Business Leaders and Leadership in Asia

Ying Zhu, Shuang Ren, Ngan Collins, Malcolm Warner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317567493
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

The quality of its business leadership is a key issue for the future development of Asia's economies. Although Asia's economies have grown spectacularly in recent decades, they are currently facing increasing challenges. This book explores the current state of business leaders and leadership in Asia. It demonstrates that there is no single model of Asian business leadership, and that Western models often do not fit easily alongside Asian cultural values. It discusses how relatively developed Asian economies – Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, and former socialist economies – China and Vietnam – all have different types of business leadership challenges at present. The book concludes by assessing how business leadership in Asia is likely to develop in future.

1    Introduction

Challenges of business leaders and leadership in Asia

Introduction

Asia has become the centre of global attention. Amidst the debt that has been plaguing the US and Europe since the 2008 financial crisis, rapid growth in most parts of Asia, in particular Southeast Asia, provides promising business opportunities for new global expansion. The combined effects of strong market potential, rapid foreign direct investment (FDI) intake and unprecedented openness to the external world evident in Asian countries have generated increasing attention worldwide. The effects of Asia’s growth are so significant that, in 2012, the US Government declared its Asia Pivot strategy with a shift of focus to this region. Around the same year the Australian Government released its Australia in the Asian Century White Paper (Australia Government, 2012), projecting the scale and scope of Asia’s rise by 2025.

Navigating the fast-growing Asian region is nonetheless never an easy journey, despite the potential for global business. No single model exits to provide guidelines on how to do business and manage a workforce effectively in Asia. The region is the world’s largest and most culturally diverse area, and is characterized by uneven development in economic, social, political and cultural realms. This heterogeneity applies as much to contextual contingencies at various levels (e.g. state, industry and organization) as to managerial cognition and action. The implicit expectations of how a business leader looks and behaves are not always consistent with stereotypical Western leader-like traits and behaviours. The complexity is further exacerbated by the expansion of Western-derived best practices and management philosophies which often encounter resistance or challenges from indigenous ways of thinking and acting. What is considered logical and rational judgement in Western approaches is not necessarily perceived in the same way in Asia. Therefore, it is timely to carry out this research on analysing business leaders and leadership in the Asian region so that both Asian people and others have a better understanding of the characteristics of their respective leadership concepts and practices in comparison with others. This is the rationale that underpins this book.

Setting out a model

This book sets out to explore the sense and sensibility surrounding the perceptions and practices of business leaders, leadership and management in Asia, based on a cross-country comparative approach. Given that the challenges and opportunities encountered in the landscape of business operation are heterogeneous in nature, the analysis in this book encompasses two major groups of Asian countries and regions. The first group includes advanced economies (i.e. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) that have enjoyed better established economic structure, institutional framework and more experience of dealing with global issues. The challenges they face are staggering economies and the struggle to sustain growth amidst fierce competition from neighbouring countries and Western economies. The second group includes socialist market economies (i.e. China and Vietnam) where many emerging issues and uncertainties provide new thinking and new ways of developing capable leaders. As previously state-controlled communist regimes, these two countries are undertaking ongoing economic reforms and opening-up that are anchored in rapid restructuring and changes in formal and informal institutions. Compared to their neighbours in the first group, China and Vietnam face challenges such as a lack of rule of law, infrastructure and know-how, thereby presenting more difficulties for business leadership. This group provides insights into how business leaders can survive in such a harsh environment, and presents a rich context in which to examine business leadership.

Challenging issues

This book first asks and seeks to address challenging issues such as what constitutes effective leader behaviours in the exemplar Asian countries. We position our exploration within a unique context characterized by paradoxes (Warner, 2014). The six case study economies belong to the Confucian Asian Clusters in which the management and leadership theory and practices are shaped by Confucian values (Chhokar et al., 2012). In fact, Confucianism is so woven into the fabric of these societies that terms such as ‘Confucian Management’, ‘Confucian Capitalism’ and ‘Confucian HRM’ have been coined to describe the philosophical roots of their business management, an intellectual attempt that is rare in the Western literature (Warner, 2014; Warner, 2017). The enhanced trans-national interactions facilitated by globalization raise a question as to what extent traditional thinking in general, and Confucianism in particular, is still relevant to differentiate effective business leaders; relatedly, to what extent the exogenous (i.e. Western) management influences, such as the US-derived leadership concepts (see Warner, 2016), shape the criteria people use to evaluate the effectiveness of business leaders, formally or implicitly.

