EAST ASIA (March 3rd Lesson)

I must say that i am very interested in the topic developed in this presentation. Moreover, the work done by Catalina and Juan David was excellent.

1. What did i learn?

The differences and similarities between the Korean and Japanese management style. Due to the fact that Korean was colonized by Japan, the japanese influence still remains in the korean culture. Moreover, concepts such as Convergence and Divergence are useful in order to determine those differents and similarilities in these asian countries.

On one hand, there are two models that better describe the management system in a country: Convergence and the comparative cultural approach. The first one, stands that as the economies develop, the management system will converge in a system which is found out in developed countries. By its side, the comparative cultural approach, states that a wider group of rules based on culture, in a society is determinant for e stablishing differentation among them.

On the other hand, the National Management Style (which is the point to go to an analysis of a particular management system), takes into account two variables: the national culture and level of development.

It is shown that Koreans are less active that japaneses, but at the same time, talking about internationalizations, koreans perform as japaneses do. In addition, koreans tens to consider the employyees less important that japaneses, but for both is is very important to share the information and organizational values among the human resource. It is important to bear in mind that, Koreans as well as japaneses share an asian management stlyle which day by day tend to converge.

2. Question: which variables facilitate the comprehension the management system in asia regardind Korea and Japan as examples?

3. Answer:

• Strategic Goals
• Environmental Analysis
• Technology Development
• Supplier Relationship
• Closeness with customers
• Marketing
• Human resource management
• International Orientation

Sources: Lee, Jangho, Thomas W. Roehl, & Soonkyoo Choe. 2000. What Makes Management Style Similar and Distinct Across Borders? Growth, Experience and Culture in Korean and Japanese Firms. Journal of International Business Studies.

• Juan David López and Catalina Muñoz´s presentation.