East Asia is a region that covers eight countries: China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Macau, Mongolia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The study will focus on the managerial systems of South Korea and Japanese firms since they are very representative countries from this region.
In order to understand phenomenons are affecting the organizations in those countries two concepts should be understood: convergence and divergence. Convergence states that as countries develops the management systems will converge to one model, usually based on those from developed countries. The comparative cultural approach or divergence states that there are some cultural norms that force managerial systems to match the internal environment then the culture limits the alternative strategies for the organizations of a given country.
What has occurred in Asia is that Japan, an Asian country, was able to develop its own managerial system so Asian firms can decide whether to converge to western or to non western development models for organizations.
The Japanese managerial system is very interested in market share, they tend to use aggressive pricing and search economies of scale. They use long term commitments with suppliers in order to take advantage of the close cooperation and coordination of the production process. They emphasize on building group consensus and group loyalty encouraging the participation of workers and the middle management employees. Japanese companies scan customers and competitors because they want to find the right kind of customer. Other important characteristic is that they connect product design and production. The main entrepreneurial groups in Japan are called “Zaibatsu”; they are conglomerate of companies from diverse industries belonging to a group of people. Zaibatsus may own banks; this characteristic has created a huge gap between medium size companies that doesn’t belong to a Zaibatsu and those that does because these banks can give loans to their own companies even if they can’t afford the loans.
Korea has received a lot of influence from
Japan; it was a Japanese colony for about 40 years. Managerial systems from these two countries are similar but also have differences. Koreans are more individualistic than the Japanese and this gives Korean a higher sense of freedom. Korean workers tend to change work more freely and they do not emphasize so much on group consensus and group loyalty. Managers in Korea tend to be more authoritarian and they are the ones taking the important decisions.
Japan; it was a Japanese colony for about 40 years. Managerial systems from these two countries are similar but also have differences. Koreans are more individualistic than the Japanese and this gives Korean a higher sense of freedom. Korean workers tend to change work more freely and they do not emphasize so much on group consensus and group loyalty. Managers in Korea tend to be more authoritarian and they are the ones taking the important decisions. The main entrepreneurial groups in Korea are called “Chaebols”. They are also conglomerates of companies from diverse industries but they belong to a family and are managed by family members. The main difference between Chaebols and Zaibatsu is that the first ones can’t own banks. But there is a gap between firms belonging to Chaebols and those that don’t because the government used to give them many benefits due to their rates of exports.
Lee, Jangho, Thomas W. Roehl, & Soonkyoo Choe created a model in which they state that “ a national management system is influenced by the national culture and level of development” this means that as firms grow larger and become more internationalized they will tend to converge to a developed managerial system; in this case large and internationalized Korean firms will tend to converge to Japanese firms. They found that sometimes Korean organizations are more Japanese than the Japanese themselves because Korean companies tend to emphasize even more in market share and profit maximization. Internationalized Korean firms converge to Japanese firms even more than large Korean firms.
QUESTION
In the case of Korean and Japanese management styles, do you think they tend to converge or diverge? Are they likely to converge to each other or to other management styles
In the case of Korean and Japanese management styles they tend to converge as Korean firms grow larger and become more internationalized. The Korean management style is likely to converge to the Japanese one, and Japanese companies have their own way for doing things in international markets, that means that Japanese organizations are not converging to a western management style but creating their own. It is said that as Korean firms grow larger and become more internationalized they often are “more Japanese than the Japanese themselves” what means that Korean companies study so hard and have so strong incentives to incorporate Japanese management styles that while the Japanese move on and create new ways Korean are still doing what the Japanese did some time ago.
In the case of Korean and Japanese management styles, do you think they tend to converge or diverge? Are they likely to converge to each other or to other management styles
In the case of Korean and Japanese management styles they tend to converge as Korean firms grow larger and become more internationalized. The Korean management style is likely to converge to the Japanese one, and Japanese companies have their own way for doing things in international markets, that means that Japanese organizations are not converging to a western management style but creating their own. It is said that as Korean firms grow larger and become more internationalized they often are “more Japanese than the Japanese themselves” what means that Korean companies study so hard and have so strong incentives to incorporate Japanese management styles that while the Japanese move on and create new ways Korean are still doing what the Japanese did some time ago.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lee, Jangho, Thomas W. Roehl, & Soonkyoo Choe. 2000. What Makes Management Style Similar and Distinct Across Borders? Growth, Experience and Culture in Korean and Japanese Firms. Journal of International Business Studies
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