With the increasingly globalized economic and market environment, effective cross-cultural performance management is crucial to the success of the internationalized operations of the MNEs. One of the impediments of cross-cultural performance management is the difficulties caused by the conflicts between different cultures. In this dissertation, four relational capitals are developed (trust, communication, cultural difference awareness and cultural conflict perceptibility) to explore whether they are important in the resolution of cultural conflicts and the effective performance management of Haier -- a global white goods brand. Investigations are conducted based on literature review and an integrated methodology of both quantitative and qualitative research methods including questionnaire survey, interviews and focus group. The results show that the four relational capitals can effectively mediate cultural conflicts and mitigate the negative influence of cultural conflict on cross-cultural performance management.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 6
Chapter One: Introduction: Strategic Project overview 7
1.0 The rationale for the project 7
1.1 The importance of the research 8
Chapter Two: Literature Review 10
2.0 Introduction 10
2. 1 Theoretical Basis 10
2.1.1 Cultural dimensions 10
2.1.2 Cross cultural performance management 12
2.2 Critical Evaluation of Contemporary Development on the Subject of Cross Cultural Issues in the MNCs 20
2.3 Review of Context Specific Literature in the Electronic and White Goods Industry in China 30
Chapter Three: Methodology 34
3.0 Research approach and strategy 34
3.1 Research design 35
3.1.1 Interview 36
3.1.2 Questionnaire survey 37
3.1.3 Literature about the company 38
3.1.4 Focus group 40
3.2 Research tools 41
Chapter Four: The Findings and Analysis 43
4.0 The background and performance of Haier Group 43
4.0.1 Performance data 43
4.0.2 The strengths of the company in terms of performance management 43
4.1 The findings and analysis of the questionnaire survey 44
4.1.1 Statistics of basic information of the respondents 44
4.1.2 Comparative Analysis of Cultural Conflict, Performance Management 46
4.1.3 Comparative analysis of cultural conflict and performance management in four factors 57
4.1.4 How to Deal with the Analysis of Cultural Conflicts 59
4.1.5 Summary of Success Factors and the Biggest Obstacles of Haier Cross-cultural Management 60
4.1.6 Summary of the questionnaire survey 62
4.2 Interviews and focus group 63
Chapter Five: Conclusion 65
Chapter Six: Recommendation 70
6.0 The enhancement of relational capitals 70
6.1 The necessity of moderate cultural conflicts 72
Chapter Seven: Personal Development 74
7.0 A brief comment on my current stage of development 74
7.1 The challenges that are needed to be considered in going forward in a management career to develop further 75
References 76
Appendix 85
Executive Summary前言
本论文主要针对海尔案例研究的跨文化绩效管理问题。 发展了四个关系资本，其中包括：信任，交流，文化意识和文化冲突的感知能力，看看这四个因素是否有利于解决文化冲突和海尔跨文化绩效管理。 文献综述主要总结了霍夫斯泰德，特罗姆贝纳和特纳以及霍尔与霍尔在文化层面上的理论，以及不同文化背景，空间，时间的概念; 此外，还对跨文化表现管理理论，当代跨文化问题理论以及具体文献进行了综述。This dissertation mainly addresses the question of cross-cultural performance management based on the case study of Haier. Four relational capitals are developed, which include: trust, communication, cultural difference awareness and cultural conflict perceptibility, to see whether these four factors are beneficial to the settlement of cultural conflict and to the cross cultural performance management of Haier. The literature review mainly summarizes the theories of Hofstede, Trompenaars and Turner, as well as Hall & Hall in cultural dimensions and the concept of context, space, time in different cultures; moreover, the theories of cross-cultural performance management, t
