PAPER REFLECTION

（由于是论文reflection所以大段引用原文，侵权则删）

　　　　　　　　　　　　 PAPER REFLECTION
Course: Employee Benefit
Major: Human Resource Management
Paper: Keeping the Best - Human Resources in Subsidiaries of
Sino-European Multinational Companies located in P.R. China
- Which Monetary and/or Non-Monetary Employee Benefits
Lead to More Job Satisfaction of the Organization Members?

Introduction
The fast developing economy, the rise of FDI and the shortage of talented employees has resulted in a war for talents on the Chinese labour market. Consequently, organizations have started offering fringe benefits to attract talents and reduce labour turnover. For best results, companies have to consider the different expectations and demands of their employee and develop appropriate fringe benefits programs.

Objectives of the Paper
The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in perception of fringe benefits by different industrial sectors, gender and hierarchical levels. Therefore they conducted an empirical study with employees of various companies in Beijing, Shanghai and Taicang. Results and differences will be discussed and a general ranking of fringe benefits will be provided.

Methodology
In order to find answers to their research questions they developed a questionnaire based on a qualitative study made by Kasper, Mühlbacher, Kodydek and Zhang in 2012 and translated it into Mandarin accordingly. The questionnaire consists of, in sum, 21 monetary and non-monetary fringe benefits. The questionnaire also includes two P.R. China specific employee benefits: “hong bao”， a red envelope containing a small amount of money and “gong ji jin”， a part of the employees’ wages monthly set aside for buying an own accommodation. The participants had to evaluate the impact of fringe benefits offered in their respective company on their job satisfaction by using a seven-point Likert rating scale, covering a range from “no impact” (“1”) to “very strong impact” (“7”).
The theoretical sample consists of managers, workers and operatives from Beijing, Shanghai and Taicang. The survey succeeded in integrating companies of various industries such as chemical industry, automotive industry, metallurgical industry, financial services, pulp and paper industry, logistics, and engineering industry. For further data analysis they grouped the participating companies into four different economic sectors: Production, automotive, service and engineering. Table I provides an overview over the sample, showing the sector, the industry, the location of the company, the number of employees and the number of participants.
 
Main Result
Their descriptive results show a general strong tendency by employees to prefer monetary fringe benefits. Above all, fringe employee benefits such as bonus payments, additionally paid days off or gong ji jin are on the top end of the ranking. In contrast Chinese employees show a tendency to regard non- monetary fringe benefits, such as further education, additional insurance or snacks and beverages as less important. In particularly non-monetary fringe benefits aiming on an improvement of the working atmosphere, such as company outing, cafeteria, company party, birthday cake and card or leisure time activity are rated very low.

Significant Differences according to Gender
Their results show few significant differences between genders. Only gong ji jin, vouchers and shuttle bus are rated differently. More specifically, female employees consider those three fringe benefits as more important than their male colleagues.

Significant Differences according to Sectors
Regarding significant differences between sectors (table IV), they discover major differences between production and service sector, such as bonus payment, gong ji jin, company outing, cafeteria and company party. Generally, participants employed in production share a much favourable view on fringe benefits than their colleagues in the service sector. However, no significant differences between production and engineering or production and automotive sectors exist. Their results also show a significant difference between the service and engineering sector, where additionally paid days off are rated higher by employees of the service sector. In comparison to the automotive sector, employees in the service sector rate bonus payments and gong ji jin significantly lower. The automotive sector also shows some significant differences in comparison to the engineering sector. In particularly, bonus payment is regarded as more important. Additionally, further education achieves higher results too.

Significant Differences according to Hierarchical levels
With regard to differences caused by hierarchical levels, their results show only one significant difference between managers and operatives (table V). Phone subsidy is rated higher by operatives. Similarly there is only one significant difference between managers and workers, where additional insurance is rated higher by managers. Most differences can be observed between operatives and workers such as additionally paid days off, gong ji jin, additional insurance, phone subsidy and shuttle bus.
 
Discussion and Conclusion
Independent from different hierarchical levels, gender or economic sector differences, the results show a general strong tendency to prefer monetary employee benefits, such as bonus payment. Therefore, they argue that their results are a strong indication that Chinese employees place higher value on a performance oriented reward system. This is in line with other similarly studies [23] [24], where individual performance rewards were argued to be very popular among Chinese workers. In contrast to their results regarding the impact of gender, which showed only a few differences, they found major differences between the production and service sector.
As companies in the service sector, in particularly financial services, are top notch working places located in the inner city, fringe benefits such as bonus payment, gong ji jin, company outing or company party are considered by those employees more as basic features and less attractive. For the less earning employees in the production sector, which is usually located in the outskirts, those fringe benefits are more important. Regarding hierarchy, differences between operatives and workers are very common.
As workers in China usually have low income, their top priority is to earn as much money and as quick as possible. Consequently, they are less interested in additionally paid days off, a fringe benefit regarded very highly by operatives. Despite the fact that working accidents are more common among blue collar workers, they also considered additional insurance as less important. They argue that due to the generally lower level of education among workers there is little awareness regarding this topic.
The empirical results of their study should lead to a change in the minds of HR managers dealing with Chinese employees. Fringe benefits are an important influencing factor to reduce labour turnover in China and raise job satisfaction. Above all, companies should focus on a sophisticated bonus payment program and an elaborated gong ji jin policy. Additionally, as the high rating of additionally paid days off by operatives indicates, fringe benefits aiming on quality of life improvement are becoming more and more important for members of the urban working force.