Asia is now set to rival the West in economic terms, and an understanding of Asian management is critical. General interest in this area has its origins in the Japanese economic miracle, regional influence of the overseas Chinese, and the contemporary emergence of China and India.Richard Grainger, associate professor, is based in the International Business Area of the School of Management, at Curtin University of Technology, in Perth, Western Australia. His research and teaching interests are in international management, comparative management, Asian management systems and international human resources. He has published book chapters, academic journal and media articles in the aforementioned areas. His academic profile includes significant periods as an international advisor and faculty member of the Tsukuba Institute of Science and Technology, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, and as a Visiting Researcher with Tokyo University of Economics. His professional career includes periods as an international commodity trader, and as an Australian Customs official.Samir Ranjan Chatterjee, professor, has been involved in business education, research, training and consulting for more than thirty years. Currently a professor of international management at Curtin University of Technology, he has been a pioneer in the design, delivery and management of offshore post-graduate and undergraduate programs in Singapore, Hong Kong and a number of other countries. In the course of his academic career, he has lived and worked for substantive periods in India, Mongolia, Singapore, Japan, USA, UK and Slovenia. He has authored and coauthored numerous books, book chapters, scholarly journal articles, international conference proceeding papers and a large number of other scholarly publications.
215Although "Asian management" is established as a subdiscipline of international management, there are few standardized frameworks. This article explores and recommends a descriptive, comparative approach to understanding Asian management that recognizes global and local imperatives. Two illustrative case studies of major Asian corporations are offered in illustration of the utility of the framework.
