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his, the growth of enterprises in China has exponentially increased demand for skills and motivated workers (Ke. et al, 2006).

Another implication of these historical events are that many managers' existing knowledge, skills and abilities have become obsolete and inadequate to cope with competitive business environments because of the state run systems and their lack of exposure to competitive markets. This is especially true for older managers, particularly in SOE's who hold no education beyond a high school diploma and have been appointed or promoted to existing positions because of cultural reasons or status (Lau & Roffey, 2002). Under a market-oriented economy, there would be emphasis on performance, individual accountability and strategic decision making but this was not to be as these managers followed and implemented decisions made by state and local governments (Zhu & Nyland, 2004).

Evidently, there is a significant gap between organizations' requirements and managers' competencies and skills, especially in areas such as HR, marketing, and organizational analysis, which appear as relatively new concepts in China.

Interestingly, organisations that successfully address the skills shortage in China stand out in a number of ways. According to Shen & Edwards (2004), the most effective organisations have a clear strategic view of their labour talent needs four to five years ahead, segment their executives and identify gaps at all levels of the organization. They develop and adopt sophisticated external-recruiting techniques coupled with internal-development and training programs adapted to the local Chinese environment. As such, to address this issue, managers of MNE's in China might need to know more about simplifying products, that is, localise techniques that have worked elsewhere globally and look into finding low-capital solutions, managing strategic alliances and government relations. A higher level of cultural openness may be necessary as well. MNE's in China must therefore be prepared to recognize and address the differences between their talent needs in that country and in the rest of the world which again highlights the importance of cultural integration.

At telecommunications company Motorola, employees are provided with tailored offerings such as the ‘China Accelerated Management Program', for promising local managers; the ‘Motorola Management Foundation Program', to train new managers in such areas as problem solving and communication; and the ‘Motorola high-tech MBA program', a partnership with Arizona State University and Tsinghua University, which allows high-performing employees in China to earn an MBA (China Economic Review, 2009). Incentives like these also contribute to the retention of valuable skilled employees and essentially demonstrate that the MNE see “human capital” as a valuable resource, requiring investment and sound management in order to receive the best possible returns. Another example of an organisation retaining skilled talent is of Lenovo who promote young talent aggressively within, with three of its seven most senior executives are under 40 years old. (China Economic Review, 2009.

Ultimately, China proves to be a juggling act for MNE's that choose to invest into a market of extremes, with imbalances in supply and demand of skilled talent and exposure to frequently changing corporate and social domains that pose