As a follow up to a previous post, where I mentioned that HR in China is going to have difficulties dealing with issues like collective bargaining, I offer up this illustration from the Financial Times of how not to deal with conflict in the labor force:

NSG has asked the workers to prepare “a repentance letter” and meet management and HR on Thursday to discuss resuming work. Mr Watanabe says the factory meets all government safety standards: “They believe there is a safety issue, but they are wrong,” he says. An NSG HR official says workers “don’t trust us”.

Talk about retrograde. Should they present the letter on their knees? If the company believes the employees are wrong isn’t it management’s, and more specifically HR’s, job to prove them wrong? If staff don’t trust the company, who’s responsible for the history of negative interactions that led to this outcome?

Time to revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.