This document discusses the dominance of Western management theories in business schools in Southeast Asia. It argues that while these countries have achieved political independence, they remain intellectually colonized by Western ideas. Business and management programs predominantly teach Western concepts and use Western textbooks, even though these may not fit local contexts and cultures. As a result, local theories and ways of doing business are not developed or promoted. The document suggests this perpetuates a form of neo-colonialism and prevents these countries from being truly independent in their thinking.
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The Dominance of “Western” Management
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Schools: The Occidental Colonization of the Top stories
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Post Categories: Asia
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After the Second World War manySouth-East Asian nations had
6 China Demonization Project: Boxun, Zhang Ziyi and
to work hard for independenc from their c
e olonial masters. After
the National Endowment for Democracy
more than 50 y ears of self government in some c ases, manyof
these nations have developed relative urban affluenc where
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consumerism and enterprise dominates life. Career development Destroying/Murdering/Stealing of Others’
and upward mobilityoften requires a diploma, degree, and post Lives/Wealth/Resources: Without
graduate qualifications. Imprisoning/Punishing These People, Nothing Will
Change
However, a c olonial hangover and psy hologic dependenc still lingers on. All these awards,
c al e
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espec iallywithin the business, entrepreneurship, and management disciplines are heavilybased
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upon “Western” theories and ideas, embedding the oc idental mindset within the South-East Asian
c
Taxpayer Dollars from Its Bankrupt Coffers
“psych”.
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The dominanc of oc idental intellec
e c tual thought, particularlywithin economic entrepreneurship,
s, Balance of Power
management, and organizational disc iplines display all the hallmarks of neo-colonialism through
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Although governments of South-East Asia espouse their own respec tive national values and ‘ways
of doing things’, the fac is that students are taught predominantly“western” ideas and values
t Video +MORE
through loc c
al ollege and universitysy stems.
Oc idental sourc knowledge is ac epted into South-East Asian soc
c ed c ieties without questioning.
This is the last bastion of colonialism, the subliminal waythe “west” imposes values upon others,
without overtlybeing aware of it. What more, people payfor the indoc trination of these values.
No c ountryc be trulyindependent until it espouses, teac
an hes, and promotes its own indigenous
ideas and values. South-East Asia maystand independent politic , gone a long wayin ac
ally hieving
ec onomicindependenc but todaystill trapped within the sy
e, ndrome of intellectual colonization. As
business sc hools steadfastlystic to oc idental business c
k c urriculum, former “western c olonial
masters” still dominate their ex-colonies, this time intellectually.
Mitt Romney Catastrophe: Barack Obama
The spread of management education in South-East Asia
Disaster
Business, entrepreneurship, and management c ourses are the fastest growing areas in South-East Regrets and fingerpointing as world powers swallow
Asian educ ation. Along with ICT, these are the most popular areas within both the private and Annan’s resignation
publichigher educ ation sec tors. The relativelylow overhead and operational c per c
ost ohort is a
Ban’s anti-Syria stance threatening UN existence:
financ windfall for c
ial olleges and universities. Business educ ation has become the c ash-c of
ow
American author
c olleges and universities within the region.
Anti-atom Japanese rally in thousands (PHOTOS,
What makes these c ourses financiallyluc rative is the relativelylow c of teac
ost hing resourc for
es VIDEO)
basicc ourses c ompared to other disc iplines. Verylittle infrastruc ture aside from c lassrooms and US position on Syria directly endorses terrorism –
lecture theatres are required. A great number of business sc hools develop c urriculum around an Lavrov
arrayof “international” edition US sourc textbooks on offer bythe major educ
ed ational publishers,
VIDEO: Scattered gun fights sound ‘Battle for
stronglyc ompeting for business.
Damascus’
Consequentlythe intelligentsia of manybusiness schools has looked inwardly foc
, using their Severe Weather – Global Warming Climate Change
c erns upon quantityand numbers. The organization of the majorityof regional business sc
onc hools is Here
is based upon the best of what both Weber and Tay had to offer.
lor
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Theyare bureauc raticdiploma factories based upon single textbook unit courses, orientated
around exams that at best measure memoryand retention rather than c reativityand the potential of
the student to be innovative.
To c it all off, these sc
ap hools are burdened down with qualityassuranc proc e esses at
administrative and teac hing levels. With the high time commitment needed to adhere to these
processes, medioc is ensured through the rigiditythese sy
rity stems c reate. South-East Asian
educators have suc eeded in building the most uglyimages of the western func
c tionalistic 1 2 3 4
organization, replicating organizations that existed in the industrial revolution.
