跨文化经理人在中国的管理风格研究

【作者】 黄彦邦；

【导师】 薛求知；

【作者基本信息】 复旦大学 ， 企业管理， 2005， 博士

【摘要】 在全球化进程日益加剧的当今世界,跨文化管理已经成为学术界和实务界普遍关注的课题。这方面的理论成果和实践经验非常丰富,但对于在中国这一有着悠久历史和文化传统,从而形成一种高势能传统文化的环境下的跨文化经理人的研究成果却不多见。中国作为世界经济中日益重要的组成部分,又是拥有13亿人口的巨大市场,正吸引着越来越多跨国企业的目光,外经贸额在2004年有望突破500已美元。随之而来的是越来越多的跨文化外派经理人。然而,跨文化经理人,特别是西方国家的跨文化经理人在中国必然会感受到截然不同的文化氛围。与此同时,中国的管理实务却处于发展中阶段,与经济发达国家和地区业已成型的管理方式和规范化的操作存在着差距。这就赋予了在中国的跨文化经理人另一项重要角色——将先进的管理经验通过其管理风格和具体行为方式灌输到中国的企业中,并与中国本地文化有效地结合使之能够顺利运转。由此可见研究在中国的跨文化经理人在管理方式方面的特点和类型的重要性。 本文采用实证研究结合理论分析的方式,力图深入剖析在中国的跨文化经理人在管理风格方面的特点。作者对80多个公司企业中超过100个外籍经理人以及他们的70中国同事进行了问卷调查和深度访谈研究。研究中,作者特别注意到几个要点:首先,针对在中国这一特定环境下的跨文化经理人进行研究,其本身就存在着一定的界定方面的难度,作者将港台和外籍华裔经理人归入外籍经理人范畴,是因为他们更多地遵从着处于高文化势能的西方商务习惯;其次,作者研究了来自北美、欧洲、日本、韩国以及大中国区等不同地区的经理人,但研究某一区域内的跨文化经理人,必然会发现他们之间存在诸多的差异性,这些差异性可以用多个分类维度来进行衡量,如来源地、公司所在地、对中国本地文化的了解程度等;再次所有这些维度最终都可以归结到宏观的国民文化、中观的企业文化或微观的个人特征的范畴中;最后,研究一类人群的行为风格需要一个明确的思路线索,而这也是本文前两章在进行理论研究时的重要任务之一。 本文的逻辑结构同时体现在章节安排之中: 第一章主要是相关的理论综述,以此推出研究在中国特定环境下跨文化经理人管理行为风格的必要性和紧迫性,在此基础上论述本文的研究意义和方法; 第二章讨论在中国的跨文化经理人管理方式形成的原因。作者将其划分为文化相关因素和非文化相关因素,前者是主要的因素,也是着重论述的要点。文化相关因素包含跨文化经理人的母国文化、中国本地文化和其所在企业内的组织文化三大相互区分甚至矛盾,同时又相互关联和影响的因素;非文化因素则主要论更多还原

