Culture and

Culture and transformational transformational

change with China’s accession change
to the WTO
147
The challenge for action research
Maurice Yolles
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Paul Iles
Teesside Business School, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK, and
Kaijun Guo
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Abstract
Purpose – China is passing through transformational change from membership of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), and this requires an understanding of knowledge processes and of how action
research approaches to organizational development (OD) can lead to effective knowledge migration. The
paper seeks to provide an example of such an approach, based on social viable systems (SVS) theory.
Design/methodology/approach – Illustration of the problems of WTO will be indicated.
Approaches to OD in China based on action research perspectives may be particularly suitable to
helping Chinese organisations deal with transformational change.
Findings – A new model of action research that draws on SVS theory is discussed, and an
illustration of a structured approach to inquiry is provided. It is hypothesised that such an approach
may well be compatible with features of Chinese business culture (e.g. long-term focus, pragmatism,
collectivism, moderate masculinity, face, lack of comfort with face-to-face criticism).
Research/limitations/implications – This is a conceptual paper, developing a model for use/testing
in the Chinese context. Further empirical research is need to validate the usefulness of the model.
Originality/value – Suggests that action research/action learning approaches are particularly useful
in China to transfer/migrate knowledge and help organisations deal with transformational change,
such as that consequent on globalisation and WTO accession. Approaches based on SVS theory are
seen as particularly useful if dialogue is structured to enhance “semantic entanglement”.
Keywords China, Action research, Organizational development, Knowledge transfer,
Transformational leadership
Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction
China is passing through a process of social and cultural change that is transforming
not only its traditional values and beliefs, but also the way that it makes decisions and
creates and distributes its products. Such changes include its recent (2001) membership
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which have an impact on processes of Journal of Technology Management
globalisation as Chinese enterprises begin to gain access to global markets and in China
Vol. 1 No. 2, 2006
organisations with international missions engage in activities in China. This also pp. 147-158
affects organisational fitness as organisations attempt to shift their paradigms to meet
the demands of WTO as the rules that conditions and facilitate their operations change.
JTMC It provides an enormous challenge to China and its enterprises and its impact will be
1,2 profound and problematic as organisations, and indeed the governance of the country
as a whole, passes through the change process. Story (2004) argues that WTO entry
was backed by party “reformers” to raise China’s salience as a key global player, and
whilst market adjustment will be painful, WTO accession gives Beijing a major
opportunity to re-establish central control and regulation over regional barons. In this
148 paper, we will focus on the impact of WTO entry, and on how organization
development (OD) should respond to these challenges.
If such change is to happen, people in China need to be able to appreciate the
relationship between structural and cultural change, and learn how to adapt their
organisations and change their cultures. The problem is that this type of change is not
only very painful, but also very difficult. The west has passed through such changes,
and has developed ways of understanding how to manage it and how to dramatically
change organisations and indeed societies so that they can be responsive to the new
needs of a changing world. These new patterns of knowledge are culturally based, but
they also entertain principles that are beyond culture.
So, how can Chinese learn from the west? How can knowledge be moved from one
society to another? One way is for Chinese managers to go to the west to take courses in
management. For example, starting in the late 70s China has been sending large
numbers of managers and professionals to study or take training courses abroad;
according to statistics presented by Sun and Jellis (2004) the accumulated number of
personnel who had taken overseas training was over 400,000 by the end of 2001 in
order to bring new ideas, approaches and competences to Chinese organisations. Doing
this they have a chance of learning about western culture, and appreciating some of
what is being said in course programmes. However, there is little in the way
of systematic evaluation of such programmes: Sun and Jellis (2004) in a study of
66 Chinese managers who had taken training courses abroad found that most trainees
were selected by nomination from their boss in non-transparent ways, with little input
from the trainee, much self- selection by directors, and rubber-stamping by the HR
department. Some institutions delivered modules designed for local students with little
reference to Chinese practice, restricted use of case studies, and a failure to meet
managers’ expectations. Other problems occurred over culture-shock, language
deficiencies limiting group participation, and problems using interpreters.
Another way if for courses and tutors to go to China, and this can be a more difficult
pathway if the course material is not delivered by teachers who are attuned to Chinese
culture, because they cannot couch meanings in the appropriate way. Fundamentally, the
problem lies in the process of transferring knowledge from one culture to another, and this
process we claim is not possible unless it is accompanied through experience and the
development of tacit knowledge. The problem of mapping knowledge from one culture to
another is what we refer to as knowledge migration. Knowledge is sent from a source to a
sink in a communication that acts as a catalyst, enabling source knowledge to be
assembled afresh in the sink. The problem is that the relationship between source and sink
knowledge may not be close. We can only ever know by examining the behaviours of
people with that knowledge to see if it is similar to the behaviour that we would take. But it
can never fully be, because we are all different. In the end, knowledge migration can be
positive because it creates variety in understanding. However, it can also create myths,
and these can be used in ways that are not to the advantage of either the source or the sink.
 One way of overcoming the problem of knowledge migration is to establish new Culture and
ways of implementing OD. Action research approaches provide a solution, particularly transformational
when they engage with a process that we refer to as semantic entanglement, leading to
effective knowledge migration; concepts that we shall discuss in due course. We also change
contend that unlike more interpersonal approaches to OD, action research approaches
are useful in China because they may be compatible with dimensions of Chinese
culture, and may help Chinese organisations to manage transformational change 149
following WTO accession.
The aims of this paper are to:
.
discuss the impact of WTO accession on Chinese organisations, in particular
their need to manage transformational change;
.
explore transformational change in social viable systems (SVS) theory terms;
.
discuss the role of western management knowledge in facilitating change in
Chinese organisations, and the role of action research approaches to facilitating
knowledge migration and OD; and
.
discuss a particular approach to action research and OD that draws on SVS
theory, and discuss its potential in facilitating organisational change in Chinese
organisations.

