Anglo Saxon Styles of Management Development - Coursework Example

?Management Development Table of Contents Management Development Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Anglo Saxon styles of management development 4 French styles of management development 5 Comparison of Anglo Saxon and French styles of management development field 7 Conclusion 10 10 Reference 11 Introduction Due to several local factors and the historical circumstances unique management styles came to existence over the last few decades. Of these different distinct management styles in different parts of the world three different styles are most significant. These are Anglo Saxon, French and the Japanese. At the operation level the companies in different parts of the world like Asia, Europe and US are sharing their ideas and their own strategies and then implementing in their businesses for the best practices in different parts of the world. In this study the Anglo Saxon and the French management development styles are explored to find the difference in their respective styles of management. For this diversity in the management style there are mainly four reasons that influence this cultural difference. Firstly, organizations with different Power distance or hierarchical structures have different power levels and thus creating a structural difference in the organization. Secondly, organizations sometimes have employees who try to avoid uncertain situations and some times have a responsible manager who ambitiously likes to tackle risks. The third factor is Individualism. With high individualism managers are more hard working takes initiatives in different actions. Finally, with high masculinity employees are very stressful and the workplaces are not very employee friendly. Based on these practices within the organization different management styles have evolved in different parts of the world (Vedpuriswar, n.d., p.1). Anglo Saxon styles of management development The Anglo Saxons are the Germanic tribes in the east and the south of Great Britain. Migrating tribes of the German into the Britain which is now known as northern Germany mainly comprises of three types of people i.e. Angles, Saxons and the Jutes. Anglo-Saxon countries have many similarities between the British and Canadian, US-American and also Australian cultures of business strategies. The main reason behind this similarity is due to the reason of immigration of all these countries are from the same origin Great Britain. Because of this reason the language spoken by these countries are also same to some extent. In Anglo-Saxon culture of business it is mainly done through well connected network of some third party. They feel more comfortable in doing businesses with the people whom they like or they trust very well. The Anglo Saxons are generally more interested in doing business with some long term relationship rather than doing business with quick deal. While doing business they often use humors and understatements to confuse opponents which results in the delay of business. They avoid sensitive topics like religious, poor service and sexuality in their meetings or small discussion. The British culture of business is mainly hierarchical. They have a tendency of giving orders to the people who are under their power and on the other hand talking and discussing topics with the top management. The hierarchy is very strongly maintained within each organization business culture. But they like to work in teams and also they have a strong sense of fair play. With the hierarchical structure of business the employees reach a business decision but the boss or the top management is the final decision approver in this type of business organization. In this business model the functional areas of finance, accountancy and the law department are most valued of all. Thus it results in underrepresentation of technical qualification of people even if they are managers of the firms. In Anglo Saxon business organization status of the R & D departments are very lower. They believe in on the job training system for their organization rather than educational qualification. The empirical approaches of viewing and learning from it are more valued in this business development style. The top management in this style of business is often selected by going through their status rather than the tasks they have done to achieve the post. Selection process of this type results to a very fragile top management authority. The last but not the least, in this organization structure the top management is accessed by Anglo Saxon’s only. People from any other culture are not entertained in the top management of the business (Slehl, n.d., p.8). French styles of management development The French styles of business management are quite different from that of the Anglo Saxons in many respects. The French people are from one the oldest nation of the world and their cultural and language is very hard to understand for most of the society. They have a very distinct culture from the world which made them the most influential country in Europe. In the organization structural development of the French there is no strict hierarchy of the different functional areas of the company. The power is distributed among all the levels of the business thus everyone can interact and share their business opinions with the top management and their points are also valued while taking decision by them. Within the organization all the departments are taken care of and the performances of different departments are evaluated from time to time. The top management is selected based on their career achievements and qualifications of their higher studies or grand schools. There is a hierarchy within the organization according to the qualification of the employees thus the top management in this type of organization is very strong and educated. French Organization structure believes in forming strong social network to drive their business. This technique helps in forming strong business network with shareholders and with their customers in order to increase profit margin. In French style of management development political skills are very required to manage the employees as less power distance can create some problem within the organization thus the management need to tackle those situation using political skills very strongly. In French organization structure the top positions are occupied by the managers who are mainly appointed from the High School polytechnique or the High school national administration departments. Most of the managers in French organizations have very strong analytical skills which is very important in this kind of business structure to analyze different problems of the company. The main emphasis of learning is given to the theoretical approach of the managers rather than their social skills. Studies and learning are given the most priority in selecting the managers for the organization. The people from lower management participate in decision making but there is not very active participation by them. Persons with leadership skills are given more responsibilities in all the departments. In French culture the written culture is more preferred in all the processes of the businesses thus there are not so much interactions or interpersonal relationship between the employees of the organization. Thus culture within organization is strictly formal and the workspaces are not so friendly for the employees (Slehl, n.d., p.8). Comparison of Anglo Saxon and French styles of management development field There are distinct differences between the French and the Anglo Saxon styles of management development. The most prominent difference arises out of the fact that the Anglo Saxon style demonstrates a more rational approach towards management development while France depicts a more stringent and rigid culture in which there is little room for flexibility or rationality (Peters & Kabacoff, 2010) The Anglo Saxon model allows a more rational approach towards problem solving. But