'Face' and psychological processes of laid-off workers in transitional China

B Wang; Ken Greenwood

doi:10.15212/FMCH.2015.0142

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'Face' and psychological processes of laid-off workers in transitional China

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

'Face' and psychological processes of laid-off workers in transitional China

B Wang and Ken Greenwood

Family Medicine and Community Health, Vol.4(3), pp.51-63

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15212/FMCH.2015.0142

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Abstract

China

laid-off workers

psychological process

state-owned enterprises

unemployed workers

Objective: The objective was to explore the psychological experiences of laid-off workers in contemporary transitional China and to formulate a theoretical model of these. Methods: In-depth interviews of 26 laid-off workers were conducted and analysed using grounded theory techniques. Results: Four themes underline the psychological processes of these laid-off workers - feeling of loss, feeling of physical pain, feeling of fatalism, and final acceptance. These are characterized by Chinese culture and its philosophy - feeling of loss is dominated by their loss of face (diu mianzi), physical pain is a somatization of their mental painfulness, their fatalism is traced back to the Chinese ancient theocratic concept of Tian Ming, and their acceptance of reality to their final making face (zheng mianzi) is sourced from both Confucianism and Daoism. Conclusion: The psychological experience of laid-off workers (or unemployed workers) is likely to have varied manifestations in different cultural contexts. The psychological processes of Chinese laid-off workers (or unemployed workers) might be different from those of laid-off workers in Western countries. A therapeutic intervention to cater for the needs of laid-off workers derived from the four themes might be effective. © 2016 Family Medicine and Community Health.

Details

Title: 'Face' and psychological processes of laid-off workers in transitional China
Authors: B Wang (Author) - Edith Cowan University
Ken Greenwood (Author) - James Cook University
Publication details: Family Medicine and Community Health, Vol.4(3), pp.51-63
Publisher: Family Medicine and Community Health
Date published: 2016
DOI: 10.15212/FMCH.2015.0142
ISSN: 2305-6983
Copyright note: Copyright © 2016 The Authors. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Organisation Unit: School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450907702621
Output Type: Journal article