Boss Lady: How Female Chinese Managers Succeed in China's Guanxi System

Withers, Charles Palmer (2015) Boss Lady: How Female Chinese Managers Succeed in China's Guanxi System. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Guo Gang from Sociology , The University of Mississippi .

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Abstract

This project examines how female Chinese managers within China’s traditionally male-dominated, guanxi-related private sector are coming into their own as leaders of the new Chinese economy. In this project, guanxi (关系) is defined as “interpersonal relations and connections” and research hinges around investigating how female Chinese managers use, or do not use, guanxi in their careers and personal lives. After establishing a background of preexisting scholarship, this project implements a Case Study Analysis chapter on three “self made” female entrepreneurs followed by an “Interview Analysis” chapter conducted with four female managers that took place in May, 2014. The goal of these two chapters is to find what common factors influenced three female entrepreneurs to achieve success and then apply these findings via four hypotheses to the Interview Analysis portion. In this way, research examines the personal stories of four female Chinese managers as well as a more traditional Case Study analysis of three wildly successful female entrepreneurs. The combination of a case study analysis combined with a series of interviews is rare in this field as preexisting scholarship pertaining to how women interact with China’s traditional guanxi-dependent corporate culture is rare. This project discovers how female Chinese managers are building their own female-centric guanxi networks as well as implementing new managerial strategies to safeguard their newfound positions of power. At the conclusion of this project, a new trend of female-led guanxi networks emerges as well as how women are now becoming power-players within China’s private sector.

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