Different Management Systems Between Eastern and Western Companies

From Peter·F·Drucker the Father of Modern Management, we know the aim of management is to make company activities effective. He pointed out what efficiency means to the company, and he also shows the developing direction of the company. Upon his standpoint in The Effective Exclusive he says that First, Use time reasonably; Second, Pay attention to the contribution to the outside world; Third, Be good at using all the advantages; Fourth, Focus on some important areas; Fifth, The effectiveness of decision-making.
Drucker’s management is what we call original management, which is really different to what we know in this era. Few decades ago, it developed different types of management in Eastern and Western companies, but they have so many differences in this system. As we know, in cultural, western and eastern countries have diverse backgrounds, eastern countries are deeply influenced by Confucianism, but in western countries, they have been more affected by religion and rules, so that’s one of the reasons why their management are not alike.

To eastern companies, they care more about people, because people are the base of a whole large group, we can try to consider company as a machine, and people are spare parts. Without people, it won’t work anymore, so eastern companies really care about humanity. A lot of people say, eastern companies work as a big family, everyone in this grope are playing a very important role. In the internal management of Japanese enterprises, there are quality circle activities, working groups, total quality management, collective reward system, etc.; in the market, there are alliances and mutual benefits between large enterprises and small enterprises, enterprises and banks. All of the above phenomena are management activities and organizational forms, which are consistent with Japanese collectivist cultural values, forming a competitive subject in the form of groups. For example, Toyota, a Japanese company, it is difficult to achieve the goal of continuous cost reduction and efficiency improvement without the support of the group standard values which are gathered in the strong corporate culture, whether it is the strong implementation of the leadership from top to bottom or the cultivation of the staff’s conscious and active spirit of pursuing lean production from bottom to top. This market competition goal and its corresponding enterprise production management mode are based on the group and the cluster.The competitive power of a single enterprise is much greater.

Move to the western companies, they stress efficiency and science. They have perfect rules and regulations, mathematical methods and bonus incentives. This strategy does inspire people working hard but meanwhile, it also neglects people’s spiritual needs. German enterprises attach great importance to management, especially scientific management. They have the most efficient production line and professional management team in the world, their product management philosophy are combine with CIS system perfectly. For example, Mercedes-Benz, a worldwide brand in cars factory, they make the best of after-sales service and product quality to lay a solid foundation for the future development of the company. In Benz each worker knows what they should do, their ability, because of that, in the product line, everyone will not make mistakes. German companies care very much about corporate culture, they believe that’s can make workers deep into their work.
Nowadays, management has changed a lot, no one will follow the traditional management method that we used to know, every company starts learning from each other, West learns from East, East learns from West. The world is changing, companies are trying to make management easier. Like Tencent, a Chinese company, their meetings only have 5 minutes, some people will ask, what they can do in only 5 minutes, there is the answer, they have some many small gropes, each group have leaders, only leaders can get involved into the meeting, and the leaders at higher levels set the goal of this year and tell all departments individual goal of each department.
Take another example, Google, a very special enterprise, they do not care about their stock chart, in Google, the most valuable thing is idea, which means they focus on creativity and innovation, there is a phenomenon, that ordinary engineers can even squeeze into the president’s office to work, or even drive the president out. Ordinary employees can also arrange some necessary facilities in the office, it’s really different to other companies. Google advocates small team cooperation, which is different from eastern companies. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once advocated the “two pizzas” principle, which stipulated that the number of team members should not be more than two pizzas.
Small teams are more efficient than large ones, and don’t spend so much time fighting. Small teams, like family members, may quarrel, argue for right and wrong, or even split, but they can often unite at critical moments.
Companies are definitely care about profit, but all of the stuff base on great management. If one does not have a corporate culture, a leader team which can connect each staff and workers, it will break down within a few months. In today’s world, cooperation, common development and open-minded learning are emphasized. From the experience of previous people, to sum up a management mode that is in line with their own development.

References

Drucker, Peter F. The Effective Executive. Elsevier Ltd. 2007