Participative management and its varying relevance in Hong Hong and Singapore

First, the process whereby developing countries become developed is discussed in terms of complexity, neutrality in social relations, and the achievement ethic. An examination of managerial attitudes in eight South-East Asian countries is followed by the results of a comparative study of manufacturing industry in Hong Kong and Singapore. It was concluded that in Singapore participation leads to higher productivity (r_s 0.71, p<0.05) but only because the context is mainly foreign. This relationship was not found in Hong Kong probably because Hong Kong enterprises remain non-bureaucratic, i.e. non-western. A more participative style of management requires radical changes in non-managers' expectations of their employers, as well as a significant increase in the extent to which superiors trust their subordinates. The evidence suggests that Asian managers (except those in Japan and, possibly, Singapore) favour an autocractic approach.Dr. S.G. Redding is Professor of Management Studies and Head of Department at the University of Hong Kong. Dr. S. Richardson formerly Head, Production & Industrial Engineering Department, Hong Kong Polytechnic is now in the School of Management, National University of Singapore.     

Time-based competition: Some empirical data from Singapore

The progressive edge of competition has moved from what was primarily a cost-based strategy through that which was quality-based, and then variety-based, and now, onto the time-based mode of competition. This paper presents a status report of the response of the Singapore manufacturing sector to such a progression in competitive paradigms. In particular, we will refer to empirical data from the latest Singapore Manufacturing Futures Survey to provide an update on the apparent status of the local manufacturing environment in terms of such current paradigms of competition. From these, we will draw some implications for operations management, that is, what should local producers and suppliers do in the light of such current modes of competition. Such implications may be of help to other manufacturing businesses operating in other countries.The author is with the Department of Decision Sciences, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 0511.     

Estimating and comparing learning curves in three Asian economies

This paper consists of two parts. In the first, a method is suggested to isolate the effects of scale economies on learning phenomena by integrating the conventionally specified learning curve with the production function in neoclassical economics. The problem of establishing the variable for measuring experience is dealt with in the estimation procedure. Using this method we estimated the learning curves of 20 industries in the manufacturing sector in Singapore using data taken from 1961 to 1991. More modern industries like electronics, precision instruments and pharmaceutics have steeper learning curves than older industries. Among traditional industries, the food and beverage industry has a greater learning potential than others. In the second part of the paper, the learning curves for 11 common industries in South Korea, Japan and Singapore were estimated and compared. The Japanese industries are found to have steeper learning curves compared to those in Singapore and South Korea.The authors are from the Department of Business Policy, Faculty of Business Administration, National University of Singapore. The authors would like to thank Ms Tan Mui Lee for her assistance in preparing the time series data used for this study.     

Singapore-based subsidiaries of US multinationals and singaporean firms: A comparative management study

The objective of this exploratory study is to compare and contrast various aspects of US management with Singapore management. One hundred and four top managers, 99 middle managers and 780 operating employees from 20 manufacturing companies participated in the survey. The chief executive of each company was contacted by mail before the survey was begun.Hypotheses concerning the management philosophies, management practices and management effectiveness were tested for differences between US subsidiaries and Singaporean firms.The results of the research indicate significant statistical differences for the two groups of companies with respect to the management variables. Explanations regarding these differences are presented.A paper comprising a substantial portion of this article was presented by the author at the43rd National Academy of Management Conference held in Dallas, Texas between August 14 and 17, 1983.The author is grateful to Dr Bruce W. Stening, of the Department of Management at the University of Western Australia for his perceptive guidance during the study. The author is with the Department of Management, University of Western Australia.     

Pioneering advantages in manufacturing and service industries: empirical evidence from nine countries

Although one might expect differences between manufacturing and service firms in pioneering advantages, the extent of these differences has not yet been investigated. This is the first cross‐national study that compares such differences in nine countries/regions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore. We develop several hypotheses concerning the perceptions of managers of manufacturing firms and service firms regarding the benefits and post‐entry risks of pioneering, and the cost and differentiation advantages accruing to the pioneering firm. We test the hypotheses with data from 2,419 firms representing all nine countries and both industrial sectors. We find that: (1) managers from all countries perceive pioneering to be associated with higher market share and/or profitability; (2) manufacturing firm managers perceive pioneering risks to be significantly more important than do service firm managers; (3) cost and differentiation advantages of pioneering are, for the most part, more significant to manufacturing than to service firm managers; (4) Western manufacturing firm managers perceive the cost advantages to be more important than Asian Pacific manufacturing firm managers. We conclude by presenting the managerial implications of our findings. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transition to more cooperative and consensual pattern of labour-management relations: Singapore and Hong Kong compared

In recent years, labour-management relations in Hong Kong and Singapore appear to have been shifting away from confrontation towards cooperation. This paper examines the relative contributions of thelaissez-faire and the State approaches to this development, and proposes that a collaborative industrial partnership might take different forms in the two societies.The authors thank the anonymous reviewers of the APJM for their comments and for recommending several additional references.     

