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here between young and old, employees of small and large firms or between those of different skills.7
Respondents' Attitude Towards Collectivism and View on The Relationship
8 between Management and Men.
9
The workers in the sample showed themselves to be collectively minded
to a high degree. Ninety two of them felt that a group of men working
together would suceed better than a man relying on his own hard work
and diligence; 95 felt that a man should help a fellow worker in trouble
instead of minding his own business; and 73 would tackle their supervisor
about a complaint together with their fellow workers rather than tackling
him on their own. Also the respondents showed that they were prepared
to take action about grievances (76) and not simply leave and find a
job elsewhere. This is contrary to the views put forward by England
and Rear who claimed that Hong Kong workers typically chose the
individual action of leaving rather than undertake any collective one.
Again contrary to the views put forward by England and Rear amongst others,
the overwhelming majority of the respondents (91) would turn to fellow
workers for help when in trouble rather than their family.
10
12
11
There was some indication, however, that the Chinese phenomenon of "face"
13
did affect the workers' behaviour. Over half the respondents (54)
felt that they would rather not confront their boss themselves and
preferred a supervisor or a respected worker to ask for some improvement
on their behalf. Again it is remarkable that 21 of the respondents
would choose not to ask for help from others in the rather extreme
situation described by question 36 where their children were hungry, etc.
While no sub-group was particularly reluctant to ask for help, there
were some differences between the groups in desire to avoid confrontation.
Employees of small firms were much less hesitant about putting their own
case (70% would here compare to 22% in large firms), young men were
also less hesitant (65% of younger men would, compared to 39% of older
42% of younger women and 33% of older women) as were skilled
members (62% of skilled workers would, compared to 44% of semi-skilled
and 35% of unskilled).
men,
The workers in the sample had high expectations of employer paternalism;
93 respondents felt that an employer should look after the interests of
his workers. However, although the respondents, as we have previously
seen were satisfied with their own particular employer, they tended to
feel that the employers of most firms were only interested in getting as
14