China bank beatings reveal Asia-wide corporate culture flaw

ONGOING tumultuous events around the world like "Brexit", the never ending US election surprises, terrorism on a terrifying scale can easily obscure and even make invisible altogether incidents that under "normal" circumstances would generate immediate attention and even outrage. The recent YouTube broadcast of employees from a bank in China being publicly spanked for poor performance is a perfect example. The gasp-inducing footage showing employees - several women among them - recoiling at the repeated blows by a "trainer" transcends sentiments of mere outrage. It triggers frightening images that echo visions of public punishments meted out in regions like the Middle East and the kind of disbelief and incomprehension that accompanies it. But this happened in China, a country that not only considers itself an equal to progressive Western countries but is, by and large, treated as such by much of the Western world.

The incident is disturbing at many levels. The immediate suspicion one is forced to wonder over is: How prevalent are these kinds of practices, particularly in second and third-tier Chinese cities where media attention and corporate oversight are lower? Even if this turns out to be a relatively isolated occurrence, this incident does reveal a much broader reality of Asian business practices. This reality manifests and impacts employees negatively, as well as the companies that they work for, every single day.

Auditing employee attitudes