The Trend Towards Longer Work Days: No End in Sight :: Business Management Human Resources

The Trend Towards Longer Work Days No curio in Sight One of the nearly common conceptions of the East Asiatic people and the East Asian way of life is their undeniably infrangible work ethic. many another(prenominal) people in the West believe that Asians atomic number 18 probably the most ruffianlyworking people on Earth . Many facts, including most of the available official statistics, support the view that Asians do so work longer weeks than Europeans. A Singaporean, working for a private play along with at least 25 employees, worked 47.1 hours on average in 1995, plus 4.6 hours of overtime (Department of Statistics, Singapore). Compare that to the average working time for a Swede, who deeds 34.1 hours per week (SCB Statistics Sweden). The average Japanese factory worker worked for a fare of 2124 hours in 1990, compared to 1683 hours for a French worker (Japan External Trade Organisation, JETRO). The most obvious answer to this question is Confucianism. Con fucian-based societies in Asia have during the recent decades been characterized by rapid economic growth. Confucian values permeate all of Asia, not full the Chinese part of it (Rohwer). Diligence is one of the basic values of Confucianism, in concert with perseverance, moderation and education. In the Confucian model, the social club is based on self-confidence and unequal relationships between people father and son, master and servant, husband and wife, and so on In this society, someone always has authority over someone elses life. Confucianism is besides very elitist - a someone does not have to understand it, nevertheless he does have to follow it in order to maintain the stability in society (more about Confucianism can be learnt from Encyclopedia Britannica). Because of this, hard work has always been a virtue in a Confucian society. If a person living in a Confucian society did not consider work being a virtue, the model do accepted that someone else, the top-half of the unequal relationship, reminded the lazy person and made sure he or she would return to the right path. This top-down style is throw out strengthened by the strong role the family has in the system. A person is to a greater extent considered being a part of a family, rather than an individual. All this fortifies the incentives to work hard. The Confucian system, when applied to the extreme, does not bounce anyone a choice of choosing another way of life.