By Emily David

Diversity and inclusion are increasingly rising in importance in China. A recent study by scholars at the City University of Hong Kong showed that 72% of mainland interviewees noticed diversity in their workplace and 46% of them believed that diversity was favourable for promoting innovation. Diversity efforts are usually driven by both corporate social responsibility agendas as well as a more pragmatic need to broaden the talent pool to accommodate growth.

Before organisations can deftly spearhead diversity efforts, however, it is of chief importance that they have an in-depth grasp on regional diversity insights. This is because even the definition of ‘diversity’ and what it means for an organisation to be ‘inclusive’ can widely differ from place to place. In China, the notion of inclusion overlaps with Western definitions in some ways (e.g., being open to others’ ideas and creating bonds with diverse co-workers), but also places more emphasis on the tolerance of differences. We can see evidence of this in the Confucian teaching of ‘seeking harmony within diversity’. This ideology, combined with a long history of collectivism, social integration and a racial homogeneity, has led to some pushback against the ideas of ‘celebrating differences’ and ‘valuing uniqueness’ seen in Western definitions of diversity and inclusion. These divergent definitions have clear implications for organisation seeking to implement inclusion efforts. For example, whereas in the US an inclusive climate might be characterised by openly pointing out and discussing different preferences and perspectives, a more culturally relevant way in the Chinese context would be to promote the use of positive language and celebrating desired behaviours while politely ignoring small blunders or addressing misunderstandings in private to save face.

Additionally, key diversity challenges also differ from place to place. Whereas racioethnicity is a huge issue in the US and many parts of Europe (something that has been highlighted this year with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and widespread protests against police brutality), the overwhelming percentage of Han Chinese has led this to be less of an issue in China. In the future, cross-cultural and racioethnic diversity concerns may increase along with greater migration of high-quality talent into the country as the population ages. Today, however, this diversity issue is not a chief concern, as the UN has estimated that China has the fewest number of foreign-born residents at only 0.07%. In contrast, generational issues, provincial dissimilarity, and achieving gender parity at the highest levels are the most formidable diversity challenges facing China today. Supporting this idea, the same CUHK survey cited above showed that age was the second most frequently mentioned category of diversity in China (after personality), followed by provincial, educational, gender and work experience diversity.

Today’s three chief diversity concerns: gender, culture and age

Gender in China

Compared to other mature markets around the world, China outperforms many others in terms of female representation in both the workforce and middle management roles. Still, Chinese women have not fully achieved equity at the highest levels (C-suite jobs and board seats), so there is still room to improve.

Long working hours (often upwards of 70 hours per week) and the expectation for ‘face time’ in the office place a lot of pressure on women in China, who are often also solely responsible for child and elder care. In the majority of families, four parents also depend on a single married couple. That said, a young retirement age means that grandparents are often able to help with childcare, and there are also regional differences in terms of housekeeping gender norms (e.g., one of our CEIBS professors recently remarked that men are typically expected to do a large portion of the housework in Shanghai).

To help women make further strides in China, best practices are largely the same as in other parts of the world (e.g., flexible working hours and remote work arrangements, equitable mentoring and development opportunities). As we’ve learned during the pandemic, however, the efficacy of flexible policies is highly dependent on a person’s childcare situation. Early research has shown that although many people are very happy to avoid their commute time, they also face longer overall work hours when working from home. Another issue has been the exodus of women from the workforce (especially high-level talent) during the pandemic. For example, data from the US showed that 617,000 women left the workforce in September of this year compared with 78,000 men. This highlights the importance of supporting women employees during these difficult times. To this end, research has shown that it is important to ensure that people have a dedicated office space in their homes before mandating such flexible arrangements.

Culture in China

When asked, many people in China cite regional or provincial differences as a critical source of local diversity. People from different regions have dialects and customs that vary widely, and can lead to informal group formation in the workplace. For example, businesspeople from the same province often gather together in business networks called lao xiang and alumni from the same university tend to make similar workplace alliances. Given the huge expanse of the country, many people were historically somewhat isolated. In recent decades, however, hundreds of millions of migrants have come to work in first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. This has led to diversity issues for migrants, as China’s hukou (household registration or residence permit) system can create disparate treatment when it comes to doctors and educational opportunities in their host city. As a result, companies have supported regional diversity by offering housing assistance, healthcare supplements and education allowances (particularly for those hailing from other provinces or countries).

Another issue is the increasing number of younger Chinese returning from abroad after studying or working for a time. While they share some Chinese cultural values, their worldviews often differ from those who have never been abroad. In many respects, Chinese returnees are perceived to be more culturally adaptive.

Although China does not have much cultural or racioethnic diversity, we know that people from different cultural backgrounds – even regional or educational ones – have different belief structures, priorities, assumptions about future events and information-processing methods. Best practices to benefit from these unique perspectives include hosting events and activities that highlight non-work-related similarities (e.g., team meals or parenting clubs). By focusing on non-task-related similarities, cooperation and relationships between diverse individuals can improve. Plus, once you engage culturally diverse individuals, you can tap them to better understand diverse target audiences and preferences.

