Robert I Westwood

Chinese Conflict Preferences and Negotiating Behaviour: Cultural and Psychological Influences:

This paper analyzes the extent to which both traditional Chinese cultural values and Chinese psychology influence Chinese perceptions and approaches to conflict resolution and thus affect Chinese negotiating behaviour. An attempt is made to illustrate salient cultural values and orientations, and empirical data is used to identify Chinese conflict preferences. The extent to which both these cultural values and conflict preferences have shaped a distinctive Chinese negotiation style is then examined.

Management information systems in the Chinese business culture: an explanatory theory

Abstract Despite the growing economic power of the Overseas Chinese and the Peoples Republic of China, Chinese business practices remain poorly understood. Recent studies do indicate that Chinese managers make remarkably limited direct use of computer-based information systems. A theory is developed to explain the observed phenomenon by first contrasting Western and Chinese philosophy and then considering the Confucian-based values and behaviours which distinguish Chinese management systems from their Anglo-American counterparts. The explanatory theory suggests that the use of MIS in the Chinese business culture has been, and will continue to be, shaped by factors such as paternalism, personalism and high context communications. The implications for competing or collaborating with Chinese organizations and supplying information technology-based products and services to the Chinese market are discussed. The cross-cultural challenge facing information management researchers and practitioners is outlined.

Managerial Values Across Cultures: Australia, Hong Kong and the United States

The relationship between personal managerial values and a range of important organisational variables has increasingly been recognised. Personal values are shaped by the wider cultural milieu in which the individual is socialised. Managers from different cultural contexts may therefore be expected to possess different work and business-related values. However, exposure to a more universalistic managerial ethos may also generate a degree of similarity in managerial values across cultural contexts. In order to examine these issues, the values and expectations of managers in Hong Kong (N = 653), Australia (N = 505) and the United States (N = 1,060) were compared. Both differences and similarities were revealed, leading to speculations about the relative impact of culture versus roles on managerial values.

The Transferability of Leadership Training in the East Asian Context

The problem of the transferability, relevance and application of leadership training derived from North America (as the dominant producer) to East Asia is discussed. The universality and culture-boundedness of ‘Western’ approaches is critiqued. An alternative approach to leadership more in tune with the cultural traditions of East Asia is presented. This is formulated around an ideal model which extrapolates from the cultural values prevailing in East Asia to develop a cohesive framework for the enactment of ‘leadership’ in that region. The conceptualization draws upon a distinction between ‘headship’ and ‘leadership’ and heuristically takes the former as a more meaningful construct in the East Asian case. The approach is elaborated to take account of the value and behavioural conditions necessary to meet the interdependent twin requirements for order/ compliance and harmony characteristic of the leadership situation in East Asia. Finally, implications for leadership training, both for expatriate sojourne...

A cross-cultural investigation of the shared values relationship

Data from managers in Australia (N=505) and Hong Kong (N=653) support the findings of studies using American managers and their companies that shared values, or person-organization values fit, is strongly related to positive work attitudes. This relationship is unaffected by culture, as two-way analysis of variance reveals no interaction effect between shared values and country. Managerial implications are discussed.