Western Business Cultures vs. Eastern Business cultures: Differences in Management Styles - Essay Example

?Western Business Cultures vs. Eastern Business Cultures: Differences in Management Styles Management style is referred to as the way companies manage their internal operations, level of hierarchy, interpersonal communication and behavior etc. According to the different sets of cultures, norms and traditions, the way by which companies do businesses varies from country to country. There are different sorts of management styles, some of the most prominent are: Autocratic Style of Management Democratic Style of Management Lenient/ Liberal Style of Management Paternalistic Style of Management Just like different tradition and culture of every country, an internal organizational culture also varies from company to company. The way due to which these management styles vary depends upon the internal culture of the company. All over the world, some way or other the management style is categorized in the above mentioned criterion. It primarily depends upon the top management that which management style do they prefer as per the requirements of their organization for instance, in the reign of Steve Jobs, management style of Apple Inc. was more towards Autocratic style of management whereas Management style of Coca Cola is categorized as Democratic. Asian Management Style verses Western Management Theories: a case study in Construction Project Management of Singapore Pheng and Leong (2001) have examined the case of Singapore in order to identify whether there are any variations in the management styles of organizations in Eastern companies and Western theories. Pheng and Leong (2001) analyzed the sector of Construction Project Management of Singapore so as to conduct this study. The financial crisis which struck Asia in 1997 affected the economies of many countries including South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Despite of this, the currency of Singapore remained quiet stable against US Dollar but the other countries’ currency drastically devalued overnight. Western theorists and experts believe that these crises are reason of managerial style of Asian countries which contradicts from western theories. Many experts believe that the crisis which struck Asia is primarily not because of the management style of Asia as West perceives that the reason of crisis is the Asian style of management. If this would be the core reason, then the economy of Singapore would also have suffered just like its neighboring countries. The Asian Management style is the one aspect but the reason of this drastic economic problem is multi-faceted. Another important concept which is debatable is that: Is the Asian management style can really be not explained by Western Management theories? because according to Western managerial experts, it is the root cause of all the problems related to economic crisis. As Singapore is a small country, it is of course not spared from the drastic effects of economic crisis. Companies which are situated in Singapore have taken appropriate measures to cope up with the Asian economic crisis. Some of the measures to tide the crisis include substantial cost cutting of suppliers, sourcing raw material directly from suppliers, persuading the participation of individual, introducing new methods, techniques and strategies for managerial control and improving the level of communication. While at both corporate and governmental level, measures are taken to reduce the cost, the style of management is also an arguable question. The major difference between Western and Eastern style of management is that in Western organization, employees are empowered to take the autonomy and participate the way they think is better. Employees are encouraged to bring innovative results and make mistakes. This induces the employees to bring in their own skills, professionalism and expertise in their work. Therefore, there becomes a positive relation between the professional skills and western style of management. This is the basic reason which is why western companies are way ahead than Asian countries. Performance of the companies of European countries is benchmark for other companies which all other countries strive to attain. The Eastern management style is more towards their culture and traditions. In Asian companies, employees suffer from lack of energy, creativity and attention. Such environment is not meant for professional workers. Eastern culture is more towards the idea of respecting those who have prestige and power. In such cases, employees are more likely to get benefits and resources from their supervisor in order to enhance their skills and abilities. These reasons lead to the Asian management style as directly proportional to professional skills where professionals are marked higher on the basis of traditions. Pheng and Leong (2001) conducted a research to measure whether the Asian style of management relates to the theories presented by West. A study was conducted to measure the style of management of the construction project management. Field observation and results for this particular sector revealed that Asian style of management can be linked to the western theories and philosophies. These results justifies that Asian style of management cannot be the core reason of economic crisis of Asia, because Asian management style somehow or other is a reflection of theories and philosophies developed by West. Conclusion Mostly eastern companies conduct their businesses by copying the style of western companies. It can be seen in any field. Therefore, this argument that managerial style of western and eastern countries collide is not validated by any research or any case. There are numerous cases available on management style of different countries, but none of them supports this claim. Apart from this, another area of consideration is that management philosophies and theories are mainly composed by western philosophers and theorists. These philosophies and theories are prevailing all over the world, representing a notion of benchmark. Therefore, even in Asian countries, the management style has been adopted from western philosophies and theories. In the case, if the reason of crisis is managerial style then the counter question which Eastern companies can have is that why recession of 2008 occurred despite of implementing Western theories? References Pheng, Low Sui and Leong, Christopher H.Y, 2001. “Asian Management Style versus Western Management Theories: a case study in Construction Project Management of Singapore”. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16(2), p. 13-22. Robbins, Stephens P. and Coulter, Mary, 2008. Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Read More