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The leaders and teac hing staff of the region’s business schools have a preferenc for the imported
e
hy of management gurus who are popular in the media, even if these positivist instruments are
pe
not direc suited to the different c
tly ontexts and varied business situations within the local Most Popular
environment. 1 A Dying Empire: Ending of Empire is in Process
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Consequentlythere is a blindness and adverseness for loc allydeveloped ideas and thinking. The
majorityof management and business c onsultants, speakers, and trainers either franchise, or copy 2 Turkey, NATO's Neo-Ottoman Spearhead in
western management tools and instruments theyuse. Perhaps it would not be exaggerated in Middle East, Provides NATO and THE
say that loc ac
ing al ademic educ
s ated in the “western” paradigm locallyor abroad are mesmerized PENTAGON Direct Access to Iran, Syria..
byinternational management gurus.
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The great paradox of South-East Asian business and entrepreneurship educ ation is that local Analysis on South East China Sea A Perfect Crisis
higher educ ation institutions espouse values within their respective cultural frameworks, but what is for Int'l Crisis Group
ac tuallytaught is distinc “western”.
tly
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There is also a double paradox here. Although “western” tec hniques are taught, so manybusiness Nuclear Weapon: BUT Israel the Middle East's
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prac es are influenc byindigenous c
tic ed ultural considerations.
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What is taught is direc threatening to manyloc business owners. This is the sourc of muc
tly al e h
You Vote for the Republican or the Democrat, the
generational conflic as the c
t hildren of manysuc essful Chinese businesses return home to
c
OLIGARCHS Will WIN
Jakarta, Bangkok, and Manila after study overseas and disagree with the waytheir parents
ing
operate the familybusiness. 6 Reps From Half the World's Population Meet to
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In addition manyinnovation management methods are seen to challenge the perceived right of
“management prerogative” of Chinese owned and operated businesses. 7 China Demonization Project: Boxun, Zhang Ziyi
and the National Endowment for Democracy
The poor fit – cemented into the wall
8 Syria is Only a Pretext: Re-engineering of the
There has been little debate about the fit between “western” management thinking and the make- Global Balance of Power
up and behaviour of loc c
al orporations, entrepreneurs, and the general environment. As a
9 Russia, the Anti-Zionist Soviet Union's Successor
consequenc the relevanc of manytheories has been ac epted without question.
e, e c
in the Middle East: Return of a Superpower?
For example in the theoryarea, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is ac epted into management
c 10 Dept of Homeland Security and US Military Make
curriculum where there maybe manyother more suitable theories and meta-theories that c ould be Final Preparations Before Announcing Martial
advanc In the c
ed. ontextual area, the legal sy stem, supplychain, where the emphasis on partic ular Law
marketing tools should lie, interrelationships between people, whic all c
h ould be described ‘as the
way of doing things’, makes apply ‘western management theory’ c
ing hallenging to saythe least.
For example, human relationships among the ethnicChinese in South-East Asia were onc built e
upon trust based princ iples of personalization and quanxi[1]. This was considered nec essaryin
developing South-East Asia where legal c odes and c ontrac enforc
t ement were still in their infanc .
y
The effec of this was to slow down the state of progress and limit the inc
t orporation of new c omers
to an industry This also restric the input of new ideas and tec
. ted hnologyinto firms within the
region, a situation described in few textbooks.
The preferenc for the ‘latest popular’ management knowledge often leads to misinterpretations, as
e
veryfew management and entrepreneur instruc tors actuallyhave muc first hand business
h
experienc Thus rigid interpretations of management still influenc entrepreneurship c
e. e ourses.
Manyentrepreneurship c ourses advoc market researc through foc groups, whic are not
ate h us h
suited to new to the world products in developing markets. Business plans are almost alway at the
s
central c of anyc
ore urriculum where there is little evidenc that planning leads to suc ess in
e c
entrepreneurship[2].
Further business sc hools base muc of the c
h urriculum upon general misc eptions that both the
onc
media and imported textbooks that have evolved over the last 15 to 20 y ears have created.
Entrepreneurship has been glorified bymedia stories, biographies of suc essful entrepreneurs, and
c
events like ‘entrepreneurship week’, ‘business plan competitions’, and ‘entrepreneurship awards’.
Course c urriculum is shaped in the mold of the media made my of hi-tech and high-growth
ths
entrepreneurs[3].
Business sc hools have developed inspiring spiels about becoming an entrepreneur. Many
assumptions about firm behaviour, entrepreneurship, and innovation are based on my rather than
th
grounded researc h[4]. Some of these my enc
ths apsulated within foreign textbooks infer that firms
are perpetuallyentrepreneurial, when the c ept of entrepreneurship is reallyonlya desc
onc ription of
firm start-ups and earlygrowth period.