Explaining social revolution as a cultural change

China’s joining of WTO is expected to help to encourage effective competition
in organisations, bringing many challenges. Companies will have to transform
themselves to enable them to deal with them. This will not only involve a change in
management approach, but much more fundamental changes, including encouraging
international cooperation to help develop companies and requiring that organisations
will have to pass through a transition due to the new set of international regulations
and practices that WTO will bring (China Daily, 2002).
An illustration of the changes to be dealt with, from the WTO accord, include: trade
liberalisation; more privatisation and reduced State trading; changes in economic and
regulatory behaviour; Internationalisation of product standards; rights for
international import/export trading, leading to new product markets; new rights to
invest and establish subsidiaries; right to choose one’s own joint venture partner;
cultural conflicts as China’s enterprises balance the use of political connections with
commercial ones; changes in effectiveness and efficiencies of companies; and greater
failure rate for enterprises not understanding the meaning and implication of the
regulations. It seems, therefore, that China is passing through a social revolution,
perhaps more profound than Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution.
All forms of social revolution can be explained in cultural terms. To explain this we
adopt here the cybernetic SVS theory based on the work of Eric Schwarz (Yolles, 1999). It is
concerned with social communities that have both a social and cultural system.
Sophisticated cybernetic processes populate the relationship between the social and
cultural systems. Such a sociocultural systems approach can be expressed in terms of three
ontologically distinct domains contained in a model now called SVS due to Yolles (2006).
These domains are: phenomenal (with its social system defined in terms of structures and
social behaviours), noumenal (with its virtual system defined in terms of ideate “mental”
images and systems of thought), and the existential (with its cultural metasystem that
JTMC guides the phenomenal/noumenal couple). This recognises that every coherent social
1,2 community has its own culture made up of individuals that, while having their individual
worldviews, contribute in some way to a shared social paradigm. The nature of social
behaviour changes together with culture. In some further work in process these three
distinct systems can also be associated with intelligent collectives, and within this can
have assigned metaphorical psychological attributes of consciousness, sub-consciousness
150 and unconsciousness. These Freudian notions can be placed in terms of Wollheim’s (1999)
notion about mentality, or in our terms, collective mentality. There are two mental aspects:
state and disposition. Mental state consists of impulses, perceptions, imaginings and
drives and may be directly related to the Freudian concept of the Id; it is also temporally
local to the events that initiate it, transient, relatively brief, and can reoccur frequently to
give the impression of maintaining continuity. Mental disposition consists of beliefs,
knowledge, memories, abilities, phobias and obsessions are examples of mental
dispositions, and it has duration and history (and is therefore said to be temporally global).
Both mental states and dispositions are causally related, mental state being able to initiate,
terminate, reinforce and attenuate mental disposition. Mental dispositions can also
facilitate mental states. Three very general properties characterize these two types of
mental phenomena: intentionality, subjectivity and three exclusive grades of
consciousness (conscious, preconscious and unconscious). According to Davis (2000),
for Wollheim subjectivity may be only associated with mental states, while mental
dispositions can only be indirectly experienced through the mental states in which they are
manifest. Emotions also play a part in this structure. Emotions are preconscious mental
dispositions and cannot be directly experienced, while feelings are mental states
(associated with mental dispositions) that can be experienced. A pragmatic
epistemological representation of the domains is shown in Figure 1 in which the
sociocultural collective is seen as responsive to change from the environment (adapted
from Yolles, 1999; Iles and Yolles, 2002, 2003).

