UNDERSTANDING TRAINING AND NETWORKING NEEDS OF THE FEMALE CHINESE EXECUTIVE: AN EXPLORATORY LOOK AT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Over the past twenty years, an economic boom has over taken China. With this economic boom has come a new force in the workplace. Whereas before, women were mainly relegated to low status in the family and unrewarding positions as laborers or bottom rung assistants to male middle managers, another cultural revolution began to take place as millions of highly educated Chinese female executives flocked into the workplace. This influx of highly skilled and educated women into the workforce, in both private companies and governmental entities, has raised issues in China regarding the need for management training skills and the ability of Chinese female executives to network with their peers. Because of the nature of the organizational and cultural structure in Chinese businesses or in multinational companies run by Chinese there is virtually no way for female Chinese executives to meet and network with each other to discuss these issues. Unlike the United States, where strong female business networks have advanced and evolved, and where cultural expectations are such that female executives support and help each other up the organizational ladder, this is not the case for the Chinese female executive. There are virtually no management training programs for women that would assist them in their taking a more proactive stance in their own career growth. The training programs currently in place are offered by their place of business and focus on narrow topics pertaining to the position the employee already holds. While Chinese female executives have made tremendous strides in the past two decades, they are still far from the place where they are on equal footing with their male colleagues. This lack of equal footing, brought about in part by long held cultural biases, is confounded by the lack of management training, and keeps the national and international companies in China from reaching their full potential in efficiency and profitability. It is this researchers’ goal to explore the possibility of designing and providing a successful and profitable training package to this specific cohort of Chinese female executives. In order to more fully understand the training needs and opportunities for providing coaching and assistance, the researchers conducted a survey to find out the following: 1. What specific kinds of career issues do these female Chinese executives face? 2. What types of career and management training topics would benefit these female Chinese executives, while at the same time work within the cultural confines that control the behavior and norms for this group of women. Stated differently, what kind of programs would be beneficial and not make these women feel uncomfortable about participating. 3. What is the most effective way (ie – acceptable and viable) to deliver the training and to facilitate networking since no framework currently exists in this culture. The researchers designed a brief list of exploratory questions based upon information discovered from a meeting this past summer with a business management faculty member at The Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing to offer an in depth understanding of the training and networking needs of female Chinese executives.