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Contraryto the multitude of media stories and books on high tech entrepreneurship, veryfew start-
ups are based upon innovation. Researc has indic
h ated time and time again that the majorityof
new firms are of a non-innovative nature. The average start-up is muc more likelyto be a
h
cafeteria, sandwic bar, c
h offee shop, computer retailer, or some other form of retail outlet than
something high tech.
Business c urriculum largelyignores the importanc of emotion in dec
e ision making. For example,
identify an opportunityand exploiting it mayhave as more to do with inner personal needs i.e.,
ing
recognition, love and affection, power and control, self esteem, or grandeur, etc., as with any
rational thought proc esses[5].
Case studies are usuallyabout highlysuc essful growth c
c ompanies like Apple, Google, and Yahoo,
etc Students develop the belief that this is the norm rather than the exc
. eption. This is the
‘entrepreneurial growth myth’, the idea that firms need to grow into large firms in order to survive.
This ‘grow or die’ sy ndrome has been adopted bybusiness sc hools around the region, making
manysmall businesses feel pressured to seek expansion and strain the stabilityof the enterprise
[6]. Proprietors of small or mic SMEs tend to be branded as un-ambitious failures with little
ro
relevanc to soc
e ietyand c onsidered part of the informal economy .
Today like the ‘west’, South-East Asian soc
, ietyequates suc ess with size[7]. The realityis that
c
most firms have verylittle intention to grow.
The human rac has sent a man to the moon, c
e ured manydiseases, mapped the human genome,
desc ended to the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, but nobodyc reallybe too sure of the
an
reasons whyone business is suc essful while another business fails. There are manyty
c pes of
businesses where it is extremelydiffic to identifythe elements of suc ess, e.g. restaurants,
ult c
boutiques, and spas, etc.
Theyrelyon verytight (but not necessarilyapparent) formulas for suc ess, whic the entrepreneur
c h
maynot even understand. Also quite often what looks like a solid and viable opportunityappearing
verystraightforward and even gathering veryfavorable market researc results, mayfail dismallyin
h
the marketplac [8].
e
Some examples of spec ular market failures inc
tac lude Federal Express’s launc of ZAP Mail
h
facsimile servic in 1984, The Coc Cola Company launc of New Coke in 1985, and the launc
e a ’s h h
of 3G video c alling around 2003.
Management theories that have 10 rules, habits, or points that c laim to lead to suc ess, do not
c
prove c ause and effec The mentioned elements mayexist and c
t. orrelate with suc ess, but we
c
aren’t reallysure about c ausation. So manybooks mention the same c ompanies, that it can’t be
possible that all these c ompanies are utilizing all these theories at onc e.
These positivist theories miss out on the complexities of organizations and the environments they
exist within, and most often the points and issues that influenc suc ess and failure.
e c
Implementing management theories as a c klist is potentiallyverydangerous. Chec
hec klists are just
like putting a net into the ocean to see what c be pic
an ked up, where we assume that what is
pic ked up is actuallythe essenc of the oc
e ean.
As W.Edwards Deming onc said “you can only measure 3% of what matters.” Problems and
e
opportunities arise out of imperfections and theories don’t handle imperfections well. Oc idental
c
management theoryhas reduc business thinking down to the lowest c
ed ommon denominator
rather than preserved the c omplexity.
Business literature in South-East Asia is primarilyUS based whic reflec the needs of a post
h ts
industrial societyrather than a developing ec onomy This is partlyresponsible for one of the
[9].
biggest tragedies of entrepreneurship educ ation in the region.
Verylittle if anyfoc is given to various tec
us hnologies that a potential entrepreneur will require in a
new business. The ac quisition of technologyis one of the greatest difficulties SMEs in developing
countries fac and little is done within the educ
e ation sphere to solve this problem.
A graduating student mayhave ac quired some general business skills but has little or no
knowledge or ac ess to the means to ac
c quire the knowledge to develop a farm, a small
engineering shop, a food manufacturing operation, or a cosmeticmanufac turing operation.
One c see around the ASEAN region that it is the non-business sc
an hools that show innovation
with their outreac programs while business sc
h hools fall into the trap of cashing in on their BBA,
MBA, and now DBA programs.
US textbooks are based upon the premises of the US sec ondarysc hool system whic is very
h
different in content and method than sc hools in the South-East Asian region. In addition, due to the
different stages of economicand soc development the ty
ial pes of industries and contemporary
issues are different between the ‘west’ and South-East Asia[10].
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Where elements of creativityare added to a c ourse, tools like Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
are introduc with verylittle applic
ed ation to the real world problems that an entrepreneur might
face.
Entrepreneurship has bec ome seen as a ‘quick fix’ in providing a career[11]. Business schools in
the region have structured curriculum in a waythat maybuild false hopes within the student c ohort.