Phenomenal /
Existential/
Behavioural domain
Cognitive
Noumenal /
Knowledge migrating / domain
organising
Other actors social interacting Culture
& domain
(values, attitudes,
their behaviours Knowledge
beliefs,language,
coalescing
collective mental states)
Virtual images
attenuating Actor
Structure / impacting
infrastructure Paradigm(s)/
altering organising influencing worldviews(s),
Impact of collective mental
disturbing Situation
phenomena dispositions
e.g., regulation, framing Identification
facilitating
technology & constraining Polity/order knowledge for
from decisions using contextual creating
elaboration (thematic)
attenuating attritioning knowledge decision
Behaviour processes
using executor
Formation /
knowledge
Figure 1. Implementation /
The SVS model as an politics/operative
influence diagram management
There is a recognised need to develop the educational potential of young people in Culture and
China. An illustration for the need of new managers is as follows: a perceived need to transformational
privatise 400,000 state-owned enterprises; the Chinese economy has had an expansion
of above 8 per cent since 1979; however, from 1996 to 1998, 108 state-owned enterprises change
were declared bankrupt, and 80,000 people lost their jobs. China too has one of the most
active joint venture markets, but joint ventures across diverse cultures are highly
problematic; there is a lack of knowledge of the competitive business market in China. 151
In old style China, universities did not teach management education. Today there has
been a significant development of management education through MBA programmes.
Most of these have been imported from the west, and ties with western higher
education institutions are strengthening.

