Far Eastern Economic Review Article
Global Business Culture: TAIWAN
The book that is required to link the assignment to is:
International Management Paperback – June 22, 2009
by Richard Mead (Author), Tim G. Andrews (Author)
Old corporate ways fade as a new Taiwanese generation asserts itself
By Guan-yu Lin AP
Questions:
1. Judging by the article and what you have learned in MGT 405 to this point, please describe traditional Taiwanese national culture. Support
your analysis using concepts presented in your textbook, lectures and any pern1itted alternate sources from the suggestions above. In addition, you
are expected to use a framework (a model) to support your cultural analysis. Include a brief comparison of Taiwan’s traditional national culture to
American culture. Graphics add value to your analysis.
2. It appears that the Taiwanese people are experiencing a movement in culture (a culture shift) in their business culture (also presented in
class as organizational culture).
A. What specific factors in the external environment appear to be most important in driving changes to the traditional Taiwan business culture?
B. How do those factors represent the components that can influence movements of cultures, according to your textbook?
3. People in Taiwan are known to have tremendous respect and reverence for age. How can Taiwanese companies best manage the situations that
occur when younger Taiwanese managers will have to supervise older Taiwanese employees?
4. A. How might needs for rewards and incentives be different for Western influenced Taiwanese than for traditional Taiwanese people?
B. How can Taiwanese companies provide incentives, motivation, and rewards for their more Western-influenced employees without alienating their more
traditional employees, and vice-versa
Until a few years ago, there was an unwritten rule about working hours at Taiwan’s leading food and beverage company.
“Everyone sat at their desks, fidgeting and waiting for their superiors to leave. Assistant managers waited for managers to leave. The managers
waited for the bosses upstairs to leave,” said Jian-Hong Lin, 40, a customer service manager at Din Tai Fung Foods Corp.
So for Jian-Hong, Jia-Hao Zhang presents a cultural shock.
Jia-Hao, a 27-year-old assistant marketing manager, doesn’t wait for the bosses. He leaves when he pleases. He also comes to work in khaki pants and
an open-necked shirt, a cell-phone dangling from a cord around his neck. His black hair is dyed chestnut brown with yellow strains.
“I want to be judged by what I do for the company, not by my hairstyle,” Jia-Hao said.
Thanks to young office workers such as Jia-Hao, a growing number of companies are abandoning Taiwan’s rigid corporate culture for a more global one.
Staid old “Taiwan, Inc.” isn’t dead. Most companies still prefer highly formal, top down management. Sons may still
inherit businesses from their fathers. Most employees address each other by their titles. Suits with ties are standard attire in most offices.
The rise of Internet startups with their casual, egalitarian ways, the new generation of assertive youths entering • the job market, and the
disintegration of some of the country’s top conglomerates have also undermined old hierarchies.
Jia-Hao, who majored in business management at Ohio State University, is among thousands of Taiwanese returning home every year armed with U.S.
college diplomas and Western ways.
“When I first dyed my hair some months ago, everyone in the office looked at me as ifl did something wrong,” said Jia Hao. “After a while, they
accepted it.
Now they even comment on how well my latest color came out.”
Women are making halting progress,
too’ in male-oriented corporate Taiwan. They still earn less and are promoted
less, but “We no longer just deliver coffee and tea for male workers. That ended several years ago. We get more chances to demonstrate our
abilities,” said Mei-Ling Chai, 28, a colleague of Jian-Hong’s at Din Tai Fung.
“Still, many men look uncomfortable to talk business with women,” she said. “When I sit down for contract negotiations, for example, some of the men
across the table first give me a look that says, ‘What is this woman doing here?'”
The old system was shaken to its roots during the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. People began questioning whether staffers trained to think
alike were flexible enough to react to sharp global market changes.
“It was not uncommon for the top-man boss to shout at a lower-ranking official briefing him, ‘Who’s this fool? Get out of here!”‘ said Chi-Ming
Chang, describing his management experience at an electronic components arm of Taiwan’s largest conglomerate, HTC.
