Focus Group (April 2014)

The departure of the four managers in late 2013 created short-term ripples in the company, resolved by a team effort by staff that recruited replacements within two months. The re-organisation and divestment of the Kunshan factory had achieved striking results in a fast manner and was financially safe; the original 150 staff

functioned as partner organisations, with 100 workers remaining in Kunshan to run the textile printing operation under Kwan Lung. Another 10 members were running a Shanghai City retail company in private party sales of luxury items to wealthy

youngsters. A further 30 staff had relocated to Guangzhou to run an internet research service using their specialised computer skills. Finally, two teams, each of five people, had followed me to Hong Kong to run two service companies, one for IBM in business intelligence and other an operation comprising a personal jewellery courier involving physical protection, a mobile-ecommerce outfit and Russian petroleum imports.

The group of companies went through a challenging time when four managers decided to leave in early 2013, however their departures brought staff together, sharing a strong vision with the remaining corporate members of a smooth and successful transition into five profitable business units. The constructs and operationalised variables of Chinese community relationships and the learning organisation were qualitatively reviewed and early in 2014 the management team decided to conduct an in-depth examination of these variables with groups of factory members. The first focus group meeting was planned to involve representatives from the factory in Kunshan and the spin-offs of Guangzhou’s internet research unit, Shanghai’s private party sales, the Hong Kong information technology services and the Russian petroleum unit.

There were three key outcomes from these focus group meetings. First, all the variables perceived during the preliminary qualitative interviews were revisited to determine their relative significance. Front-line staff were encouraged to share their reflections on the business development and customer engagement and were assured that there would be no penalty or obligation involved in reacting to the corporate restructure and divestment. The second outcome was that corporate directions were subject to company members’ critique and appraisal to inform the next round of corporate restructuring. Finally, a questionnaire to form an internal survey was to be drafted to develop a regression model of learning organisation operation under the mediating effect of Chinese community relationships directed at achieving fast-growing revenue. Hypotheses were developed to validate the relationship between independent, dependent and mediator variables, and partial least square regression identified the most influential constructs.

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4.7.1 Format and ethical running of focus group

In April 2014 the first internal focus group was undertaken offsite, in a local hotel, with representatives from the five business units. A summary of the focus group discussion can be found in Appendix 2.

The standard focus group preparation procedure was adopted, as discussed in Stewart and Shamdasani (2007, pp. 92-96). Open-ended questions were prepared from the output of group discussions, ‘town hall’ meetings held during the phase of introducing learning organisation, and the content analysis of unstructured interviews with key managers. The focus was on the performance of divestment.

The focus group representatives were nominated by key managers. They were team members actively involved in reforming the company for high growth in 2013– 2014.

All focus group representatives were taken to a local hotel, as it is a Chinese community custom to serve dinner before critical and formal business meetings. No strong drink was served, to ensure that everyone remained focused, and all were assured of free speech and comments during the meeting.

The trust of focus group members in the facilitator, that is, the insider researcher, meant that paper notes were adequate to capture the discussion items from the focus group, allowing for a later summary. The focus group discussion was successful and it ran until late at night. A summary report was prepared, included as Appendix 2 for reference.

Ethnical consideration remained a top priority. As seen in Section 4.5.1, there was an external witness from a local legal counsel to oversee the whole focus group. The focal point was the reflection on divestment and the comments made on the social

constructs, perceived critically in the course of the company re-organisation and new venture development.

The focus group started with a dinner and the insider researcher facilitated all

participants to share viewpoints. There was a tremendous number of opinions given. All comments were transcribed into a report and participants were asked to reconcile their comments against the written reports.

4.7.2 Outcomes from focus group

Previously, six key themes had been identified in the reports of the managers’

1) Extent of Chinese community relationships

2) Communication maturity 3) Problem-solving performance

4) Depth of customer engagement 5) New opportunity discovery

6) Shared vision and knowledge.

The discussion lasted for three hours and covered all existing key themes, constructs, staff personal reflections and group comments. Some constructs and operationalised variables were refined or removed following input from focus group participants. All the newly refined constructs were incorporated with the elements from the Chinese

community relationships and learning organisation (Table 4:2).

Table 4-2: Refined constructs upon April 2014 focus group

1. Outside-in corporate mentality An indicator of a company able to tap into external resources to renew itself. It is similar to the paradigm of open innovation.

2. Personal recommendation A manifestation of exchange of favours in a Chinese community relationship. Furthermore, word of mouth has a major role and forms the foundation of Chinese community relationships.

3. Cross-boundary relationships This is utilised in my factory to solicit new business ideas for fast growth and revenue. Chinese

community relationships (guanxi) and shared vision (learning organisation) facilitate a stronger public and private relationship among company members and external friends.

4. Risk foresight This is not covered in qualitative interview but was highlighted by focus group participants. This is sensible since a trusting Chinese community relationships will remark on connected nodes of potential risk and hazard in the course of development and operation.

5. Team shared quick vision This is an extension of Peter Senge’s learning organisation model. It incorporates the elements of ‘quickness’, ‘promptness’ and ‘swift response’ into a shared vision across the internal and external team.

Both the onstructs and operationalised variables drawn from qualitative interviews (Table 4.1) and the refined constructs from the April 2014 focus group (Table 4.2), persisted in integrating Chinese community relationships with a learning organisation.

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The focus group regarded these two items as inseparable, working well together to enhance both commercial performance and other aspects.