Trustworthiness Case Study

The crucial issue of trustworthiness. Like many other multinationals in China, Bosch is stuck in a profitability trap characterised by a lack of commitment to build region-specific operations and management systems. Chinese managers perceived missing trust as the foundational reason. To state differently, trust is missing between the headquarter and regional organisations, though trustworthiness is a naturally occurring concern in international management (Beamish & Inkpen, 1995; (Harvey, Speicer, & Noveceivic, 2001).

The trust is missing between the headquarter and regional organisations. Local management is not only about having Chinese managers. There is no local management if strategies are still made in Germany and only executed in China (Business Development Manager, Division 2).

The specific dilemma here is that non-trust is systemic in multinationals in that two parties, i.e., the headquarter and regional organisations, have different or even conflicting interests, strategies, and values causing instability and hence distrust. Under rapid business growth, China wants as much as possible of technological know-how and decision power while Germany is concerned of losing technical advantage and control on the region in general. In addition, sometimes what Chinese managers want is not always consistent with good business practice in the sense that most German managers view business. However, it is important to be aware that such a dilemma often creates a multitude of situations and events in the management communication, which continuous confirms stereotypes and prejudiced ideas, further reduces trust levels between two sides.

Therefore, building trust between Chinese and German managers can be seen as the very ...

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...em as a labour force without paying sufficient attention to their private life. Such a findings also fits well with the experiences of others noting that Chinese and East Asian management is generally more focused on people, while Western management tends to be relatively more focused on work tasks (Chen, 1995).

Summary. Competencies defined in this study corroborated with the notion that there are different managerial practices, especially leadership perception, in China and Germany. It is easier to transfer machine technology than its human counterpart. Although Western managerial approach has been dominating both in multinationals and joint ventures in China, it is still too early to argue whether there is a general organisational convergence. However, at current stage, Chinese style of personal management still prevails over Western style HRM practices.