporate culture.  The alignment of corporate and employee interests, along with the synthesis of differences between the workers, ensures the effective and efficient business operations of a harmonious plant.

There are similarities and differences between this situation and that found in American plants that employ workers from diverse cultural and ethnic groups.  The problematic kinks are generally identical.  Such international issues include the quality of management, lack of expertise within the market environment, disparity in a multiethnic work force regarding social status, economic gaps, and ignorance of world citizenry.  It is the actual history of these predicaments that provide their distinctness.  In the plant work force, the employees have citizens who were the actual victims or descendants of French colonialism, and the descendant or actual colonizers.  In the United States of America, the children of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants may well have to work with those immigrants their ancestors once exploited in the past.  Examples are the African-Americans, where they are the descendants of those enslaved before the Civil War, and the Japanese-Americans, where they may have experienced the injustice of being interned into concentration camps.  The essential demands to operate an effective and efficient business are identical.  The ability to adapt to the details within the situational cultures and environments are the key determinants of success and failure for any business venture.  

Aldo Lau

MGT 341 Comparative Management Systems

March 27, 2004

The Economic Environment Comparison Between Germany & Japan

            Germany and Japan are two of the most industrially and technologically advanced economies of the world.  After its unification of the West and the East in 1990, Germany is currently the largest economy and most populous nation in Europe.  Germany has a gross national product purchasing power parity of $2.16 trillion, and has a total population of approximately 83.4 million at which 41.9 million are representative of its labor force.  Japan has rapidly become the worldfs 2^nd most technologically powerful economy only behind the United States of America, and the worldfs 3^rd largest economy after the United States of America and the Peoplefs Republic of China.  Japan has a gross national power purchasing parity of $3.651 trillion, and a total population of approximately 127.2 million at which 67.7 million are representative of its labor force. 

The subsidiaries of the IBM Corporation in the German and Japanese markets have similar economic conditions.  Germany and Japan both suffered economic devastation after their defeat in World War II, but in the latter half of the past century both have been focused on strategically revamping their economies and rapid reconstruction of the prosperity of their nations.  The fiscal management of both countries has been allocated on the basis of advancement towards the technology and industry sectors, with an effective decreased emphasis on military expenditures.  Germany has been spending $70 billion annually to help the ex-communist nation, East Germany, catch up to the economic progress shown in West Germany after its unification into a single sovereignty.  Germany is trying to bridge the wealth gap between the opulent West and the destitute East, and foster a synergistic cooperation that will enrich their citizens in its entirely in the future.  Germany has a military expenditure of only 1.38% of its total gross domestic product.  Japan has also recorded a military defense expenditure of 1% of its total gross domestic product, comparably little with other nations across the globe.  Germany and Japan have both shown remarkable success in rebuilding their economies to be the powerhouses of modern day. 

The affluent economies of Germany and Japan are both mature and are suffering sluggish growth in recent times.  The performance of the German economy in much of the 1990s and early 2000s has been weak.  Its entrance into the European Union and global competition has also added complexity into the German market, hampering its effectiveness in establishing readily available integration strategies for synergistic relationships between corporate cultures from around the world.  The Japanese economy has recently been climbing out of its recession, but the intricate restructuring of its ineffective banking systems and regulations, augmented with the slowing economies of the United States of America, Europe, and Asia, have both impeded on the potential progress of its economic recovery.  The real growth rates of both the German and Japanese gross domestic product are 0.2%.  The German and Japanese governments will have to collaborate with corporate leaders to implement cooperative strategies to rid their economies of internal strife and become more competitive in an increasingly global business market.

  Germany and Japan has similar economic structures, but dissimilar monetary policies.  January 1, 2002, was the deadline where Germany along with another 11 other European Union countries implemented the Euro as the common European currency in circulation, and sought to phase out the myriad indigenous currencies that was to become obsolete.  The European market suddenly became more easily comparable in terms of monetary transactions and financial valuations.  The Yen is the national currency of Japan that is used in financial transactions.  The valuation of currencies of both nations along with the Dollar of the United States of America has undergone wide fluctuations of appreciation and depreciation as of late, adding on more complications to the international business community.  The per capita income of Germany is $26,200.  Japan has the higher per capita income of $28,700.  The gross domestic product of Germany is composed of 1% agriculture, 31% industry, and 68% services sectors of the economy.  The Japanese gross domestic product is composed of 1.4% agriculture, 30.9% industry, and 67.7% services sectors of the economy.  Germany and Japan both do not have available their information on population below poverty line.  The Euro has an inflation rate of 1.3%, while the Yen has been deflating at the rate of 0.9%.   The interest rates of both countries are also not available information.  The economic components of both nations are identical, while their currencies are fluctuating in opposite directions. 

The governments of Germany and Japan struggle against comparable social dissatisfaction with ineffective policies and regulations for their economies.  The subsidies of IBM Corporation should consider Germanyfs strict regulations for laying off workers and the setting of wages on a national basis.  Germany has a high unemployment rate of 9.8% of its total German population, while the Japanese has an average unemployment rate of 5.4% of its total population.  The external debts of both nations are information that is not available, but both countries have shown ineffective fiscal management in their internal bodies of governance.  For the fiscal year of 2002, Germany recorded their revenue as $802 billion, while its expenses were $825 billion.  The German state is running into a government deficit to strengthen their national infrastructures and also the modernization of East Germany.  The German deficit has dangerously risen above the 3% debt limit standardized by the European Union.  The Japanese has a huge government deficit of 150% of its gross domestic product.  Germany and Japan must provide effective management to the dynamic changes from their respective international business environments, and ensure the continued growth and success of these two affluent global economies.