Analyse how culture affects the leadership and management skills in china?
Leadership can be defined as a set of practical skills, which include the ability of a leader of an organization or a team to lead the group or the entire organization. There are different approaches of leadership and different leaders use various leadership styles, suitable for guiding the particular group or the organization Alas and Gao (2012). In this context, leadership is affected by various different external and internal factors. One of these is the cultural. Culture can affect leadership both positively and negatively. It can affect the visionaries and strategic thinking process of a leader, thereby affecting the leadership style. On the other hand, values are the verbal works and the ethics can be viewed as action. Leaders describe values via the actions and lead by creating ethical culture (Barros et al. 2012). Additionally, culture also helps to shape the responsibility, accountability and authority of the leader to empower their subordinates. However, different cultural background of various countries affects business in the global market. The enhancement of globalization, intellectual understanding that are concerned in conducting the commerce in the host nations have been gradually increasing.
Dutch management professor Hofstede has referred civilization as the software of mind and has said that it gives a guide for the human beings on how to think as well as behave (Barros et al. 2012). In this paper, special focus would be shed on China and in the last fifteen years the economy, social system and political condition have undergone some significant changes in China (Barros et al. 2012). Global leadership effectiveness has been one of the major issues in the literature of the global business, the social issues along with human resource management and enlargement. Therefore, in this part, special attention would be given on China on some aspects like cultural diversity as well as the theoretical perspectives of culture (Diamantopoulos et al. 2012). Therefore, in this part, special attention would be given on China on some aspects like cultural diversity as well as the theoretical perspectives of culture.
The concept of culture has successfully come to the forefront of the social science as well as social policies in order to address the issues of the diversity in the entire psychological process along with the performance. Elliott et al. (2012) have said that music, fashion, knowledge and values- these all are the products of culture. Therefore, to know more about culture, it is important to review the concept of culture in the background of three hypothetical standpoints and they are as followed: Functionalism, Conflict theory and symbolic interactionism (Estey 2009).
Functionalists consider the concept of civilization as an overall scheme in which all the parts work jointly to generate the humanity as a whole. Therefore, they believe that societies are required to culture to exist and the cultural standards function in order to hold up the build operations of the existing humanity. Apart from that, the functionalists study civilization in terms of values and learning is one of the significant concepts in China because it is highly valued Clow and Baack (2012). For example, in case of China market, the C-E translation of the corporate profile of Chinese companies is done according to the German functionalist perspectives. In translation of Chinese corporate profiles, values and learning is important and the functionalist perspective in this context helps in informative function, promotion function and to solve the translation errors by treating the corporate civilization as an entire entity (Mariotti and Glackin 2012). On the other hand, conflict theorists consider communal structure as intrinsically uneven, as this is based on authority disparities solely connected to some issues like class, sexual category, race and age (Grewal and Levy 2012).
From the perspective of a conflict theorist, culture is considered as underpinning as well as continuing those inequalities along with the differences in power. For example, it can be said that women strive for the equal opportunity in a male conquered society and the senior citizens in the society move violently to defend their rights, their fitness care as well as self-government from the young generation of the politicians. Horesh (2010) has opined that at the center of the conflict theory, there exist the effects of the economic production along with the covetousness, the reliance on the knowledge in some of the rich nations versus a lack of skill as well as learning in the poor nations. These theorists believe that the system of a society’s material production has an immense effect on the rest of the Chinese culture (Jolibert 2012). For example, Chinese company Lenovo is using conflict approach, as the company is having conflicts after merging their business with IBM PC, which is affecting the economic production with covetousness (Kim 2012).
Apart from these two theories, symbolic internationalism is a sociological standpoint that is most apprehensive with the head-to-head connections amid the members of the civilization. Believer of these thoughts observe civilization as being fashioned as well as preserved by the ways people in the society interrelate with each other and interpret the reaction of others. Therefore, culture can be summarized of many concepts and practices, beliefs as well as the behavior of a society. Kim (2012) has said that those people who consider in representative interactionism, recognize culture as one of the most self-motivated and fluid because this is reliant on the process that how the meaning is construed and the communication of the individuals at the time of conveying the message. Therefore, it has been found that there are three major theoretical approaches towards the proper interpretation of culture. Kotler and Keller (2012) have said that assorted enlightening and sociological incidences can be easily explained by these above-mentioned theories. However, there is no proper and appropriate view with the help of which, one can clearly understand the culture. China Northwest Airlines is the believer of the symbolic interactionist, they treat culture as self-motivated, which is the major thing related to communication for conveying the message (Deng 2012).
