Chinese Personality – Center in a Network

This chapter try to highlight some key elements of Chinese thinking described from a cultural and philosophical perspective starting with explaining the background for Chinese philosophy, mainly Confucianism followed by central concepts such as holism (ying/yang) and a discussion of the concept of change that appears to be somewhat unique because of the central position change occupies in the Chinese philosophy. More specific, but still important concepts like face, guanxi, the Middle way and paradoxes way are also elaborated on. For reference comparison is now and then made to western philosophy when it is found to clarify Chinese thought. Comparative philosophy brings together philosophical traditions that have developed in relative isolation from one another and that are defined quite broadly along cultural and regional lines -- Chinese versus Western is here chosen, but it is not to indicate that similar phenomena might not have appeared in other places in the world if not stated explicitly

How Small Nations Fare in the Global War on Talent: The Case of Denmark

In light of the looming shortage of skilled professionals, companies are increasingly eager to recruit highly educated and competent employees, regardless of country of origin and nationality, in order to remain globally competitive. This paper seeks to shed light on how nations compete for the same talent pool by presenting the findings of two related studies on whether (a) Chinese students who are studying in Denmark choose to return to work in China; and (b) Danish students in Denmark are willing to work for Chinese companies in Denmark and/or China. Despite its population of 1.3 billion, China has a critical shortage of managerial talent. The vast majority of Chinese students in Denmark do not plan to remain in Denmark upon completion of their education, while many Danish students are receptive to working for Chinese companies, albeit more so in Denmark than in China. The findings of this study have implications on the plight of smaller nations, such as Denmark, in attracting and retaining human talent. These findings also have implications for small-sized companies in their competition with large firms for human talent

Empathy in Global Business

This paper analyses the concept of empathy in multinational organizations. In the 21st century “You need to be soft to get hard results!” as McDonald (2008) aptly stated. Based on contextual changes in both costumer clienteles and among younger employees, empathy or compassion is becoming central concepts in international business. We analyses the concept of empathy in a global context describing it mainly from a phenomenological perspective, but also introduce other approaches for comparative and informative reasons. After having defined empathy as consisting of three elements i.e. know yourself, know the other and create positive communication, we focus on intentional mode of understanding involving envisaging the actions and emotions of ‘the other’. Empathy, triggered and mediated by various social encounters, assume different form and encompassing an array of possibilities for interpersonal understanding depending on the constitution of a given context. Based on this we analyze Maersk Line’s organizational culture and how employees navigate it accordingly

Process Ambiguities in Sino-Danish Busi ness Negotiations

The article analyses the role played by process ambiguities in Sino-Danish busi ness negotiations. Process ambiguities refer to perceived expectational inconsistency concerning (i) appropriate forms of behaviour; (ii) attributional judgements; and (iii) structuring of the negotiation process. These ambiguities stem from dif fer enc es in negotiation scripts across Chinese and Danish cultures. The essential ar gu ment being advanced here is that it is the effective and/or the ineffective management of process ambiguities that shapes the evolution of the negotiating dynamic be tween Danish and Chinese business people. An inductive model of Sino-Dan ish business negotiations is developed that is based on 24 interviews conducted with Danish expatriate managers in China and 4 interviews with Chinese working in Danish companies. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Building China’s soft power for a peaceful rise

With China’s rapid economic progress and steady increase in its international influence, China has gradually embarked on the soft power idea and has made developing its soft power as its national strategy. We argue that China’s soft power strategy is in accordance to Chinese Confucian culture and political value and fits well with its grand strategy of peaceful rise. Based on existing conceptualizations of soft power, we expanded the sources of soft power to six pillars: cultural attractiveness, political values, development model, international institutions, international image, and economic temptation. We also identified three channels for wielding soft power: formal, economic, and cultural diplomacies. Putting all the basics together, we present an integrative model of soft power. Accordingly, we analyze the sources and limits of China’s soft power and suggest how to improve it

