Development of MBA education in China: opportunities and challenges for western universities

China’s embrace of the market economy has created a growing demand for business education, in particular for MBA programs. This paper first reviews development of MBA education in China as a basis for then discussing problems with current Chinese MBA teaching. Next, suggestions of how to solve these problems are presented. Finally, opportunities and challenges for Western universities to participate in China’s MBA education are addressed

Management of e-technology in China

"e" technology is bringing about many challenges for companies, in particular for their managers. This concerns a vast range of business processes in many sectors of the economy and in nearly every country of the world. In rapidly industrializing China, companies and other organizations are actively finding their way by adapting, developing and exploiting new e-technologies. The paper's focus is the identification of the management issues in implementing e-technology in China. The paper reports on research into difficulties of establishing and operating e-business in China. In particular, it discusses management related to e-technology sharing and application. A brief review of literature is followed by the analysis of three recent case studies: an international IT services alliance, a financial services provider and an international manufacturing joint venture. All case companies are applying e-technology in China, but the role of e-technology differs in the three cases: adding a service line to the existing business processes; developing a new business process; and increasing efficiency and effectiveness in business processes. The conclusions present the emerging management issues: cooperation is a key asset in networking; the choice of business models plays an important role; adequate management attention for details such as a training program is require

Transferring Collective Knowledge: Collective and Fragmented Teaching and Learning in the Chinese Auto Industry

Collective knowledge, consisting of tacit group-embedded knowledge, is a key element of organizational capabilities. This study undertakes a multiple-case study of the transfer of collective knowledge, guided by a set of tentative constructs and propositions derived from organizational learning theory. By focusing on the group-embeddedness dimension of collective knowledge, we direct our attention to the source and recipient communities. We identify two sets of strategic choices concerning the transfer of collective knowledge: collective vs. fragmented teaching, and collective vs. fragmented learning. The empirical context of this study is international R&D capability transfer in the Chinese auto industry. From the case evidence, we find the expected benefits of collective teaching and collective learning, and also discover additional benefits of these two strategies, including the creation of a bridge network communication infrastructure. The study disclosed other conditions underlying the choice of strategies of transferring collective knowledge, including transfer effort and the level of group-embeddedness of the knowledge to be taught or re-embedded. The paper provides a group-level perspective in understanding organizational capabilities, as well as a set of refined constructs and propositions concerning strategic choices of transferring collective knowledge. The study also provides a rich description of the best practices and lessons learned in transferring organizational capabilities.knowledge transfer, collective knowledge, organizational capabilities, R&D capabilities, organizational learning, network, China

Creativity, innovation and the ‘New’ MBA : China and the 21st century knowledge economy

This paper discusses the development of new models of business education in contemporary China. It describes the rise of the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree in the context of the growth of a new professional-managerial class in China, as a corollary of modernisation and economic reform. While the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) has its origins in the United States, it has grown into a globally recognized qualification for business status, particularly when acquired from ‘elite’ institutions in a highly competitive and extensively ranked global system. Its growth in Asia is reflective of the significant shortages of managerial expertise as economic success throws traditional family-based or state capitalist models of business organization into question. In China, the rise of the MBA has been more recent, although the original idea was introduced in the late 1970s, not long after the directive of Deng Xiaoping to modernise the economy. We consider the role played by new MBA programs, such as the Executive MBA (EMBA) and the International MBA (IMBA) as new educational products designed, not so much for the re-engineering of management practices in SOEs along more effective commercial lines, but rather upon developing an internationally networked business elite better able to engage with the new challenges of the global knowledge economy

HRM in Multinationals’ Operations in China: Business, People, and HR Issues

This paper presents the results of a study on the HR function in the Chinese operations of large multinational companies. Surveys of both line and HR executives in these firms were conducted. Results reveal that line executives are more sensitive than HR executives to criticality of people management issues as business issues, and that they see HR\u27s strategic orientation as the most critical area for improvement. The challenges and opportunities implied by these results are discussed

Worker Rights Consortium Assessment Freetrend (Dean Shoes Co. Ltd.), Shenzhen City, Guangdong, China: Findings, Recommendations, and Current Status

WRC report on its assessment of advances made by Freetrend in worker rights protection at its shoe factory in Guangdong, China

Coordinating Changes in M-form and U-form Organizations

We introduce a method of modelling coordination inside an organization as a process of "attribute matching." Using this method, we compare organizational forms (U-form and M-form) in coordinating changes. In our model, organizational forms affect the information structure of an organization and thus the way to coordinate changes. Compared to the U-form, the M-form organization achieves better coordination but suffers from higher costs due to a lack of scale economies or a lack of what we call "attribute compatibility." The M-form has a distinctive advantage in carrying out experimentation which gives the organization more flexibility leading to more innovation and reform. We apply our theory to business firms, transition economies, and the organization of government (especially federalism). In the case of transition economies, our theory relates the initial conditions of organizational differences with reform strategies, especially the "big-bang" approach in Eastern Europe and the "experimental" approach in China.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39668/3/wp284.pd

SCOPE Report: How a Functioning Grievance Procedure May Positively Impact a Factory’s Performance

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_SCOPE_GP_Report_March_2008_1_.pdf: 283 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The impact of cultural intelligence on communication effectiveness, job satisfaction and anxiety for Chinese host country managers working for foreign multinationals

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is an important construct attracting growing attention in academic literature and describing cross-cultural competencies. To date, researchers have only partially tested the relationship between CQ and its dependent variables, such as performance. In this study, the relationship between CQ and communication effectiveness and job satisfaction is measured in a sample of 225 Chinese managers working for foreign multinational enterprises in China. The results show that CQ plays an important role in reducing anxiety and influencing both communication effectiveness and job satisfaction positively. Another outcome is the unexpected influence of anxiety on job satisfaction but not on communication effectiveness. These findings contribute to the development of theory with regard to the CQ construct