In this research work, the focus would be shed on how culture affects the leadership and management skills in China. It has been observed that specified shortage of the nationwide management familiarity in China, the corporations are steadily turning to the expatriates to fill up the significant management roles and apart from that, they have been endorsing these leaders very speedily. The cultural dimension of the management developed by Hofstede has helped to provide a foundation for the commerce leaders that operate in the overseas countries. From the theory, it has been found that these leadership dimensions takes into account the power distance, individualism, avoidance of uncertainty as well as masculinity. Kyriazoglou (2010) has opined that for an emigrant leading in the national squad in China, it is highly important to appreciate the educational proportions of management in regards to advance the efficiency, amplify the profile of the company along with developing the interpersonal relationships in the work field (Lan 2012). In this part, some of the cultural dimensions of leadership are discussed here in context of China.
Power distance, the degree towards which any civilization accepts that authority is disseminated inequitably and this is established with the help of the subordinates and superiors. It has been found that in the societies with high control distance like China, people with high authority like better position in the workplace as well as society and is highly privileged than those without adequate power (Mariotti and Glackin 2012). In this case, the subordinates are less likely to challenge or express any kind of divergence with their superiors. On the contrary to this, in the lower power distance culture, the dominant conviction is that power successfully corrupts and those people who are without power have no remedy for those who have power. This is the strong faith in the common management. Therefore, it has been found that in China, high power distance exists in the society (Liu and Tao 2012).
Martin and Schouten (2012) have opined that the decision making style of a leader varies in several aspects and this is based on the outside factors that tends to decide the amount of power distance in any company. In the high power distance relationship, there exists virtually no connection among the leaders, subordinates and the other employees in the workplace. In this case, the formal contact is used commonly used to achieve the organizational objectives and goals (Nelson 2012). In China, as a member of the high power distance culture, Chinese managers want indisputable admiration as well as loyalty. The rank construction is dignified as well as clearly demarcated between the employees and the management of the company (Oakshott 2012).
Piercy (2012) has stated that individualism demonstrates the association amid the personage and the instantaneous community. In many organizations, uniqueness has been connected to the liking and partiality of the individual management. In contrary to this situation, societies with the collective values, interpersonal relationship and the group affiliation are the major focus and this is observed highly in China. However, in the individualistic culture, members like to look themselves as entirely independent from the company and in the communal culture; the association encompasses a part of the identity of the members. Several studies have established that communal managerial cultures possess stronger recompense schemes as compared to comparable distinctive company culture. In case of the communal cultures, executives of the company generally give higher performance evaluations as well as rewards (Pride and Ferrell 2012).
In China, a collectivistic culture, it has been noticed that individuals are eager to give up their individual goals for the good quality of the entire crowd. Pride and Ferrell (2014) have shown in his study that this loyalty among the Chinese people is endorsed across all aspects of their Chinese culture that takes into account the workplace as well. It has been found that a Chinese worker might relinquish a endorsement to carry on work on any particular scheme. It has been observed that Chinese workers are often that the requirements of the several overweight personal desires (Scarborough 2012). Therefore, it can be said that any emigrants working in China are required to be well aware of this opinions as well as understand the ramification of the pursuing the individual goals and agendas over those that are existed in the team (Seethamraju 2012). For an example, eBay which is one of the top most companies has revealed that, they mostly prefer team work rather than individualism, which enhances their efficiency of working through the opportunity of different opinions for a particular work. Therefore, it helps to achieve organizational goal (Strother 2012).
Shi (2012) has said that avoidance of uncertainly is the situation in which the members feel enough uncomfortable with all the ambiguous situations and take some of the effective steps to avoid them. It can be said that uncertainty avoidance can occur in different level of an organization as a senior manager in the company may decline to follow any venture with any kind of uncertain outcomes. Strother (2012) has stated that avoidance of uncertainty has various insinuations for the management distinctiveness as well as management qualities as customary, recognized, guarded and orderly as an exceptional form of the management in some of the leading countries of the world and at the same time some negative approach from the others. Now it should be discussed from the Chinese perspectives. In China high uncertainty avoidance has been observed. It has been found that the managers of China are more dominant as well as less amicable. Moreover, they are less likely to hand over to the subsidiaries than their low-avoidance complements are. Tong (2012) has said that managers in China do not trust the employees and in the contrary, the managers in some other countries like United States, France and Sweden managers trust their employees largely.
Venkateswaran (2012) has said that in the masculine culture, like China, heroic managers are influential, self-confident as well as antagonistic. Therefore, these managers make the decisions with proper self-assurance and openness and do not permit any of the employees to query the ability. It has been found that certain the feminine characteristics as being circumlocutory and equivocal at the same time as well as using instinctive reasoning are often valued largely in leadership and these all generally cancelled in the masculine characteristics of China. However, it can be said that admiration and saving the face are highly considered as important concepts in the Chinese business people. On the opposite side, direct approach may be considered as an extremely insulting view and it is no doubt to say that this can harm the relationship among the employees and the managers of any organization (Webber 2012).
