PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 5 – Workplace belongingpractices and corporate images are reproduced in China plants through a series ofinstitutional practices and material configurations, it also makes it easy to re-enactconventional workplace practices, as Leo illustrates:Some small things, like the personnel‘s behaviour are not specified in our formal employeetraining. But we are still concerned with them. We ask every employee to do what wewould do in Taiwan. Take the girl [who served us tea] for example; don‘t you think shedid not serve us properly? When things like this happen, though it is very small, we willstill let them know how to do it [correctly] and ask them not to make ... [the same mistakes]twice.(Leo, a man in his early 50s who works as a deputy manager of a Taiwanese power supplycompany based in Wujiang)In a similar vein, Taiwanese IT companies‘ work environment often influences andshapes the PRC Chinese employees‘ behaviours unobtrusively, as Andrew explains:Within the compound, they won‘t do some odd things, such as spitting, as what they woulddo outside without consideration. Of course, part of the reason is because we remind themvery often, but the environment itself is the best material [with which] to teach them. Whatthey have seen here is different from the outside messy environment; they know theirbehaviours have to be adjusted to be accepted here. They won‘t dare to be different fromothers‘ ways of behaving, will they? [showing a ‘you know why’ facial expression] So,after they work here for a period time, they know very well how to speak, dress andbehave in accordance to the norms of this environment.(Andrew, an administration department manager of a laptop computermanufacturing company in his late 30s, based in Shanghai.)183