The migration of western management knowledge, and action research

workshop approaches
There are always major problems associated with knowledge migration for complex
messages across diverse cultures. These are illustrated by the problem of the delivery
of formal programmes like MBAs, where experts from one culture attempt to impart
knowledge to learners from another. It involves two types of knowledge, tacit and
explicit. Tacit knowledge is personal, private, and developed through experience,
relating to know-how and skill. It is essential to effective management. Explicit
knowledge is codified, and expressed in some other way such that it may be
transferable. When knowledge is made explicit by a tacit knowledge holder, the task is
undertaken with particular meanings in mind that are reflected in the person’s patterns
of knowledge.
Western MBA programmes often use group workshops to attempt to develop tacit
knowledge. There is no tradition of this in China, and students are unaccustomed to it.
However, managers and students may respond positively to action oriented, long term,
collective approaches to organization development, especially with the support of top
management. (Hofstede, 2001).
One such approach combines action research and action learning. It is always
problematic to transfer intended meanings associated with explicit knowledge because
a knowledge source will have distinct patterns of knowledge from a sink (the person
who will use the knowledge). In complex situations this is called knowledge migration.
The problems of knowledge migration are more obvious in widely diverse cultures that
have distinct ways of seeing (e.g. Iles and Yolles, 2002, 2003). One approach that may
be very useful in such contexts, reflecting the “community” model of knowledge
transfer in China, is action research and learning. In complex situations that have
messy problems, like that of the WTO, structured methods of inquiry are required to
improve the capacity of organisations to improve. All of these involve knowledge
development processes. The shift from a mess to a difficulty requires a structured
approach to inquiry. There are two approaches in action research inquiry: open and
directed. In open action research people devise their own structure for inquiry through
discussion and dialectic, but in directed action research the structure is provided
through a predefined paradigm.
A fundamental problem of making western knowledge available in Chinese culture
is due to knowledge migration. There is probably an inverse relationship between the
effectiveness of migrating knowledge across diverse cultures with different sets of
JTMC characteristics, patterns of belief, and horizons of knowledge. By knowledge migration
1,2 effectiveness we mean that capacity to effectively create a tacit knowledge that can
result in similar patterns of behaviour in a given situation and with similar purposes
and interests.
However, it is difficult to measure effective knowledge migration. There is an
alternative to this, and we refer to it as semantic entanglement. Let us explain this
152 term, that originally derives from quantum physics. Both geometric and dynamic
aspects of groups engaged in communication can be explored within the context of
action research – that is researching through group action. Action research is often
taken to be synonymous with action learning. If we wished to differentiate between
them, we could say that action research is directed to group processes for discovering
relevant knowledge sources and using them. Action learning, however, is directed at
acquiring that knowledge through a process of either personal or organisational
internalisation through a process of social reflection, occurring through semantic
communication within lifeworld (Schutz and Luckmann, 1974) processes in which
meaningful communications occur between speakers and hearers who meet for
intersubjective affairs like dealing with validity claims, settle disagreements and
achieve agreements; it appears as a reservoir of taken-for-granteds, or unspoken
convictions that participants in communication draw upon in cooperative processes of
interpretation (Habermas, 1987). Action research involves processes of inquiry, and
works together with action learning through the primary (normally referred to as tacit
knowledge) knowledge creation that occurs through direct experience. When we refer
to action research we will imply action learning. While action research enables
intervention strategies to be created through structured inquiry, action learning
provides for relevant understanding and meaning to occur.
Thus, action research is a participant centred approach to structured inquiry
through understanding, leading to intervention strategies for change anticipated
within its dynamics. The geometry of semantic communication is central to this. For
action learning to occur the geometries should entangle experiential (or primary)
knowledge amongst the participants (the semantic entanglement), thus improving the
possibility of creating normative (objectivised relative to the socioculture) meaning.
Exploring structurally the dynamic processes of action research therefore provides
illumination about the dynamics of semantic communication that connects to inquiry
and intervention.
Action research is a flexible group approach to inquiry that seeks interventions
through inquiry by means that can produce coherence in complex situations. The
coherence is enabled because it draws on the knowledge of all the participants,
providing a greater potential to represent the problem situation as a whole. The group
inquiry process thus enables messes to be transformed into difficulties, and
intervention strategies to result that can improve a problem situation. Both Bennett
(1983) and Burnes (1992) support the idea that action research has two base
propositions, which are:
P1. Change requires action.
P2. Successful action is based on analysing the situation correctly, identifying all
the possible alternative solutions, and choosing the one most appropriate to
the situation at hand.
The second proposition adopts a rational positivist perspective, and thus suffers from Culture and
two problems that centre on the idea that problem situations are usually messes that transformational
occur in a complex world. The word “solution” implies that a problem situation can be
eliminated. However, it may only be possible to improve the situation through the change
creation and use of intervention strategies. Not all the possible alternative intervention
strategies may be identifiable. Action research begins with a desire to be involved with
the application of one’s scientific interests and discoveries, and is driven by both 153
intellectual pursuits and curiosities, and the interests and needs of the community of
which it is part (Maruyama, 1996). Thus, action research is likely to be used to address
needs that emerge as most important within communities rather than needs of small
numbers of individuals. Action research can also be defined as research on action with
the goal of making that action more effective (French and Bell, 1984). At least two
forms of action can be identified relating to inquiry and intervention. Our interest in
this article will centre on inquiry action.
In inquiry action an effective approach to finding appropriate intervention
strategies for problem situations must involve a rational, systematic analysis of the
issues in question (Burnes, 1992). It must be an approach that secures information,
hypotheses and action from all parties involved through collaboration, as well as
evaluating the action taken towards improvement for the problem situation. It is part
of a change process that must become a learning situation. Here, the participants learn
from the research process, the use of theory to investigate the problem and identify
improvement, and the process of collaborative action itself.
Action research, and in particular inquiry action, is able to define the medium
through which a problem situation is perceived and may be changed. It provides a
forum in which the interests, purposes and ethics of the various parties to this process
may be developed. It is a cyclic process, whereby the group analyses a problem
situation through a succession of iterations. Through coordination, the change agent
links the different insights and activities within the group so as to form a coherent
chain of ideas and hypotheses. A change agent, we should note, is an individual or
group that creates an intervention strategy for change, and the purpose of the change
agent is to create a learning system in which more can be learned about the
possibilities of change. Action research is also a dynamic inquiry process. The form of
an inquiry will provide insights concerning the perceived problems that will lead to
practical help in the problem situation. From the above discussion, experiences using
inquiry action will enable it to be gradually improved. This requires that information
can be secured, research questions asked, and intervention action taken from at least
all the facilitators involved. Those involved, whether facilitators or stakeholders,
should be able to evaluate the potential for change, and agree on action taken towards
change that will then be implemented.
There are many forms of action research that engage with different degrees of
semantic entanglement, and some are more able to encourage this than others. Beer
(1994) proposed one approach that represents communication processes
metaphorically in terms of the geometry of a molecule, in particular the icosahedron.
There are variations on this (Ahmad, 1999), and one of these is the octahedron. The
important aspect of the geometric structure does not concern how many sides it has
(i.e. 30 for the icosahedron, or 8 for the octahedron), but rather the structural
relationships defined within it. We can describe a geometrical structure in terms of
JTMC vertices, struts and faces. Thus, an octahedron has eight struts, six vertices, three
1,2 internal connections (dotted lines), and eight faces (Figure 2). This can be used as a
metaphor to structure group communication. What is important in this metaphor is
that communication geometry designs are symmetrical. This is because they are
human resource efficient, and efficacious in that they provide a potential for semantic
entanglement. In contradistinction, non-symmetric geometries are not efficient, and
154 provide a potential for power centred communications processes in which people may
become marginalised and semantic entanglement becomes bounded.
We have said that the term semantic entanglement derives from the notion of
quantum theory, in particular in the theory of quantum information (Bennett, 2000).
Quantum entanglement is the non-classical correlations exhibited among the parts of a
composite quantum system, and it has been well demonstrated in the laboratory
(Matthews, 2001). When two photons that that are separated across space have no
apparent connection but that are in some way paired, they can have shared destinies,
and interact with one another,, respectively, influencing the motion or energy state of
the other. Measuring the information of one of the pair thus implicitly provides
information about that of the other, without further measurement. Quantum
entanglement can be created, stored and distributed in a network (Mullins, 2000).
This same principle can be applied to action research communities to enable
entangled communication geometries that will help the semantic transmission process,
and thereby improve the potential to overcome misunderstandings due to knowledge
migration. Semantic entanglement refers to the accessible distribution for primary
knowledge across the vertices of the communication geometry that enhances lifeworld
process between groups within an action research community. This makes
understanding more effective because primary knowledge enables more cohesive
understanding. This is as opposed to secondary knowledge, for which universal
meaning across the geometry can be more limited because of the principle of
knowledge migration. Shortly, we shall explain the notion of entanglement.
We recall that an action research group is defined within a frame of reference that
involves a number of themes connected to a single topic of interest directly associated
with a problem situation. Each theme is an action research event, and each event
within the geometry should be meaningfully entangled with every other event to form
a universal knowledge and meaning.