Age in China

Age (or generational diversity) is one of the biggest diversity concerns that organisations have grappled with in China in recent years as a result of flatter organisations, increased levels of teamwork and delayed retirements. In response to these challenges, many managers are now seeking to learn techniques to help them motivate and retain the younger, so-called ba ling-hou (post-80s), generation. This generation includes over 200 million people and roughly half of the Chinese workforce. Compared to older generations, they are more individualistic, motivated by personal achievement and vocal about their desires and concerns. As a result of China’s economic miracle and often being the sole heirs of their family’s wealth, they are also less driven by material rewards. Still, they continue to feel extreme loyalty to their families and pressure to make them happy and provide them with an easy life. In working with these younger employees, managers have begun to adopt a more respectful and collaborative (rather than authoritative) managerial style and to emphasise non-monetary incentives such as global development opportunities and a fun work environment.

Increasingly, however, in both China and many parts of the developed world, we find that generational diversity efforts have become increasingly geared toward keeping older workers engaged and productive. In part, this is due to low birth-rates and longer, healthier life expectancies, resulting in an aging population. In the West, we see that roughly 25% of workers in the US and UK are expected to be 55 or older by 2025. Similarly, Singapore is experiencing a 50% growth in over 50 workers, and in China we expect that 25% of the workforce will be over the age of 60 within the decade. Added to this, the overall labour force participation rate is declining, straining retirement systems and other social safety net programmes. Optimising and engaging an aging population is therefore an important and universal concern. Unfortunately, many organisations have yet to tap this very lucrative and experienced portion of the population.

One barrier to engaging and educating older workers is rampant ageism and stereotypes about them. Despite the abundant experience and leadership competences they bring to organisations, older workers face negative stereotypes about their performance, adaptability and cognitive acuity. As evidence of this, in a recent Deloitte survey, two-thirds of respondents said that having an older workforce is a significant competitive disadvantage. People can even have stereotypes about themselves. When reminded of their age by cues in the workplace, for example, older workers can become demotivated and disengaged over anxiety about their performance.

More and more research is emerging, however, to show that these stereotypes are often simply unfounded. We now know, for example, that knowledge and expertise continue to increase even beyond the age of 80. Large scale studies have also demonstrated that performance and proactive behaviour do not decline with age. In addition to valuable expertise and experience, older workers have some significant advantages over younger ones, including being less prone to theft, more likely to report ethical violations and less likely to turn over or be absent.

We need educate ourselves to move past the myth that younger people are smarter, cheaper and more motivated. Indeed, there are many older workers with insufficient savings who can’t afford to retire, so even the financial motivation to work does not necessarily have an age limit. At the same time, another major challenge is finding innovative ways of keeping older people productive and engaged in society.

One interesting aspect of the COVID-19 experience is the heightened salience of stereotypes about older people. The media constantly reminds us that older people are more vulnerable to the virus (with some countries even implementing different rules or allowances for people of different ages), reinforcing fragile and weak stereotypes about older citizens. The pandemic has also revealed some silver linings, however. We live in a much more transparent world where we can now see other people’s lives in and outside of work. On a whole, I believe this has led to greater empathy (e.g., when people need help or a little more flexibility, we are more willing to work around it), which is great news for diversity initiatives all around.

As we move to an increasingly more mature workforce, I think that we need to employ more tailored solutions for helping older workers continue to thrive. We also need to consider how careers, education and retirement on a whole may be disrupted. For example, what alternative, more entrepreneurial work options and styles exist that will allow older workers to transfer their expertise while reducing stress and demands? How can we reintegrate people who want to come back to the workforce after retiring? The rising gig economy, for example, provides an opportunity for older workers to join the workforce in unique ways in more phased and consultative roles. Importantly, these don’t need to be the highest paying roles – it should be the job scope and level of responsibility that determines pay, not the person.

One of the more innovative programmes for workers disenchanted with retirement in companies like Boeing and GM are ‘returnships’ – cohort-based programmes where participants receive training and which sometimes lead to full-time roles. Other companies could offer such tailored courses to their workers as a way to keep them invigorated and engaged over the course of their lifespan. Finally, we need to work with funding agencies to help expand the provision of support and capital for so-called silver entrepreneurs. Considering the sheer number of older citizens that are projected in the coming years, entrepreneurial projects aimed at the needs of older people (e.g., pharmaceutical delivery and smart home control devices) could be fruitful ventures where older workers would have unique insights into consumer bases. Encouragingly, there is also evidence that older entrepreneurs are quite successful. One study showed that entrepreneurs over the age of 40 were three times more likely to create a successful company, and another showed that start-ups owned by entrepreneurs over age 60 are more likely to be acquired or listed on the stock exchange. Clearly, entrepreneurship programmes aimed at this demographic could be a great opportunity.

In sum, I hope that we all make the efforts to not only make our workplaces more inclusive and welcoming, but also that we take the extra time to consider what this means for our specific context.

Emily David is an Assistant Professor of Management at CEIBS. For more on her teaching and research interests, please visit her faculty profile here.