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Peaceful and Sustainable Development? Middle-Management Entrepreneurship and Transnational Competence in China

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Abstract

With deeper integration into the global economy and expanded penetration by multinational firms and other nonChinese actors following accession to the WTO, skills in bureaucratic entrepreneurship are not likely to be sufficient by themselves to bring about China’s sustainable development. In today’s interdependent and highly competitive trade, economic-cooperation, and resource-limited environment, sustainable development requires that subnational managers also possess transnational competence in collaborating with, negotiating with, and transforming foreign counterparts. However, survey research among Chinese executives based in Shanghai revealed that only a small proportion of the reporting current and future managers recognized the growing importance for China of an interculturally competent workforce. Without increased attention to enhancing the transnational competence of government and state-enterprise managers, peaceful and ecologically sound development will be difficult to sustain given the demands of multinational production chains, global resource constraints, and the challenges involved in managing transnational relations in the interest of China’s long-term economic progress.

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Notes

  1. For example, see Dave Ernsberger, “The Future of East Asian Security: A Introduction,” East Asia: An International Quarterly 23, No. 3 (Fall 2006), 46–48; Kent E. Calder, “Coping with Energy Insecurity: China’s Response in Global Perspective,” East Asia: An International Quarterly 23, No. 3 (Fall 2006), 49–66.

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  4. People’s Daily Online, english.people.com.cn/200512/22.html

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  13. The PRC ranked 133 out of 146 countries on the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI). See Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Yale University, and Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, 2005 Environmental Sustainable Index: Benchmarking National Environmental Stewardship. http://beta.sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/es/esi

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  22. David Zweig, Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), pp. 17 [emphasis added], 274. Also see Kin-man Chan, “The Political Implications of the Rise of Entrepreneurial Class in China” (paper presented at the State of Contemporary China Conference, Universities Service Centre for China Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 6–7 January 2004).

  23. Zheng Yongnian, De Facto Federalism in China: Reforms and Dynamics of Central-Local Relations (London: World Scientific, 2006), pp. xviii, 331–332.

  24. Mary E. Gallagher, Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), pp. 1–2.

  25. Peter H. Koehn and James N. Rosenau, “Transnational Competence in an Emergent Epoch,” International Studies Perspectives 3 (May 2002), 105–127.

  26. See, for instance, Peter H. Koehn, “Health-care Outcomes in Ethnoculturally Discordant Medical Encounters: The Role of Physician Transnational Competence in Consultations with Asylum Seekers,” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 8, No. 2 (April 2006), 137–147.

  27. Peter H. Koehn, “Globalization, Migration Health, and Educational Preparation for Transnational Medical Encounters,” Globalization and Health 2, No. 2 (30 January 2006), 1–43; Peter H. Koehn and Herbert Swick, “Medical Education for a Changing World: Moving Beyond Cultural Competence into Transnational Competence,” Academic Medicine 81, No. 6 (June 2006), 548–556.

  28. Peter H. Koehn, “Cross-national Competence and U.S.-Asia Interdependence: The Explosion of Trans-Pacific Civil-society Networks,” in Julian Weiss (ed.), Tigers’ Roar: Asia’s Recovery and Its Impact on the Global Economy (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2001), pp. 227–235; Nancy J. Adler and Nakiye Boyacigiller, “Global Management in the 21st Century,” in Betty J. Punnet and Oded Shenkar (eds.), Handbook for International Management Research (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 551.

  29. Kris Olds and Henry Wai-cheung Yeung, “(Re)Shaping `Chinese’ Business Networks in a Globalising Era,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 17, No. 5 (1999), 537.

  30. See Cheong Ching and Hung Yee Ching, Handbook on China’s WTO Accession and Its Impacts (London: World Scientific, 2003), p. 344.

  31. Terence Jackson, International HRM: A Cross-cultural Approach (London: Sage, 2002), p. 76.

  32. David Barboza, “Some Assembly Needed: China as Asia Factory,” New York Times, 9 February 2006, pp. C1, C7; Nicholas R. Lardy, Integrating China into the Global Economy (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2002), pp. 20–21.

  33. See Kahn, “China,” pp. A1, A6; Calder, “Coping with Energy Insecurity,” 55.

  34. Ernest Harsch, “Big Leap in China-Africa Ties: Beijing Offers Continent More Aid, Trade and Business,” Africa Renewal (January 2007), 22.

  35. Harsch, “Big Leap,” 3.

  36. Hale, “China’s Growing Appetites,” 140–143; Robert Ash, “China and Regional Natural Economic Territories (NETs)” (paper presented at the State of Contemporary China Conference, Universities Service Centre for China Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 6–7 January 2004); Alexei Barrionuevo, “To Fortify China, Soybean Harvest Grows in Brazil,” New York Times, 6 April 2007, p. A1.

  37. Hale, “China’s Growing Appetites,” 146.

  38. Gordon C.K. Cheung, Market Liberalism: American Foreign Policy toward China (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1998), p. 132.