Blue

Strut (participant /dialogue)

Green
Red
Critic Vertex (team /topic /
Yellow
event / local lifeworld)
Figure 2. Scribe
Geometry of an
Orange
octahedron showing how
semantic entanglement
can develop within action
research meetings

White
Thus, in the geometry of Figure 2, if each of the six events is mutually entangled, each Culture and
event will have information ascribed to it that is also a property of the other events. transformational
The entanglement occurs either through strut participants or critics/scribes.
Reminiscent of Luhmann’s social theory of communication (Luhmann, 1995) a strut change
participant can be seen as a dialogue. Thus, an event is the result of an interaction of
dialogues in a local lifeworld that generates normative meaning and agreement over a
given theme. However, the character of each local lifeworld will be distinct due to its 155
worldview composition, and hence the nature of the normative meanings will differ
from one local lifeworld to another.
We have said that our interest in entanglement relates to primary knowledge,
because this contributes more to effectively countering the knowledge migration
process than secondary knowledge. The explanation of this is as follows. Since, not all
participants will have direct experience of all local lifeworlds, then not all participants
will have primary knowledge of all thematic dialogues either. This may not be a major
problem when geometries are small like that of the octagon, because the greatest
unconnected distance between any two local lifeworlds will be short. Thus, in Figure 2,
yellow and red vertices will only be separated by one vertex (blue, green white or
orange), while in an icosahedron there will be more intervening vertices that distances
common meaning. This implies an entanglement principle:
The effectiveness of establishing coherent meaning across an organisation is dependent upon
the proportion that entangles primary knowledge. Coherent meaning between two groups is
inversely related to the number of untangled thematic events that intervene between them.
One way of addressing this in an entangled geometry is to give an additional role
to a scribe. It will have to be that of relating, from primary knowledge, the
normative meanings that have been developed in distant local lifeworlds. This
provides the primary knowledge entanglement that we have been considering with
respect to the whole geometry of the action research group.
In this way, any developments of understanding and meaning that occur in one
theme are reflected in changes in the others. As in quantum processes, this can be
expressed in terms of holistic event correlations within the self-organising group
process. These correlations relate to the information contained in the geometry,
which is reflected in the communication dialogues.
Projection of the whole quantum geometry results in meaning that may be thought
of as conceptually filling the internal space of the geometry. This appears to relate to
Beatty’s (1994, p. 324) concept of a meaning space. It is only through the participants of
an action research group that meaning can evolve. As the participant membership
changes, so the nature of quantum entanglement also changes, as does meaning.
This has implication for the description of syntegrations that occur electronically with
a fluxing participant membership, rather than personally and with more membership
continuity.