For example subjec like entrepreneurial financ and business plan give students the impression
ts e
that institutional financ is ac essible, where c
e c urrent lending prac e in developing c
tic ountries is
extremelyrisk averse and primarilyc ollateral based lending[12].
Business schools teac the paradigm of growth where researc c
h h learlyshows that the majorityof
entrepreneurs are not seeking to develop high growth business models.
The resulting errors and mistakes – “I don’t need no arms around me”
Evolving South-East Asian business and entrepreneurship c urriculum has followed the post
industrial models with a number of errors and mistakes. Due to the developing nature of most
South-East Asian ec onomies, there should be an emphasis on manufac turing whic should inc
h lude
new produc development and manufac
t turing line and system development.
However ‘cut and paste’ c urriculum from business sc hools in post industrial societies have largely
dropped manufac turing from their curriculum due to the cohort interest in the servic sec where
es tor,
opportunities exist. This leads to a mismatc of what South-East Asian business sc
h hools offer and
what business and entrepreneurship students need.
As a result business and entrepreneurship graduates flood out into the market plac without any
e
technologyskills[13], crowding the servic sec whic is not c
es tor h reating extra employ ment or real
economicgrowth. Business and entrepreneurship graduate employ abilityis a major issue facing
South-East Asian ec onomies today .
Todaymany‘roundtable’ disc ussion forums on business and entrepreneurship are run bymajor
universities around the world with the objective of disseminating the latest information on theory
and pedagogy Manyof these are foc
. used upon method and deliveryof entrepreneurial educ ation.
However at the time of writing veryfew South-East Asian business sc hools have benefitted in the
classroom from these ‘roundtables’. South-East Asian deliverymethods are still verymuc lech ture
orientated with textbook content, with a few, but increasing number of adjunc ac
t tivities.
These two issues, tec hnologyand pedagogyrequire some deep thinking on the part of the
intelligentsia of South-East Asian business schools. Content and deliveryespoused and
demonstrated at ‘roundtables’ need to be c loselyexamined, experimented with, and utilized with
c lose adaptation to the needs of South-East Asian c ohorts.
This is the challenge that requires a large investment in time and staff resourc to c
es reate the
curriculum and deliverymethods nec essaryto meet the needs of the students and nation.
To compound the above, governments and c orporations have a positive disposition for foreign
advisors and consultants, shunning their own. There is a negative disposition toward ‘locals’.
Foreign advisors and consultants are most often sort in the misc eption that their advic will be
onc e
superior to loc advisors and c
al onsultants, even though foreigners mayhave little real
understanding of loc c
al ontext. This doesn’t oc ur bec
c ause of anyvacuum in knowledge and
wisdom of loc ac
al ademic s.
In fac manySouth-East Asian ac
t ademic are verysuc essful in other universities around the
s c
world. Some have written verysound ac ademicdissertations and hypothesis but fail to get them
published through the publishers that c bring them to mass popularity Rather theysell a few
an .
hundred c opies and c be found gathering dust on libraryshelves.
an
Part of this preferenc for foreign expertise is based on the belief that something imported is better,
e
an old colonial hangover. However the c of this hangover is holding bac indigenous intellec
ost k tual
development and preserving the state of neo-c olonialism at a time when the US and Europe are far
from possessing a monopolyof new ideas.
The irony of it all – “If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding”
Asian business and management has been of great interest to manyever sinc the rise of Japan
e
Inc. During the 1980s, a multitude of writers, some of them top academic and management gurus
s
espoused Asian management ideas to the ‘west’.
Japanese suc ess in the US and European markets was explained bynumerous authors as well
c
thought out marketing strategies[14], a strategicmindset[15], superior produc tivity[16],
organizational culture[17], spec c
ific ultural prac es and a shared c
tic ommitment[18], a spec nexus
ial
between government, business, and the banking sy stem[19], and innovation[20].
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Asian authors like Kenic Ohmae brought intuitiveness into strategyat a time it was bec
hi oming
overlyanaly al. In addition he provided a reorientation towards the c
tic ustomer in the firm’s strategy,
at a time when marketing theorywas bec oming too struc tured.
This interest in Asian management extended into the 1990s where manyauthors espoused the
reasons for suc ess of the Asian tigers due to work ethic c
c s, ulture, low c base, rising levels of
ost
innovation, government sponsored c apitalism, the role of the overseas Chinese[21], quanxi[22],
growing domesticmarkets, and well thought out strategies[23].
Most literature on Asian management was positivist and instrumentalist rather than reflec tive which
could be seen with the titles using words like ‘how’, ‘new competition’, ‘success’, and ‘challenge’,
etc Culture and philosophyhad been superfic
. iallymentioned and a multitude of books about
‘Confucius’[24], ‘Sun Tzu’[25], ‘Buddhist management[26]’, and ‘Islamic business[27]’, were
published.
