Topic 6: East Asia: Japanese and Korean management styles

Key words: East Asia; management style; religion; Buddhism; Confucianism, Management style, Japanese style, Korean style


SUMMARY:


The asian business and country members of this region, are becoming part of actual studies, due to the concept of globalization, the fast economic growth and their succesful model adopted by companies of this region that share some characteristics of their culture and are transfered to their management styles.
For this reason, nowadays we are facing with a controversy: Globalization vs. Convergence.
Convergence may be defined as the acceptance of different cultures around the world, and the creation of awareness allowing and adopting some concepts from successful models (specially of developed countries), according the text What Makes Management Style Similar and Distinct Across Borders? Growth, Experience and Culture in Korean and Japanese Firms, written by Lee, Thomas & Choe.
We can see the prevalence of Japanese model in Asia, and the American model in Western.


Now, we are going to explain the Japanese management style and why it is considered as a pattern in korean styles and other asian countries: It is very important to clarify to the lectors that not all the japanese companies are alike. Japanese market is growing and the maket share must be consistent with log-term and maximization of value. Relationship biuldings are very important for almost every east asian coultures, and they are the basis for Japanese behavior with their custommers and suppliers, and this variable, makes this management style more alike with group loyalty. They take into account both custommers and competitors as important factors for decision-making process.

In the other side, lets explain the Korean management style: Korean style has many congruent factors with Japanese one, due to the historical background of both countries. Korea was a japanese colony and then, they adopted the japanese style. Korea has been growing more tha Japan and other similar countries, and this is because the leadership tasks  and the economic planning have been very well oriented by the government.This kind of government have supported the companies members of the "Chaebol", similar with the "Zaibatsu" of Japan.
Korean management culture adopt some principles from confusianism and budism.


Differences of Japanese and Korean management styles:

The national management system is influenced by

* National culture (laws, legal, economic and political variables)

* Development, evolution and sophisticaion of procesess (degree of internationalization)

Internationalization means for the companies, that they have to be stronger in terms of competition, improving their managerial operations, increasing efficiency and opportunities, and common managerial problems (independent of nationality) are:

-Intensification of competition

-Directing activities of subordinates

-Difficulty of coordination (sub-units)