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50 workers and only 0.3% had 500 workers or more at that time. Lastly, these mills were among the most highly mechanized factories in Hong Kong. In the 1970's, the spindle to worker ratio in this industry had exceeded 40.
Most of the data on the cotton spinners were obtained by face-to-face interviews. I attempted to interview two directors—the chief executive who held the title of chairman or managing director, and the director with the second largest share-holding as shown in the company records from each of the thirty-two mills. Forty interviews were completed and twenty-three mills were covered.
'Forced choice' questionnaire items were used to assess the business attitudes of my respondents. Some of these items were developed by Nichols in his study of British businessmen (1969). I borrowed them for comparative purposes. As Nichols has restricted his attention to just one aspect of business ideology, namely the businessman's conception of social responsibility, I have added other items to cover a broader range of themes. This forced choice method differs from two other major approaches in the study of business ideology. The research of Bendix represents the historical, cross-cultural approach (1954; 1956; 1959). It is legitimate for him to eschew the use of questionnaires as he is primarily concerned with what Karl Mannheim calls the 'total conception of ideology' (1936: 49-53). He wants to assess the ethos of an entire age and society with special reference to the authority relationship between employers and workers. The stress is on the ideology about industrial activities, not the ideology of industrialists. He considers the ideas of theorists who were not businessmen themselves as he is concerned with broad ideological drifts, not individual or group beliefs. The second approach, which may be called an elitist approach (Sutton et al. 1956; Heilbroner, 1964; Christ, 1970; Seider, 1974), is closer to the forced choice method in that both are dealing with 'particular conceptions of ideology' or the attitudes of a specific sector in society. Beyond this similarity, however, the elitist approach has its focus on the public statements of prominent businessmen. The contents of the speeches or writings of the 'industrial statesmen' are analysed with various degrees of rigour. Such a focus has
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50 workers and only 0.3% had 500 workers or more at that time. Lastly, these mills were among the most highly mechanized factories in Hong Kong. In the 1970's, the spindle to worker ratio in this industry had exceeded 40.
Most of the data on the cotton spinners were obtained by face-to-face interviews. I attempted to interview two directors the chief executive who held the title of chaimman or managing director, and the director with the second largest share-holding as shown in the company records from each of the thirty-two mills. Forty interviews were completed and twenty-three mills were covered.
'Forced choice' questionnaire items were used to assess the business attitudes of my respondents. Some of these items were developed by Nichols in his study of British businessmen, (1969). I borrowed them for comparative purposes. As Nichols has restricted his attention to just one aspect of business ideology, namely the businessman's conception of social responsibility, I have added other items to cover a broader range of themes. This forced choice method differs from two other major approaches in the study of business ideology. The research of Bendix represents the historical, cross-cultural approach, (1954; 1956; 1959). It is legitimate for him to eschew the use of questionnaires as he is primarily concerned with what Karl Mannheim calls the 'total conception of ideology'. (1936: 49-53) He wants to assess the ethos of an entire age and society with special reference to the authority relationship between employers and workers. The stress is on the ideology about industrial activities, not the ideology of industrialists. He considers the ideas of theorists who were not businessmen themselves as he is concerned with broad ideological drifts, not individual or group beliefs. The second approach, which may be called an elitist approach (Sutton et. al. 1956; Heilbroner, 1964; Christ, 1970; Seider, 1974), is closer to the forced choice method in that both are dealing with 'particular conceptions of ideology' or the attitudes of a specific sector in society. Beyond this similarity, however, the elitist approach has its focus on the public statements of prominent businessmen. The contents of the speeches or writings of the industrial statesmen' are analysed with various degrees of rigour. Such a focus has
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