  39. Substantial external funding for sustainable development in China has been provided by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Global Environmental Facility, and the United Nations Development Programme. Cann, et al., “China’s Road to Sustainable Development,” pp. 13–14; Gareth Porter, Shi Han, and Zhao Shidong, Energy and Environment Outcome Evaluation: UNDP China (Beijing: UNDP China, 21 May 2003). On the involvement of international NGOs in addressing sustainable-energy issues in China, see Peter H. Koehn, “Sustainable-development Frontiers and Divides: Transnational Actors and U.S./China Greenhouse-gas Emissions,” International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 11, No. 4 (2004), 380–396.

  40. Zweig, Internationalizing China, 251–253; David Zweig, “Redefining China’s Brain Drain: `Wei Guo Fuwu’ and the ‘Diaspora Option’” (paper presented at the State of Contemporary China Conference, Universities Service Centre for China Studies, 6–7 January 2004); Olds and Yeung, “‘Chinese’ Business Networks,” 538, 543–544; Barboza, “Some Assembly Needed,” p. C7.

  41. Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), pp. 188–189.

  42. Ching and Ching, Handbook on China’s WTO Accession, p. 23.

  43. Abanti Bhattacharya, “Revisiting China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’: Implications for India,” East Asia 22, No. 4 (Winter 2005), 59–80; Kahn, “Shy Giant,” p. A6.

  44. Africa Renewal, October 2006, p. 23.

  45. Hale, “China’s Growing Appetites,” 137, 146.

  46. United Nations, Unlocking the Human Potential for Public Sector Performance, World Public Sector Report (New York: United Nations, 2005).

  47. See, for instance, Ching and Ching, Handbook on China’s WTO Accession, pp. 314–317, 344; Lardy, Integrating China.

  48. See Adler and Boyacigiller, “Global Management,” pp. 549–551; Nancy J. Adler and Susan Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” Academy of Management Executive 6, No. 3 (1992), 53, 57; J. Stewart Black, Allen J. Morrison, and Hal B. Gregersen, Global Explorers: The Next Generation of Leaders (New York: Routledge, 1999).

  49. Adler and Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” 57.

  50. Jackson, International HRM, p. 173.

  51. Cann, et al., “China’s Road to Sustainable Development,” p. 4; Ching and Ching, Handbook on China’s WTO Accession.

  52. Jackson, International HRM, p. 224.

  53. Rajib N. Sanyal and Turgut Guvenli, “Relations between Multinational Firms and Host Governments: The Experience of American-owned Firms in China,” International Business Review 9 (2000), 120, 122; Gregory C. Chow, China’s Economic Transformation (Malden: Blackwell, 2002), p. 278; Tang and Ward, Chinese Management, p. 56.

  54. Yue-man Yeung and Xu-wei Hu, “Conclusion and Synthesis,” in Yue-man Yeung and Xu-wei Hu (eds.), China’s Coastal Cities: Catalysts for Modernization (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992), p. 318; Ka-iu Fung, Zhong-min Yan, and Yue-min Ning, “Shanghai: China’s World City,” in Yue-man Yeung and Xu-wei Hu (eds.), China’s Coastal Cities: Catalysts for Modernization (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992), pp. 124, 133.

  55. Zhao, “Human Resource Management in China,” p. 5.

  56. Xiao-huang Yin, “Hong Kong: An Economic Flu,” Los Angeles Times, 3 August 2003, p. M3.

  57. Methodological details can be found in Peter H. Koehn, “Subnational Managerial Transformation and the Post-WTO-Accession Business Environment in China: Shanghai Perspectives,” Thunderbird International Business Review 47, No. 6 (November-December 2005), 674–675. This study generated a rich data base. Although follow-up investigations involving current managers would be interesting, the findings reported here provide suggestive insights regarding the orientations and skills of contemporary subnational executives in urban China. Other studies of China’s middle managers and entrepreneurs have not investigated their transnational or intercultural competence. For instance, see Chan Kin-man, “The Political Implications of the Rise of Entrepreneurial Class in China” (paper presented at the State of Contemporary China Conference, Universities Service Centre for China Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 6–7 January 2004).

  58. See Peter H. Koehn, “Reformist Orientations among Middle Managers in China: The Case of Shanghai,” in Ali Farazamand (ed.), Administrative Reform in Developing Countries (Westport: Praeger, 2002), pp. 105–121; Peter H. Koehn, “The Shanghai Outlook on WTO: Local Bureaucrats and Accession-related Reforms,” Pacific Affairs 75, No. 3 (Fall 2002), 399–417. Also see White, Howell, and Shang, Civil Society, p. 191.

  59. Brenda Zhen Huang, “China and the WTO: Towards Accession,” New Zealand International Review 25, No. 3 (May 2000), 14; also see Zweig, Internationalizing China, pp. 31, 272; Margaret M. Pearson, “The Case of China’s Accession to GATT/WTO,” in David M. Lampton (ed.), The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978–2000 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), pp. 360–361; Joseph Kahn, “China Moving to Approve Law that Protects Private Property,” New York Times, 16 March 2007, p. A11.

  60. David Zweig, “China’s Stalled ‘Fifth Wave’: Zhu Rongji’s Reform Package of 1998–2000,” Asian Survey 41, No. 2 (March/April 2001), 246, 242.

