Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-11T18:09:26.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

6 - Organizing frameworks: a comparative assessment

Richard M. Steers ,
Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde  and
Luciara Nardon
Richard M. Steers
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde
Affiliation:
IESE Business School, Barcelona
Luciara Nardon
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
Get access

Summary

Intuitively, people have always assumed that bureaucratic structures and patterns of action differ in the countries of the Western world and even more markedly between East and West. Practitioners know it and never fail to take it into account.

Michael Crozier Sociologist, France

Generalizing about organizations is a tricky and not entirely respectable business.

Patricia Morison Journalist, Financial Times, UK

Both French sociologist Michael Crozer and British journalist Patricia Morison make compelling and similar points about efforts to understand organizations around the world. Patterns of organizing clearly differ across borders and cultures, but we run a very real risk of misinterpreting what we see if we push too hard towards sweeping generalizations. Even so, it is sometimes helpful to use broad strokes to paint pictures of what managers can expect to find when they begin to travel.

Consider the East Hope Group of Shanghai, China. Four brothers of the Liu family founded the firm in1982. It was one of the first privately held enterprises (or gong-si – see below) allowed to flourish under China's new government policies supporting the development to large-scale privately held companies. To get the business started, the Liu brothers sold their wristwatches and bicycles to raise the necessary US$120 to open a very small agricultural business. Today, the East Hope Group is the largest animal-feed producer – as well as one of the largest private enterprises – in China, with 10,000 employees working in 120 various business enterprises around the country.

Type
Chapter
Information
Management across Cultures
Challenges and Strategies
 , pp. 155 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Michael, Crozier, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Patricia, Morison, cited in Richard, Hill, We Europeans. Brussels: Europublications, 1997, p. 9.Google Scholar
Jones, T. Foster, “The family that bakes together,” The Costco Connection, February 2009, pp. 20–22.Google Scholar
Phillip, Harris, Robert, Moran, and Sarah, Moran, Managing Cultural Differences, 6th Edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004Google Scholar
Peter, Lawrence, Management in the U.S.A. London: Sage, 1996Google Scholar
Richard, Lewis, When Cultures Collide. London: Nicholas Brealey, 1999Google Scholar
Edward, T. Hall and Mildred, R. Hall, Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French, and Americans. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Toyohiro, Kono and Stewart, Clegg, Trends in Japanese Management: Continuing Strengths, Current Problems, and Changing Priorities. London: Palgrave, 2001Google Scholar
Masahiko, Aoki and Ronald, Dore (eds.), The Japanese Firm. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
James, Abbeglen and George, Stalk, Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1985.Google Scholar
Christopher, Meek, “Ganbatte: understanding the Japanese employee,” Business Horizons, January–February 1999, pp. 27–36.Google Scholar
John, Cullen and Parboteeah, K. P., Multinational Management: A Strategic Approach. Cincinnati, OH: Southwestern College Publishing, 2005.Google Scholar
Miki, Tanikawa, “Fujitsu decides to backtrack on performance-based pay,” The New York Times, March 22, 2001.Google Scholar
Paul, Lillrank and Noriaki, Kano, Continuous Improvement: Quality Control Circles in Japanese Industry. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.Google Scholar
Language Magazine, April 2000, 10(3), pp. 3–4.
Ming-Jer, Chen, Inside Chinese Business: A Guide for Managers Worldwide. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Wenzhong, Hu and Cornelius, Grove, Encountering the Chinese. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Christopher, Earley, Face, Harmony, and Social Structure. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Gordon, Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990.Google Scholar
John, Child, Management in China During the Age of Reform. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Sameena, Ahmad, “Behind the mask: a survey of business in China,” The Economist, March 20, 2004, pp. 3–19.Google Scholar
Geert, Hofstede, Culture's Consequence: International Differences in Work Related Values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1980, revised 2001.Google Scholar
“German industrial relations: slowly losing their chains,” The Economist, February 21, 2004, p. 49
Almut, Schoenfeld, “Germany rethinks generous perks for civil servants,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2004, p. A17.Google Scholar
Ingrid, Brunstein (ed.), Human Resource Management in Western Europe. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995.
John, Miller, “Employment rules hinder EU,” The Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2004, p. A11.Google Scholar
Christopher, Engholm and Scott, Grimes, Doing Business in Mexico. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997Google Scholar
Eva, Kras, Management in Two Cultures: Bridging the Gap Between US and Mexican Managers. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Eric, Dash, “Mexican billionaire invests in Times Company,” New York Times, January 20, 2009, p. A–1.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×