Perspectives and Consequences

International business (IB) studies revolve around two key perspectives that can be defined as a firm specific perspective and a generic perspective that combined provide a company with crucial insights into how to enter and navigate a foreign market. Combined, such an approach provides a company with a holistic perception of what kind of resources and capabilities that are needed when entering a specific market as well as what to expect of the host market that the company is planning to enter. The key issue here is how to design a research strategy that is to provide the analyst with data that makes him or her capable of developing a pertinent explanatory framework for how to engage a foreign market. Before starting to look for appropriate research methodologies and tools for data collection, however, a pertinent philosophy of science point of departure has to be selected. This article has chosen to discuss three different philosophies of science. Each one of them is capable of providing the analyst with a specific take on how to ‘think’ data that are being extracted. Arguably, whatever approach one selects, the choice will have a crucial impact on the outcome of the research process. After settling down on a specific philosophical of science the article moves on to apply this on the Danish shipping company Maersk Line. The key focus here is on how employees at headquarter and in selected subsidiaries ‘read’ the company’s global corporate culture so as to be able to navigate this particular company to their own benefit as well as to the company’ per se. The article closes with a critical discussion of the ramification of selecting one philosophy of science over another when engaging in either qualitative or quantitative research in an IB context

The Case of Maersk Line

The aim of this paper is to study the consequences of rolling out a global corporate culture on a multinational company in order to streamline modes of communication between headquarter and local offices across different host markets in an attempt to optimise the functionality of the organisation per se. Our key focus in this connection is to understand how employees in the Danish shipping company Maersk Line’s headquarter in Copenhagen as well as in three local offices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur ‘read’ and respond towards such an optimisation process. We focus in particular on how employees, based on their ‘reading’ of this process, try to make sense of it in order to construct personal strategies as guidelines for how to navigating the organization to their own and the company’s advantage. The key question to research in this context is what elements enters into employees personal strategies when navigating a multinational organization? To answer this question we employ a phenomenological approach as a way of exploring the relationship between organizational changes and employers’ response towards them. We argue that single case studies provides us with the capability of providing deep insight into the inner workings of a multinational organisation. Furthermore, such kind of studies shows how various societal factors within a host market impact on the functionality of employees in local offices as well as on the relationship between the latter and headquarter

Chinese and Expatriate Accounts

The purpose of this article is to explore how Chinese and expatriate managers, working in subsidiaries of five MNCs, communicate and collaborate, what kind of cultural encounters they talk about and give prominence to in their accounts of critical incidents, how they reflect upon them/ explain them, and how they cope with perceived similarities and differences to improve cross-cultural communication and collaboration within a global organization. Using an inductive qualitative methodology and thematic analysis, the study draws on indepth narrative interviews with 29 expatriate and 39 Chinese managers and experts. The specific value of this paper is that it explores a hitherto under-researched issue and provides insight into well-educated expatriate and Chinese managers´ accounts of how they perceive themselves and others in a multicultural work context. In both groups we find widely traveled, flexible and open-minded people, who are ready and have the capabilities to conduct cross-cultural leadership

A Case of Danish Multinationals and their Subsidiaries in P.R. China and India

By drawing on a selective review of literature, we propose that the culture of Danish multinationals and transnational organizations interface with the Chinese and Indian societal and managerial cultures in order to create hybrid cultures in Danish subsidiaries in P. R. China and India. The hybrid culture moderates the relationships between the forms of knowledge and internationalization of multinationals on one hand and the transfer of knowledge on the other. It is postulated that stable cultural frames of the Danes and Chinese managers, both having stable cultural frame, will require long drawn efforts to overcome the cultural distance and transfer the various forms and levels of knowledge in the initial years of the subsidiaries. On the other hand, Indians’ style of switching their cultural frames will create less entry problems but more recurring problems once Danish multinationals will get going. Once the postulates are empirically validated, potential implications for strategic interventions are briefly discussed. Keywords: Knowledge transfer, culture, MNCs