  61. Only 6 of 419 respondents (1.4%) felt that environmental degradation was not an important problem for China. The remaining 6% chose the “neither important/not important” response.

  62. Only 5% felt that the depletion of natural resources was not important.

  63. Thirteen per cent viewed the acquisition of nonrenewable resources as unimportant; the remaining 41% rated this issue as neither important nor unimportant.

  64. Also see Shuming Zhao, “Human Resource Management in China,” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 32, No. 2 (1994), 11.

  65. Researchers in this study used the terminology “intercultural” competence. The terms “intercultural” and “transnational” are used interchangeably in the analysis presented here.

  66. Phyllis Bo-yuen Ngai and Peter H. Koehn “Cross-cultural Management: The Pitfalls of Unspoken Signals,” World Executive’s Digest (January 1998), 49–50.

  67. However, the younger group were considerably more likely than the older managers were to agree that training in intercultural communication and negotiation was important for overcoming the performance constraints facing the organization that they worked for (43% and 27%, respectively).

  68. Henry M. Levin, “Accelerated Education for an Accelerating Economy” (Wei Lun lecture presented at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 26 September 1997), p. 5. Older managers received an education during the Cultural Revolution, when “schooling in China was in disarray.” Jin Xiao and Leslie Nai K. Lo, “Human Capital Development in Shanghai: Lessons and Prospects,” International Journal of Educational Development 23 (2003), 417. As late as 1998–1999, China allocated only 2.2% of its GDP to education. Cann, et al., “China’s Road to Sustainable Development,” p. 25. Today, urban schools across China strive “to prepare young people to be able to function in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.” Vivien Stewart, “A World Transformed: How Other Countries Are Preparing Students for the Interconnected World of the 21st Century,” Phi Delta Kappan, 87, No. 3 (November 2005), 231. Universities also are offering a higher percentage of courses in English and striving to develop skilled graduates who will enhance China’s global competitiveness. Kinglun Ngok, “Globalization and Higer Education Reform in China,” in Nicholas Sun-keung Pang (editor), Globalization Educational Research, Change and Reform (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2006), pp. 74–75, 88–89.

  69. The State Council’s 2005 White paper on China’s Peaceful Development Road also fails to recognize the importance of transnational interpersonal interactions in the development of China’s human resources. People’s Daily Online, english.people.com.cn/200512/22.html

  70. Adler and Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” 56; Jackson, International HRM, p. 59.

  71. On the growth of wholly foreign-owned enterprises, see Gallagher, Contagious Capitalism, p. 43.

  72. Study participants who reported intermediate or advanced English-language ability also were more likely than those with minimal or no English ability to possess aspirations for careers with foreign-origin organizations (28% versus 21%).

  73. Adler and Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” 53–54, 56; Nakiye A. Boyacigiller, M. Jill Kleinberg, Margaret E. Phillips, and Sonja A. Sackmann, “Conceptualizing Culture,” in Betty J. Punnet and Oded Shenkar (eds.), Handbook for International Management Research (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), pp. 181–182.

  74. Fortunately for the PRC, transnationally competent overseas Mainlanders and reverse migrants also are advancing China’s sustainable-development pathway. See Koehn, “Nongovernmental Pathways to Consumption Changes,” 377–413; David Zweig, Wilfried Vanhonacker, Chung Siu Fung, and Stanley Rosen, “Reverse Migration and Regional Integration: Entrepreneurs and Scientists in the PRC” (paper for the conference Remaking Economic Strengths in East Asia: Dealing with the Repercussions of Increased Interdependence, University of California, Berkeley, 8–9 April 2005), pp. 5–7, 23, 27; Peter H. Koehn, “Greasing the Grassroots: The Role of Nongovernmental Linkages in the Looming Confrontation over Global Petroleum Reserves,” in Peter H. Koehn and Joseph Y.S. Cheng (eds.), The Outlook for U.S.-China Relations Following the 1997–1998 Summits (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1999), pp. 351–390. The list of sponsors of the 1999 International Symposium on 21st Century China and the Challenge of Sustainable Development included “the Union of Chinese-American Professional Organizations; the Association of Chinese Professors of Social Sciences in the United States; Chinese Historians in the United States; Association of Chinese Scientists and Engineers - USA; Sino-Ecologists Overseas Club; and the Sino-American Pharmacy Association.” Norton Wheeler, “A Civic Trend within Ethnic Transnationalism? Some Insights from Classical Social Theory and the Chinese American Experience,” Global Networks 4, No. 4 (2004), 397.

  75. Adler and Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” 55.

  76. Adler and Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” 55.

  77. On the explosive growth of registered and unregistered voluntary associations in China, see Shaoguang Wang and Jiangu He, “Associational Revolution in China: Mapping the Landscapes,” Korea Observer 35, No. 3 (Autumn 2004), 55–56.

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    Peter H. Koehn

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Koehn, P.H. Peaceful and Sustainable Development? Middle-Management Entrepreneurship and Transnational Competence in China. East Asia 24, 251–263 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-007-9017-9

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