Change and Transformation in Asian Industrial Relations

We argue that industrial relations (IR) systems change due to shifts in the constraints facing those systems and that the most salient constraints facing IR systems in Asia have shifted from those of maintaining labor peace and stability in the early stages of industrialization to those of increasing both numerical and functional flexibility in the 1980s and 1990s. The evidence to sustain this argument is drawn from seven "representative" Asian IR systems: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and China. We also distinguish between systems that have smoothly adapted (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines) and systems that have fundamentally transformed (China and South Korea) and hypothesize about the reasons for this difference.     

Offshoring Professional Services: Institutions and Professional Control

We examine the reasons why one might expect it to be more difficult to offshore professional work than manufacturing work in a globalized world. We then provide data on the variations in a specific case — the offshoring of diagnostic radiology from the USA, UK and Singapore. We show that existing theories on the ‘offshorability’ of jobs have not captured how national institutions and occupational regulations continue to define professional work. We then review the question of supply from India's perspective and report that both macro‐institutional and organizational contexts make it complicated for Indian doctors to supply much of this service.     

Share recommendations in singapore's financial press

This study compares the returns earned by shares featured in the Company Profile section ofSingapore Business with the results expected in a semi-strong efficient market. Prices in an efficient market reflect known information and recommended shares in the financial press are not expected to outperform the market. The results of this study are mixed but tend to match the outcome that is expected for an efficient market. Although the sixty-eight shares selected between January 1977 and October 1982 increased sharply in value on average during the following year, all of the gain during the first six months can be attributed to market changes. Only at nine and twelve months did the shares appear to outperform the market, but the level of statistical significance for the excess returns was low.The author is with the University of Hawaii and holds a visiting position at the National University of Singapore.     

Swedish managers' perceptions of Singaporean work-related values

The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the fundamental work-related cultural values of middle managers of Chinese ethnic origin employed in Swedish companies in Singapore, and to draw comparisons with the perceptions of those values among the Swedish top managers. Using the same set of questionnaire items for both sets of respondents, the Swedish managers were asked to respond as they imagine their Chinese subordinates would do, as a projective technique. The main finding of this study is the considerable amount of misjudgment on the part of Swedish top managers in assessing work-related values of the Singaporean middle managers.Dr. Jan Selmer is Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Företagsekonomiska Institutionen, University of Stockholm, Sweden. He is a Board Director of the Center for Pacific Asia Studies, University of Stockholm. Presently Dr Selmer is a Visiting Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Management, National University of Singapore.Acknowledgement is given to the Swedish Embassy in Singapore for help and support. The participation of the management of the Swedish companies included in the study (Appendix) is deeply appreciated.     

Strategic Reorientation and Responses to the Asian Financial Crisis: The Case of the Manufacturing Industry in Singapore

Taking the Asian financial crisis as a base model that triggers decline among manufacturing firms in Singapore, this paper identified two main strategies taken: offensive strategic reorientation and defensive strategic shift. We hypothesized that firms that adopt the offensive strategic reorientation strategy attributed decline to controllable factors, have a higher level of slack, and are bigger in size. On the other hand, firms that adopt defensive strategic shift attributed decline to uncontrollable factors, are under greater severity of decline, have a lower level of slack and are smaller in size. We found significant relationships for the defensive strategic shift strategy.     

American and Japanese management practices in their Singapore subsidiaries

Multinational corporations have made significant contributions to the economic growth of Singapore; American and Japanese companies are among those in the forefront. This study is aimed at finding the extent to which US and Japanese companies have transferred and implemented the management practices in their subsidiaries operating in Singapore. Extensive and intensive interviews of a small sample of companies in the electronic/electrical industry reveal that the Japanese are not practising what they do in Japan while the Americans have demonstrated that the transferability of their management practices is feasible and they are workable in Singapore.Joseph M. Putti is an Associate Professor at the School of Management, National University of Singapore. Thomas Chong F.H. is a Production Manager in Union Carbide, Singapore.     

