Title: Listen to the young employees

Authors: Jiawei Li, Richard Li-Hua

Addresses: Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK; No 161, Hotspur Street, Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE6 5BH, UK. ' Salford Business School, University of Salford, No. 306 Maxwell, Greater Manchester M5 4WT, UK

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to adopt cultural perspective while exploring the management practices of young employees in China|s IT industry. The paper aims to present the expectation of young Chinese generation employees (post |80s) that emerged from Confucianism shaped by an increasing individualistic ideology in China. The design/methodology/approach of this paper is multiple case studies followed by face to face interviews. The result of this paper profiles an expected Chinese manager who natured by Confucianism principles and practiced by Western scientific approach, which will be the most accepted by current young Chinese employees. The generalisation of the findings may be limited by the small size samples from one occupational sector and region. The paper fills up the gap of existing Chinese management theories. It also offers practice-based operational guidance for managers facilitating their personalities and daily managing behaviour. The value of this paper is to present the Chinese young employees| expectations of their managers and the relations between them and managers, in turn to advise the managers adjust their managing behaviour in the daily management.

Keywords: managers; young subordinates; Confucianism; culture; individualism; manager-subordinate relationship; China; management practices; young employees; IT industry; information technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCCM.2009.029250

International Journal of Chinese Culture and Management, 2009 Vol.2 No.2, pp.133 - 145

Published online: 17 Nov 2009 *

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