I read a research article about the reaction differences toward conflict between Taiwanese and Western managers.
According to the article, because of the higher expectation that conflict would damage the relationship, Taiwanese managers have higher tendency to avoid direct conflict than western managers do. Taiwanese managers incline to avoid straightforwardly giving opinions, and require more time to evaluate the condition, and prefer to deal with conflict in private instead of in public. The western managers tend to deal with conflict in public with straightforward communication.
The research result seems a common sense to me. Why did they spend money to verify common senses? Because the lack of creativity?
If the conflict happens to different relationships, maybe the reaction pattern would vary from one to another. And maybe, the cultural difference wouldn’t be so significant.
Did they do any actual ‘research’? I mean what did they do to confirm that their/your common sense assumptions were correct? Maybe they just wrote an article giving their opinions.
The answer to your question is probably that someone somewhere had a budget to allocate for research, in the same way that there are regular “what can we do to make life easier for foreigners” questionnaires circulated. Nobody really cares about the result, what matters is that someone justifies their existence and position by publishing research with impressive titles.
Happens everywhere, I’m sure. There was an article a while back about research in Belgium(?) which indicated that men don’t think clearly when they are sexually aroused. It won the forumosa prize for “stating the bleeding obvious”. Funding for ‘science’ is one of those impenetrable mysteries.
Basically, I don’t think this research is a scientific study, but it could be interesting to discuss what scientific methodologies are based on this case.
The ‘research’ here is a simple survey whose sample only includes 150 Taiwanese managers and 150 Western managers.
I personally don’t agree that this small sample can refer to whole population.
But statistics is a tricky thing, you can refer sample to whole population if you get it right via SPSS, and there are many ways to get your data reach the statistic significant level.
[quote=“kate.lin”]
The ‘research’ here is a simple survey whose sample only includes 150 Taiwanese managers and 150 Western managers.
I personally don’t agree that this small sample can refer to whole population…[/quote]
It can’t refer to the whole pop, but I guess it gives some CEO a running start as to why Tom down in Human Resources needs to send out more pink slips this quater.
I disagree with that article. I work for one of Taiwan’s leading technology companies and our Taiwanese CEO is famous for yelling, shouting and cussing. No fear of conflict with him.
As for fear of giving opinions in order to avoid conflict, that’s not quite it either. In our company there’s an overwhelming chickenshit, cowardly, gutless, fear of taking responsibility. No one ever wants to put key statements in writing or make key decisions for fear that they might make a wrong decision and be blamed for it. It’s not prefering to avoid conflict; it’s fear of screwing up, and it’s a rampant problem in our organization.
A good manager should be bright, good at making decisions, and confident enough in his abilities that he’s not afraid to take the initiative and lead. Here, they’re all pointing fingers at eachother, passing the ball, and constantly looking over their shoulders to be sure they won’t get stabbed in the back, instead of just doing their jobs. I suspect this problem is not unique to my company.
While I agree with the difference between Taiwanese and foreign managers’ ‘straightforwardness’, the rest seems backwards to me (the public/private part). I’ve seen way more Taiwanese managers take conflicts public and discuss problems in front of others instead of doing it in private. The foreign managers I’ve dealt with have done it privately. If I had a problem or conflict, I’d rather somebody dealt with me behind closed doors and not embarrass me in front of my co-workers.
Yap, the CEO of my company also does the same things, but because they are CEOs, they have be empowered to shout or yell around.
I think poor middle-level managers, being stuck between general stuff and high-level managers, would have different behaviors patterns.
I think there are many variables behind the so-called findings from the survey. Many subfields involved in OB: organizational climate/culture, leadership, relationship, etc.
It is already hard to control variables in labs, let along controlling variables in natural settings. The researchers in this case chose to focus on relationship for their research. And the methodologies they adopt were interview, survey and observation, which were easier, cheaper and quicker for publication.
Are you talking about my company?
I don’t think what you said is unique to your company.
When I first joined in my team, I observed a lot interesting behaviors so I once wanted to study Organizational Behavior instead of Cognitive Psychology. I see the similar problems that you said happening to my company, too.
I am thinking what really happened to the organizations so that your and my companies have the similar problems.
[quote=“kate.lin”][quote=“Mother Theresa”]
I disagree with that article. I work for one of Taiwan’s leading technology companies and our Taiwanese CEO is famous for yelling, shouting and cussing. No fear of conflict with him.
[/quote]
Yap, the CEO of my company also does the same things, but because they are CEOs, they have be empowered to shout or yell around.
I think poor middle-level managers, being stuck between general stuff and high-level managers, would have different behaviors patterns.
I think there are many variables behind the so-called findings from the survey. Many subfields involved in OB: organizational climate/culture, leadership, relationship, etc.
It is already hard to control variables in labs, let along controlling variables in natural settings. The researchers in this case chose to focus on relationship for their research. And the methodologies they adopt were interview, survey and observation, which were easier, cheaper and quicker for publication.
Are you talking about my company?
I think what you said is not unique to your company.
When I first joined in my team, I observed a lot interesting behaviors so I once wanted to study Organizational Behavior instead of Cognitive Psychology. I see the similar problems that you said happening to my company, too.
I am thinking what really happened to the organizations so that your and my companies have the similar problems.[/quote]
He’s talking about mine. Bolded part is especially problematic as they’re supposed to be journalists. I laugh because the alternative is to knee them in the crotch.
[quote=“sandman”]
He’s talking about mine. Bolded part is especially problematic as they’re supposed to be journalists. I laugh because the alternative is to knee them in the crotch.[/quote]
Exellent CEO! Do you have any job vacancy that I can apply to?
