Reference no: EM132722654

Case study: Managing diversity in a Chinese-owned multinational IT firmCompany background

• Established in 1988 in Beijing, Lenovo Group Limited (formerly known as 'Legend Group Limited') is the largest IT enterprise in China. Lenovo employs some 25,000 staff in all its operations in nearly 70 countries, but with the majority of employees working in China. In 1984, with an initial capital of RMB 200,000 funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government-funded institution, 11 researchers formed the parent company of Lenovo. It was the first company to introduce the concept of the home computer in China. Lenovo's main business activities are in CASE STUDY (Continued) 14_REICHE_CH-14.indd 551 17/08/2018 6:17:01 PM 552 International Human Resource Management the sale and manufacturing of desktop computers, notebook computers, mobile handsets, servers and printers. Lenovo is a stock-listed company, with the Chinese government holding over a quarter of its shares. In April 2003, the group adopted a new logo and the English brand name 'Lenovo', replacing the original English brand name 'Legend' in order to appeal to the international market. The English company name was also officially changed to 'Lenovo Group Limited' a year later. In December 2004, Lenovo spent US$1.25 billion to acquire IBM's PC business. This was the largest cross-border acquisition in China's IT industry (China Business, 13 December 2004). The acquisition process was completed in May 2005. The marriage of IBM and Lenovo created one of the world's largest PC powerhouses. IBM possessed strong competitive advantage in the higher end of the customer market in its distribution channel, high quality customer resources, which complemented that of Lenovo. The two companies have maintained a long-term cooperative strategy since the acquisition, with Lenovo having access to some of IBM's key resources, such as technology, sales force, PartnerWorld, Global Finance and IBM Credit. The continuing expansion and globalization of Lenovo has brought a number of challenges to its HRM function, including the alignment of corporate HR strategy and DM after the acquisition of IBM's PC business. Below are some of the issues that illustrate the challenges.

Managing foreign employees in China

• Lenovo's growing global presence in the IT sector has in recent years attracted an increasing number of non-Chinese citizens who wish to work in its operations in China. This is in part because they want to spend time in China to gain wider work experience and a deeper understanding of the country. These foreign citizens are employed by Lenovo under the same employment conditions as those offered to Chinese citizens. Free working meals and company-subsidized accommodation are some of the benefits that Lenovo offers its employees. These are traditional and typical workplace welfare provisions of Chinese firms. Under the housing scheme, newly recruited single employees are provided dormitory accommodation. Since housing is expensive in Beijing, this often takes the form of one bedroom shared by a few employees of the same gender. This arrangement is normal and acceptable to Chinese employees - Chinese students also share their dormitories in schools and universities, and in sweatshop manufacturing plants the situation is far worse where ten or more rural migrant workers are crowded in a room with poor (Continued) 14_REICHE_CH-14.indd 552 17/08/2018 6:17:01 PM Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management 553 facilities. However, foreign employees, though only very small in number compared with the Chinese employees, find it difficult to get used to this idea because of the lack of privacy. Lenovo (China) has no special policy to accommodate their needs. Different management style is another source of cultural shock to foreign employees. According to an HR manager, foreign employees all emphasize their cultural shock when they come to China. However, Lenovo (China) has not developed a formal policy to manage these cultural shocks. This has led to the turnover of a few of the foreign employees and the company has made no effort to retain them.

Managing Chinese graduate returnees from overseas

• Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of Chinese who went abroad for their higher education have been returning to China to seek employment and career development. The majority of Chinese overseas graduate returnees (known as haigui in China) are keen to work for multinational firms, and are often the favourite candidates. Lenovo is among the top employers of choice for which haiguis want to work. These repatriated Western educated and trained graduates bring with them different life styles, perspectives and (often unrealistic) expectations that may depart from Chinese norms. Some of them are said to be complacent and consider themselves superior to other graduate employees who have not been abroad for education or training. They expect high salaries up front, fast promotion, flexibility and autonomy in their work. Turnover is common among haiguis when expectations are unmet or better offers are available elsewhere. How to recruit and manage overseas graduate returnees effectively is an important issue for MNCs operating in China. Companies are now reportedly more cautious in recruiting and managing these returnees because they are seen as 'demanding' employees who are difficult to retain. Lenovo shares some of these issues. Although turnover has not been a major problem, how to harmonize the relationship between haiguis and home-grown graduate employees is sometimes a challenge for line managers.

