Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Newsleader de novembro, em português.
postings appear earlier at http://newsleader.blogs.com
Veja como a falta de sintonia entre o estilo de administração estrangeira e a cultura nacional está afetando o desempenho das empresas e a competitividade do país.
Segue uma súmula em inglês do assunto tratado em português na Newsleader.
________________
Why would I claim there is managerial laziness?
Because there is little effort in adapting foreign managerial styles to local culture.
Companies in Brazil are paying through their noses for their executives to attend lectures by gurus on foreign management techniques. Yet this coming Carnival the samba schools will again perform, by a deadline, a magnificent display of art and organizational competence, with no MBA advisors.
It would help if you only wondered how the samba schools always do it. Particularly if you sometimes fail to lead your own team to achieve a comparable quality by a deadline as stringent as the samba schools meet every single year.
It should not take you much time to realize that some bits of your foreign management techniques may be getting in the way of your people’s effectiveness.
See below NewsLeader’s call for training in
Cross-Cultural Management.
Abstract of the full story in Portuguese:
Managerial techniques developed in the USA cannot work as effectively in Brazil, except when applied to a minority of “globalized” executives. I compared the words used in the inaugural speeches by President’s Kennedy (USA) and Lula (Brazil), as well as the frequency with which they used those words.
The frequency analysis allows verifying that Brazilian culture expresses a remarkable orientation towards collectivism; see below. The issue is not collectivism; most Asian societies are collectivist. Yet, the Japanese, for instance, have built their own managerial style on their traditions and allegiances. The problem arises when people from collectivist-oriented societies are managed as members of individual-oriented societies.
Despite the difference in American and Brazilian cultures, also illustrated below in two well-loved artists, American managerial techniques are deployed in Brazil with little or no adaptation.
The discrepancy between national and organizational cultures leads to alienation and efficiency losses. Your own company may be suffering from it.
In addition, I argue that the same discrepancy leads to favor the choice of public sector employment among the better educated. The Brazilian government and universities employ, proportionally, three times as many scientists and engineers than the same in USA or Korea. This revealed preference for employment in the public sector is depriving the Brazilian private sector of the talent necessary to ensure the shy country’s international competitiveness. How poorly is your own company doing in terms of R&D in Brazil?
I suggest bridging the gap between corporate organizational culture and national culture as a means of enhancing managerial effectiveness and international competitiveness.
The November article is in Portuguese.
postings appear earlier at http://newsleader.blogs.com
Veja como a falta de sintonia entre o estilo de administração estrangeira e a cultura nacional está afetando o desempenho das empresas e a competitividade do país.
Segue uma súmula em inglês do assunto tratado em português na Newsleader.
________________
Why would I claim there is managerial laziness?
Because there is little effort in adapting foreign managerial styles to local culture.
Companies in Brazil are paying through their noses for their executives to attend lectures by gurus on foreign management techniques. Yet this coming Carnival the samba schools will again perform, by a deadline, a magnificent display of art and organizational competence, with no MBA advisors.
It would help if you only wondered how the samba schools always do it. Particularly if you sometimes fail to lead your own team to achieve a comparable quality by a deadline as stringent as the samba schools meet every single year.
It should not take you much time to realize that some bits of your foreign management techniques may be getting in the way of your people’s effectiveness.
See below NewsLeader’s call for training in
Cross-Cultural Management.
Abstract of the full story in Portuguese:
Managerial techniques developed in the USA cannot work as effectively in Brazil, except when applied to a minority of “globalized” executives. I compared the words used in the inaugural speeches by President’s Kennedy (USA) and Lula (Brazil), as well as the frequency with which they used those words.
The frequency analysis allows verifying that Brazilian culture expresses a remarkable orientation towards collectivism; see below. The issue is not collectivism; most Asian societies are collectivist. Yet, the Japanese, for instance, have built their own managerial style on their traditions and allegiances. The problem arises when people from collectivist-oriented societies are managed as members of individual-oriented societies.
Despite the difference in American and Brazilian cultures, also illustrated below in two well-loved artists, American managerial techniques are deployed in Brazil with little or no adaptation.
The discrepancy between national and organizational cultures leads to alienation and efficiency losses. Your own company may be suffering from it.
In addition, I argue that the same discrepancy leads to favor the choice of public sector employment among the better educated. The Brazilian government and universities employ, proportionally, three times as many scientists and engineers than the same in USA or Korea. This revealed preference for employment in the public sector is depriving the Brazilian private sector of the talent necessary to ensure the shy country’s international competitiveness. How poorly is your own company doing in terms of R&D in Brazil?
I suggest bridging the gap between corporate organizational culture and national culture as a means of enhancing managerial effectiveness and international competitiveness.
The November article is in Portuguese.
