11.12 Case Study: American Factory

American Factory is a current and relevant documentary released in August 21, 2019. It is 1 hour 55 minutes in length. The film documents in post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire who opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant near Dayton, Ohio (Moraine). He hires 2000 American workers. Early days show hope and optimism. However, this gives way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America. The company is Fuyao owned by Cao Dewang. The chairman is Cho Tak Wong. The company builds windshields. In 2016, Cao opened a division of his global auto-glass manufacturing company, in a deserted General Motors factory. General Motors had blamed collapsing S.U.V. car sales when it closed the plant. It was known as the General Motors Moraine Assembly Plan which employed thousands of workers. They were all out of work. The factory remained idle until Fuyao announced it was taking it over, investing millions and hiring hundreds of local workers, and eventually 2000 workers. Fyuao revitalized the local industrial sector for the area. It had suffered hard times during and after the closure.

The films filmmakers, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, who live outside of Dayton, Ohio documented the General Motors plant when it closed. They included the image of the last truck rolling off the line in another film in 2009 “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” (option to watch this short film on the internet.).

The documentary charts the economic and social issues that converge when the Chinese company moves into the former General Motors plant. The story they tell is complex, stirs feelings, is timely and spans continents as it surveys the past, present and future of American labour. The film does not promote an ideology or political agenda. However, it tells a powerful story about how globalization and the loss of industrial jobs affects workers, communities, the future of work. The culture clashes, growing pains and eventually different forms of internal and external pushbacks evolved that the Chines company did not understand.

In American, “freedom” is cherished. A Fuyao employee was quoted as saying, “As long as you’re not doing anything illegal, you’re free to follow your heart. You can even joke about the president. Nobody will do anything to you.”. The employees were somewhat disbelieving. The film captivates this notion of “freedom” that was promised, however was limited and really an illusion. It shows how the word “freedom” means very different things around the world.

When the company opens it brings many Chinese employees, who have experience in running a large-scale glass-making operation. They come to training the 2000 new American workers, most of whom are former General Motors employees. The film captures the operation and work processes on the plant floor, boardroom negotiations, and a unionization battle.

The story is about two different workplace cultures trying to figure out how to interact when both cultures have very different traits, patterns of behaviour worldviews, value systems and systems of social organization. Fuyao needs to figure out how to provide internal consistency and yet allow for differentiation across the employee groups. They strive to balance the dualities.

The Human Resources roles of providing expertise (policies, tools and processes) are met with resistance by the American workers. Fuyao wants to deliver a low-cost high-quality product. They struggle to meet the Human Resources outcomes (competencies, commitment and competition). As much as Fuyao tries to understand and respond to the local responsiveness through the workers, the culture differences, institutional differences, and the diversity due to network influences becomes a battle. The local American culture and the Chinese culture differences impact most of the management practices related to authority, teamwork and performance appraisals.

These challenges begin to play out by Fuyao’s reputation becoming tarnished, local employees leave the company, a loss of control by Fuyao erupts when there is union campaigns, ethical practices are challenged, and health and safety issues arise. Global standardization by Feyao begins to fall apart (consistency, health and safety, and the work processes). For people-related elements, training and socialization becomes a problem. The complexities between the two cultures do not follow the idea of “effective global standardization requires simplification.”

Sources: The New York Times, n.d., and Sims, 2019.

Questions:

Review the short movie; and answer the questions.

1. What recruitment and selection errors were made by both the Americans and the Chinese? How would they have avoided these issues?
2. What types of training and development could have been provided by the Chinese to support the American workers?
3. Communication played a big role in the downfall of the company. What could both the American and Chinese done to improve and stabilize communication?