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The Overseas Chinese (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore)

Published on Tuesday, 24. October 2006, 15:52.
About: chinese, culture examples, organizational culture, history, geert hofstede

[p.21]
Enterprises are usually small and family-owned. When needed they undergo cooperations with other small businesses to which they are interrelated through personal networks. Hofstede sees them to mainly focus on one market/one product, aiming on a "growth by opportunistic diversification". The process of decision-making is usually centralized to the head of the family. Family members are absolutely loyal and wait till they get the chance to prove themselves in new ventures. Sons and sometimes daughters will be send to prestigious business schools abroad but are expected to return to the family business. The idea of management is based on Confucian values, such as loyalty, thrift (Wirtschaftlichkeit, Sparsamkeit) and persistence.
Hofstede describes the historical base for this idea of business and management as a "society, in which there were no formal laws, only formal networks of powerful people guided by general principles of Confucian virtue." Authorities and their opinions could change daily which made the family to be the only reliable institution. This effect is further deepened by the fact that the overseas Chinese in the respective countries always formed an ethnic minority.

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2 Comments:

julerennt at Tuesday, 24. October 2006, 16:32

I found Hofstede stating that there were no formal laws a bit superficial. Even if there were no written laws, every society is bounded by some kind of laws or rules.
But I can't judge on this since I hardly know anything about Chinese history...

anti, Tuesday, 24. October 2006, 22:29

I wouldn't mind too much about the expression "formal law". I think what he wants to say is that the Confucian ideas were some kind of guideline for these people. Unwritten rules, but taught by their parents. And maybe (not sure if he's going back that far in history) if you think of Chinese people in the Wild West, at least there was sort of the situation he describes (not sure if that's true for Singapore, Hong Kong etc. too but would rather doubt it)

Does he really count Taiwanese people to Overseas Chinese? Not sure if that's a good example for historical and political reasons (Taiwan is where the - at that time - legitimate Chinese government fled to after having been driven out of mainland China by the Communists in the civil war). Basic values should be pretty much the same (or at least should have in the beginning) except for political views.