Western observers of global business, impressed by how many Asian cultures differ from North America and Europe tend to think of Japan, China and Korea, who have the same form business relationships. But in spite of the East Asian cultures have a common emphasis on personal relationships as the basis of business, forms and values of these ratios are markedly different from the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. For the Japanese, the important concept of wa, or the emphasis on group loyalty, harmony and consensus, emotional support and long-term importance. The Chinese, on the other hand, I think, in terms of guanxi, special mechanisms for benefit sharing, the person has to others, personal loyalty to such agreements are more important than loyalty to the organization. Koreans emphasize inhwa, which refers to harmony between unequal and comes from the Confucian ideal of loyalty to parents, elders and authority figures. Non-Asians in the hope of making effective business in East Asia need to understand how these concepts are all translated into a very different standards of business practice. "Hide
by John P. Alston Source: Business Horizons 6 pages. Publication Date: March 15, 1989. Prod. #: BH015-PDF-ENG
Related Case Solutions & Analyses:
Digital Imaging in 1995: Opportunities in the Descent to the Desktop
MSA: The Software Company–Planning the AMAPs Product Line
Competition and Product Variety
Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain
Janet Yellen and the Bernanke Fed
Financial Crises and Firm Performance
Hong Kong’s Trading Industry: Challenges from Mainland China
THE GUEST IS GOD: AIRBNB EXPANSION PLAN IN INDIA
THE ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP AND ITS FLOOD RESILIENCE ALLIANCE (A)
MERCADONA. A GLOBAL CORPORATE FINANCE CASE
