An Empirical Study of Overseas Chinese Managerial Ideology*

Abstract

This study of managerial ideology focuses on the question of legitimacy and attempts to reconstruct the way in which the role of the chief executive is perceived in the context of Overseas Chinese economic cultures. The location of the study is Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore and those studied were 72 chief executives in Chinese business organizations. Three determinants of present-day beliefs are traced to the socio-historical legacy of China, and these are identified as paternalism personalism and a defensiveness derived from insecurity. The workings of their influence are traced via perceptions of the self. of relationships, of organization, and of society at large, to explain how executives rationalize their behaviour and their roles.

The evolving role of organisational and personal networks in international market venturing

“…Cultural differences may have important implications regarding SMEs' networking behaviour. For example, SMEs in emerging economies, such as China, Brazil, and India use personal connections (i.e., guanxi in China) to conduct business and understand economic transactions (Park & Luo, 2001;Redding & Hsiao, 1990). Second, this study assumes that internationalisation is based on the accumulation of resources originating from networks, but the process might be much more complex (Manolova et al, 2010).…”

Harmony and Patriarchy: The Cultural Basis for 'Paternalistic Headship' Among the Overseas Chinese

“…Further impetus is provided by the assertion that, as with Japan, purely macro-economic factors cannot alone account for the economic success and that a distinctive cultural heritage and persisting socio-cultural mileau has been instrumental in shaping an approach to business and management conducive to rapid economic development (Berger and Hsiao 1988;Clegg, Dunphy and Redding 1986;Hicks and Redding 1983; Yoshihara 1988). A focus on the cultural determinants of economic success in East Asia has given rise to the Post-Confucian Hypothesis (Kahn 1979;Hofstede and Bond 1988;Redding 1990;Redding and Hsiao 1990). This broadly argues that the notable economic development is explainable by the common Confucian cultural heritage shared by members of the 'Confucian League'.…”

Performance management of Australian and Singaporean expatriates

“…Entrekin and Chung (2001) in surveying 209 Chinese managers in Hong Kong found that while they supported the use of multi-source evaluation, there was an overall concern with the use of subordinate evaluations. Although the research results indicate that these managers felt that subordinates provided accurate and fair evaluations, the researchers suggest that involving subordinates may conflict with Chinese values such as a paternalistic respect for authority (Redding and Hsiao, 1990). This research suggests that Chinese cultural factors may influence the use and acceptance of multiple raters in performance evaluation of managers, which is of relevance to predominantly Chinese Singapore.…”