Cross-cultural Managers In The Chinese Style Of Management Research

As globalization of the world markets is taking on faster momentum, thestudy of multi-national leadership and management practices in variouscultural environments has been receiving more popularity and attentionin both the academic and business arena. No doubt, there have been abundantpublications on the theories and practices relating to this field in bothNorth America and Europe. Despite China having a long history of culturaldiversity and heritages; unfortunately, there are very few researchesfocusing on the foreign managers working in China - arguably a countryhaving the most high cultural momentum environment. With 1. 3 billionspopulation country becoming an increasingly important player within theglobal markets, China has steadily attracted more and more directinvestments and trades from multi-national companies estimated over US$50billion in 2004. As a result of such enormous surge of economic tidetowards China, we see more and more foreign business managers are beingseconded to head up and/or functionally manage their China operations.Inevitably, some foreign managers particularly those from the West, musthave found that their home country cultures are quite different from thelocal Chinese cultures here. At the same time, they realize that Chinais at its developing stage in terms of management practices. Comparingto the advanced economies where management and operating practices aremuch more systematically developed, China is indeed very much behind. Thispresents a common challenge and/or moral obligation for the foreignbusiness managers - not only to transfer or transplant their ownmanagement behaviors to their Chinese counterparts, but also for themto find ways to harmonize with the local cultures in order to sustain asmooth operation. This is why the author sees the unique value andimportance of embarking on a research paper on the leadership andmanagement styles of the foreign business managers in China.This substance of this dissertation is derived from a combination ofrelevant authoritative theories on multi-cultural contexts and empiricalresearch/survey over 90 multi-national companies operating in China withover 100 foreign business managers and 70 local business managers participating in the process. In order to probe in more about the way the foreign managers participated in the questionnaire, the author has successfully scheduled 20 interviews over one year with them that has added substantial value and insights to this Paper. The author is keenly aware of several key points in the course of research. Firstly, this study targets the foreign business managers from multi-national companies based in China within a specific cultural environment that itself is a challenge. The author deems Chinese managers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas countries as foreign managers, due to their common and to some extent inherent orientation towards Western culture and management practices. Moreover, the Paper also examines various cultural blocks or regions from North America, Europe, Japan/Korea and Greater China. The findings of the Paper exhibit some noticeable cultural differences that can be explained by several key category dimensions such as countries of origins, country location of headquarters, and the ability to understand local culture, to mention a few. All these category dimensions can ultimately be attributed to macro level focusing on national culture, intermediate level on corporate culture, and micro level on personal characteristics. Finally, researching a particular type of management style requires a very specific thought positioning that is also one of the unique features of the Paper.This Paper has an integrated and logically sequential structure. The First Chapter dwells on the relevant theories on corporate cultures, values orientation, and cultural diversity. Based on this platform, the objectives and research methodology of this dissertation are being defined.The Second Chapter discusses the reasons behind the formation of management styles by the foreign business managers. The author segregates the cultural related attributes from the non-cultural driven ones. Cultural related attributes are the principal drivers that include cultures from the countries of origins where the foreign business managers were being posted to China, the local culture dynamics, and the corporate cultures. These three sources of cultures connect, inter-play, andtransmit impact resulting in differences, conflicts and harmony invarious magnitudes. Non-cultural factors mainly include the planning andcontrolling mechanism of the parent company towards the subsidiary, theindustrial sector and the special management orientations of the managersThe Third Chapter starts to discuss various specific management stylesof the foreign business managers by first looking at the core values behindtheir management behaviors. Through the cultural shocks as reported viathe survey followed with in-depth interviews of some foreign managers,the author deducts four core internal values pertaining to valueorientation, ethical standards/judgments, social responsibilities andwork attitude that collectively influence the management orientation.The fourth Chapter discusses and analyses the management behaviors andthe leadership styles orientation. Based on actual statistical analyseson their behavior and beliefs drawn from over 100 questionnaires fromforeign business managers, the author puts over a leadership model thatis largely based on two levels of attributes, namely, management andleadership orientation. The management orientation includes threeattributes: "cooperation and detail oriented" , "flexibility andspeed" , "high standard and rewards" . The leadership orientationincludes four attributes: "delivery of results" , "transplant ofvalues/beliefs" , "motivation building" and "sustaining control andauthority" .The Fifth Chapter goes on to analyze various sub-attributes of the management styles of foreign managers that are likely developed into leadership orientations. The author explores twelve salient sub-attributes as manifested by foreign business mangers in their pre and post China experience, and are being validated by the local managers for their China experience in order to enhance the creditability of their self-appraisal. The twelve sub-attributes are: "team building" , "delegation and empowerment" , "process enhancement" , "development of human capital" , "environment conducive to decision making" , "values on innovation of ideas" , "values on confrontational management" , "values on assessment of performance" , " values on speed of response" , "motivation driven" , "communication driven" and...