the French approach emphasizes more long term relationships where the consideration if status and symbolism is given greater importance. Its approach towards solving problems therefore depicts less rationality and reasoning (University of Kentucky, 2007, p.76). One of the most important differences between the two styles lies in their willingness to defer those who are in the positions of authority. In Anglo-Saxon management style, there is a clear distance among the bosses and the workers; even, there is enough power difference exists among several training workers. There is enough dividing characteristics exist among various functions in any organization including maintenance, production, research and development divisions; power difference also exists with the higher management as well as among the skillful and unskilled labors. Clear differences can be found in the authority level while moving among the labor groups with different level of skill sets. It has been seen that when one comes closer to the engineering and production division, the lower would be the status in the company. In the Anglo Saxon countries, there are two social groups including the working groups and middle class. Upper middle class of the society are mostly comprised of persons and professionals from the high management level. The middle class has people from lower level of management and the administrative communities while the lower class is comprised of skilled non-manual workers or the people in the supervisory positions. The word ‘engineer’ has come from the thought that these people would get their hands dirty by working with the ‘engines’. As a result, in and companies following the Anglo-Saxon management style, the people associated with the engineering works are thought to have comparatively low status. In such companies, classically educated and skillful generalist is thought as the ideal managers rather than the managers with specific skill set. People appreciate the managers with the ability to cope up with contingency situations. The management style relies on the fact that ‘managers are born, not made’; social origin is more significant rather than the technical competence. In the French management style, little interaction exists in between the leaders and the followers. The French leaders have a strong hierarchy leaving less room for the transformation leadership to instigate change. The power distance is huge as the hierarchical structure creates paramount barriers among the leaders and the followers. In the Anglo Saxon management style, each profession belongs to different union of labor groups. As each of the labor unions is different, trade unions are entirely decentralized and fragmented with weakened power dynamics. Despite of this decentralization, significant conflicts may arise between the employers and employees. The conflicts also arise from the lack of confidence between the two parties. IT is pretty evident that there is a clear class system among the higher management and the employees within the organization. Employees are given control but this ‘class system’ emerges as one of the significant reasons leading to labor disputes. Due to higher authority of the higher management, the disputes of the labor groups are resolved in a hostile way. This clear ‘class system’ within the organizations lead to situations where the top level of management idealized themselves as a different class and hence owe increasing responsibility towards the shareholders. The shareholder value approach which says that the organizations must strive to increase the value of its stockholders fits the Anglo-Saxon culture in an appropriate way. Even the preparation of the accounting data is intended to target the shareholders. Furthermore, the assessment of the balance sheet is done in an optimistic way. The managers, following the Anglo-Saxon management style, take an accounting approach to impress the investors in the short term. It can be deduced that the managers look to optimize their short time returns rather than concentrating on the long term goals (Monks & Minow, 2004, p.328). That is why the short term profitability comes at the cost of long term market positions. However, the managers, following the French management styles, tend to approach more towards the long term perspectives rather than running after the short term goals. The French managers are more long term goals oriented and approach the same through model building. In the Anglo-Saxon management style, the culture is more characterized by the optimism in the future. The managers are more to avoid the uncertainty and positive about the future consequences. As a result, Anglo-Saxon managers are comparatively more satisfied regarding the job. They are more satisfied in terms of social and security requirements compared to the managers from various cultural thoughts. According to the Anglo-Saxon cultures, the individuals are responsible for their own destinies. The contingency situations are resolved based on the individual cases. The Anglo-Saxon system comprises of one tier organizational structure where the board is comprised of both executive as well non executive members. According to Hofstede, the French managers, compared to the British, would score more on uncertainty and power distance. The traditional French management style has been extensively perceived as increasingly autocratic. The authority of decision making has been concentrated at the top management level. The French managers look at the meetings “simply to clarify the arguments they would later put forward to their bosses for consideration” (Tayeb, 2005, p.161). Overall the French management is pretty administrative in its nature. The workers do not have any discretionary decision making authority. They can expect high rewards for their good performances, but the situation is idiosyncratic and politicized (Hancke, 2002, p.16). The French has more preference to the sophisticated engineering models which include systematic and scientific approaches to solve the issues. Conclusion There are a number of management styles prevailing in the academia as well as in the organizational practices. However, all these management styles have different approaches towards the employees, organizational goals, activities and decision making approaches. However, all these styles have their unique ability to control and manage the workers. In some case Anglo-Saxon style may work well; however, French style is more appropriate while one thinks about the long term perspectives. The style of management would depend on the organizational structure, firm size and the management within the company. The mangers must change their styles in accordance with the employee behavioral feedbacks as this would minimize the conflicts among the two groups, enhancing the productivity of the organization. Reference Hanck, B. 2002. Large firms and institutional change: industrial renewal and economic restructuring in France. Oxford University Press. Monks, G. A. R. & Minow, N. 2004. Corporate Governance. Wiley-Blackwell. Peters, H., Kabacoff, R. 2010. SHARED BEGINNINGS and DIVERSE HISTORIES: A Comparison of Leadership Behavior in Five Countries with Anglo-Saxon Based Cultures. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.mrg.com/documents/Anglo_Culture.pdf . [Accessed on April 01, 2011]. Slehl, C. No date. Leading Across Cultures : France. Thunderbird The Garvin School of International Management. Tayeb, H. M. 2005. International human resource management: a multinational company perspective. Oxford University Press. University of Kentucky. 2007. The importance of an international diplomatic culture. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.uky.edu/~pmmu222/comps/dipculture.pdf [Accessed on April 01, 2011]. Vedpuriswar, (No date). The Impact of Globalisation on Management Styles. [Doc] Available at: http://www.vedpuriswar.org/books/Glob_ceo/Chapter%203%20The%20Impact%20of%20Globalisation%20on%20Management%20Styles.doc [Accessed on April 01, 2011]. Read More