The effects of sales supervisor relationships on work meaning: The case of Canadian and Chinese salespersons

Although the meaning of work—an individual's understanding of the purpose and significance of his or her work—is often discussed, the issue of how to enrich the meaning of work for salespeople remains poorly understood. This study examines the role of sales manager-salesperson relationships in the development of work meaning in a cross-cultural context. To better understand how work meaning might differ in Eastern (collectivist) and Western (individualist) cultures, data were gathered from salespersons in the Chinese and Canadian telecommunications industries. Findings suggest that the development of work meaning among Canadian salespeople is ascribed to the perceptions of customer orientation and self-determination. Conversely, in China, a quality relationship with one's sales supervisor is a direct factor in the development of work meaning. Managers of global sales forces should carefully consider the cultural differences of their salespersons and how a close personal relationship can impact the understanding of the purpose and significance of work for their sales team. After discussing the findings, managerial implications and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Tolerance of executive failure in American and Japanese organisations

The attainment of organisational goals requires that organisations manage the kinds and frequency of executives' failures. Although a number of economic, sociological, and organisational theories offer guidance in explaining tolerance of executive failure and its impact on performance, little empirical work has been done exploring the dynamics of the phenomenon. This lack of research becomes especially bothersome because the careful management of failure may be a major difference between Japanese and American management styles. The present study was undertaken to begin the systematic examination of executive failure in Japan and the United States. In a study of American and Japanese executives, only economic theory and convergence theory were supported. Japanese and American executives enjoy equal tolerance of their failures, but tolerance varies in terms of economic conditions and the degree of the failure. Japanese organisations appear to manage low level failures well and serious failures poorly. Americans are better at managing serious executive failures, but are poor at handling low level failures.     

Competing capitalisms: capital investment in American,German, and Japanese firms

This study explains one way the home country institutional environment causes strategy differences across firms from different countries. It contrasts the investment conduct of American, German, and Japanese firms in the 10 largest manufacturing industries. We find profound national differences among these firms that are stable across industries. These differing conducts are tied to the institutional environments of the home market. The shareholder firms of the United States make investments primarily in response to expected investment returns, measured by Tobin’s Q ratio. The coalitional firms of Germany and Japan make investments primarily in response to the availability of internal finance, measured by operating cash flow. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

或长或短的意义--这是一个由男人的头发引发的话题

头发是由个人生理条件所决定的,颜色、质感、曲直,当然,这些也是可以改变的。比如将黑头发染成红头发,将直发烫成曲发,将很好的发质“折腾”成很坏的发质……而谈到头发的长短,问题就一下子复杂了,因为它是生理与各方面因素共同作用的结果。 就目前状况而言,男人的头发主要以短发为主,这来自社会生活的约定俗成。但从生理角度来说,他们的头发照样可以很长很长。在中国古代社会,几乎所有人都遵循着“身     

Culture and the management of time: A comparison of Japanese and American top management practice

Data was collected from CEO's and upper-level managers in Japan and the United States by survey and by structured observation in order to investigate patterns of time utilization as functions of culture. The results showed similar patterns between the Japanese and the Americans with regard to the percentage of time spent working alone as opposed to working with others. Different patterns were found for the two cultures with regard to the length of activities.     

A Comparison of American and Japanese Work Practices: Skill Formation, Communications, and Conflict Resolution

This article examines whether American work practices are becoming more similar to Japanese work practices with regard to skill formation, communications, and conflict resolution. I find that separated skills, self-managing teams, and the dual conflict settlement procedure prevalent in three American unionized plants contrast with the practices found in three Japanese unionized plants, where integrated skills, middle-up-down decision making led by assistant and first-line supervisors, and an informal and one-channel conflict settlement procedure are used.     

A comparison of budgetary control systems in American and Japanese manufacturing firms

This article examines and compares some variables considered important in budgetary preparation and performance evaluation by American and Japanese executives of manufacturing firms. The literature asserts that American executives employ management styles and performance evaluation criteria that tend to overemphasise short-term goals, while Japanese executives prefer management philosophy and performance evaluation criteria that emphasise long-term goals. The survey research method is employed to gather evidence to test hypotheses pertaining to such an assertion. The research results provide empirical evidence that supports most of the assertions in the literature.The author expresses his sincere gratitude to Drs James Don Edwards of the J M Tull School of Accounting — University of Georgia, Ato Ghartey of Southeastern Massachusetts University, R S O Wallace of Exter University and annonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.     

Management practices of Taiwanese firms: As compared to those of American and Japanese subsidiaries in Taiwan

The management practices of local Taiwanese firms were evaluated by Negandhi in 1973 as the least developed as compared to those of the American and Japanese subsidiaries. Since then, the local Taiwanese firms have undergone a phenomenal change. In comparison to the American and Japanese subsidiaries, the current management practices — organisational structure, decision making and human resource management of the local Taiwanese firms are a mixture of those of the American and Japanese subsidiaries. The local Taiwanese firms have adapted very well to the impact of the West (the United States) and the East (Japan) and contributed greatly to the economic prosperity of Taiwan.The author wishes to thank the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Republic of China (Taiwan) for financial support.     

