Professionalization Requirements and Training Directions for Industry Association Staff

—Summary of Mr. Wei Xiangyun's Report at the "Advanced Management Training Course for Senior Executives of Industry Associations (Chambers of Commerce) in Developing Countries" Mr. Wei Xiangyun taking a group photo with some national association trainees

How to achieve professionalization, specialization, and youthfulness in the personnel structure of industry associations requires a comparison of the income sources and talent cultivation positioning of industry associations with those of national civil servants, state-owned enterprises, and public institutions. Unlike industry associations, increasing salary is not the sole motivation for national civil servants; their goals also include "promotion"; state-owned enterprises rely on "monopoly income" and "state-owned assets"; banks depend on "loans"; public institutions have "appropriations"; industry associations can only "ask for money," mainly through membership fees and consulting service income. The differences and amounts of income sources determine the particularity and difficulty of cultivating professional talents in industry associations. Therefore, the cultivation of full-time talents in industry associations should achieve income diversification while ensuring basic income and follow the directions below.

1. The goal of industry associations is to manage the industry well, and the positioning of their full-time talents lies in enhancing the association's influence and core competitiveness within the industry. The goals of industry associations differ from those of enterprises, whose "everything" is for "making money" and returning profits to shareholders. Industry associations are different; they not only need to "make money" but also keep their "goals" in mind at all times. Achieving these goals is a systematic project that prioritizes social benefits. They must gain recognition and trust from the government, the industry, and most enterprises within the industry. Obviously, without making money, such goals cannot be discussed. However, industry associations neither provide tangible products nor "labor" services but still need to "make money" to survive, which is indeed a paradox. As the ancients said, "A gentleman acquires wealth through proper means." Industry associations must cultivate talents who understand this principle deeply to ensure the normal operation of the association while managing the industry well.

2. Industry association work requires strategic thinking; taking one step at a time is not enough; one must think two or even ten steps ahead. Those working in industry associations should be good at planning and grasping the overall interests of the industry. When encountering and handling matters, they must think deeply and focus on creating momentum and tension for the sustainable development of their organization. For any organization, regardless of size, a small change can affect the whole. Therefore, industry association work must always follow rules, aiming to build a foundation for the organization's perpetual operation and development, cultivating an entrepreneurial culture during development and gradually transitioning to an institutional culture.
 

3. Industry associations should not only emphasize the role of full-time key personnel and fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of all employees, each performing their duties well. They should also focus on building organizational strength, with the organization cultivating talents according to the association's characteristics. This "person" refers to qualified "industry intermediary organization practitioners." Although not government "civil servants," they should have the level of government civil servants; although not entrepreneurs or a certain type of professional in enterprises, they should possess entrepreneurial concepts and use these to manage and operate their organizations. Regardless of their origin or background, they should be industry "experts" with high quality, policy understanding, and knowledge and skills.

4. The purpose of industry association work and activities is to serve the industry, benefit enterprises, and promote industrial development. It should benefit not only industry personnel but also more people related to the industry and more consumers related to the industry. Those working in industry associations bear the responsibility and mission of creating wealth and benefits for society, which obviously differs from the talent cultivation goals of enterprises.

5. Industry association work also involves competition and market games to create benefits. But it emphasizes winning by virtue, possessing the breadth, magnanimity, and tolerance to integrate industry resources and cooperate for mutual benefit with related industries. Therefore, those working in industry associations must be confident, continuously enriching their wisdom and intellect through learning and innovation, preparing for a strong breakthrough and flexible application. At the same time, they should maintain a calm mindset, remain composed during major events, uphold a dignified demeanor, never follow the crowd blindly; and be serious about small matters, starting from every detail to establish the industry's image.

6. Industry association work should start from realizing employees' and self-expectations and implement goal management. First, based on career development needs, provide employees with suitable positions, create a good development environment, and offer certain entrepreneurial opportunities, enabling them to independently complete tasks and establish their development goals to enhance work consciousness, thereby achieving a balance between life and career and a sense of achievement in career success. Second, implement a clear reward and punishment incentive system, ensuring basic income while practicing "more work, more pay" and encouraging employees to seek "incremental" development opportunities outside the system and create necessary conditions for this. This partially resolves the current "panic" due to unclear development expectations in industry associations and provides outstanding employees with career development space, even laying the groundwork for possible future "returns" to the association. Third, establish a good atmosphere for industry association work. It should reflect a team cooperation culture, with structured work instructions embedded in various rules and regulations, while allowing diverse thinking so that every employee dares and is good at openly expressing their ideas and opinions, turning correct suggestions and opinions into the driving force of industry association work.

