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Changing Faces

Adaptation of Highly Skilled Chinese Workers to a High-Tech Multinational Corporation

Pepperdine University

As the first major multinational corporation (MNC) comes to Chengdu, China, the home of the Changing Faces Opera, thousands of young, highly skilled Chinese workers had an opportunity to work for this American MNC. The research question asks: How would these highly skilled Chinese workers adapt and make the change—change their face—to work in an American environment? The Schwartz Value Survey and in-depth interviews provide the data to understand the value systems. The results suggest that adaptation is dependent on social systems and how people learn and make sense of the new culture. A new model of values emerges, consistent with Chinese culture in that it is balanced and connected. The interviews show that although values of these Chinese workers may cluster in similar ways as in the West, often the meanings of the values are different from Western concepts.

Key Words: China • highly skilled workers • Chinese culture • value systems • multinational corporations • trust • employee adaptation

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 45, No. 2, 212-238 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886309334031


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