Managing relationships within sino-foreign joint ventures

In setting up joint ventures (JVs) in the PRC, foreign staff are compelled to go through a painful management process. This includes encountering a myriad of problems and difficulties, ranging from external environmental problems to internal organizational conflicts of interest. Based on an empirical study of two leading JV pioneers in China, Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Company Ltd. (SVW) and Beijing Jeep Corp. (BJC), this article suggests that the problems encountered are, in most cases, attributable to managerial relationships and human interaction. It submits that managers working within JVs in China would benefit greatly from understanding the dynamics of the relationships. Looking at this situation from both Western and Chinese perspectives, it sets out to describe the essential themes found in three principle managerial relationships: 1) between two/more parents; 2) between parents and the venture; and 3) between two groups of staff.