A sec ond generation of business and management books foc using upon China and to a lesser
degree India is upon us. Books in this latest era are focused upon the nouveau entrepreneurs of
the region, who theyare, how theyorganize themselves and bec ame suc essful[28]. In essenc
c e
there has been no shortage of “Asian” ideas in management going across to the ‘west’.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s manyac ademic bec
s ame interested in the connections between
Confuc ianism and the spec ular rise of the Asian Tigers.
tac
Some argued that Confuc was opposed to modernization as it didn’t advoc individualism,
ius ate
common to the Western c harac teristic of entrepreneurship, was too dependent on guidanc
s e,
emphasized an all round development of personalityto harmonise with the environment, whic h
discouraged aggressiveness and enc ouraged traditionalism, rather than modernisation[29].
However Tu suggested that individualism is a Western mode of c apitalism and East Asian had
developed another model based on relationships to develop c hange through c onsensus and
networks, with a sense of personal discipline[30]. Confucianism was c ized for lac of profit
ritic k
motive, as his philosophies discouraged self-motivation and that merc hants were not included in
Confuc set of keyrelationships.
ius
However, through responsibilityand obligation to family other motives exist, suc as their well-
, h
being[31], and treatment of those inside and outside an individual’s universe of relationships will be
different, i.e., outsiders treated with respec but c
t aution, more adversarial, rather than brotherly
relationship.
Confuc ianism is also c ized for its lac of innovation, whereas the realityof Chinese business
ritic k
has been to seek way to c
s ontrol an existing market, rather than create new value through
innovation[32].
However there are two interesting c epts within Confuc
onc ianism that are veryrelevant to corporate
wisdom, a c ept that will most probablyhave a revival in popularityin c
onc ontemporary
management thinking in the near future.
The first is the Tao, the wayof life and Te, potenc and self-sac ial generositywith humility with
y rific ,
the moral power of attrac tion and transformation, associated with these qualities. The humanistic
attribute required to ac hieve the above is through Ren, whic means love, kindness and goodness,
h
qualities of the perfec individual.
t
This is the essenc of what makes humans different from other members of the animal kingdom.
e
Failure to develop Ren would lead an individual to quic develop foregone c lusions,
kly onc
dogmatism, obstinac and egotism, whic would bloc wisdom and prevent people from making
y h k
new insights and discoveries, as one’s mind must remain open to become wiser.
Li is the expression of Ren in a soc c
ial ontext through norms, rites and rituals governing
ceremonies ac ording to one’s soc position. Through Li, the individual expresses his respec and
c ial t
reverenc for others[33].
e
Another important aspec of Confuc thought mentioned above is Yi or righteousness. This is
t ian
where self interest is subservient to organizational interest. Yi is prac ed through c
tic ultivating ritual
and etiquette and eventuallybec omes sec ond nature.
Zhi or wisdom is the abilityto applythe above virtues into life situations whic implies an
h
understanding of the Confuc worldview above. Zhi is therefore muc more than knowledge.
ian h
Finallyone must possess Xin or trustworthiness to safeguard the mission of the organization.
Romar suggested that Confuc ethic are verysimilar to the ideas developed byPeter Druc
ian s ker
[34].
The tremendous ec onomicgrowth in Asia after the Sec ond World War was labeled as ‘Confucian
capitalism”[35]. Hofstede postulated that c ulture is a prime determinant of performanc and
e
Confuc ianism dictates hierarc al organizational struc
hic ture, preserving values, and thrift, which
were all seen as organizational drivers of ec onomicgrowth[36].
One of the side effec of Confuc
ts ianism is nepotism and thus the c reation of lac of transparenc ,
k y
corruption, and inefficienc [37]. Some sc
y holars labeled this as one of the prime reasons of the
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1997 Asian financial crisis[38][39]. Interest in Asian business and management declined with the
Japanese bubble bursting and the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
This occurred at a time when there was a small re-emergence of US industry where the Asian myth
was broken and it was back to business as usual[40]. US industry became equipped with new
paradigms that would solve all their competitive problems packed up in new management
philosophies that would bring a new arrogance in executive management, thinking they were
envisioned for the future.
Tools and slogans like the ‘Value Chain’, ‘Strategic alliances’, ‘Strategic innovation’, ‘Lean
Manufacturing’, ‘Business Process Re-engineering’, ‘Balanced Score Card’, ‘Benchmarking’,
‘TQM’, ‘branded derivatives’, ‘Quality Management Systems’, ‘Zero defects’, ‘Performance
Measurement’, ’Excellence Model’, and ‘Six Sigma’ instilled new found confidence.
