China’s managers outclass the West

Penny de Valk, chief executive of the Institute of Leadership & Management, discusses the danger of Western managers falling into complacency. There is a distinctive, ambitious style of management emerging from the East.

New research by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) paints a positive picture of China’s managers as being highly ambitious, sophisticated, astute and commercially aware. However, the Global Management Challenge: China vs the World study also highlights a huge underestimation of Chinese managers by their counterparts in the West.

The complacency demonstrated by managers in the UK, North America and France – who along with managers in China, were surveyed about their attitudes to and experiences of managers in other countries – has left their established business and management practices open to serious challenge from the East.

The study of over 325 managers also highlights some fundamental differences between the approaches of Chinese and Western managers. Chinese managers demonstrated a real thirst for knowledge and experience. And, despite being largely satisfied with standards of management in their country, when compared with Western managers, they were by far the most focused on improving processes and performances. In stark contrast, when Western managers were asked about their management weaknesses, over 65 per cent felt there were no management weaknesses in their organisation that could hold back development.

The issue of training revealed similar findings and Western managers were once again highlighted as falling behind their peers in the East. Not only were China’s managers better educated to begin with, but they also receive more in-house training than their counterparts in the West. The ILM
research confirms a number of key lessons that Western managers need to accept in order to compete with the talent pool in the East.

The West’s perception of Chinese managers is, it seems, rooted in the past. China is still seen by most managers as a society whose economic strength relies on low costs, long hours and tough management. In fact, the ILM research suggests China is in the process of developing a distinctive and highly effective management culture that is sophisticated, commercial, innovative and ambitious.

Secondly, the West must establish its development and management priorities. The ILM study asserts that Western managers do not necessarily practice what they preach. Overwhelmingly, the Global Management Challenge report shows the West subscribes to a management paradigm that emphasises positive features, such as getting things done, a strong customer focus and good working relationships. However, the areas managers in the UK, North America and France considered to be the most important were not those in which they felt they performed most strongly.

Thirdly, is the need for the West to invest in development. Despite scoring our management practices the same or lower than the Chinese, managers in the West did not identify any clear management weaknesses or development needs. Meanwhile, despite scoring themselves highly, the Chinese stand out as being modest about their performance, identifying several weaknesses and areas for development. The UK management population in particular seem under qualified, under developed and less interested in improving their performance.

Finally, it seems, the West needs to prepare itself for a new Asian style of management. Managers in the West need to be alert to an emerging Chinese way of managing and learn from their contrasting perspective. Understanding the potential impact of China’s managers on, for example, future economic relationships, is essential if the West wants to remain competitive.

The West’s economic success, it appears from this ILM research study, has led to complacency among its managers. To compete in the changing economic and business environment we need to pay more attention to our colleagues, counterparts and competitors in the East to ensure we keep up, address our weaknesses and set strong foundations for future growth.