Materialism in the Second Sense
Last week I wrote about Chinese propensity to focus on the tangible as Chinese Materialism in the First Sense.
Today, I want to talk about it in the second sense.
Materialism in this sense is strong in the West and many of us have it and do not even know it. This Materialism causes us to measure our worth by what we have.
I have a bigger house, a nicer car, a fancy smart phone or what not.
Communism really quashed this as an enemy of the state back a generation, but we Westerners brought it with us and the Chinese are starting to pick it up with a vengeance.
In Two Reasons Why People Buy in China I mentioned that Chinese people buy things to show off more so on average than where I am from in Bloomington Mn. Though we do it there to.
Also in Be Know Do I mentioned that Be is a character issue and important. People measure themselves by what they are inside(Be), or by how well they do or by what they have. One is on top for everyone.
People emphasizing Have always emphasize their title, their school name, their fancy clothes, and will fight for the corner office.
People emphasizing Do work very hard, and must do well or they feel like trash. They can make good workers but they commonly have a fear of failure that is damaging to them.
People who emphasize and develop something good in their inner being make the best workers. They have nothing to prove, but work for the joy of it out of their natural self with no proving going on. People who emphasize being a crafty person in their inner being would likely be a bad choice for your team.
This is deep water and most companies cannot see which workers will hurt them every day as Chinese are adept at hiding their thinking from their boss. Materialism and proving oneself by any means are sicknesses in any company and efforts must be made to keep it out to achieve high effectiveness as an organization.