Many of these ideas developed as a ‘quick fix’, within a rapidly growing consulting industry.
Another example of Asian influence on the ‘west’ is the claim that Chinese business success is
related to the doctrines of Sun Tzu[41]. This may have some positive bearing in the business
strategies of some businesses, which are quoted as examples in books[42], and Sun Tzu’s
philosophies have certainly influenced writers[43].
But as other authors have commented in the Asian SME context, most businesses start out finding
the correct business strategies by nothing more than trial and error until they find a successful set
of strategies for their businesses[44].
Very few business entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia until recently have been educated past
secondary school and although Sun Tzu is known to Western business scholars, it is highly
doubtful whether many Chinese are familiar with his works on strategy.
However there is some evidence that the educated Chinese public service over the centuries did
use these texts in forming the strategies of Chinese state[45]. It is claimed that Sun Tzu’s doctrine
influenced Admiral Yamamoto in planning the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mao Tse-Tung’s
philosophies, the Vietnamese General Vö Nguyên Giáp’s strategies that led to victories over the
French and American forces in Vietnam, Che Gueverra’s revolutionary and guerrilla tactics in South
America, and the Gulf war campaigns and resulting insurgencies[46].
It also appears that the doctrines of Sun Tzu were studied by Western military scholars[47] and the
early business schools took some interest in The Art of War in the 1950s and 60s when the
concepts of business and corporate strategy was being pioneered.
Strategy as a war paradigm became very popular in the United States with a number of
‘bestsellers’ like Barrie James ‘Business War Games’, and Al Ries and Jack Trout’s ‘Marketing
Warfare’[48] in the 1980s and has become part of contemporary marketing terminology[49].
In addition Sun Tzu has become part of popular culture influencing films like the Star Wars Trilogy,
Wall Street, The Sopranos (HBO), The Art of War, and Die Another Day. The influence of Sun Tzu
on Asian business has probably been through these western influences, rather than direct
knowledge and education in the region itself.
There is very little evidence of direct influence of Buddhist Dharma upon business in Asia. Many
studies mix Buddhist and Confucian philosophies which although bear some similarities, are also
contrastingly different[50]. Although some cases are reported[51], the Buddhist business is more
myth than reality.
This is partly because there is very little consensus about what a Buddhist venture would actually
be like. The only visible evidence is the belief and practice of a degenerated form of corrupted
Buddhism, mixed with superstitious rituals, artifacts, ceremonies, giving donations to the temple for
positive Karma, and praying to Bodhisatvta for wealth and prosperity.
However, Buddhist Dharma has influenced Western psychology significantly. The teachings of the
Abhidhamma Pitaka have inspired and influenced many psychoanalysts and psychologists[52],
including Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Albert Ellis, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Marsha M. Linehan. There has
been a great leap forward in humanitarian and transpersonal philosophical influence in therapy[53].
Dialogue between philosophy theorists and practitioners of East and West has led to mutually
influential relationships between them[54]. This has led to new insights into therapies and new
schools of thought on both sides[55].
Many of these practices are being used in modified forms for therapy today[56].Aspects of Buddhist
Dharma are also incorporated in the works of Western philosophers including Caroline A. F. Rhys
David and Alan Watts.
Applying Buddhist philosophy to organization and management in “Western society” is also not
new. Writers have focused upon the quantum analogies of Buddhism[57], ethics[58], and humanist
views[59].
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The concepts within the wheel of Samsara provide insight that emotions play a major role in all
organizations[60],where occidental organization theories have tended to ignore the role of emotion
in organizations until quite recently[61].
The concepts of dependent origination through systems theory and a reframed ‘Eightfold Path’ is
similar to many of the concepts within the learning organization. Peter Senge is the Director for
Organizational Learning at the Sloan Business School at MIT in Boston.
He was one of the high profile academics during the 1990’s and propelled the concept of Learning
Organization into the management vocabulary. Senge defines the learning organization “where
people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where
people are continually learning to see the whole together[62].”
Such organizations according to Senge will be able to face the rapidly changing environment with
flexibility and adaptation, driven by peoples’ willingness and capacity to learn at all levels. However
current organization structures and form are not conducive to learning and people although having
great capacity to learn, do not have the tools needed[63].Senge and his team spent many years
developing this process.
The irony is that Asian ideas have more influence on ‘Western’ management thought than in Asian
management thinking. The only probable exception is Confucianism which could cautiously be
associated with the structure, process, and strategies of family owned Chinese businesses in
Southeast Asia[64].
Although Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ and Buddhist Dharma originated in the Asian region, it has
primarily been ‘Western’ management thinkers who have applied the respective philosophies to
management, at least in these contemporary times. Although the Islamic ‘Tawhid’ is 1500 years
old, it is probably only now that it is being considered seriously as a management philosophy.
