Cross-Cultural Management
At the 8th scale, the article on Kut Cheung (KC) Company of Hong Kong was informative to the point of irony. The corporate environment of Hong Kong has been so multinational from day one –obviously by the initiatives and awakening whilst it was still until British control. The transition in 1997 did not completely eradicate whatever legacies there have been. This is coupled with the fact that the confluence of Western management strategies might as well be the order of the day, i. e. , Hong kong being so central in the global business arena.
What the article analysed towards the methodology of the “modernized” Henry Chen is venturing into a very daring and humongous possibility: i. e. , retaining to a greater prominence the possibility of “Asian Values” being kept intact. But George Bernard Shaw said: “Some men see things as they are, and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not”. The very profound and incisive analysis of the article poses more as an idealistic challenge – that can be had, or just remain as an ideal.
What in your view is/are the most significant contribution(s) of this article to your learning?
Critically evaluate while using academic references to support your argument. A rose by any name is still a rose. The infusion of CMS by Henry Chen as inspired by In Search of Excellence might well be already imbued in KC but just that Chen outlined it in the modern day management lexicon. It is a given that with the overseas education of Chen with scholastic syllabus of the 70’s and feverish 80’s battlecry about “change” – gearing from the impacting inspiration such management gurus as herein summarized with their exemplified principles, vis-a-vis what Chen adopted.
Frederick Winslow Taylor: “Taylor’s core values: the rule of reason, improved quality, lower costs, higher wages, higher output, labor-management cooperation, experimentation, clear tasks and goals, feedback, training, mutual help and support, stress reduction, and the careful selection and development of people. He was the first to present a systematic study of interactions among job requirements, tools, methods, and human skill, to fit people to jobs both psychologically and physically, and to let data and facts do the talking rather than prejudice, opinions, or egomania.
- (Papesh) The co-relation of business tools and business environment to employee efficiency is undeniable. Chen saw that the infusion of a highly spirited and most intriguing corporate logo based on the interpretation of Jonathan Livingston Seagull will jumpstart the culture he envisions. He considered it an inspiration, an identification and a focal point. Abraham Maslow: “As Maslow expressed it, ‘What a man can be, he must be. ’ Thus, self-actualization is the desire to become what one is capable of becoming. Individuals satisfy this need in different ways.
- (Accel Team, 2008) The opportunity for everyone to become the “himself to his fullest potential” is indeed espoused by Chen as he structured a participative and informal nature of leadership. He encouraged consultative and participative management and not just directive. Through extensive delegation and informal open communication tells employees and operatives that they are the bigger part of the business enabling them to become the best they could be.
- Peter Drucker: “Frequently he was years, if not decades, ahead in discerning basic truths. Among them: that a company typically functions best when it’s decentralized (as opposed to using a command-and-control model); that employees are assets and not liabilities (and should be treated as such); that the central mission of any business is to create a customer; that an organization has the best chance of success when it adheres to “management by objectives”; that an enterprise has to constantly do two things-innovate and market-or it will waste away; that “knowledge workers” (a term Drucker coined in 1959) are the essential ingredients of the modern economy.
- (Drucker Institute) As very well enthroned in the highlight of Drucker’s legacy called “management by objectives”, this 70’s mantra as called to fore by Chen when he initiated strategic business consolidation and corporation re-orientation program through his 5-point corporate mission statement. Tom Peters: “….. the book….. reemphasized what Tom calls the “obvious ideas”: the paramount importance of an abiding orientation toward action over talk, matchless customer intimacy, a wholehearted devotion to acquiring and developing the best talent, entrepreneurship spurred internally, the ever-difficult task of “keeping it simple,” and leadership as “a product of passion, passion, passion. ” These ideas are now considered “standard operating procedure” in businesses around the world—though often implementation does not live up to the standards practiced by the world’s best.
- (Washington Speakers Bureau, 2003-2008) Chen went all out to exude that “passion”: managerial practices such as human resource planning, job analysis, standard recruitment and selection processes, an appraisal process system, etc. The distinction and dynamics of KC to position itself to its long term sustainability in the industry, in the market, in the world – are deemed to be in order. What in your view is/are the limitation(s) of this article? Critically evaluate, using academic references to support your argument.
The analysis of what Henry Chen boldly and daringly infused in his company born in 1971 missed out on granting the benefit of the doubt. There are so many seeming mind-boggling initiatives that Henry Chen adopted – yes, that might have crossed Asian Values and or Confucian inspirations. The possibility of dissecting out a better light from the rationale of Chen could have been had in the article. Change is categorically painful to reckon, let alone adopt, adapt. But analyzing a cross-cultural awakening to change can have true disciples.
Even from the struggles, for example, of identity such as Ukraine. In a case study “Opening a Closed City:…. ”, the experience of Richard (Rich) Albinson, a management consultant narrated: “It was in this city that Rich, along with 12 other graduating students of a well known Canadian business schook, taught introductory finance, marketing, and general management to Byelorussian students and executives. His original goal in Dniepropetrovsk was to teach an identical course to a group of senior executives of large state-run enterprises.
Therefore, inspite of the limitation of the Ukrainian couple’s knowledge and yet their inert, inset of Ukrainian values and with their newly struggling democracy and economy – they did not hesitate to work with a foreign American consultant to infuse the pertinent strategy to meet their entrepreneurial goals. And the article analyzing the KC dynamic and yes mind-boggling change missed the possibility of “benefit of the doubt”.
References
- Papesh, M. E. , “Frederick Winslow Taylor” http://www. stfrancis. edu/ba/ghkicku1/stuwebs/bbios/biography/fwtaylor. htm “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”. Employee Motivation, the Organizational Environment and Productivity. Accel Team. 2008
- http://www. accel-team. com/maslow_/maslow_nds_02. html “The Drucker Legacy”. The Drucker Institute http://www. druckerinstitute. com/drucker-legacy. html
- “Tom Peters: One of the Most Influential Business Thinkers of All Time” Washington Speakers Bureau http://www. washingtonspeakers. com/speakers/speaker. cfm? SpeakerID=474
- Lombardo, J. N. “Opening a closed City: Challenges at the New Frontier” International Business Case Studies for the Multicultural Workplace, p. 162-171
- Robert T. Moran, David O. Braaten and John E. Walsh, Jr. , Editors Gulf Publishing Company, 1994