Reflection
Entry to the WTO in China will impact on Chinese organizations in both the state and
independently owned sectors, requiring organizational transformation. This is
particularly evident in the banking industry. Approaches to OD are undeveloped in
China, but Chinese organizations may respond well to action research/action learning
JTMC based approaches that are aligned with their long-term, pragmatic and collectivist
1,2 orientations and tolerance for ambiguity (Hofstede, 2001). One way of developing such
an approach is based on SVS theory.
Action research approaches are needed that will create semantic entanglement,
enabling the implicit problems of knowledge migration inherent in traditional training
programmes that intend to deliver management principles capable of dealing with
156 such change processes.
The implications of the ideas of this paper about the knowledge migration and
semantic entanglement has implications for all forms of cross cultural process, from
education in western approaches to management (as occurs through Master’s
programmes) to joint ventures or alliances (Yolles, 2000; Iles and Yolles, 2003).
It suggests in either case the need for situation based action research approaches with
cross cultural participants to encourage effective knowledge migration; effective in
that it results in semantic entanglement and facilitates organization development and
transformational change.

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Further reading
Butterfield, F. (1982), China: Alive in the Bitter Sea, Times Books, New York, NY.
Kluckhohn, F.R. and Strodtbeck, F.L. (1961), Variations in Value Orientations, Row, Peterson,
Evanston, IL.
Lowe, S. and Oswick, C. (1996) in Gatley, S., Lessem, R. and Altman, Y. (Eds), Culture: The
Invisible Filters, Chapter 6, McGraw-Hill, London, pp. 90-116, Corporate management: A
transcultural odyssey.
Yolles, M.I. and Guo, K. (2003), “Paradigmatic Metamorphosis and Organisational
Development”, Sys. Res., Vol. 20, pp. 177-1999.

About the authors

Maurice Yolles is a Professor of Management Systems at Liverpool John Moores University,
based in the Business School. His doctorate, completed more than a decade ago, was in
mathematical social theory, in particular the formal dynamics of peace and conflict. His research
book on management systems was published in 1999, and his new book Organisations as
Complex Systems is due out shortly. He has published more than 140 papers in refereed journals,
conferences and book chapters, mostly in managerial cybernetics and its development in social
collectives, International Joint Alliance Theory, and Human Resource Management. He is the
editor of the International Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change (OTSC).
He is also the vice president of the International Society of Systems Science. His main teaching
area is in Change and Knowledge Management, and he heads the Centre for Creating Coherent
Change and Knowledge. Within this context he has also been involved in, and run, a number of
international research and development projects for the EU under various programmes within
countries experiencing transformational change, including involvement in TEMPUS projects in
central and eastern European countries. He has also lectured and run organisational change
JTMC programmes in China. Maurice Yolles is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
m.yolles@livjm.ac.uk
1,2 Paul Iles is the Professor of Strategic HRM and Head of the Centre for Leadership and
Organisational Change at Teesside Business School, University of Teesside, UK. A Chartered
Fellow of the CIPD, chartered psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological
Society, his research interests are in the areas of HRM, HRD, and international HRM. He was
previously at the Open University Business School and Liverpool John Moores University. He is
158 the co-editor of the International Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social
Change and assistant editor of the Journal of Technology Management in China. He is also
the Vice-President of the Chinese association for Management of Technology and is on the
editorial boards of the Journal of Managerial Psychology and Journal of European Industrial
Training. He has published in among other journals Human Relations, the British Journal of
Management, Leadership, and the International Journal of Human Resource Management.
E-mail: paul.iles@tees.ac.uk
Kaijun Guo was a lecturer in a Chinese institution, who eventually moved on to become
involved in the Chinese banking system, where he developed managerial experience.
He has recently completed his doctorate in Management Systems at Liverpool John Moores
University and is currently a consultant in organisational development and change.
E-mail: guokj@yahoo.com

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