由坦率的Mulligan

当公司在中国设定了操作他们看上去面对二个分明选择： `去的本机’或者强加他们的组织统治企业文化。

它不是一个容易的选择，并且没有路线将带来您最佳的结果的清楚的裁减答复。 在没有一个确定结论时它可能成为看哪的意志争斗文化将赢取。

选择地方文化，并且您将是更加有效地刺激地方职员的，但事务的操作许多将变得不透明对非本机。 事将达成，但方式总部不必要想要他们。 什么您在有效率获取，如当地被定义，您在可见性丢失。

许多公司，另一方面，接受方法有完全好文化在他们的组织之内，在许多国家很好服务了他们许多年的一个，并且中国是没有不同的。 这些公司试图根据这文化带来大家。 他们可以发现表面平实报告文学更好变，并且他们得到的数据现在以HQ了解的格式，但是它也许不是正确的数据。

或至少共同地举行的陈腔滥调带领我们这二个情景。

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