Before now, Islamic thought has had negligible influence on contemporary business, but the market
may change that; although Islamic society itself has not taken Islamic concepts onboard into
business until this time. The nature of Muslim consumers and the rapid growth of the Halal market
globally will be a driver of change here.
Why? – “Don’t think I need anything at all”
As mentioned in the introduction of this article, South-East Asian business schools have been
unquestionably built upon Weberian models. School management tended to overzealously enforce
structure, systems and procedures that create immense rigidities. In addition, deans tend to play
the role of a patriarch rather than a chairman of the board, which often degrades into crude
authoritarianism.
Consequently major positions within the hierarchy tend to go to those are liked and favoured, rather
than those who have worked meritoriously, successfully, and are qualified for the job. Although
these appointed subordinates know their role and operate with a certain degree of autonomy,
deans may take the prerogative over decisions he or she may have some interest in.
This centralized decision making should increase the ability of schools to make quick decisions and
adapt to the changing environment, but usually the opposite occurs due to complacent
conservatism or a general reluctance to make decisions. Personal relationships become a major
part of decision making, where organization performance becomes very subjective.
This most often leads to suboptimal performance. Because of the nepotistic nature of the school,
disempowered staff seek satisfaction and reward through their personal work or from outside the
school.
Consequently many business schools in South-East Asia fall into Morgan’s political organization
paradigm where power is the prize and Machiavellian behavior is the norm. Motivation among staff
at the school will most probably be very low.
There is a drastic shortage of business and entrepreneurship lecturers within the region. Stringent
criteria in the employment of lecturers eliminate the potential to employ mature, experienced
practitioners or practademics. For example under the regulations of one aspiring university in
Malaysia that portrays itself as the “Harvard of the East”, it would not be able to employ people like
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and the late Steve Jobs, even as adjunct, due to issues of
qualifications. Thus those that gain employment within the region’s colleges and universities have
formal qualifications, usually without much, if any experience.
South-East Asian business and entrepreneurship academics consequently tend to lack the depth
of knowledge about what they teach and rely on textbooks and popular management books as the
basis of their teaching. This lack of depth of knowledge in many fields leads to a lack of confidence
to develop curriculum outside the familiar textbooks they have available to them, thus inhibiting the
ability to provide an education according to local needs. With this comes a reinforcement of an
unconscious bias towards ‘western’ literature as local literature is still rare and far between and in
many cases just a translation of existing foreign textbooks. Any original local material usually lacks
peer acceptance due to the lack of ability of many to critically appraise it.
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South-East Asian business schools have developed into a rut of pursuing quantity for the windfall
incomes they can accumulate through popular products like the MBA. Foreign universities through
setting up branches or strategic alliances are also cashing in on the rapid growth of business
education in South-East Asia, further perpetuating the myth that foreign business theories are the
first class product. They have adopted the classic post colonial market strategy of importing their
product into a local market with minimum modification and exploiting the market to the maximum.
This rut manifests deep into the structure and processes of local colleges and universities. ISO
quality accreditations and their logos are prominently displayed as symbols of quality, even though
they have little or no relevance to the actual standard of the courses provided. ISO standards make
no claims about product quality or relevance whatsoever and only mislead the public. The
resources needed to implement these useless ISO standards are taken from potential academic
development resources. This leaves a single textbook approach to courses, predominately
delivered through formal lectures, rigid assessment and examination criteria and reliance on
outdated curriculum development tools like Bloom’s taxonomy, when there have been many
advances in pedagogy over the last few years; all in an unquestioning manner. The result of this is
a sanitized teaching paradigm which doesn’t reflect the real business environment, leaving
students ill-prepared for the outside world. This ‘cut and paste’ culture without questioning and
adaptation is holding back the development of business education in the region.
Of late, universities have realized the need for research to build esteem and gain a ranking.
However this has been turned into a meaningless chase of KPI figures. Many new academic
journals are cashing in on this unhealthy focus on SCOPUS indexing and now offer ‘pay for
publishing’ arrangements, rather than the traditional ‘double blind peer review’ system. To date,
most local research has tended to emulate other research, applying theory to local contexts, rather
than developing indigenous hypotheses. This lack of originality is preventing the rise in international
stature of local business academics and is the loss of a great opportunity to develop Asian based
management knowledge.
Finally, local South-East Asian academics have not asked whether “there is a distinctively Asian
type of management based upon traditional philosophy?” and perhaps “can the focus on these
ancient philosophies and religions really bring any revelations to Asian management thinking
today?” Management theory has been something secular in Asia in contrast with the ‘west’ where it
has been tainted with spiritualism. Asian academics have preferred to keep both issues in separate
boxes. Whether this is on the assumption that Asian academics believe there is nothing to learn
from their heritage, so emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, and professionally separate
meaning of their personal lives with their professional lives. May be it is just from lack of confidence
to think outside their trained discipline and merge new ideas into their existing knowledge.
