By Dr. Chris Baumann
Have you ever wondered why East Asian culture is actually different from Western culture? Research led by Macquarie University in Australia and the Stockholm Business School (SBS) sheds light on how culture drives how we work.
East Asian wisdom
East Asian wisdom is largely derived from ancient thinking and the teaching of Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.), coupled with Taoism and Legalism and also with newer influences such as Buddhism.
East Asian culture is mastering the combination of seemingly opposing forces, a notion found in the yin and yang philosophy; e.g. there is light and dark, there are female and male species, night and day, pleasure and pain, and so on.
While scholars have known about these philosophies for a long time, only relatively recently have researchers in the business disciplines attempted to measure them. Coming from backgrounds in economics and management science, researchers in international business and cross-cultural management have felt a need to "put a number on" abstract and highly contextual concepts of culture.
Of course, that is not without risk; meanwhile there has been a "push" in the literature to measure highly-defined aspects of culture, quantified to better understand how they relate to everyday practical human behavior such as negotiation style, work ethic and performance.
Brand new research on culture
This writer and Associate Professor Hume Winzar at Macquarie University together with Professor Tony Fang at the Stockholm Business School (SBS) were guest editors of a special issue in Cross Cultural & Strategic Management (CCSM), a journal edited by leading international business scholar, Professor Rosalie L. Tung at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The special issue contains seven research papers about East Asian wisdom.
One paper, for example, by influential Professor Michael Minkov, is on the "revision of Hofstede's Model of National Culture: Old Evidence and New Data from 56 Countries," probing the validity of the Hofstede cultural dimensions that students nearly always learn about in (international) business classes. Professor Minkov is with the Sofia Local Center, Varna University of Management, Sofia, Bulgaria.
In the Asian century with Asian dominance in culture, politics and economic power and innovation, it is important to understand the new role of East Asian management style, hence one paper explores "the case of Chinese expatriate managers in the Dutch context." Other work looks at "managing paradox, dilemmas, and change."
Confucianism
Macquarie University (MQ) contributed two papers to this special issue, one on the measurement of Confucianism and how that philosophy indeed "drives" workplace performance; with Ph.D. student Doris Viengkham.
A new categorization shows Confucian origin for mainland China, Confucian preservation in Taiwan, and Confucian pragmatism in South Korea. The research demonstrates that Confucianism has "shades of grey."
The paper is based on the notion that "instillation of hard work and strict discipline in the education system spills over into the workforce, which not only produces a unique form of "work ethic," but also drives competitiveness. Peak academic performance in the East Asian cluster is largely driven by strict discipline."
Indeed, the paper concludes that there are "strong links between culture, education, and performance. Namely, that the pedagogical approach of Confucian East Asia, with its emphasis on education and strict discipline, is shown to have a spillover effect into how individuals perform in the workforce."
The second MQ paper (with Professor Tony Fang at SBS) is on "East Asian wisdom and relativity" and suggests "inter-ocular testing" for data analyses comparing human groups.
An extension of the relative values and moderated behavior (ReVaMB) model ― originated at MQ ― allows better and more realistical testing of cultural values "driving" human attitudes and behavior in future research.
Confucius is no longer alive, but his spirit lives on in the East Asian region and the Asian diaspora.
Dr. Chris Baumann (chris.baumann@mq.edu.au) is an associate professor at Macquarie University, Sydney, and visiting professor at Seoul National University (SNU) in Korea. His work focuses on competitiveness, Confucianism and customer loyalty.
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East Asian wisdom
East Asian wisdom is largely derived from ancient thinking and the teaching of Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.), coupled with Taoism and Legalism and also with newer influences such as Buddhism.
East Asian culture is mastering the combination of seemingly opposing forces, a notion found in the yin and yang philosophy; e.g. there is light and dark, there are female and male species, night and day, pleasure and pain, and so on.
While scholars have known about these philosophies for a long time, only relatively recently have researchers in the business disciplines attempted to measure them. Coming from backgrounds in economics and management science, researchers in international business and cross-cultural management have felt a need to "put a number on" abstract and highly contextual concepts of culture.
Of course, that is not without risk; meanwhile there has been a "push" in the literature to measure highly-defined aspects of culture, quantified to better understand how they relate to everyday practical human behavior such as negotiation style, work ethic and performance.
Brand new research on culture
This writer and Associate Professor Hume Winzar at Macquarie University together with Professor Tony Fang at the Stockholm Business School (SBS) were guest editors of a special issue in Cross Cultural & Strategic Management (CCSM), a journal edited by leading international business scholar, Professor Rosalie L. Tung at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The special issue contains seven research papers about East Asian wisdom.
One paper, for example, by influential Professor Michael Minkov, is on the "revision of Hofstede's Model of National Culture: Old Evidence and New Data from 56 Countries," probing the validity of the Hofstede cultural dimensions that students nearly always learn about in (international) business classes. Professor Minkov is with the Sofia Local Center, Varna University of Management, Sofia, Bulgaria.
In the Asian century with Asian dominance in culture, politics and economic power and innovation, it is important to understand the new role of East Asian management style, hence one paper explores "the case of Chinese expatriate managers in the Dutch context." Other work looks at "managing paradox, dilemmas, and change."
Confucianism
Macquarie University (MQ) contributed two papers to this special issue, one on the measurement of Confucianism and how that philosophy indeed "drives" workplace performance; with Ph.D. student Doris Viengkham.
A new categorization shows Confucian origin for mainland China, Confucian preservation in Taiwan, and Confucian pragmatism in South Korea. The research demonstrates that Confucianism has "shades of grey."
The paper is based on the notion that "instillation of hard work and strict discipline in the education system spills over into the workforce, which not only produces a unique form of "work ethic," but also drives competitiveness. Peak academic performance in the East Asian cluster is largely driven by strict discipline."
Indeed, the paper concludes that there are "strong links between culture, education, and performance. Namely, that the pedagogical approach of Confucian East Asia, with its emphasis on education and strict discipline, is shown to have a spillover effect into how individuals perform in the workforce."
The second MQ paper (with Professor Tony Fang at SBS) is on "East Asian wisdom and relativity" and suggests "inter-ocular testing" for data analyses comparing human groups.
An extension of the relative values and moderated behavior (ReVaMB) model ― originated at MQ ― allows better and more realistical testing of cultural values "driving" human attitudes and behavior in future research.
Confucius is no longer alive, but his spirit lives on in the East Asian region and the Asian diaspora.
Dr. Chris Baumann (chris.baumann@mq.edu.au) is an associate professor at Macquarie University, Sydney, and visiting professor at Seoul National University (SNU) in Korea. His work focuses on competitiveness, Confucianism and customer loyalty.
