Helen Yang
To survive in China, you must understand ranking. Seats are not randomly assigned. They are allocated according to people's ranks. There are complicated rules about seating that everyone is supposed to follow. Basically, the best seats belong to those at the top of a social hierarchy. The worst seats belong to those whose ranks are the lowest. When a group of people sit down, the most important person gets seated first, and the others wait for their turn. Such seating rules apply to traditional families, business firms and bureaucracy.
Interestingly, I find that there are similar rules about allocation of offices in China. For example, in the major administration building of our university, the offices of the president and the vice presidents are located on the top floors. The offices of medium ranked divisions, such as the personnel and health insurance divisions, occupy the middle of the building. The offices of those who perform basic services are on the lowest floors. There are further economic calculations: Among those who provide basic services, the technology experts who are in charge of internet access and university ID cards, work on the first floor. Those who provide accounting services work on the third floor. This arrangement is made according to the volume of their businesses. The larger the volume of business, the lower their offices are located. The arrangement minimizes the costs of transaction- costs of climbing the floors!
To survive in China, you must understand ranking. Seats are not randomly assigned. They are allocated according to people's ranks. There are complicated rules about seating that everyone is supposed to follow. Basically, the best seats belong to those at the top of a social hierarchy. The worst seats belong to those whose ranks are the lowest. When a group of people sit down, the most important person gets seated first, and the others wait for their turn. Such seating rules apply to traditional families, business firms and bureaucracy.
Interestingly, I find that there are similar rules about allocation of offices in China. For example, in the major administration building of our university, the offices of the president and the vice presidents are located on the top floors. The offices of medium ranked divisions, such as the personnel and health insurance divisions, occupy the middle of the building. The offices of those who perform basic services are on the lowest floors. There are further economic calculations: Among those who provide basic services, the technology experts who are in charge of internet access and university ID cards, work on the first floor. Those who provide accounting services work on the third floor. This arrangement is made according to the volume of their businesses. The larger the volume of business, the lower their offices are located. The arrangement minimizes the costs of transaction- costs of climbing the floors!
In the summer, I visited the Pearl Harbor. In the Museum ship USS Missouri, I discovered a similar pattern of office and resource allocation. The highest ranked officials occupied the biggest offices and get the best resources. The lowest ranked soldiers slept in the same room and received a small portion of basic supplies. All resources were distributed strictly according to the ranking system within the ship.
Earlier this year, I visited a friend's farm in Pennsylvania. She told me something interesting about "pecking order". The strongest chicken gets the best food in the cage. The weaker ones have to wait for their leader to finish his meal. (This is something similar to the seating rule in China.) The weakest chicken gets the worst food. When a new chicken is introduced to the cage, there will be fights between the group and the stranger. After the fights, a new social order is established.
Earlier this year, I visited a friend's farm in Pennsylvania. She told me something interesting about "pecking order". The strongest chicken gets the best food in the cage. The weaker ones have to wait for their leader to finish his meal. (This is something similar to the seating rule in China.) The weakest chicken gets the worst food. When a new chicken is introduced to the cage, there will be fights between the group and the stranger. After the fights, a new social order is established.
All these stories feature a closed economy. Our school is also a relatively closed system, of course. All these closed economies use pecking order to allocate resources. Is pecking order the most efficient way to allocate resources in a closed economy?