Multinational Retailers in China: Proliferating ‘McJobs’ or Developing Skills?*

Abstract

Much has been written on the nature of skills and the extent to which there is increased skills development or a deskilling of workers in modern workplaces. This paper broadens the debate and explores these issues in the novel context of UK- and Japanese- invested retailers' operations in China. Data derived from over two hundred interviews at twelve retail stores in six Chinese cities and questionnaires completed by almost eight hundred employees elicited contextualized accounts of interactive service workers' own perceptions of their training and skills development. It was found that these firms made a substantial contribution to skills development, fostered and enhanced both directly by company training and also through experiential workplace-based learning. It might be, however, that this constitutes an essential but 'one-off' increase in skills in transitional economies such as that of China. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006.

A decade of transformation of HRM in China: A review of literature and suggestions for future studies

“…Some studies have refuted the conclusion of others. For example, Gamble (2006aGamble ( , 2006b) questions the conclusion by other authors that there was limited opportunity for the transfer of western HR practices to the Chinese workplace without considerable adaptation due to the significant differences between the Chinese institutional and cultural context compared with that found in western societies. Through the in-depth comparative case study of its Chinese and British operations of a British retail MNC, Gamble argues that western HRM practices can be transferred with limited need for adaptation.…”

“…This is because the adoption of western HRM practices can be an innovative management practice for western MNCs to gain competitive advantage in China (Gamble 2006a). Gamble (2006b) further observes that the Chinese context is conducive to promoting skill enhancement and that MNCs in China are more amenable to training than those in the UK due to the former's unique labourmarket position and prestigious image in China.…”

Export intensity and marketing in transition economies: Evidence from China

“…Some have proposed that such skills might be cultivated from within, through learning by doing (Springer & Czinkota 1999), or by setting up local marketplaces to facilitate information sharing within communities (Sonobe et al, 2004). Others speculate that marketing know-how can be imported from advanced market economies, through the provision of managerial education (Marinov, Cox, Avlonitis, & Kouremenos, 1993), via on the job training provided by foreign employers (Gamble, 2006), or by establishing links with management consultants (Savitt 2001) and joint venture partners (Steensma, Tihanyaa, Lyles, & Dhanaraj, 2005;Tsang et al, 2004). These studies hint at the possibility that transition economy managers may acquire marketing know-how when dealing with foreign partners.…”

The triangular supply chain relationship: labour dispatch agencies, hospitality sector, and flexible workers: the Taiwan experience

“…Such a narrow view of quality is, however, against the 'outside-in' philosophy of quality, in that improved customer satisfaction can only be achieved through continuous improvement of the whole operations (Deming, 1986). Clearly, the advantage gained through labour cost savings (as opposed to non-labour savings) was often short-lived, not least because (to quote Gamble, 2006Gamble, , p. 1471) 'rivals rapidly copied and adopted these features' (see also Audit Commission, 2001;Booth, Francesconi, & Frank, 2002;Guest, 2004).…”