7. Properly address the sense of achievement of professional staff in industry associations.
I believe that the sense of achievement for those currently working in industry associations should be refined into two aspects: a sense of belonging and a sense of growth.
What is a sense of belonging? It refers to the natural person's feeling of being accepted by the work unit's current demands and future expectations. It should include basic salary income, welfare benefits, various "insurances," and recognition by the unit and society. Generally speaking, a sense of belonging belongs to a lower-level category. If personnel working in industry associations can match their abilities and strengths to their roles, a relatively stable professional group will form, thus serving the unit. A sense of belonging is an employee's feeling and thought, thus determining many employee behaviors. Of course, as leaders of industry associations (mainly presidents, hereafter the same), they need to recognize the sense of belonging and also have a sense of responsibility and other motivating factors. They play an important role in forming and stabilizing employees' sense of belonging to the unit. However, from the long-term development perspective of industry associations, the structure and checks and balances of the industry association council have an even more important role in employees' sense of belonging. In summary, whether it is the role of industry association leaders or the council, the importance and uniqueness of the industry in social and economic life are important prerequisites for forming employees' sense of belonging. The industry's status and "vitality" in the national economy are fundamental to the survival of industry associations. This importance mainly refers not to the industry's size and "space" but to the necessity and "time" of the industry's existence. Therefore, by analyzing the basic factors of employees' sense of belonging in industry associations, we can conclude that as long as the industry association has the necessity to exist and is willing to address employees' sense of belonging, the industry association has the possibility to survive. But merely solving employees' sense of belonging does not solve the development problem of industry associations. Therefore, for industry associations to develop, they should also address employees' sense of growth.
What is a sense of growth? It refers to the material and spiritual needs experienced in the pursuit of career success in life. Specifically, it means the continuous improvement of salary income, welfare benefits, and the acquisition of various honors.
To truly study the sense of growth among industry association staff, the main research subjects should be full-time industry association workers directly recruited from society (the same applies to the study of sense of belonging). This is because retired administrative civil servants, personnel reassigned due to government institutional reforms, employees of public institutions, and employees of state-owned enterprises working in industry associations are products of a special historical period. Due to their different backgrounds and life experiences, different job natures, and administrative positions (including state-owned enterprise executives), they are hired or employed by different industry associations. While it is necessary to study their sense of belonging and achievement, it does not represent the general laws of the essence of things. Additionally, the sense of growth of general full-time staff and leaders of industry associations should be studied separately, rather than lumped together, to avoid confusing the essence of the development of things. Since China proposed the goal of establishing a socialist market economy about twenty years ago, and the history of industry association development is relatively short, especially with significant differences among various types and individual associations, this determines the different situations of industry association leaders. Currently, the leadership of industry associations is mainly held by retired leaders, some of whom are former leaders reassigned due to government institutional reforms who have not yet reached retirement age. From the perspective of international industry association development and the requirements of the State Council Document [2007] No. 36, the leadership of industry associations should ultimately be handed over to entrepreneurs in the industry, which is beyond doubt. From this perspective, their sense of growth does not involve salary increases or incentive mechanisms but mainly two points: one is to expand their own enterprises to have sufficient strength and influence within the industry and provide basic funding guarantees for the development of the industry association; the other is to regard serving as association leaders as a social honor to satisfy their spiritual needs. Obviously, the vast majority of current industry association leaders in China do not possess this sense of growth. Although there is still a spiritual need, they lack personal assets and economic strength to support the industry association and must rely on association membership fees and consulting income to pay themselves salaries and living subsidies. Therefore, this situation determines that industry association leadership will need to shift to full-time staff in the future. From the perspective of full-time industry association staff, their sense of growth is worthy of study. Regardless of who leads industry associations now and in the future, the sense of growth of full-time staff should receive necessary and sufficient attention. The study of sense of growth mainly includes two aspects: one is to establish an incentive mechanism that continuously improves employees' salary income; the other is how to properly handle the issue of "position" promotion. However, the second issue cannot currently be resolved within the system and should be explored through practice.

8. Strive to address the spiritual needs and sense of honor of industry association staff. As full-time association staff, it is normal and natural to compare one's sense of achievement with related or similar personnel. Full-time staff working in industry associations have little sense of growth compared to civil servants; compared to enterprises and public institutions, they lack a sense of belonging. This is because the property rights basis of industry associations is neither natural persons nor the state; currently, China's property rights classification does not include the category of "industry property rights," and theoretical explanations are even fewer. According to available information, only economist Professor Li Yining refers to its property rights as "quasi-public ownership." Under these circumstances, there is no need to discuss the incentive mechanisms for civil servants, and although there is much controversy over the incentive mechanisms for senior executives of state-owned enterprises, they clearly belong to the "high salary" class. This inevitably affects full-time industry association staff. Therefore, how to enhance the sense of honor of full-time industry association staff to meet their spiritual needs is a significant subject of study. Currently, under various environmental and conditional constraints, industry associations can only leverage their industry advantages and employees' strengths to explore cultivating industry experts, encouraging writing and publishing, and providing various spiritual incentives, as well as seeking opportunities for development outside the system and incremental growth. These are tasks that industry associations can proactively undertake, and relevant government management departments should also introduce some measures and reward methods to provide support.