On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 12:54:36 GMT, the renowned Ignoramus3498
wrote:
Let's be mindful of one thing. There is a concept called "fundamental
attribution error". It is a mistake of attributing observed behavior
to some inner qualities of an individual, rather than mere
circumstances. These Chinese people may be acting the way they act,
because of simple economic incentives around them.
There is probably something cultural there, because it works in both
China and Taiwan. Quality is more a fixed attribute in the US, Japan,
Canada, Germany etc. In China or Taiwan, if you negotiate the price of
a widget down from $50 to $40, they'll tend to find a way to build you
a crummy $40 widget, not sell you their $50 widget for $40.
Also, they are used to living with defects in their everyday life- in
clothing, appliances and that sort of thing. A button that needs to be
resewn, a slight color mis-match, a thread out of place, a paint
blemish are not big deals. They have to be taught that it *is* a big
deal to us. A guy making a salary of $150 per *month* thinks he's a
hero if he saves a couple of dollars on a reel of 10,000 components,
for example. He doesn't necessarily realize that a few more failures
at our end at $20-$100 per hour will blow away any savings many times
over. They also deal with customers in places like India, where they
can accept 15% or 20% DOA product (really) at a sufficiently low
price, because it's so cheap to have someone go through it all.
For them, it's sort of like us dealing with a really fussy Swiss (say)
customer who's always complaining about paint finish and other
irrelevant (you might think) details on the stuff you manufacture, and
threatening to send the whole shipment back because of few smudges or
whatever. But he pays well, so you put up with it and try to give him
what he demands.
Sort of like car mechanics. An honest car mechanic would probably not
stay in business very long. So, they act like scum, and yet if they go
into another line of business, they might suddenly change into honest,
upstanding businessmen.
It's been said that 20% of people are inherently dishonest, 20% are
intrinsically honest, and the rest go either way depending on
circumstance.
snip
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
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