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our buyers and supervises the clerks who make arrangements for shipping and insurance. He is also responsible for the clerk who takes care of all export documentation.”
The existence of tight supervision came out during my conversations with executives. A sales representative of the parent company of Mill 18 told me:
“You are seldom given real responsibility, especially in the signing of documents. All documents and letters in our factory have to be signed and approved by the Manager, though you may have drafted them. You cannot sign them for the company.”
Such a defensive strategy is obviously self-defeating. It will only complete a vicious circle of low morale on the part of the employees and mediocre performance for the company. A few of the more far-sighted spinners used patronage to foster loyalty in the subordinates. This method can be illustrated in the case of Mill 24, founded by the late Mr. Zhao [pseudonym]. I interviewed the manager who had worked in the company since 1946, just one year after his graduation from St. John’s University in Shanghai. The following was the reason for his long service:
Q: Looking back on your career, what would you say is the most significant event/personality that had influenced you greatly?
A: The late owner of our company, Mr. Zhao. He was the one who invited me to work for him. We knew each other in 1942 when he gave me a scholarship to study in the university. While I was studying, we met about once a month to discuss my progress.
Later in the same interview, the manager said that he would have chosen to be a small owner if given the chance. The same mill adopted the unprecedented policy in the 1950s to open a secondary school of its own. Part of its aim was of course for manpower training. But it might also reflect Mr. Zhao’s attempt to make himself the benefactor of his future workers. But the effectiveness of this approach is limited. The patron-client relation can serve its purpose in the lifetime of the entrepreneur. But since the subordinate’s loyalty is to the person and not to the company,
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our buyers and supervises the clerks who make arrangements for shipping and insurance. He is also responsible for the clerk who takes care of all export documentation.”
The existence of tight supervision came out during my conversations with executives. A sales representative of the parent company of Mill 18 told me:
+
you are seldom given real responsibility, especially All documents and letters in
in the signing of documents.
our factory have to be signed and approved by the Manager, though you may have drafted them. You cannot sign them for the company.'
Such a defensive strategy is obviously self-defeating. It will only complete a vicious circle of low morale on the part of the employces and mediocre performance for the company. A few of the more far-sighted spinners used patronage to foster loyalty in the subordinates. This method can be illustrated in the case of Mill 24, founded by the late Mr. Zhao [pseudonym]. I interviewed the manager who had worked in the company since 1946, just one year after his graduation from St. John's University in Shanghai. The following was the reason for his long service:
Q: Looking back on your career, what would you say is the most significant event/personality that had influenced you greatly?
A: The late owner of our company, Mr. Zhao. He was the one who invited me to work for him. We knew each other in 1942 when he gave me a scholarship to study in the university. While I was studying, we met about once a month to discuss my progress.
Later in the same interview, the manager said that he would have chosen to be a small owner if given the chance. The same mill adopted the unprecedented policy in the 1950s to open a secondary school of its own. Part of its aim was of course for manpower training. But it might also reflect Mr. Zhao's attempt to make himself the benefactor of his future workers. But the effectiveness of this approach is limited. The patron-client relation can serve its purpose in the life time of the entrepreneur. But since the subordinate's loyalty is to the person and not to the company,
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