Title: Connections between factors of readiness to change in Chinese organisations

Authors: Ruth Alas, Maaja Vadi, Wei Sun

Addresses: Management Department, Estonian Business School, Lauteri 3, Tallinn 10114, Estonia. ' Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Institute of Management and Marketing, University of Tartu, Narva Road 4, 51009 Tartu, Estonia. ' Estonian Business School, Lauteri 3, Tallinn 10114, Estonia

Abstract: This study, conducted in 29 Chinese organisations, contributes to our understanding of readiness to change. It reveals the importance of the task and relationship orientation of organisational culture for organisational learning and for employee attitudes towards change in Chinese organisations. There are differences in China compared to countries in Europe. Two important components of learning organisations are not acceptable in China: making mistakes and reducing the status symbol. Chinese employees are afraid of making mistakes and they do not want to reduce status symbol to a minimum. The challenge is to develop a learning organisation in an atmosphere where people are afraid of making mistakes and differences between subordinates and superiors are accentuated. A model about the impact of organisational culture upon organisational learning and upon attitudes towards change in Chinese organisations, and implications for managers have been developed.

Keywords: employee attitudes; organisational change; organisational learning; organisational culture; China; change management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCCM.2008.017172

International Journal of Chinese Culture and Management, 2008 Vol.1 No.2, pp.219 - 231

Published online: 17 Feb 2008 *

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