Human Development in China

China is a country which has grown strong and powerful by favoring the growth and expansion of large scale businesses when medium to small size private enterprises are being left to struggle on their own.

On the development of human resources, there is evidently a gigantic gap to patch up if the international standard is targeted.

Everywhere we go, we can see the hardware readiness of China. Take a closer took, we realize that the software is not actually in place.

Very often, we can see a marvelous office building with an exterior that looks modern and up-class. Alas! If you go inside and look around you may be greeted with office employees walking around between the office premises and the washrooms with their lunch canteens. The sight is not expected in an up-class office building say in Hong Kong SAR.

The people operating in an international city are expected to observe certain conventions. Yet we find the bigger cities infested by low quality migrants. They outnumber those in the higher quality brackets and thus drag down the image of the city.

Whilst businesses are hiring college graduates from the smaller cities or remote provinces as the latter are trying their luck away from their hometown, we see the offices filled up with manpower which have received none or only rudimentary training for what they are being hired for.

With few exceptions, businesses are not paying much attention to on-the-job training for the employee. There is certainly a reason employers are unwilling to divert resources to training. Employees are found to be job-hopping once they think they know how to get by and for only a marginal rise in salary. The smarter employees are eager to try their own luck running their own show once they have learnt the ropes in the business.

One other major issue is the guan xi (关系) or relationship upon which Chinese people are conducting themselves as a race. Unfairness is created by the operation of guan xi. Your success in your career pursuit or a business venture is hinged to your strength in guan xi. Those without good guan xi may work and struggle very hard but can be getting nowhere. The weaker minded ones will soon surrender and lack any drive to upgrade themselves. Investment by this group on self improvement and work skills are considered unworthy.

These underlying factors explain why employers are reluctant to invest on human development.