Tension is therefore a recurring theme in this book when we discuss the specificities of each country. A common tension faced by our case study countries and regions is the dynamic interplay between indigenous management/leadership practices and influences such as Confucian values and imported ones from the West. As one author has commented: ‘Such exogenous ideas … were to blend with indigenous ones. They were diffused, then adapted, and finally absorbed into local practices, where deemed appropriate’ (Warner, 2016, p. 619).

The manifestation of this interplay takes many specific forms. As Zhu observes in Chapter 3, Japanese businesses and leaders resorted to the traditional ‘tinkerer’ spirit as a solution to domestic challenges in recognition of the limitations associated with the adoption of Western management theories and practices. Ren makes the comment in Chapter 6 that the Chinese government reintroduced Confucian values in an attempt to build national identity and facilitate a healthy business and societal environment.

Fundamentally, the variations of how businesses and business leaders cope with paradoxical demands are rooted in the stages of the economic and societal development of these countries and regions. As Child (2009, p. 58) explains:

to the extent that societies pass through similar stages of development, this cautions against assuming that every country’s context is unique because apparent contemporary differences may become similarities when viewed historically.

The historical, cultural and social embeddedness of this book therefore sets it apart from prior management and leadership studies that take mainly a psychological approach to depicting leader traits, characteristics and personality (see Yukl, 2012). A fine-grained understanding of leadership vis-à-vis contexts also provides direction for a comparison and synergy of effective leader behaviours across different countries.

In addition, we seek to address the challenge of developing sustainable leadership competencies for the future. We started the analysis by exploring the key leadership qualities that are most in need of development. Indeed, top business leaders and managers at all levels are under pressure to deal with unprecedented challenges in a global context, making global mindsets and cross-cultural capabilities pivotal to their survival and success. The complexity of these challenges facing business leadership in Asia requires continuous updating of knowledge and skills through a variety of means, including self-development and institutionalized training. Whenever possible, we substantiate our analysis with a brief description of exemplar business leaders who act as role models or sources of inspiration for leader development in their respective countries.

Structure of the book

This book is organized according to three broad sections. This introductory chapter sets the scene and is followed by Chapter 2, which provides a systematic theoretical and background overview pertinent to business leaders and leadership in general. The purpose of the second chapter is to establish the theoretical foundation which helps readers trace the current leadership perceptions and practices to their cultural and institutional roots. The embedded nature of leadership is further instantiated in Chapters 3–8, which present country-specific profiles detailing traditional normative values on leadership, influences of Western management practices, tensions and concerns of current business leaders, leader development, and providing an evaluation and conclusion. These chapters are based upon our recent fieldwork with business leaders and scholars in the respective economies, coupled with our research experiences in the relevant literature. The book is concluded in Chapter 9, which provides a comparative analysis of East Asian economies, as well as a comparison between East and West. The value of this book lies in offering path-dependent possibilities of leadership and an integrated framework to analyse, compare and contrast Asian countries within the spheres of regional disparity.

Conclusion

Influenced by globalization, business leadership competencies nowadays are in flux as never before. The changing leadership competencies reflect dynamism within a particular society, encompassing its economic, political, legal and other institutional characteristics. The dynamic institutional context makes the legitimacy of business operation an emerging challenge in Asian countries. In undertaking this work, our book has focused on leadership challenges, in particular related to sense and sensibility of managerial cognition and action. Sense and sensibility highlight the tensions between professional and logical judgement influenced by Western-derived practice and culture and following one’s heart and passion based on innate and ingenious values. Correspondingly, the book examines the different ways business leaders improve their leadership competencies to navigate their complex and dynamic environments. For this reason, this book is suitable for scholars and practising consultants who are interested in understanding how and why business leadership is currently perceived and practised in Asia, and how to manage the workforce in domestic companies as well as multinational corporations (MNCs) in the region.

References

Australia Government (2012) ‘Australia in the Asian Century,’ White Paper, http://asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au/white-paper [accessed on 15 November 2016].

Chhokar, J. S., Felix, C. B. and House, R. J. (eds) (2012) Culture and Leadership across the World: The GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies, London and New York: Routledge.

Child, J. (2009) ‘Context, comparison, and methodology in Chinese management research’, Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 57–73.

Warner, M. (2014) Understanding Management in China: Past, Present and Future, London and New York: Routledge.

Warner, M. (2016) ‘Whither “Confucian Management?”’, Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 11(4): 608–632.

Warner, M. (ed.) (2017) The Diffusion of Western Economic Ideas in East Asia. London and New York: Routledge.

Yukl, G. (2012) ‘Effective leadership behavior: What we know and what questions need more attention’, Academy of Management Perspective, 26(4): 66–85.

