by Gill Corkindale | 4:47 PM April 19, 2007
China has transformed itself into a global economic power over the last 20 years, beating economists’ forecasts for growth and giving multinationals a run for their money. But its managers appear to be moving at a very different pace. Western management ideas are taking root in China, yet old traditions die hard.
While the younger generation speaks English and enjoys unprecedented opportunities to study and work abroad, China’s more senior managers are struggling to catch up with the seismic changes of the last two decades. This conflict became apparent to me last week when I was coaching a senior manager from one of China’s ministries. Born in China in the 1960s, Frank had emigrated to Hong Kong as a child, and after training as a scientist, he had returned to take up a senior post in Beijing last year.
On the face of it, he was eminently well-placed to succeed. Young, smart, and committed to his work, he was prepared for a challenging role but had not anticipated cultural problems in China. His first was the negative perception some Chinese held toward Hong Kong-born Chinese. While expatriates from the United States or United Kingdom would be greeted as lost sons of the motherland, he said, little attention was paid to Hong Kong Chinese, who were often viewed with suspicion. Next was the hierarchy. Frank’s bosses were former Communist Party leaders who had grown accustomed to their power and were not prepared to see it undermined. And while his objectives were to restructure the department and meet new targets, he was given subordinates who were used to being looked after by paternal managers and were not keen to change the way they worked.
When I met Frank in London, he was in the middle of a rigorous management development program. Along with other managers from around the world, he was being drilled on the usual skills–challenging his boss, coaching and delegation, open communication, and understanding his own style of leadership.
While polite and respectful, I could see that he was becoming increasingly frustrated. Very little of what he was learning was relevant in his day-to-day work, he complained. In a society where losing face is the worst humiliation, how could he possibly acquiesce with glib Western advice to “make mistakes and learn from failure?” Or admit that he didn’t know all the answers? How could he challenge the political elite who formed his management committee? Or delegate to people who had been conditioned for years to follow orders? How could he become a hands-off manager in a society where, as the eldest son, he had been conditioned to take a paternalistic approach?
Business schools–Chinese and foreign-run–are booming in China. Record numbers of students are signing up for executive development and MBAs. There is undoubtedly a need for Western-educated managers. But we don’t know yet whether Western management ideas can be applied successfully to Chinese companies. We also don’t know whether managers whose business education included the teachings of Mao Zedong can work well with those schooled in the economic and managerial philosophy of Deng Xiaoping (part of the MBA curriculum at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Antai College of Management).
China’s traditional values are beginning to surface in management writing, most notably the concept of Confucian Ethics (CE), a value orientation that stresses interpersonal harmony, individual responsibility, hierarchy, networks (guanxi), family integrity and kinship affiliation. According to academic C.H. Hui, “people favoring these values are characterized by a strong entrepreneurial spirit, wanting to succeed, and that a whole society that adopts such values has a high growth potential.”
This sounds much closer to the heart of the Chinese economic miracle–responsible, entrepreneurial individuals, a networked society, harmonious relations, and a drive to succeed to benefit the family–and all are sound principles on which to build China’s future business and society.
What are you learning from your dealings with Chinese executives?
GILL CORKINDALE
Gill Corkindale is an executive coach and writer based in London, focusing on global management and leadership. She was formerly management editor of the Financial Times.
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