MTI Newsletter

MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL

Organisational and Personnel Development

Katrin Braun
Leadership Development in China Managing Director
MTI Management
Consulting (Beijing)
Company Limited; China

MACHWÜRTH TEAM
INTERNATIONAL

to different perceptions of Company cultures of the MNC is

Introduction
Leadership development in
China currently is in the focus of
most multinational (MNC) as
well as Chinese companies. Be-
cause of the relatively young
development of the country’s
economy, leaders in China are
on average 10 years younger
than leaders in comparable po-
sitions in western countries.
This circumstance leads to the
fact that in China qualified ma-
nagement resources are scarce
and sought after in the market.
MNC’s in China are pursuing dif-
ferent way to fill the leadership
pipeline. An important element
for producing qualified leaders
are management development
programs.
Requirements for manage-
ment development in China
Management development in
China has quite different re-
quirements than in other coun-
tries and regions. It is not that
management theories would be
much different in China, after all
management theory bases on
elementary human needs, but
the way to implement them and
what to focus on can be very dif-
ferent. The reasons for that lie in
how things should be (e.g.
participative vs. hierarchical
leadership)
ƒ Chinese culture fosters dif-
ferent communication habits
and methods of dealing with
conflict (e.g. direct vs. indi-
rect).
ƒ The perception of what qua-
lity is and how it should be
dealt with is different (e.g.
holistic vs. case by case)
ƒ The ideal state and the real
state differ in China and the
West (i.e. level of assertive-
ness, giving feedback, …)
Regarding the management cul-
ture in China we have to differ-
entiate between Chinese com-
panies and subsidiaries of west-
ern companies in China (MNC).
Both have different manage-
ment cultures and the employ-
ees that work for the one or the
other have to adapt to these cul-
tures (see picture).
Culture Chinese
companies
Culture in MNC’s
In China
dominated by the headquarter
and the culture of the country
the headquarter is based in. In
some parts this is adapted to the
Chinese culture but the core
usually comes from the head-
quarter and it’s country of origin.
Leadership culture is largely dri-
ven by the company culture. In
times of global strategies and
HR instruments this leads to
MNC’s originating from western
countries largely implementing
western leadership cul-
tures.When implementing lead-
ership programs in MNC’s in
China one aspect is in training
leadership skills in general but
another aspect is in training the
leadership culture coming from
the origin country implying e.g.
different ways of communica-
tion, of developing people, of
demonstrating leadership. See
the table on the next page.
Generally one can say that there
is a global consensus of what
modern successful traits of lea-
dership are.
The main descriptors that come
to mind are:
ƒ Common Values and goals
ƒ Motivated employees work-
ing in strong teams
ƒ Innovation

several areas: ƒ Learning organization

ƒ Social responsibility
ƒ The Chinese leadership cul-
ture and western leadership
culture is different this leads

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Phone: +49 (0) 42 62 / 93 12 - 0 • Fax: +49 (0) 42 62 / 38 12
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MTI Newsletter
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL
Organisational and Personnel Development
Another aspect for leadership
development is the time it takes
to develop good leaders. In Chi-
na leadership development has
to be implemented in an accel-
erated way due to the lack of
experienced managers in the
Chinese market. This can be
achieved by integrating ele-
ments into the program where
the participants can experiment
with what they learned in a risk
free but realistic environment.
Outdoor activities or social re-
sponsibility projects can provide
a suitable setting for experi-
menting.
Concluding one can say that
MNC’s in China have special
requirements for leadership de-
velopment, which can be neither
satisfied by a purely local ap-
proach nor by an approach only
focusing on the requirements of
the home country of the head-
quarter of the respective com-
pany. Bringing together the right
amount the different elements of
are:
ƒ Global Company culture
ƒ The headquarter country
culture
ƒ The Chinese culture
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL • Dohrmanns Horst 19 • D-27374 Visselhövede
Phone: +49 (0) 42 62 / 93 12 - 0 • Fax: +49 (0) 42 62 / 38 12
Email: info@mwteam.com • Internet: www.mticonsultancy.com
Finding the right levels can usu-
ally be found out by applying the
company values and vision /
mission in the local country.
These aspects reveal much
about the global company cultu-
re and give a view where adap-
tations to the local culture are
necessary.
Due to the urgent requirement of
qualified leadership resources
accelerated learning programs
seem to represent the method of
choice to achieve the necessary
competency level in an opti-
mized time frame.
About the Author
Katrin Braun has been living and
working in China since 2005.
Since January 2008 she is
Managing Director of MTI Asia
responsible for North Asia in the
MTI group. MTI is specialized on
organizational development.
She has experienced different
working environments from
leading a large department in a
multinational company in China
to being managing director of a
medium sized company.
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