【Abstract】 As globalization of the world markets is taking on faster momentum, thestudy of multi-national leadership and management practices in variouscultural environments has been receiving more popularity and attentionin both the academic and business arena. No doubt, there have been abundantpublications on the theories and practices relating to this field in bothNorth America and Europe. Despite China having a long history of culturaldiversity and heritages; unfortunately, there are very few researchesfocusing on the foreign managers working in China - arguably a countryhaving the most high cultural momentum environment. With 1. 3 billionspopulation country becoming an increasingly important player within theglobal markets, China has steadily attracted more and more directinvestments and trades from multi-national companies estimated over US$50billion in 2004. As a result of such enormous surge of economic tidetowards China, we see more and more foreign business managers are beingseconded to head up and/or functionally manage their China operations.Inevitably, some foreign managers particularly those from the West, musthave found that their home country cultures are quite different from thelocal Chinese cultures here. At the same time, they realize that Chinais at its developing stage in terms of management practices. Comparingto the advanced economies where management and operating practices aremuch more systematically developed, China is indeed very much behind. Thispresents a common challenge and/or moral obligation for the foreignbusiness managers - not only to transfer or transplant their ownmanagement behaviors to their Chinese counterparts, but also for themto find ways to harmonize with the local cultures in order to sustain asmooth operation. This is why the author sees the unique value andimportance of embarking on a research paper on the leadership andmanagement styles of the foreign business managers in China.This substance of this dissertation is derived from a combination ofrelevant authoritative theories on multi-cultural contexts and empiricalresearch/survey over 90 multi-national companies operating in China withover 100 foreign business managers and 70 local business managers participating in the process. In order to probe in more about the way the foreign managers participated in the questionnaire, the author has successfully scheduled 20 interviews over one year with them that has added substantial value and insights to this Paper. The author is keenly aware of several key points in the course of research. Firstly, this study targets the foreign business managers from multi-national companies based in China within a specific cultural environment that itself is a challenge. The author deems Chinese managers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas countries as foreign managers, due to their common and to some extent inherent orientation towards Western culture and management practices. Moreover, the Paper also examines various cultural blocks or regions from North America, Europe, Japan/Korea and Greater China. The findings of the Paper exhibit some noticeable cultural differences that can be explained by several key category dimensions such as countries of origins, country location of headquarters, and the ability to understand local culture, to mention a few. All these category dimensions can ultimately be attributed to macro level focusing on national culture, intermediate level on corporate culture, and micro level on personal characteristics. Finally, researching a particular type of management style requires a very specific thought positioning that is also one of the unique features of the Paper.This Paper has an integrated and logically sequential structure. The First Chapter dwells on the relevant theories on corporate cultures, values orientation, and cultural diversity. Based on this platform, the objectives and research methodology of this dissertation are being defined.The Second Chapter discusses the reasons behind the formation of management styles by the foreign business managers. The author segregates the cultural related attributes from the non-cultural driven ones. Cultural related attributes are the principal drivers that include cultures from the countries of origins where the foreign business managers were being posted to China, the local culture dynamics, and the corporate cultures. These three sources of cultures connect, inter-play, andtransmit impact resulting in differences, conflicts and harmony invarious magnitudes. Non-cultural factors mainly include the planning andcontrolling mechanism of the parent company towards the subsidiary, theindustrial sector and the special management orientations of the managersThe Third Chapter starts to discuss various specific management stylesof the foreign business managers by first looking at the core values behindtheir management behaviors. Through the cultural shocks as reported viathe survey followed with in-depth interviews of some foreign managers,the author deducts four core internal values pertaining to valueorientation, ethical standards/judgments, social responsibilities andwork attitude that collectively influence the management orientation.The fourth Chapter discusses and analyses the management behaviors andthe leadership styles orientation. Based on actual statistical analyseson their behavior and beliefs drawn from over 100 questionnaires fromforeign business managers, the author puts over a leadership model thatis largely based on two levels of attributes, namely, management andleadership orientation. The management orientation includes threeattributes: "cooperation and detail oriented" , "flexibility andspeed" , "high standard and rewards" . The leadership orientationincludes four attributes: "delivery of results" , "transplant ofvalues/beliefs" , "motivation building" and "sustaining control andauthority" .The Fifth Chapter goes on to analyze various sub-attributes of the management styles of foreign managers that are likely developed into leadership orientations. The author explores twelve salient sub-attributes as manifested by foreign business mangers in their pre and post China experience, and are being validated by the local managers for their China experience in order to enhance the creditability of their self-appraisal. The twelve sub-attributes are: "team building" , "delegation and empowerment" , "process enhancement" , "development of human capital" , "environment conducive to decision making" , "values on innovation of ideas" , "values on confrontational management" , "values on assessment of performance" , " values on speed of response" , "motivation driven" , "communication driven" and更多还原