Center for Comparative Management Studies

Template for Cross-Border Comparison of Management Styles and Lessons from the US, Japan and China

This report describes a useful and relatively straight-forward template for cross-border comparison of management styles that was offered by Weihrich in 1990 when he compared management practices in the US, Japan and China across five dimensions based on key managerial functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling.

German Management Style

While US and Japanese management styles have attracted a good deal of attention, notice should also be taken of management styles in other successful countries such as Germany, a nation often touted as Europe’s “economic giant” based on its impressive manufacturing output and a per capita export trading volume.  This month's report explains that German managers concentrate intensely on product quality and product service and that the main elements of German management culture, as well as the preferred styles of German managers, all evolve around the desire to design and manufacture high quality products and provide customers with extraordinary responsiveness and dedication.  German firms tend to draw on engineers and technicians for fill management positions and these persons necessarily bring a strong background in manufacturing, design and service to their managerial duties.  In addition, German managers tend to remain with one firm throughout their careers, which means that those managers build an intense loyalty to their firm and make decisions based on what will be best for the long-term prospects of the firm.

Evolution of Human Resources Management Systems in Japan

This month's report traces the evolution of human resources management systems in Japan from the early 1960s to recent times.  An interesting picture is painted of the path from "people oriented" HRM systems, which were supportable due to the tremendous economic successes enjoyed by Japanese firms from the early 1960s to the 1980s, to reengineering of HRM systems over the last two decades due to the significant downturn suffered by many Japanese industries following the burst of Japan's "economic bubble".

Role of the State in Korean Economic Development

While Japan has probably been the major focus of research and commentary regarding the role of the state in economic development, Korea’s experience as a “developmental state” is also an important illustration of the role that governments sometimes choose to play in directing the public and private sectors toward specific economic and social goals.  This report provides a brief introduction to the role of the state in Korean economic development.  Beginning with this post, we are shifting to a new monthly publication schedule that will transition to a newsletter format, although special posts will still be made as necessary for development that we believe merit the immediate attention of our visitors.

2009 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report on Korea

This report summarizes the key results of the 2009 national entrepreneurship assessment for Korea conducted as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, Korea was placed in a group of 20 higher-income innovation-driven economies for comparison purposes and ranked eighth in the total entrepreneurial activity level, which includes both nascent and new entrepreneurs, in that group.

Vietnamese Business Ownership and Human Resources Practices

Many surveys have been conducted to assess differences among the various types of business enterprises operating in Vietnam with respect to their human resources practices.  This report summarizes some of the research that has been done and illustrates the human resources challenges being confronted by Vietnamese state-owned enterprises, foreign owned companies, former state-owned enterprises recently converted into semi-private status, joint ventures and locally-owned private companies.

Cultural Influences on African Management Practices

Africa is obviously not one country or society and it is easy to find substantial variations with respect to cultural elements as one travels around a vast continent with over 50 countries and a multitude of colonial backgrounds, economic systems and physical environments.  In fact, Edoho has commented that Africa probably has a greater degree of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic pluralism than any other continent.  For example, a country, or sub-region thereof, may develop very different organizations and cultural characteristics based on its unique combination of exposures to cultural elements from local traditions, Islam, and Western civilizations.  Also, the particular culture and language that a region may have absorbed from its colonial occupiers (e.g., English, French or Portugese) almost certain creates differences in attitudes and organizations, particularly the regulatory framework.  Finally, religion is an important aspect of life throughout the African continent.  All this being understood, however, researchers have argued that there are similarities among African countries with respect to cultural values, beliefs and rituals at the societal level and this report provides a summary description of some of the common characteristics of societal culture in Africa in the context of providing advice on how to “manage” African business culture.

African Leadership & Management

This week's report focuses on “African leadership and management”, which is one of the most controversial areas of comparative management studies.  Relying on a review conducted by Nkomo several years ago, we examine four alternative approaches to the subject that have been used by various scholars: “African management development”, which focuses on the need for capable leadership and management in Africa in order to achieve economic and social goals; literature on national culture, which examines African leadership and management using one or more of the various cultural dimension models that have been developed and popularized by various researchers such as Gaart Hofstede; the representations of African leadership and management that have appeared in management textbooks, which typically focus on how historical feats in Africa such as the building of the pyramids in Egypt fit into the progression toward the development of “classical” and “scientific” management theory; and a small but growing number of works defining the elements of indigenous “African management philosophy” and development and adoption of management practices that are congruent with African cultural values as opposed to ill-suited prescriptions from Western cultures that were introduced during the colonial period.

Survey Finds Substantial Variety in European Leadership Behaviors

While the European Union has struggled to harmonize its legal, regulatory and political framework, the Member States continue to be perceived as very different environments to conduct business due, in large part, to long-standing cultural characteristics that remain in place even as European institutions are created and nurtured.

The Management Research Group (“MRG”), a private consultancy focusing on individual and organizational development, compared the leadership behaviors of almost 4,000 persons in various management positions with firms in eight European countries—Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom—using a questionnaire that measured 22 different leadership practices relating to what it referred to as six essential functions of the leadership role: creating and developing a vision or direction for the organization; developing a followership that supports the vision or direction identified for the organization; implementing the vision or direction in organizational terms; following through to make sure that things happen according to plan; achieving results (i.e., the ability of leaders to set high standards of performance for themselves and their organizations; and team playing (i.e., the ability to work within a team environment).  Based on the results of the survey, MRG concluded that there were very few similarities in leadership behavior among European managers and, in fact, they noted common ground on just three of the 22 leadership practices that were measured: expertise (i.e., as a group, managers from all of the surveyed countries tended to place the same degree of emphasis—moderate—on the level of technical expertise and orientation toward detail and in-depth analysis), competitiveness (i.e., managers from all countries tended to seek and prefer “win-win solutions” as opposed to engaging in forceful, competitive behaviors) and setting standards of excellence. 

MRG also highlighted distinctions between behaviors of managers in regions typically clustered together such as the Scandinavian countries and reported several areas where the leadership styles of Swedish managers contrasted sharply with their peers in Denmark.  For example, while Swedish managers rated themselves as the most innovative, team-oriented and pragmatic and less reliant on using guidelines, procedures and systematic methods for monitoring progress, Danish managers reported being more strategic, analytical and demanding, less team oriented and more likely to rely on formal planning and performance measurement processes.  Not surprisingly, given the results of other studies, differences also emerged between German and French managers.  One illustration was that while German managers accessed new ideas and perspectives by reference to past practices, seeking to minimize risk by building on knowledge gained through experience, French managers are much less likely to reflect on the past.  German managers are much more technically-oriented and analytical than the French and while Germans prefer long-range planning after detailed study the French are more likely to take a short-term view.  French managers are outgoing and continuously engaged with their followers while German managers are more understated and subdued. 

MRG summed its findings by quoting Jean Monnet, the founder of the European Community: “If I were again facing the challenge to integrate Europe, I would probably start with culture.”

Emerging Countries Offer Fascinating Window on the Future of Management

The future of comparative management studies must embrace opportunities to analyze and understand new management practices that are developing around the world.  Of particular interest to me are the startling developments in China, India and other developing and emerging countries that had largely been ignored by early comparative management theorists.  A good place to start is the recent special report in The Economist on “Innovation in Emerging Markets”.  Among the topics introduced in this report that warrant further study are new business models in emerging markets, innovation systems and the strategies selected by firms in emerging countries seeking to grow quickly in their domestic markets and in foreign markets that have typically been left to Western companies.