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

The Trend Towards Longer Work Days No End in Sight One of the most common conceptions of the easterly Asian people and the East Asian way of life is their undeniably difficult spring ethic. Many people in the West believe that Asians are probably the most hardworking people on Earth . Many facts, including most of the available official statistics, support the view that Asians do indeed work longer weeks than Europeans. A Singaporean, working for a private company with at least 25 employees, worked 47.1 hours on average in 1995, plus 4.6 hours of overtime (Department of Statistics, Singapore). canvass that to the average working time for a Swede, who works 34.1 hours per week (SCB Statistics Sweden). The average Japanese factory worker worked for a total of 2124 hours in 1990, compared to 1683 hours for a cut worker (Japan External Trade Organisation, JETRO). The most obvious answer to this question is Confucianism. Confucian- ground societies in Asia have during th e recent decades been characterized by rapid economic growth. Confucian values fathom all of Asia, not just the Chinese part of it (Rohwer). Diligence is one of the basic values of Confucianism, together with perseverance, moderation and education. In the Confucian model, the society is based on authority and unequal relationships between people father and son, master and servant, husband and wife, etc. In this society, mortal always has authority over someone elses life. Confucianism is also very elitist - a person does not have to understand it, but he does have to follow it in order to maintain the constancy 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 made sure that someone else, the top-half of the unequal relationship, reminded the lazy person and made sure he or she would r eturn to the right path. This top-down style is further 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 give anyone a choice of choosing another way of life.