After going through these perspectives, it can be said that there exist a strong relationship between the dimensions of culture and the successful performance of any organization in several dissimilar societies. This makes it tremendously significant to believe and thus it can perhaps modify the management style of the leaders to perfectly fit the cultural and the organizational as well business situations. The cultural dimensions of leadership have been used as well as explained here while operating in China. It can be said that employees in China are treated as a home associate of the family are they are willing to do everything in order to guarantee the achievement of the employees and the success of the company. Wood (2012) has opined that the success of a multinational company pivots on the capability of the managers to be highly mindful of the several cultural values as well as clearly understanding the cultural dimensions of Hofstede (Zhang 2012).
Robert J. House is the director of Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Program has spent more than twenty years to study that how different cultures throughout the several parts of the world define leadership from different perspectives. He has found that the definitions as well as the perspectives of the leadership considerably vary from one culture to another (Webber 2012). In the international commerce world, the associations and the executives generally face a growing requirement in regards to understand the refinements and the gradations of leadership as this is exercised and several dissimilar cultures. Webber (2012) has concentrated on universals and the culture based differences in the professed efficiency of the management attributes whether some leadership characteristics and behaviors would mostly assist or may hold back a person from fetching an effective as well as powerful leader.
However, most of the businesses in the present day scenario are global, but each of the organizations has a civilization wrought by the commerce that the company is presently in along with the people who run that particular business. It can be said in case of the leadership style that the managerial practices along with the motivational techniques, which are considered as legitimate as well as easily acceptable in one culture, may not be easily accepted in the other culture. As per Horesh (2010), there can be notices that some concern in some of the cultures that the people often tend to lose their balance because of shedding excessive importance on the achievement created by the charismatic leaders. Leaders are expected to have a clear vision from a company perspective and it has been found that that this essential characteristic of the leaders largely vary from one culture to another.
In China, it has been reported that the influence of Confucian values value tends to make the people mistrustful of the leaders who talk without appealing the people in some of the specific actions. From the perspective of Seethamraju (2012), communication skill is highly important to the leaders, but again it can be said that these effective skills differs among as well as within the cultures. During the conduction of the study, it has been observed that there exist some profound differences in the preferable use of the languages along in the nonverbal indications. In Chinese culture, it has been observed that interrupting coveys the message that one has not been giving enough importance to the speech-giving person (Seethamraju 2012).
However, it has been found that in several cultures, some attributes like forethought, enthusiasm to cheer the other employees of the company to achieve the organizational target, communicativeness, responsibility along with a dynamic presence, positive attitude and being considered as a confident builder are some of the characteristics that are expected from a powerful leader. The Chinese managers as well as the leaders are expected to carry a positive attitude, risk-taking capability, sincerity and compassion. Chinese culture enhances these characteristics among the Chinese leaders and these all characteristics are reflected in their organizational performances (Pride and Ferrell 2012).
Piercy (2012) has said that a general description of a leader might be someone who is highly charismatic and along with that seeks to develop a transformational leadership. It can be opined that in the competitive landscape of the 21st century, a sustainable advantage of the globalization largely depends on the abilities as well as the skills of the leader, who can easily manage diversity and along with that can implement the increasingly complex business strategies. As per the viewpoint of Martin and Schouten (2012), effective workplace culture as well as the diversity management is the key to the global business success. With the over growing importance of the Chinese domestic market to the global economy along with the attraction of this low cost production base line, many international companies have established their operations in China (Nelson 2012).
From some reports, it have been found that due to the partly presence of a shortage of the trained as well as experienced managers and the technical experts in the Republic of China, there are a large number of the non Chinese employees working in the foreign invested enterprises. Moreover, some of the foreign companies that want to keep the direct control of influence this incident. As per the viewpoint of Kyriazoglou (2010), a posting in China has not always been straight forwarded. It has been found that the problems faced by the expatriate managers that deal with the Chinese culture along with the politics and economics have been pointed out by many authors. Therefore, it can be said that China has been undergoing a rapid economic expansion because it has found the place in the worldwide market. However, as China has turned out to be open to the western thoughts, this is still complicated country to native (Horesh 2010).
It has been reported that, in Bank of China, there are some internal organizational issues, which are affecting their performance and productivity and the analysis of these factors revealed that, untrained and least experienced managers are unable to manage organizational conflicts, in internal managerial department cultural conflicts has also been identified, which is affecting the leadership and overall performance (Nelson 2012).
