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A Comparison of Japanese, Korean and American Managerial Decision Styles:: An Exploratory Study
James D. Boulgarides Moonsong David Oh
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To cite this document:
James D. Boulgarides Moonsong David Oh, (1985),"A Comparison of Japanese, Korean and American Managerial Decision
Styles:", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 6 Iss 1 pp. 9 - 11
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb053565
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Korean and decision styles are defined in the model, i.e. directive,
analytic, conceptual and behavioural. The two axes of the
model are cognitive complexity (vertical) and personal values
American (horizontal).
Managerial
Decision Styles:
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An Exploratory Study
by James D. Boulgarides
and Moonsong David Oh
California State University, Los Angeles
Introduction
There is a growing interest in the influence of socio-cultural
factors on managerial thinking and behaviour. The increas-
ing use of anthropology and sociology is an explicit recogni-
tion of behavioural sciences as a tool for understanding
managerial thinking and behaviour. Academicians and prac- The low cognitively complex individual tends to perceive the
titioners the world over are paying increasing attention to environment in terms of few or rigid rules of information pro-
Japan and South Korea. Japan is an industrial super power cessing and has a high need for structure, while the high
and has established itself as a formidable international com- cognitively complex individual is able to integrate diverse
petitor. Korea is an intriguing subject for study because it cues and has a high tolerance for ambiguity. The horizon-
has shown an astonishingly quick change from a tal dimension of the model deals with the environment con-
predominantly agricultural economy to a rapidly industrialis- fronting individuals and their reaction to the differences. A
ing country. In the view of some observers, Korea could more focused individual will generally prefer technical or
become the "mini Japan" of Asia. The present study task-oriented environments. On the other hand, a broader
represents one model for understanding managerial individual will tend to prefer the more social or people-
behaviour of Japanese, Korean and American business oriented environment. Interestingly, in the way in which the
managers. model is depicted, the technically oriented individual is what
we term the left brain, logical or analytical person, whereas,
Managerial decision styles have been discussed from the the right half of the model corresponds with those in-
single best style proposed by Taylor[1 ] to the completely flex- dividuals who are more inductive in their reasoning and who
ible styles proposed by Tannenbaum and Schmidt[2]. Other think in broad or spatial terms and are people-oriented.
approaches to decision styles and decision making were
proposed by Simon[3] who focused on types of decisions, A more complete description of the decision style categories
Adomo[4] who studied authoritarianism and Rokeach[5] shown in Figure 1 is given below:
who researched dogmatism. A pure style model by Harvey (1) Directive: These individuals have a low tolerance for
et al.[6] led to the development of a cognitive model by ambiguity and tend to focus on technical problems.
Schroder et al.[7] which examined human information pro- They have a high need for power and prefer tangible
cessing and problem solving. Driver[8] developed a model to intrinsic rewards. They emphasise speed and ac-
of decision styles based on his earlier work in human infor- tion and thus use limited information and few alter-
mation processing and cognitive psychology. The Decision natives. They tend to be aggressive and authoritarian
and focus internally to the organisation with short-
*Paper presented at the Academy of International Business International range and tight controls. They are very effective at
Conference, Singapore, 14-16 June 1984. achieving results.
Method
A comparison of two samples, i.e. Japanese vs. Korean,
Three cultural groupings (Japanese, Korean and American)
Japanese vs. American, and Korean vs. American, is
of business managers serve as subjects in the present study.
The Japanese sample (n = 16) was collected at a Univer- presented in Tables III, IV and V.
sity of Southern California management programme in
1980. The Korean sample (n = 14) was obtained during
an international business executive seminar at California Table I I I . Japanese vs. Korean Managers
State University, Los Angeles, in February 1984. The
American sample (n = 71) was gathered in a research study
Decision Style Japanese (J) Korean (K) (K) - (J)
at California State University, Los Angeles, in February 1984.
N = 16 N = 14
The Japanese and Korean samples were study groups
visiting the United States. Table I shows the average age
Directive 71 75 + 4
and educational attainments of the three samples.
Analytic 76 80 + 4
The questionnaire consists of 20 items. For each item, Conceptual 85 80 -5
respondents were asked to choose one of the four mutual- Behavioural 68 65 -3
ly exclusive numbers: 1 (the question is least like you), 2 Total 300 300 0
(slightly like you), 4 (moderately like you), and 8 (most like
you). For each question there are four statements represen-
ting one of the four decision styles, namely, directive,
analytic, conceptual and behavioural. The total score for Comparing the three samples, we note that the Japanese
each decision style ranges from the minimum of 20 (1 x and Korean samples are more alike and different from the
20 items) to the maximum of 160 (8 x 20 items). The com- American sample. The maximum difference between the
bined total of all four decision styles must be 300. The ques- Japanese and Korean samples is five points whereas the
tionnaire used for the Japanese sample was a Japanese maximum points between the Japanese and American and
translation of the original English questionnaire. Likewise, between the Korean and American samples are 10 and six
a Korean version was used for the Korean sample. respectively.
Directive 71 78 + 7
Analytic 76 86 + 10
Conceptual 85 75 -10
Behavioural 68 61 - 7
Total 300 300 0
Concluding Remarks
A comparison is also made of the three samples regarding The present study is exploratory in nature because of the
a left-right brain orientation and a top-bottom half orienta- limited sample sizes and the time frame differences. On a
tion as indicated in Figure 2. As far as top-bottom half orien- small scale however our study has shown some empirical
tations are concerned, all three samples are essentially the evidence about the different decision styles among
same. There is an eight-point difference in left-right brain Japanese, Korean and American managers. The findings
orientation between the Japanese and Korean samples and suggest that cultural difference leads to unmatched diver-
a 17-point difference between the Japanese and American sities of managerial decision styles among the three cultural
samples. The American sample is closer to the Korean than groupings. Because of increased interest in Japanese
to the Japanese sample in decision style scores. The Korean management, some excellent studies have been produced
sample falls between the Japanese and American scores in recent years. Yet, the literature on comparative studies
for each of the four decision styles as shown in Figure 3. involving Japan and her Pacific rim neighbours is still very
sparse. It is our hope that this article has revealed a fertile
ground for productive research projects.
1. Robert Grosse, J. Eulogio Romero Simpson. 2008. Managerial Problem-Solving Styles: A Cross-Cultural Study. Latin
American Business Review 8, 41-67. [CrossRef]
2. Maris G. Martinsons, Robert M. Davison. 2007. Strategic decision making and support systems: Comparing American,
Japanese and Chinese management. Decision Support Systems 43, 284-300. [CrossRef]
3. Daewoo Park. 1996. Gender role, decision style and leadership style. Women in Management Review 11:8, 13-17. [Abstract]
[Full Text] [PDF]
4. Robert T. Golembiewski. 1993. Organizational development in the third world: values, closeness of fit and culture-
boundedness (1). International Journal of Public Administration 16, 1667-1691. [CrossRef]
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