At 39, Chi-Ming is beyond dying his hair, but is still adventurous enough to have quit HTC last year with two colleagues to start their own business,
making components for flat-panel computer screens.
At HTC, he said, “They put brutal pressure on employees to force good results. But under such a system, you try to keep the status quo and not make
any mistakes. You don’t try to be creative.”
“Now I no longer have the safety of working in big business. But at least now I work for myself. I feel good,” Chi Ming said.
These days, more companies are urging their employees to get lean and creative.
Big corporations such as Din Tai Fung, Asus Electronics and CEC encourage workers to shed sober suits and stiff ties. They also have abolished many
executive posts, to speed up decision making.
At Din Tai Fung Foods, gone are big desks and long titles for managers.
Individual merit determines wage
increases and promotion. Workers who used to say “Mr. Manager Huang” now simply say “Mr. Huang.” Employees in casual attire sit with legs crossed and
talk business -in a stark contrast to other big business offices where employees still work in suits and ties, and young staffers bow to the boss or
stand at attention.
“In the past, everybody dressed and looked more or less the same.
Everybody got promoted at the same time and had the same salary increases,” said Jian-Hong, the customer service
manage,r,..
‘
“In the old days, you got to the senior managers only when you were summoned,” he said. “Now, we see young employees going directly to senior
managers with opinions. For example, they come to me to ask for more responsible jobs, rather than the dull work of typing data into the computer.”
Until recently, working for the nation’s top conglomerates conferred status.
Now, more college graduates prefer Internet startups and foreign businesses.
“Loyalty to the company used to be a big motto and your life centered on what
you did at the company,” said Wei Chen, a mid-level manager at a construction arm of the CEC conglomerate. “But the Asian financial crisis shattered
our illusions about lifetime employment at one company. We started to become more individualistic.”
Previously, companies hired students with good school grades and required them to pass a written test. Today, many recruiters are just as likely to
choose
independent people who have traveled or worked abroad.
“Interviewers were more interested in listening to what I had to say than asking standard questions. They asked me what I thought of anti-
globalization activists,” said Shu-Feng Tsai, 24, a French major
who was hired by Asus Electronics while protests were going on against the World Trade Organization’s recent meeting.
Shu-Feng said she spoke well of the activists’ success in attracting media attention to their demands through the well-publicized protests. At the
time, her comments were not what one would . have expected from the usual Taiwanese intervie\vee.
However Shu-Feng has been well received in the company, and they recently made her the editor of their Internet Web site.
This is a take-home examination. You can use your textbook, your class notes and PowerPoint slides on the class J:Drive. You are also welcome to
consult the general and culture information on the following two websites:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ http://geert-hofstede.com /taiwan.html
No other websites are fair game for this examination. Note the websites will provide mostly general background and insight to Taiwanese culture, but
you need to pay special attention to the specific information in the case as you answer the examination questions. Ifyou draw from any permitted
resources, you should give a citation for your resource: for example, a textbook citation could simply be (Mead & Andrews, p. 57) while an internet
citation could be (cia.gov …world-factbook … — with appropriate portions of the site address filled in). Ifyou find your book-review book for
MGT 405 contributes to your work on the exam, you may use that, too but please cite it as a reference.
You are not to consult with other students in your preparation of the answers to these questions. Examinations found to represent work other than
your own individual work will be scored with zero.
Please read the article above about how general Taiwanese business culture is changing. Answer all of the following four questions, keeping to a
suggested length of 2/3 of a page single-spaced for each answer. Your four answers must not exceed 3 pages total. Any graphics you decide to include
do not count toward the 3-page limit. Each question is worth a maximum of 25 points.
Note: The companies described in the article above can be considered to represent typical Taiwanese firms, confronting changes experienced by
btisinesses in Taiwan generally over the last few years.