Do managers resist close study of their jobs in the same way line‐workers have resisted time studies? Why is so little known about what the manager really does? Who is to blame for the lack of progress since the days of Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management?
Based on a survey of EMBA students in China and South Korea, this article examines how two sensitive but potentially salient criteria—race and gender—affect the selection of an executive to head the (a) foreign operations of a U.S. multinational in China and South Korea and (b) newly acquired U.S. operations of a Korean multinational. The results reveal a fairly complex picture of how gender, race, and the interplay of these two factors might affect these decisions. In the Korean sample, competencies mattered more than race and gender in a senior executive appointment to the U.S. operations of Korean multinationals. Also in the Korean sample, race and gender outweighed competencies in assignments to Korea. In the Chinese sample, competencies outweighed race and gender in a senior executive appointment in China. Overall, Koreans had a more positive attitude toward foreign‐born Koreans than the Chinese toward foreign‐born Chinese for senior executive appointments. Implications for international human resource management and diversity management, both theoretical and applied, are discussed.
The Masters in Labor and Human Resources Program in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University has recently developed and implemented a new graduate curriculum in human resources. Impetus for the new curriculum was the formation of a corporate advisory board. The new curriculum emphasizes analytical and leadership skills as well as the functional content knowledge needed for graduate students to become effective internal human resource consultants. Both the need for this type of curriculum and the process used to develop the new curriculum is reviewed.
Organizations have to contend with growing diversity in their managerial and professional ranks, both cross‐nationally and intranationally. This article examines the similarities and differences in processes and dynamics of managing diversity in cross‐national and intranational contexts. Similarities include the acculturation process and the styles and patterns of communication. Differences revolve around legislation, magnitude, and time horizon. Training programs designed to raise consciousness/awareness and to improve communication competency are presented. The implications for human resource management practices are then discussed.
This paper examines the impact of a joint GM/UAW ceremony on changes in the traditional labor‐management culture. Ceremonies can help change corporate culture when the actual event is transformed into an organizational story. Stories help motivate change because they provide purpose and clues to new behavior patterns.