Por Mulligan Frank

Quando uma companhia ajusta acima operações em China parecem ser enfrentadas com duas escolhas distintas: local indo do `', ou impondo a cultura dominante do negócio de sua organização.

Não é uma escolha fácil, e não há nenhuma resposta bem defenida a respeito de que a rota lhe trará os mais melhores resultados. Na ausência de uma conclusão definitiva pode transformar-se uma batalha das vontades para ver que cultura ganhará.

Escolha a cultura local e você estará em uma posição para motivate mais eficazmente a equipe de funcionários local, mas muito das operações do negócio tornar-se-á opaco aos non-locals. As coisas começarão feitas mas não necessariamente a maneira as matrizes quê-las a. O que você ganha na eficácia, como definido localmente, você perde na visibilidade.

Muitas companhias, na uma mão, fazem exame da aproximação que há uma cultura perfeitamente boa dentro de sua organização, uma que lhes serviu bem por muitos anos em muitos países, e que China não é nenhum diferente. Estas companhias tentam trazer todos na linha desta cultura. Podem encontrar que o reportage nivelado de superfície começa mais melhor, e os dados que começam estão agora em um formato que o HQ compreenda, mas neles apenas não puderam ser os dados direitos.

Ou pelo menos os stereotypes geralmente prendidos conduzem-nos a estes dois scenarios.

In the real world there exists a blended corporate culture that combines the subtlety of the local culture with the performance orientation of the more traditional multinational company. Finding that blend is an eternal quest, and nobody I know thinks that they have achieved it. Many of these people are aiming for the sun but getting to the moon is good enough.

Retail Research

Then along comes Dr Jos Gamble of Royal Holloway, University of London. He has just conducted research on the retail industry in China, in conjunction with the ERSA. His conclusions are not the usual bromides about thinking globally, and acting locally. There is a welcome depth, and a plain-speaking tone.

He essentially says that China is much like any other market, and that adjustments should really only be made for institutional features, like the labor market. Other than that it is business as usual. You operate as you do overseas, except when there is a specific reason why you can’t, like a law or a deeply ingrained practice.

It’s a bit of a relief when someone just says it out like that.

In the retail sector, this approach equates to replicating exactly the store procedures, employment relations and customer service standards of the parent company. Dr. Gamble studied both Japanese and UK firms and found that they used the same processes, and looked for the same outcomes, in almost all cases. But for some issues, like better customer service, they used a different approach to achieve the same outcome.

Japanese companies operating in China were more prescriptive and detailed in their way of dealing with customers than the UK-owned stores, which encouraged workers to adapt behaviour they used in everyday life. Either approach seems like a good idea to reduce staff turnover. Control over the working environment is a major motivating factor in China.

Dr. Gamble concludes that: “Most of the world’s major global retail firms are desperate to grab a slice of the largest and most rapidly growing emerging market. All the evidence suggests that, whilst it may be necessary to adapt to some extent to local conditions, time-tested management practices actually translate well across cultures.” 

His research was based on interviews with management and staff in eight Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as key players in the UK and Japan. He was interested in how global organisations transfer management practices and retail concepts to their overseas subsidiaries.

The retail environment is different from most others, for sure, but you could probably make the same conclusions for any industry in China. It may well be that Dr. Gamble’s advice is applicable only to stores and malls.

If it is not then it tells us that overseas companies operating in China should make all attempts to introduce their own culture to their operations here, except when there are specific barriers that cannot be overcome, such as law or a custom.

Now, that’s cleared things up a bit.

Frank Mulligan, Talent Software