The Emergence of Post-Communist Management in the Czech Republic

Abstract

This paper examines the sources and processes of management learning in four large, former state enterprises in the Czech Republic. These enterprises have all been privatized, but have not enjoyed foreign direct investment, which is often cited as a major source of post-communist management development.The findings indicate that current managerial knowledge in the enterprises has originated from a variety of domestic and foreign sources, but that the flow of ideas has been affected by a number of important filters, arising from the complexity of the Czech context, and the motives of the enterprise managers. In particular, the paper documents the continuing role of managerial knowledge emanating from pre-1989 sources, a factor which may have crucial implications for the nature of the emerging institution of post-communist Czech management.

International Business Research on Transition Economies

“…Managerial learning, and in particular the internalisation of new knowledge, is modified by the connection made by recipients between new ideas, information and experiences and their prior knowledge and experiences. The content of received knowledge is filtered through the mind set of the recipient in CEE and their experiences in the socialist society (Soulsby and Clark 1996).…”

“…Western consultants in particular are resented, delivering reports of little practical use because they fail to understand the institutional context of the CEE firms (Soulsby and Clark 1996). This led to considerable 'consultancy fatigue' (Gilbert 1998) especially if the consultants obtain only superficial information on the ground and, as they are paid for by international institutions, are more concerned about Brussels or Washington than with Novgorod or Vladivostok.…”

“…Western HRM approaches have been adopted in the region, for instance by creating a wider spread of salaries (Basu et al 1997, Clark andSoulsby 1996). Incentive-based pay has been introduced, especially by Western investors, but with mixed success as it sometimes conflicts with the egalitarian local culture (Mueller andClarke 1998, Cyr andSchneider 1996).…”

Perceptions of MNC management: Local parent sensemaking in international joint venture process

“…The wider aim was to develop community and enterprise-level materials on economic restructuring processes to complement embedded case study work (Yin, 2003) that we had conducted elsewhere /1998/1999a/1999bSoulsby 2001;/1996a/1996b/1998/2006.…”

Socio-political processes in international management in post-socialist contexts: Knowledge, learning and transnational institution building

“…Another response has been to maintain strategic independence but, in recognition of the need to acquire Western concepts and techniques, to import foreign ideas through recruitment, training or educational policies (Hollinshead and Michailova, 2001;Soulsby and Clark, 1996). The spread of MBA courses and international training courses in Central Europe, for example, owes much to local managers' desire to learn foreign practice, while retaining indigenous control and independence.…”