Beyond some terrific people in the Personnel Department in Pauley, who could help with specific employment-related issues, James quickly came to realize that there would be little operational support from the home office. His links back to his corporation came more from Filtration Inc. than from Controls. Filtration Inc. at least sent a monthly package of
news clippings, executive briefs, and memos that had been specifically prepared for expatriates. The package allowed James to keep up somewhat on what was happening in the larger corporate setting.
Filtration Inc. had a couple dozen employees in Shanghai. It was their role to establish and implement a joint venture that the parent had negotiated with a different Chinese manufacturer than the one with which Controls had partnered. As part of this team, there were also a few representatives from Controls Inc. They were all co-located in a small office building in downtown Shanghai. It was in this corporate office environment that James found a great deal of support, a lot of helpful advice, and his unofficial mentor, a Filtration Inc. manager who had spent four years in China. At the time James wondered why he hadn't visited this office during his orientation trip.
The help that James received from Controls Inc.'s subsidiary, Controls Asia-Pacific, was often ineffective and inconsistent. Nagging policies and obligatory paperwork were typical characteristics of their assistance. There were ongoing problems finding and retaining a qualified translator for James. In the agreement, the JV was responsible for providing each expatriate with a translation Controls-Asia! Pacific was responsible for the wage structure at the JV. The Personnel Department in Singapore established a maximum wage rate for the translator position at 2000 yuan. This rate was fair for the area, but there were few high-quality translators available. When an area translator •vas identified, he or she would often be lost to another multinational company in the area who offered a salary of 3000 yuan. To attract translators from Shanghai would require a wage comparable to the wages one would receive in Shanghai, and 2000 yuan was significantly lower than that paid in the city.
Another aspect of employment in China that merited consideration was the movement of one's “personnel file” from a former employer to the present one. This is the rough equivalent of changing one's residency to another state in the United States. The reputation and perception of Chongming Dao was that of a rural community. This would have a negative impact on transferring a translator's file back to Shanghai in the future. Singapore didn't understand the economics and implications of this situatioir and refused to increase the wage rate to a level that would entice qualified translators to accept the position- James, as a result, was without a qualified translator for significant periods during his time in China. The impact on his ability to function in that setting was therefore also significant, resulting in less being accomplished than if Singapore had been more flexible.
The residence in Shanghai was available because the JV had committed to a two-year lease of an executive apartment on the twenty-second floor of the Shanghai Inn. These accommodations were quite nice and offered most of the comforts of home. The hotel complex included a supermarket, exercise facilities, a theater, and several restaurants, including Shanghai's Hard Rock Cafe. The three-bedroom apartment, which James measured to be around 1,500 square feet, was converted into a two-bedroom apartment to his specifications. Amenities included cable TV with five English-language channels. Accommodations on the island were significantly rougher. The original plan was for James to temporarily stay at the government's guest house on the factory grounds until a 12-unit housing compound was constructed in the immediate vicinity. The small rooms, intense heat, and fierce mosquitoes at the guest house proved to be unbearable, and by June, James decided to make other arrangements. These entailed staying in a hotel 17 miles away with the two other expatriates from Controls Inc. to manage the JV. Although the building was new, the quality of the construction was quite poor, which seemed to be common in China. The costs associated with constructing their compound were, by this time, estimated to be much larger than expected. Eventually a solution was reached to fix up certain aspects of the guest house and retain it as the long-term island living arrangements for them. After this, Lily always traveled with him to and from the factory.
ADAPTING TO LIFE IN CHINA : A First Time Expatriate is Experience in a Joint article from Business Technical Catagory ADAPTING TO LIFE IN CHINA
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