It has been noticed that China and US differ greatly concerning to the political system, social values and the economic system as well as laws, regardless of the sustainable changes that have successfully happened in China throughout the last few years. From the Chinese culture, it can be said that the Chinese do not like any body contact and this is particularly accurate for the guests. This cultural characteristic affect the attitude of the managers in China and it has been observed that the managers tend to avoid any kind of body contact. Personal space is limited in China and thus the managers as well as do not believe in personal space in the working environment. Horesh (2010) has said that in China, more focus is shed on administration of the benefits as well as the maintenance of the relationship with the government bureaus that results in the comparatively small concern for the enrollment purpose as well as the selection process.
Scholars of the organization and business communication have constantly stated that the achievement of the administrators on the worldwide coursework largely depends on the effectual cross-cultural communication. Due to this significance, a large number of the high growth organizations competing internationally make a good effort to employ the multi-lingual people from the different enlightening backgrounds as well as the nationalities. Therefore, it can be easily said that the managers who operate in the cross-cultural business environment face several complexities. It has been found that in China, some organizations arrange some in-house language training, classes and effective session for all the staffs in order to ensure that the managers going in some international assignments are highly successful (Horesh 2010).
Apart from this service, some organizations in China take the services of the advisors, who are expert in managing cross-cultural workforce and they make sure that these organizations have trained managers to communicate and co-ordinate effectively. The managers are one of the strong pillars of an organization and thus they are responsible for dealing with the situation in the work place effectively. However, it can be said that to be successful international manager in China it is required to be knowledgeable and sensitive to the cultural values of the people of China at the time of making the decisions in their organizations.
Horesh (2010) has opined that knowledge of culture influence can make the managers more effectual in case of dealing with all the subordinates, colleagues and the negotiating partners in the foreign industry. Moreover, it can be stated that such type of knowledge help the managers in China to predict the macro environmental factors, which might influence any international company. However, it can be said that China has a rapidly growing economy and most importantly, this is emerging as a major market as well as properly sourcing locations (Horesh 2010).
In the case of Chinese company Lenovo, the company has been acquired the PC department of Western company IBM, as a result some cross-cultural conflicts are rising. The Chinese board members are not willing communicate through a corporate language, while the American employees are showing arrogance, which is creating a cross-cultural barrier and the management is unable to mitigate these conflicts. It is one of the major examples of cross-cultural complexities in global environment (Horesh 2010).
The major roles of the international managers are to coordinate the activities as well as resources of any organization or the entity across the international boundaries in an efficient manner. Therefore, the managers who operate in the international level perform the same tasks like domestic managers but the difference is that they operate on a large scale. Estey (2009) has stated in his work that the formal level of national management does not exist in the reality and thus, all the managers are international managers to some extent. International managers are the representatives in an overseas subsidy and they are the independent contractor. The Chinese managers in most of the companies are responsible for the foreign business of the company. Moreover, it has been observed that some Chinese companies employ multiple departmental global managers; they are in charge of the international sales, the cultural marketing as well as the overseas manufacturing system (Diamantopoulos et al. 2012).
In case of the Chinese management, it has been observed that an international manager have a lucid understanding of the requirements of the company in abroad. Apart from that, cultural, political and the operational challenges of the foreign markets along with the available opportunities are observed in case of the international managers. Clow and Baack (2012) have stated that many corporations have discovered that successful as well as the effectual communication in the international level has optimistic association with the familial level communication to some extent. The managers have understood the rapidly growing value of the global commerce and this has been shaping their behavior in the present time (Horesh 2010).
The largest retailer in China is Wal-Mart, which is effectively managing their development in international level. The retail organization has spread over different international market and developing fast in china retail market. It is reported that, there is a vital role of international managerial competencies achieved by the managers of the organization. For achieving these competencies, adequate training and learning skills were provided, which helped them to communicate in the global market, bringing positive feedback about the company along with the increased profitability (Estey 2009).
Some studies have revealed the fact that in the intercontinental commerce management ground, the level of the administrative capability along with prepared competitiveness of the companies will largely depend on the level of effective cross-cultural communication with the stakeholders of the company. In the previous part, discussion have been made on the cultural values of China that is divided into five dimensions and it has been found that Chinese culture is very high on the power distance, individualism and focus on both the long term and the short term goal depending upon the requirement of the situation (Grewal and Levy 2012).
5. Conclusion
After conduction of the entire study, it has been found that the international companies have expanded their business operations in China. The Chinese management has take suitable steps in order to build a strong relationship with other Chinese counterparts and the companies operating in different parts of the world. It is no doubt to mention that China is one of the fastest mounting financial systems in the world and thus it enjoys large expansion of the business in different parts of the world. The major concern of the task was to find out the influence of culture on the performance and the management skills of those managers who operate in the international level. The Chinese culture largely affects as well as influences the managers in their work field and this has been described here. Apart from that, some of the useful theories have been discussed here to understand the situation easily. After that, it can be easily understood that the Chinese culture largely influence the attitude of the managers in their workplace.
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