Work Culture Difference in the UK and China - Case Study Example

Running head: DIFFERENCE IN WORKING HOURS: UK AND CHINA Student name: Student number: Course title: Lecturer: Date: Abstract There is an increase in the difference of work culture that is seen in different countries. This has affected the working hours in the various nations. In the recent past, there has been a major point of concern in the culture of working for long, which is seen in certain segments of the labor market. This phenomenon has been seen in the staff, professionals and the management. There are impacts that can be attributed from this. There are potential causes that can be attributed to such culture. They can be attributed to the culture of a particular country. The culture of a nation also has some potential effect on this. This paper will look at the impact of the culture difference that is found in two countries, UK and China. Close emphasis will be based on the working hours and the holidays that are taken and how these differences are affecting the multination corporations Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 China, UK enterprise culture 4 Influence in the local community 5 China’s welfare provision as well as the United Kingdom 6 Implications of working hours in China 6 Implications of working hours in UK 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Just as the United Kingdom laws, Chinese have adopted the rule of proper working hours for their employees. The termed hours are supposed to be 8 hours and if there is an extension, employees are entitled to remuneration for the extra working hours. Since many work places have some very tight schedules during the working days, the employer is advised to allow them a flexible time for leisure and their families. People of the same organization are not permitted to keeping personnel information of every employee; therefore, they are not allowed to access the any employee’s information for fraudulent activities. Working hours are used to describe the duration of time in which worker get involved in production as described by the laws and regulation, which is inclusive of the daily working hours, the weekly working hours, normal working hours, shortened working hours and the extended. Different countries tend to have different working hours depending on the country's economy and culture. For example, countries such as China and Japan have a 24-hour working economy, which in effect makes the working population work on a 24-hour basis. These working schedules have had different implications on the cultures of people in different countries. Later on in this context, we are going to focus our attention on the implications of working hours in the cultures in China and the United Kingdom China, UK enterprise culture The qualities of an enterprise culture are indicated by the discipline instituted, efficiency, caring approach, reward of excellence and quality. The expounded main values and one’s duty is being excellent while working with people, some bit of honesty and incorporating harmony. The culture is supposed to institute good rewards that can be used to motivate employees by defining it main goals of the organization. The goals can only be achieved by brainstorming one another is ides in the organization hence allowing members of the team to participate in decision-making and thus implementing any planned activities of the organization. The culture of china and UK has instituted new training methods where by learning of organizational basic courses have been suggested as a way of instituting more knowledge to the employees’ benefits and their development. This provides a very important platform for even those employees that come from rural areas. This provides them with knowledge on how to provide quality services and have the desired etiquettes. The reason as to why organizations conduct various training and team building is to engage its employees in socializing, since they all emerge from different regions and from distinct traditions. Employees are gathered together in order to know each other since they have leave in the same workplace while working together in the same organization. This also creates room for resolving any conflicts that arises at the work place. Influence in the local community Most organizations are very large and indigenous, hence their positions are always high occupying in the local areas. Their main responsibility is to conduct very high job activities and events that need to be sponsored. For quite a number of years, their activities have been established while considering them being modern and elaborate thus categorized in the models enterprise. The government officials make sure that they pay them a visit occasionally together with municipal government officials. The local culture in china and UK adopts various measures that are mainly used to familiarize with their management techniques the layouts of the offices that have been adopted. This culture adopted in UK and china is used many of the times by various managers of the organizations and other types of companies hence emerging as role models to motivate various individuals of the organizations. Their main purpose is to lead and direct its subordinates and encourage them in conducting of their activities. China’s welfare provision as well as the United Kingdom Many of the work places in different organizations, employees are provided with a wider provision of workplace welfare. As seen in china, most of these provisions are provided in the public companies rather than what can be offered by entrepreneurs and private companies. It is widely known that various workers come from different places that might be within ones country or from another country (Simon, 2006). The major responsibility of the managers in companies is to create an enabling environment that provides comfort and security for each employee. As stated, they are supposed to develop “home like” area for the members for them to fee as they belong to the company but not being used by the company. This is to show them love since most of them leave far apart from their families. Implications of working hours in China The Chinese have a 24-hour working system this implies that the working population is involved in production on a 24-hour basis. Due to the 24 hour, work schedule basis China has adopted a shift system whereby the working population work for specified durations of time. A majority of people often work in shifts of twelve hours or more than 12 hours. It is important to note that china the highest population in the world with over 1.3 billion people. The Chinese tend to be a hard-working nation, in this case, the Chinese tend to work for long hours and therefore the working population tends to have long working shifts (Borjman, and Lu, 1999). The long shifts have had negative implications on the social lives of the Chinese population. The population tends to be a 'working nation' and therefore there is little time for their social lives. However, with the high population, the Chinese working seems to step in the place of the people resting at working. With the Chinese working shift system, the country's economy is not affected as the population in China is considered as among the highest in the world. Because of this fact, the working population steps in the place of the people that are resting away from work at any given time. The economy of china therefore remains unaltered due to long strenuous working hour (Ding, Goodall, & Warner, 2000). Research has found out that the China has a high population of the young generation compared to the old generation. This has been attributed to the long strenuous working hours. This therefore has negative implications in that the young die. The working schedule affects the population's distribution and growth. There has been a notable decrease in the country's population growth over the recent past caused by the strenuous working hours. On the contrary, due to the working people tend to live in urban areas near the areas of working. This has made the country's urban areas to be highly populated compared to more remote areas. Implications of working hours in UK The UK also has a shift system; this has been implemented in line with European regulations. The European requirements are that the working hours should be in tandem with the UK. The working hours per week have been set at 48. There are also patterns of work that should be done; they include the night work and general patterns that work should follow. Shift working may be introduced; this is done to avoid taking in some other employees (Benson, 1996). This could be either on a contractual or permanent basis. UK has been known to have the longest working hours in the entire of Europe. This fact has had different implications on the culture of the people in United Kingdom. The long working hours have led to the population developing stress related illnesses such may include heart conditions. Secondly, there proposition in UK stating that the less the working hours the more the demand for services. This has created unrest and parliamentary discussions stating that in the United Kingdom the working population is exposed to the long working hours. While this might not be true, the government proposes to regulate the number of working hours to about 48 hours per day. Due to the heated debate on the length of working hours, the parliament has decided to standardize the length of working hours and therefore the working population has the freedom to choose the working hours. Millions of employees and businesses have benefited from the freedom of choice on working hours. Statistics in UK indicate that UK has the longest working hours in Europe and UK has 13 percent of its population working for more than 48 hours per week. This has served to create a lot of discussion. Conclusion When China and UK are compared, interesting findings come up: China has a 24-hour economy while UK has a partial 24-hour working system. The two countries are on opposite sides of the spectrum. - China has a higher population than UK, in fact much higher. This implies that the working population in China is higher than the working population in United Kingdom. References Benson, J. (1996). Human resource management revolution in China: recent changes in human resource management. People Management. 2 (12), 22-26. Borjman, I. and Lu, Y. (1999).The Chinese and Western joint-venture human resource management: Case studies in Shanghai compared with Australia. Journal of World Business. 34 (3), 306-324. Ding, D., Goodall, K. & Warner, M. (2000). A new era in human resource management in China? International Journal of Human Resource Management. 11 (2), 217-236. Simon, M. (2006). Human Resource management in Europe. 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