Gender equalities

• Prior to Lenovo's acquisition of the IBM PC business unit, Lenovo had more women at the senior management level. The proportion of women in senior management has actually declined since the acquisition because it is now part of a bigger international operation. Two main reasons are attributed to this change. One is that there is a lower proportion of women at senior management level in the acquired (Continued) 14_REICHE_CH-14.indd 553 17/08/2018 6:17:01 PM 554 International Human Resource Management business unit of IBM than in the Chinese operation. Another reason is that Lenovo has been through successive rounds of senior management restructuring after the acquisition, partly to do with the post-acquisition integration and partly to do with the poaching of senior managers among IT firms in China. Cultural clashes triggered by the post-acquisition integration have led to the departure of a number of senior managers. When new managers are recruited, they tend to bring their own people and HR initiatives with them, which will later be displaced by their successors when those managers depart. As an HR director observed, 'It is organizational politics, rather than equal opportunities, that we consider in the recruitment of senior managers. You need to be competent as well as well connected to get the senior management's job, and men tend to be better connected than women in the IT sector in general.'

Developing a global diversity management strategy

• According to informants from Lenovo (China), diversity is not a key issue in the workforce in China. Therefore, it is not a priority of the company. The major task is post-acquisition integration to align the organizational cultures and become a truly international company. Nevertheless, Lenovo (China) does emphasize the need for employees to respect other employees' rights and privacy. Aggressive or discriminatory behaviours are forbidden, even as jokes. These expectations are written in the business conduct guidelines for employees. However, Lenovo (China) does not have any specific equal opportunities or diversity management programmes to enforce these clauses. The acquired business unit of IBM has good HR practices, for example, WLB and DM. These have not yet been transferred to the Chinese operation due to staff shortages. There was a corporate initiative (stimulated from the US side) about grouping women at international level together to have a global forum to discuss diversity issues in 2006. Unfortunately, budget constraints meant that the plan was set to one side. The HR directors from Lenovo (US) are well aware of the challenge they face in transferring their US-developed diversity management programme to other branches across different countries and cultures. The US HR team are the people who are familiar with the concept and responsible for promoting its global diffusion, and they are approaching the task with extreme caution. This is in part, as they admitted, due to their unfamiliarity with the local environments in different parts of the world, although they are planning to visit Lenovo (China) for the first time. How to accommodate the diversity of the global (Continued) 14_REICHE_CH-14.indd 554 17/08/2018 6:17:02 PM Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management 555 workforce and leverage it to enhance the performance of the firm on the one hand, and how to develop a strong corporate culture that all employees will identify with on the other hand is their main HR concern, and a solution has yet to be found. According to all managerial informants, the corporate priority is talent management. A new scheme called 'Mobility Plan' has been implemented at the international level. The purpose of the plan is to give managers an opportunity to work overseas to gain international experience to be able to lead at a global level. It is not aimed at Chinese managers in principle, but in reality has mainly involved sending Chinese managers to the US for development. Source: compiled by the author based on information obtained from: Lenovo company website: www.lenovo.com (accessed 14 December 2008); China Business, 13 December 2004; and interviews by the author with HR directors, senior managers and employees of Lenovo in China and US in 2007.

Question 1. Chinese firms generally suffer from a poor image of low product quality, poor CSR and HRM; how would you help Lenovo to attract non-Chinese talent to work for the Company in its global operations, particularly outside China?