Home » Opinion » Book review
Beyond Foxconn -- the real problem is economics
By Wan Lixin |
May 29, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SO far this year 12 employees have jumped from buildings in Foxconn Technology Group's factory complex in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
Ten have been killed, and two severely injured.
The latest leap occurred Wednesday night, just hours after the company's boss, Terry Gou, apologized for the string of employee deaths. On Thursday, a 25-year-old employee tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists.
Gou was ranked 142nd on Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the world's richest people, with a net worth of US$5.5 billion.
Foxconn is the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer.
While apologetic, boss Gou rebuts "sweatshop" allegations.
In this crisis nearly all Chinese wish to know what's wrong with Foxconn.
Maybe "What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better" can point in the right direction.
The work by Dan Baker, Cathy Greenberg, and Collins Hemingway observes that "happy companies" have warm corporate culture, modest, sincere leaders and flexible, engaged employees.
Foxconn does not shine in these aspects.
According to insiders, Foxconn is an isolated, secretive empire known for its semi-military rigor and harsh discipline, a legacy attributed to Gou's military experience.
In this heavily guarded, walled-off city the employees are organized in a manner that can maximize productivity.
Conspicuous throughout the complex is a strong force of security guards that can stop and search anyone they regard as suspicious and, according to those who know, compliance is the best policy.
Employees are not allowed to send or receive e-mails in their dormitory or factory unless they have prior approval from their superiors.
As employees live in an isolated world of their own, many do not know the name of other roommates.
Some reporters treated to a recent damage-control media tour of the complex were dazzled by the immaculate canteens and spotless premises, complete with swimming pools and soccer field, and found it hard to associate this setting with a "sweatshop."
But the reflections of one ex-employee who chose to leave the factory may be more revealing.
"We are like cows grazed on lush pastures, attended to with great care, even having music played to -- our only job is to give milk," said Lin Feng, an ex-employee.
Thus as "Made in China" has become a global success story, we should not forget those "cows" who sacrifice their youth to the assembly lines at minimum wages.
Sometimes their whole day's job is to fasten two or three screws thousands of times.
In the case of Foxconn, even this "Made in China" label may not be a salient aspect, as it is a contract maker for such glamorous brands as Apple, HP, and Nokia.
"What Happy Companies Know" explains why organizations with empowered and motivated work forces can expect to exceed growth expectations, but I strongly doubt if Gou can wring as much profit with an "empowered and motivated" workforce, given the repetitive nature of their contribution.
Cheap labor is the dominant advantage of manufacturing in China.
Gou promises to install safety nets to thwart future attempt to jump, but is yet reluctant to admit he has a people problem -- that would be tantamount to a total denial of Foxconn's reason for existence.
The book observes, "to perform at their best, humans need to believe that they are involved in something bigger than themselves."
But in the making of electronics, which is dominated by machines, human beings must adapt to the efficiency, exactness, and tyranny of machines.
Thus this crisis loses much of its significance if our attention is still focused just on Foxconn, not on the economic mode that has been hailed as miraculous.
As such, although the book has come up with a host of recipes for corporate happiness, their applicability to mass-producer Foxconn, or similar enterprises in China, can be questioned.
The worst-case scenario is that in this public furor Gou shuts down the plant, and lets go nearly 820,000 young people. That would be highly destabilizing.
China has been so tightly coupled to the current mode of economy that the mode becomes self-perpetuating.
As the book observes, if you concentrate on "problem solving" you may end up with more problems.
What's more important is how our policy makers, not Gou, react to the string of tragic deaths.
Ten have been killed, and two severely injured.
The latest leap occurred Wednesday night, just hours after the company's boss, Terry Gou, apologized for the string of employee deaths. On Thursday, a 25-year-old employee tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists.
Gou was ranked 142nd on Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the world's richest people, with a net worth of US$5.5 billion.
Foxconn is the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer.
While apologetic, boss Gou rebuts "sweatshop" allegations.
In this crisis nearly all Chinese wish to know what's wrong with Foxconn.
Maybe "What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better" can point in the right direction.
The work by Dan Baker, Cathy Greenberg, and Collins Hemingway observes that "happy companies" have warm corporate culture, modest, sincere leaders and flexible, engaged employees.
Foxconn does not shine in these aspects.
According to insiders, Foxconn is an isolated, secretive empire known for its semi-military rigor and harsh discipline, a legacy attributed to Gou's military experience.
In this heavily guarded, walled-off city the employees are organized in a manner that can maximize productivity.
Conspicuous throughout the complex is a strong force of security guards that can stop and search anyone they regard as suspicious and, according to those who know, compliance is the best policy.
Employees are not allowed to send or receive e-mails in their dormitory or factory unless they have prior approval from their superiors.
As employees live in an isolated world of their own, many do not know the name of other roommates.
Some reporters treated to a recent damage-control media tour of the complex were dazzled by the immaculate canteens and spotless premises, complete with swimming pools and soccer field, and found it hard to associate this setting with a "sweatshop."
But the reflections of one ex-employee who chose to leave the factory may be more revealing.
"We are like cows grazed on lush pastures, attended to with great care, even having music played to -- our only job is to give milk," said Lin Feng, an ex-employee.
Thus as "Made in China" has become a global success story, we should not forget those "cows" who sacrifice their youth to the assembly lines at minimum wages.
Sometimes their whole day's job is to fasten two or three screws thousands of times.
In the case of Foxconn, even this "Made in China" label may not be a salient aspect, as it is a contract maker for such glamorous brands as Apple, HP, and Nokia.
"What Happy Companies Know" explains why organizations with empowered and motivated work forces can expect to exceed growth expectations, but I strongly doubt if Gou can wring as much profit with an "empowered and motivated" workforce, given the repetitive nature of their contribution.
Cheap labor is the dominant advantage of manufacturing in China.
Gou promises to install safety nets to thwart future attempt to jump, but is yet reluctant to admit he has a people problem -- that would be tantamount to a total denial of Foxconn's reason for existence.
The book observes, "to perform at their best, humans need to believe that they are involved in something bigger than themselves."
But in the making of electronics, which is dominated by machines, human beings must adapt to the efficiency, exactness, and tyranny of machines.
Thus this crisis loses much of its significance if our attention is still focused just on Foxconn, not on the economic mode that has been hailed as miraculous.
As such, although the book has come up with a host of recipes for corporate happiness, their applicability to mass-producer Foxconn, or similar enterprises in China, can be questioned.
The worst-case scenario is that in this public furor Gou shuts down the plant, and lets go nearly 820,000 young people. That would be highly destabilizing.
China has been so tightly coupled to the current mode of economy that the mode becomes self-perpetuating.
As the book observes, if you concentrate on "problem solving" you may end up with more problems.
What's more important is how our policy makers, not Gou, react to the string of tragic deaths.
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