East Asia

Picture Taken From http://www.gotterdammerung.org/graphics/map-east-asia.gif

The eastern part of Asia has many cultural similarities between the countries that conform it due to the proximity they have and the historical invasions they had suffered. The countries that conform Eastren Asia are: China, both Koreas, Japan, Hong kong, Taiwan, Mancau, Mongolia. These countries represent more or less a 30 percent of the total Asian continent.
In this blog we are going to center our attention in only two countries which are Japan and South Korea.
After the reading we could see that Japan and Korea have many similarities in their managing styles due to the proximity and because during many years Japan occupied the territory of what we know today as korea. It is said that the Korean's model is basicly a copy of the Japanese model, but they have cultural managing differences. One of the similarities we could find between these two countries is the Chaebol structure, the Chaebol structure stands for a conglomerate of multinational business managed or manopolized by families in Korea. an example is Samsung. In Japan they have the zaibatsu model, that basicly stand for a conglomerate of industrial and financial businesses. Another similarity we could found is the way they negotiate, which in both sides are based in respect, are jealous protecting their people with sanitary norms and are critical thinkers before taking any decision, they won't give an inmediate answer. Now let's analyze some differences.




Korea:

* Use a hierarchical authoritarian structure where the important decisions are taken by the top managers.
* They are more individualistic
* Are traditionalist and are very attached to blood lines or family figures
* No job stability
* Tight relation between the government and the companies


Japan:


* Use a Horizontal structure where cooperation and interaction between employees is involved
* Long-term oriented who try to mantain good relationships
* Close related with the suppliers
* Try to create value on their products and maximize the profits
* Loyalty and trust are highly valued
* Tend to guide the organization based on corporate values


If you want to make a better idea of the similarities and differences between the managing styles I invite you to visit Carlos Torres blog on the following link :

http://oyc2010.blogspot.com/2010/03/east-asia-korean-and-japanese.html
He has a very interesting chart where he shows the main key points of the managing styles Korea and Japan have. By the way I recomend his blog as one of the most complete and interesting, you should take a look of it.


References:

Jangho Lee, Thomas W. Roehl, Soonkyoo Choe , What makes management style similar and distinct across borders? Growth, experience and culture in Korean and Japanese Firms.
http://www.usergioarboleda.edu.co/asia/negocios_japon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu

Images taken from:

http://www.uni.edu/becker/japan1.gif
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5x-dkBjQ6TI8kd2jb-t-rahQJB2uOtb9lG01T4rK2l0T-oXnfEC_EV9lMtGBdv1slSQvyKdXFEZYpaHWuhpy-iYYyGcuhd8VkqqRJnYBixGFjez08yMX4Gvw_WnOHZFeVc_hfOJU-nMf/s320/300px-Bandera_de_Corea_del_Sur_Explicada.png