New paradigms for the future: keynote perspectives from The R&D Management Conference 2008

The R&D Management Conference 2008 theme of ‘emerging and new approaches to R&D management’ sought to draw out how R&D‐based organizations today are changing the way they manage (in terms of novel approaches, techniques, models and tools) in face of the challenges and opportunities presented in the current environment. Six keynote presentations by executives, representing both the public and private sectors, elaborated on the following subjects reflecting their experiences on the theme: hyperconnectivity and changing R&D tenets, accelerating discoveries in human health via open access public‐private partnerships, role of government in bridging the innovation gap, building sustainability and innovation in a traditional resource sector, R&D management in the aerospace sector, and leveraging diversity to build a culture of innovation. Their presentations highlighted amongst other things – global trends that are affecting how R&D organizations are operating, economic imperatives driving change in business models, working through partnerships within an open innovation environment, and leveraging the diversity presented by an increasingly globalized R&D workforce for success. Within these presentations are also challenges to researchers to generate new thinking to address current and future problems presented by the R&D environment. The keynote perspectives are summarized in this paper.     

Duopoly and competition: The case of American cellular telephone

The designation of local duopoly mar ket structure for the American cellular telephone industry offers an unusual opportunity to observe the relationship of duopoly and market performance. A study of the first 28 markets to offer cellular service in the United States found that forms of competitive behav iour were evident in every market, but the intensity of competition varied widely. In nearly every market, prices declined during the six-year period. Although duopoly appears to have facil itated price competition, the wide vari ation in performance from market to market indicates that factors other than market structure strongly influence the behaviour of the firm.     

Operational performance of airlines: An extension of traditional measurement paradigms

This study presents a new approach for measuring operational performance, an important facet of performance missing in the current literature concerned with international airline strategy. International performance assessments of airlines from published financial information are difficult, because (1) most airlines lease a substantial fraction of their aircraft, and (2) different accounting and taxation rules in various countries result in different impacts of leased assets on profit and balance-sheet information. A possible solution are nonfinancial data. For example, the number of available ton kilometers may reflect aircraft capacity more accurately than flight equipment depreciation. However, different units of measurement introduce new difficulties. Drawing on data from 15 airlines, this study utilizes 'Data Envelopment Analysis' as a technique to analyze and compare operational performance of airlines. The study concludes with an analysis of strategic factors of high profitability and performance in the airline industry.     

Social problems of information societies: The US and Japanese experiences

Attention is turning increasingly to the social problems associated with information societies. Most studies conclude that minimizing the side effects (invasion of privacy, information inequity, information control and misuse of information) of information technology is the task of policy makers. By developing models of the US and Japanese information societies, the author argues that no two information societies will be the same since their character will depend on such variables as national ideology, government policy making organizations, information policy, technology, the marketplace, etc.     

Inter-firm Collaboration and Learning: The Case of the Japanese Automobile Industry

This paper investigates the effect of intra-firm Research and Development expenditure and inter-firm collaboration on firm performance. It is proposed that R&D expenditures enable a company to improve knowledge and assimilate the exchange of information within non-routine collaboration activities. The hypotheses are tested by an empirical study on inter-firm technical collaboration in Japanese Automobile firms during the years 1975–1995, using the method of first-order auto-regression on a panel data set. The findings indicate that R&D expenditure increases performance, but do not allow clear conclusions on the effects of collaborations.     

New R&D management paradigms: rethinking research and technology organizations strategies in regions

The R&D management paradigms of research and technology organizations (RTOs) have been discussed in the past. Academics have analysed their strategic challenges in view of the new demands posed by new competitive environments for their SME clients. New innovation models proposed recently have captured the attention of policy makers. The objectives of this paper are to analyse these models in the case of a particular model of RTO: the R&D units in the Basque Country in Spain, launched with the aim of improving R&D and technology transfer efficiency. This paper is based on an empirical study of a group of specialized RTOs (R&D units) and its objective is to analyse a new paradigm of RTO and propose a model to identify the critical elements that influence performance and strategic alignment between R&D performers (RTOs) and their partners (in most cases SMEs).     

The reluctant regulator: The Rural Utilities Service and American broadband policy

Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis we examine the way in which the Rural Utilities Service has shaped rural broadband policy in the United States over the last three decades. The implications for this research are wide, as it brings another policy actor into the policy making melee, and pushes communication policy scholars to consider the role that non-traditional communication regulators play in the communication policy making process.     

The economic dynamics of work

Only by developing management systems based on appropriate standards can a business successfully learn how to improve the technology of work. As a result, a new economics of work is created where the evolution of large organizations makes economic sense. But economies of scale no longer require rigid mass production of a limited product line. Flexibility can be introduced to produce product diversity without losing the efficiencies of standardization. Thus manufacturing can operate more flexibly like a service by learning to apply industrial robots and other smart machines. Service businesses can also learn how to manage more systematically by designing standard menus of operations.     

Perceptions of products made in Japan versus those made in the United States among Japanese and American executives: A longitudinal perspective

This research reports on a longitudinal survey approach in which American and Japanese executives were queried regarding their perceptions of products made in the United States and Japan over a period of 15 years. Three surveys were conducted by mail in the United States using home country executives in 1977, 1991 and 1992. One survey was conducted in Japan in 1992 using Japanese executives and is compared to the findings of Nagashima (1977). Results show that over the past 15 years, the image of American goods has been declining both in the United States and Japan, whereas that of Japanese goods has been improving. These results offer an alternative product image/attribute-based perspective as an explanation of the United States trade deficit with Japan. Over the past year, survey results also reveal that the image of Japanese goods in the United States has suffered. This finding suggests that the image of a country's products is changeable, surprisingly even in a short period of time.