Auctions for transferable objects: Theory and evidence from the vehicle quota system in Singapore

This paper studies the hypothesis that auctions with resale markets result in higher prices. The vehicle quota system introduced in Singapore in May 1990 provides the setting. The Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) necessary to purchase new cars were initially transferable for all quota categories. After October 1991, COEs for four major categories became non-transferable. Our results indicate that while the conversion to non-transferability eliminated speculation, it has also intensified competition among car distributors. Auctions for non-transferable COEs in fact led to higher COE prices in three of the four categories.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Symposium on Law and the Social Sciences, 7 August 1992, at the Regional English Language Centre, Singapore. We want to thank our colleagues for discussions on the subject, the Chief Editor and two anonymous referees of the journal for their constructive comments and suggestions, and the Registry of Vehicles of Singapore for providing us with the data for this study. Financial Support from NUS Grant RP900048 is gratefully acknowledged. We are solely responsible for the errors in the paper.     

新加坡对华直接投资与双边产业内贸易关系的实证研究

本文概述了新加坡对华直接投资和双边产业内贸易的现状,重点利用计量模型分析国际直接投资与产业内贸易的相关性,论证了新加坡企业对华直接投资与双边产业内贸易存在着正相关关系,得出两个重要结论:新加坡在中国的直接投资诱发并扩大双边的产业内贸易、垂直一体化直接投资是现阶段中国与新加坡产业内贸易发展的重要动力。最后,在上述研究的基础上提出中国更好地吸引和利用外商投资、提高产业内贸易水平的政策建议。     

Alienation of marketing executives

Marketing executives form a distinct group for a study of alienation from the marketing system because of their conflicting roles. They are consumers of goods and services from the system. They contribute to its design and functioning. Based on a sample of 128 marketing executives in Singapore, this study found a strong relationship between alienation from the marketing system and approval of greater government intervention in it. It was also found that alienated executives felt that ethical standards of marketing had declined.Subhash C. Mehta is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. Currently, he is a visiting Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Management, National University of Singapore. Kau Ah Keng is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Management. National University of Singapore.     

Singapore share recommendations using technical analysis

Recent statistical studies of the Singapore Stock Exchange generally conclude that the market is weak-form efficient. This means that technical analysis or the study of past share prices cannot reliably forecast future prices and lead investors to returns which exceed the market. This article reports on a study of 292 technical analysis-based investment recommendations made over a five year period, November 1979 to April 1984, by a Singapore investment advisory firm. The objective was to test whether this firm was able to use technical analysis to select common share investments which would allow investors to earn an excess return. After adjusting for trading commissions, market trends, and risk, the recommended shares did not outperform the market. Thus, the results correspond with what would be expected in a weakly efficient market.     

The impact of formal control and guanxi on task conflict in outsourcing relationships in China

The purpose of this study is to explore how manufacturing firms manage task conflict with their outsourcing suppliers in the context of China. Using survey data collected from manufacturing firms operating in China, we found that when implementing R&D and manufacturing outsourcing, both formal control and Chinese guanxi are useful governance mechanisms for suppressing outsourcing task conflict. We also observe that Chinese guanxi moderates the impact of formal control on task conflict, especially when implementing R&D outsourcing. By investigating the roles of formal control and Chinese guanxi in outsourcing practices in China, this study contributes to a better understanding of how to manage task conflict effectively.     

Work practice barriers to flexible manufacturing in the US and the UK

Work practice barriers to flexible manufacturing are studied in the British and American unionized engineering industries and a comparison made of the influence of the industrial relations systems on the potential for overcoming these barriers.     

The Economic Effects of Unionism on Japanese Manufacturing Enterprises

Abstract : This paper examines the relationship between unions and the economic performance of firms in the Japanese manufacturing sector. Although the effects of trade unions on the enterprise has been the subject of substantial research over the past decade, this research has focused almost exclusively on Western systems of industrial relations and union organization. In this study, Japanese enterprise unions were found to be associated with significantly lower levels of profit, lower productivity and higher levels of capital intensity. These results challenge the commonly held views of a subservient and dependent union movement in Japan.     

Investing in residential property in Singapore: Misperceptions and financial leverage principles

This paper addresses the buoyant residential property market in Singapore. We trace the economic reasons underlying the recent boom in residential properties, and discuss some of the common misperceptions we have observed among property investors. We provide a set of principles for investing in properties, and the implications arising from these principles for the choice of mortgage financing and the type of properties to invest in.The authors are with Global Capital Markets, J. P. Morgan and the Department of Finance & Banking, National University of Singapore. All correspondence should be addressed to Edward H. K. Ng, Department of Finance & Banking, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 0511, e-mail address fbanghk@nus.sg.