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Complete Dissertation VU Research Portal Meiguanxi Uy, M.T. 2018 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Uy, M. T. (2018). Meiguanxi: Social Detachment and Impersonal Relations in Two Chinese Transient Employment Firms. Delft Academic Press. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 Meiguanxi: Social Detachment and Impersonal Relations in Two Chinese Transient Employment Firms by Melanie T. Uy A Thesis Submitted to the Vrije Universiteit For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Social Science 2017 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT Meiguanxi: Social Detachment and Impersonal Relations in Two Chinese Transient Employment Firms ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. V. Subramaniam, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen op 07 March om 15.45 uur in de aula / het auditorium van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door MELANIE TAN UY geboren te Makati, Filipijnen promotor: prof.dr. P. Nyíri copromotor: dr. S.B. Ybema 3 SUMMARY There is a legacy of misplaced emphasis on culture by organization and business scholars to explain work and work relations in Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Often the term guanxi, or strong, long-term, and personal relations, becomes the framework in such explanations. In contrast, this thesis examines the phenomenon of social detachment using a category of relationality I label as impersonal relations. These consist of non-affective, calculating, professional, power-neutral, no-obligation ties, and practices found in two Chinese SMEs, SEA-EAD and QLA, where I conducted my nine-month research in 2009-2010. I argue that impersonal relations are permanent features of transient employment firms. These firms operate using flexible work practices to facilitate rapid transactions and movement of money and human capital. The result is a firm that is highly fluid, shifting, and uncertain. This type of non-stable firm needs a framework such as Marilyn Strathern’s actor-network theory. The framework advocates for a network model of a firm that focuses on context-specific links as analytical points. Using her framework to study work and relationality, my findings show that there are three types of impersonal relations. One type of interaction uses ties of information control that produces highly contingent work and work relations as seen at SEA-EAD. The SEA-EAD agents expand ties with education brokers to gather information and restrict access once commissions are awarded. Simultaneously, agents limit information from management to maintain their career viability inside and outside the firm. The second type of interaction uses ties of individual status that results in more stable impersonal relations and work routines as observed at QLA. The QLA staff performs obedience within office hierarchy as part of their work. However, once outside of work, such as during an office party or the lunch hour, QLA employees use ritual-like practices to distinguish themselves individually and reject food-related overtures for sustained long-term connection. The third type of interaction uses ties of power difference. My findings show that the restoration of professional interactions during conflict resolution practices are ritual-like, affect-based performances. However, the goal is not to establish personal ties but rather, re-establish trustworthy, power-neutral, professional relations to facilitate swift transactions. These findings suggest that impersonal relations at SEA-EAD and QLA are highly adaptive to the flexible labour and work demands in SMEs that are transient employment destinations. Employee detachment ensures readiness to move jobs when an opportunity becomes available. Manager detachment allows for rapid troubleshooting and swift decision-making at nominal cost and effort. Professional customer-agent relations restore relational inequity from fraudulent activities. While impersonal relations provide the minimal trust and transactional efficiency, these same ties pose chronic risks to firms such as high employee turnover, work unpredictability, and transaction fraud. 4 Impersonal relations and the ensuing social detachment transform our understanding of Chinese SMEs as porous anchor points that accelerate the movement of people, information, and financial capital in China’s flexible market-socialist economy. Keywords: relationality, impersonal relations, social detachment, guanxi, individuality, suzhi, organisational culture, obedient autonomy, office lunch, China, ritual, SME, MSME, microenterprises, migration agents, migration firms, study abroad, mobility, flexible firms, flexible labour, flexible capitalism 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 4 Figures ...................................................................................................................... 8 Tables ........................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1: Introduction: “It’s Just a Job!” ................................................................ 9 1. Defining the Problem ........................................................................................................ 11 1.A. Guanxi as Tool in the Neo-Confucian Project ..................................................... 18 1.B. Guanxi as Tool within the Hofstede Values Model ............................................. 20 2. Proposition Statement ....................................................................................................... 24 3. Encountering Impersonal Relations in Chinese Firms ................................................. 30 4. Chapters and Themes ........................................................................................................ 37 Chapter 2: The Acceleration of Transient Employment in China ......................... 42 1. The Socialist Work Unit (Danwei) ................................................................................... 43 2. Firm Flexibility: Transition into a Socialist-Market Economy .................................... 45 3. Employee Flexibility & The Growth of Social Anxiety ............................................... 58 4. Research Context of SEA-EAD and QLA .................................................................... 65 4.A. QLA (Qingdao Labour Agency) ............................................................................. 70 4.B. SEA (Sunshine Education Agency) ......................................................................... 75 Chapter 2: Conclusion ............................................................................................ 78 Chapter 3: Expanding and Cutting the SEA-EAD and QLA Network ................. 80 1. Expanding Office Life: Strathern’s Actor-Network Theory ....................................... 81 2. The Conditions of Profit in the Foreign Education Network .................................... 85 3. The Network of Impersonal Relations in the Study Abroad Industry ....................... 89 3.A. QLA (Qingdao Labour Agency) ............................................................................. 95 3.B. SEA-EAD (Sunshine Education Agency – Euro-American Department) ....... 99 Chapter 3: Conclusion .......................................................................................... 106 Chapter 4: Information Control: Cooperative Hezuo Ties at SEA-EAD ............. 109 1. Brief Background on the SEA-EAD Fraud ................................................................. 111 2. Benefits of Hezuo Ties at SEA-EAD ........................................................................... 114 2.A. The “Betrayal” of EAD by Ms. Park .................................................................... 115 2.B. Professional Mentorship under Ms. Mina ............................................................ 121 2.C. Customer Satisfaction from Unsanctioned Hezuo Tie ...................................... 125 3. Risks of Hezuo Ties at SEA-EAD ................................................................................ 129 3.A. Surviving General Inquiry using Hezuo Ties ...................................................... 129 3.B. Advising and Assessment: Calculating Profitable Hezuo .................................. 131 3.C. School Applications and Collating Documents: Complex Hezuo ................... 135 3.D. Visa Application: High Risk with Unknown Brokers .......................................
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