COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT ISSUES

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COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
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Macro/Micro Issues

• MACRO ISSUES
• Industrialization Level
• Economic system
• Political History and System
• Regional Integration
• Union Structure
• Consolidation of firms.

• MICRO ISSUES
• Leadership Styles
• Decision Making
• Governance Mechanisms
• Formal/Informal Structure

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Greek Management

• Greatly influenced by U.S. and U.K
• Pressure of EU, rapid convergence to western
  management thought
• Masculinity, High Uncertainty Avoidance
• Consultative Leadership Style
• Centralized Power
• Less formality
• Less Comprehensive rational process

4
Brazilian Management

• Management style is paternalistic.
• Changes are made, albeit slowly, and require a
  considerable amount of thought, planning and
  evaluation.
• Brazil is a fluid time culture, and, as is the
  case with many fluid time cultures, it is also
  very relationship-oriented.
• Very Hierarchical. Power is held in the hands of
  the few. Great deference is paid to authority
  figures.
• The emerging idea of Ricardo Semla (SEMCO) .
  This model emphasizes democracy, the wisdom of
  employees and the counter productiveness of
  control.

5
India Management

• Highly Religious and Moralistic
• Status Conscious
• High Power Distance
• Formality very high
• Low levels of Uncertainty Avoidance
• Low level of long range planning
• Collectivism

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Chile Management

• Low level of long range planning
• Low level of assertiveness, but correlated with
  education level
• Socially dependent. Risk avoidance
• Group conformance over individual preference
• Socially acceptable discrimination in workplace.

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Managing in the Arab World

• Arabized Theory and Islamic approach to modern
  management thought. Influence of Sheikocracy
• Formal Authority
• Rules
• Indecisiveness
• Centralized Decision Making.

• Personal rather than institutional arrangement
• Subordination of efficiency to human relations
• Concession and Compromise
• People Orientation
• Tribal and Family Loyalty.

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Korean Management

• Characteristics of Successful CEOs
• Respect for employees
• Nurturing and spiritual care of employees
• Initiating attitude
• Tenacity and sense of calling

• Competency and development of technology.
• Can do spirit.
• Achievement oriented

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Chinese Management

• Individual Duty and Collective Obligation
• Rule by Personality
• Monolithic power and homogeneity
• Cultural Isolation
• An internal orientation

• Passive fatalistic submission
• Reliance on precedent, intuition and wisdom.
• Until very recently subsistent economy
• An external locus of control

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Management Styles in Selected African Countries

• Some generalizations particularly in some of
  African bigger economies, like South Africa,
  Kenya and Nigeria.
• The concept of Ubuntu humaneness The idea
  that a persons worth is tied to other peoples
  worth.
• The non-instrumental view of Human resources
• Loyalty to social group, importance of age,
  hierarchy, social pressure

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Management Styles in Selected African Countries

• Importance of relationships
• Meritocracy, and increasingly collaborative
  management style in South Africa, but probably
  not as much in Kenya and Nigeria
• While time and deadlines are more structures in
  South Africa, they trend to be more fluid in
  Nigeria and Kenya
• Management style more paternalistic, and more
  centralization

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Management Styles in Selected African Countries

• Need to be culturally sensitive, due to the
  multiethnic demographics.
• Honor and reputation highly regarded.
• The difference between francophone and Anglophone
  African countries.
• Francophone countries tend to be more formal,
  collaborative and expect collegiality.

13
European Management Style

• Is this a construct more in the mind of
  non-Europeans?
• Is it true that approaches to management are
  homogeneous in the region?
• Thames Valley/Rhine Valley Dichotomy
• Anglo-Saxon View emphasis on competitive
  advantage, resource based view of strategy, and
  capital asset pricing model.

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European Management Style

• The Rhine Model emphasizes stability, social
  solidarity and long term survival. Investment in
  human capital, heavy R D.
• Experience from practice does show that neither
  model has superiority over the other.
• The combination of the characteristics of the two
  models may be the ideal.

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What is a manager to do?

• While no single universally applicable management
  approach and style, successful organizational and
  managerial approaches must be adapted to the
  society in which they transpire and the unique
  challenges facing a particular firm.
• This may call for multiple approaches to managing
  across national boundaries by a single MNC.