Olivia Ip

Downsizing in the Internet industry: the Hong Kong experience

Since June 2000, dot.com companies in Hong Kong have followed the same pattern of downsizing as their counterparts in the West. Explores the downsizing phenomenon in the Internet industry, the employees’ views on the experience of downsizing in the industry, their job orientation and work expectations. Questionnaires were distributed with the endorsement of an employees’ association to its members. Three sets of interviews were conducted to obtain background information on the labour department, the Internet industry and association, and the respondents’ views. The major findings include that the employees of this industry have high educational levels, are young in age and worked long hours. Those who have experienced downsizing and closure tend to feel the injustice of the practice regardless of the compensation provided. For job orientation and work expectations, the majority of respondents tend to feel that the industry offers good prospects and promotion opportunities, but, on the other hand, they tend not to be satisfied with their present working environment. Female respondents tend to look for intrinsic rewards and they are more likely to be the target for downsizing.

Sustaining teacher change through participating in a comprehensive approach to teaching Chinese literacy

An overview is presented of a three-year project aimed at helping Chinese language teachers in Taiwan refine ways that Chinese, an ideographic language that differs markedly from alphabetic English, is taught in primary schools. Guided by university staff in Taiwan, Hong Kong University and a Taiwanese non-government social enterprise, 20 experienced Taiwanese Chinese language teachers visited Hong Kong, observed literacy lessons, held in-depth discussions with principals and teachers, and engaged in seminars that helped them reflect on ways to modify practice in Taiwan. Back in Taiwan, they tried out techniques witnessed in Hong Kong, shared their experiences with colleagues in and beyond their own school, and evaluated their relevance for language teaching in Taiwan. Experiences were exchanged via practical demonstrations of techniques, video-recordings of lessons, accounts of new ways to teach Chinese, interviews and progress reports on an Internet forum. The outcomes are an example of positive teacher change.

The Paradox of Tripartitism and Employment Relationships in an Industry of Service-Providing Agencies in Hong Kong

This article explores the role of industrial ‘tripartitism’ as a feature of industrial relations in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from a survey of the property management industry they conducted, the authors show how diversity in the forms of hiring practices and heterogeneity in the composition of the workforce contribute to an impasse in which an industrial tripartite council is bogged down despite its stated mission. The controversies arise from the issue of the long work hours of the security guards, leading to wide public concern and the subsequent proposed change from the industry norm of the two-shift day to a three-shift day for the workers. The case study also attests to the difficulties in setting up industry-wide work standards due to intra-sectoral diversities, and in particular, the dual labour market conditions and the multi-tiered principal-agent relationship arising from outsourcing arrangement.

Towards a Labour Market in China, by John Knight and Lina Song

the home. However, men who failed to adapt to new labor conditions became increasingly superfluous in the household when they lost their ability to play the traditional role of breadwinner. On the whole, men proved to be much less flexible about working outside their chosen profession and taking what they considered to be ‘female’ or other low-status jobs, instead becoming demoralized and depressed, and often turning to alcohol. Thus, the authors conclude, the woman’s ‘burden’ of household responsibilities actually turned out to be a blessing, helping them through difficult times by giving them social status and meaning outside the formal employment sector. In addition, these gender roles were so ingrained within families that they often acted as an obstacle, ‘inhibiting the development of joint strategies for surviving reform’ (p. 52). The one fault in this otherwise very interesting and important piece of research is the lack of speculation on how Russian men and women might deal with labor market issues in the future. This book captures a fairly unique time period, the several years after the 1998 devaluation of the ruble. Russia’s economy has to a large extent stabilized between the period of research and the time the book was published. It would have been helpful to see if the authors believed the insights gained from their in-depth qualitative research would continue to apply in a less tumultuous time. Overall, this is a book that should appeal to many audiences. From a gender studies perspective, this offers a fascinating glimpse into how both men and women reproduced traditional gender roles in times of uncertainty. From a labor studies perspective, it shows how different roles in the household can help or hurt people left out of the labor market. And finally, from an area studies perspective, the book offers an important insight into the status of men and women in Russia today.

Phenomenon of Union Exhaustion: Is there a ‘Third Way’ for Trade Unionism in Hong Kong?

Over the past two decades, Hong Kong has been caught in the various dynamism of economic restructuring, political reversion to China and ‘late urbanism’, leading to a new constellation of social and industrial problems, which have been, so far, inadequately tackled by the government and by private businesses. Trade unions in Hong Kong face challenges to their conventional role, which are largely related to the rise of atypical employment and the increasingly transient nature of the workplace as a unit of work and employment. The present paper suggests that, in response to these adversities, trade unions in Hong Kong have taken strategic moves. There are emerging symptoms that the trade unions are restructuring and evolving a functional role in organising the neighbourhood community as a type of ‘third sector’ organisation outside and in parallel to their conventional occupational domain.