2 Business leaders and leadership in Asia

Underpinning theories and background

Introduction

Business leaders and leadership in Asia give rise to complex and profound issues, given the wide range of influences of philosophical, historical, cultural, social, political and economic factors, as well as management/leadership theories and practices, from the East and the West. In order to clarify such complex issues and reach a better understanding of the underpinning theories and contextual factors, this chapter aims to illustrate the relevant theoretical thinking of East and West regarding leaders and leadership, comparing and contrasting common elements as well as differences. In doing so, we can set up a solid platform for the case studies presented in the chapters that follow, in order to discuss and debate the key themes accordingly. These chapters will enable us to identify the key findings and major contributions of this book in the concluding chapter.

In order to elaborate these key issues, this chapter is designed with the following structure: following the introductory section, the chapter focuses on the identification of key aspects in mainstream Western leadership literature from the perspective of a historical evolution process. A number of these Western approaches have also been introduced and adopted in East Asian countries, with modification and combination with the respective Eastern philosophical thinking and practices. An illustration of Eastern thinking and practices regarding leaders and leadership is then presented with a discussion on how these have influenced current business leaders and leadership in East Asia. In the final section, we compare and contrast similarities and differences between Eastern and Western thinking and practices regarding leaders and leadership, and develop a number of key questions for consideration in the relevant arguments in the chapters to come.

The key aspects of Western leadership literature

As in most social science studies, the study of leadership reflects the broad trends in deep thinking, with evidence of contextual factors (Lord et al., 2016). The evolution of research on leadership in the early years placed emphasis on the social, psychological and functional/task (management) contexts influencing the leadership process. Followers’ performance, for instance, affected their supervisor’s leadership style (Lowin and Craig, 1968); situational factors were more important than individual differences in leader decision-making styles (Hill and Schmitt, 1977); leader behaviour changed substantially as a function of task (Hill and Hughes, 1974); and outcomes of leadership style also depended on the leadership situation (Fiedler, 1964). Based on these early years of leadership studies, a key aspect emerged indicating that leadership style was a flexible, social and task-dependent process (Lord et al., 2016).

In addition, early research focused on stable aspects of leaders, such as traits or styles, as primary determinants of leadership (Lord et al., 2016). Hence, leadership was viewed mainly in terms of entity rather than process, and most of the early research conceptualized differences among leaders in terms of behavioural styles. The perceived leadership styles as reported by a leader’s followers were being seen as valid measures of leader behaviour. However, what was missing was the consideration that followers integrate their perceptions of leadership with other aspects of situation, such as group performance, liking of the leader, follower affective states and task knowledge. These factors also influence ratings of leadership (Keller Hansbrough et al., 2015). Therefore, there was a need to develop a deeper level of understanding and measurement of leadership perceptions, leading to the emergence of social cognitive approaches to the study of leadership (Lord et al., 2016).

The social cognitive approaches to leadership showed that for both leaders and followers, interpretation of leadership processes and outcomes was a critical mediating process linking leaders and followers (Martinko and Gardner, 1987). In order to identify and categorize leadership, a central category prototype was developed to help perceivers understand leadership, defined as either transactional or transformational leadership in early years, and later as charismatic, situational, servant, ethical and others (i.e. later development of authentic, transpersonal, sustainable leaderships and so on) which we will elaborate more in the later part of this chapter. In this sense, categorization theory provided a natural linkage to trait theories of leadership, such as a strong relationship between the intelligence of a leader and leadership perceptions (Lord et al., 1986).

In the late 1970s and 1980s, a new approach, namely attribution theory, emerged which looked at leaders’ attributional processes as antecedents to their responses to subordinate performance (Green and Mitchell, 1979). Two important conclusions were made through this approach: 1) how supervisors responded to subordinate performance was mediated by their sense-making process; and 2) both supervisors and subordinates adjusted their behaviour to situational factors as they understood them (Matinko and Gardner, 1987). However, Lord et al. (2016) claimed that social cognitive theory with systematic and thoughtful attributional process was the exception rather than the rule because people make sense using automatic processes, influenced by their culture, personal traits and even emotional states (Naidoo and Lord, 2008). However, we cannot deny the richness of understanding of the factors affecting leadership perceptions and processes which reflect the cumulative advan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables
• 1. Introduction: Challenges of business leaders and leadership in Asia
• 2. Business leaders and leadership in Asia: Underpinning theories and background
• 3. Business leaders and leadership in Japan
• 4. Business leaders and leadership in South Korea
• 5. Business leaders and leadership in Taiwan
• 6. Business leaders and leadership in Singapore
• 7. Business leaders and leadership in China
• 8. Business leaders and leadership in Vietnam
• 9. Conclusion: Comparative analysis of business leaders and leadership in Asia
• Index