Conclusion – “Another brick in the wall”
The education gap between South-East Asia, Europe, Australia, and the US is going to be felt for a
long time. Part of the problem is the inept ability and resistance to change. Part of the problem is
the lack of skilled, experienced and knowledgeable people. However the rigidity of educational
institutions is something that can be solved, through some visionary thinking.
There is also another problem. It is apparent that creativity is an important aspect of education,
which is deeply lacking in Asian curriculum throughout the whole school system. In business and
entrepreneurship creativity is vital in the areas of opportunity recognition and construction, strategy
development and execution, marketing, new product development, and solving general problems
related to entrepreneurship. If we accept entrepreneurship as a behavior, then entrepreneurial
behavior is related more to creativity than intelligence; entrepreneurship can then be taught.
Entrepreneurship will no longer be based upon innovation, but value – value for both the consumer
and members of the enterprise, much more closely aligned with the reality of the needs and
abilities of entrepreneurs in developing economies. Creativity, rather than intelligence appears to
be a more critical factor in achieving success. Therefore education curriculum will need to focus on
creating value through offering alternative business models rather than the traditional business
tools that that the MBA graduate is familiar with.
This is in stark contrast to the major objective of ‘western’ education system to nurture creativity
and assertiveness from a young age. There is a cultural hindrance here where questioning is
encouraged in ‘western’ classrooms but considered disruptive in ‘Asian’ classrooms. Without
solving this problem at primary and secondary levels, tertiary institutions have extra challenges to
bring up and develop the caliber of local students. This is actually a disadvantage that can be
eliminated without great need of any capital expenditure.
There are indeed a rich number of paradigms that business and entrepreneurship can be
considered through, and many of these can add practically to the development of ethical business,
human relations, conflict management, organizational learning, and even creativity development.
There are rich models for psychology, motivation theory, and organization behavior from Buddhism
and Islam that have been totally ignored. Marketing books are incomplete as they don’t explain the
deep textures of the South-East Asian market environment. Using local paradigms will assist in
understanding the various paradoxes and contradictions of business in Asia.
One of the issues is interpretation. Max Weber interpreted Confucianism as a negative force to
economic growth and William Ouchi probably understated the influence of Confucianism in
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Japanese business hierarchy and decision making. Using single ‘western’ metaphors provides a
biased insight[65], but when local metaphors are used, we can see much deeper layers of
meaning. There is no shortage of potential paradigms such as the ‘Taoist tradition’ which may
have an important insight into Chinese cognition in South-East Asia[66], Hinduism which heavily
influences the nature of business[67], ‘feudalism’, ‘developing nation’, government sponsored
capitalism’, ‘adventurism’, ‘Sufism”, ‘Sikhism’, ‘Shinto traditions’, ‘Machiavellism’, and ‘diplomacy’,
etc., that can bring new ways of learning. These can be developed into relevant meta-theories and
interchanged to shed more understanding of the dynamics of Asian business and economy.
It could be argued that Asia’s failure to develop their own contextually relevant theories and the
corresponding positivist practices, where instead culturally unsuited practices are utilized, is a
missed opportunity to develop new forms of new dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage
within the region. This is the challenge to management academics and practitioners in South-East
Asia. It is the task of looking through the rich history, culture, society, stories, and philosophies of
the region for the inspiration to develop and construct homegrown management ideas, rather than
importing ideas developed in other parts of the world, which are suitable for those parts of the
world. Confucian, Buddhist, Strategy, and Islamic institutes exist all over the region, but there has
been little focus on developing these philosophies as management paradigms. Today there is an
intense vacuum of original management thinkers in the South-East Asian region.
True independence from colonialism only comes through original thought as a means to act in an
intellectually free manner. It will be the content and spirit of the curriculum taught in South-East
Asian business schools that will determine how the region does things in the future.
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in Muslim countries are not yet convinced that interest-free finance is workable, excessive
emphasis on it has created a resistance in official circles against Islamic Economics. They find it to
be of little value. This is unfortunate. We must blame ourselves for this. Islam is a complete way of
life and is capable of solving the problems of not only Muslim countries, but also of mankind”. In the
same interview Dr. Chapra said that it was the responsibility of Islamic intellectuals to show how
Islamic economics could solve the socio-economic problems that humankind faced. This is in great
need because there is a distinct lack of theoretical and empirical analysis to show that an Islamic
strategy can help solve economic problems, particularly with the current state of the Islamic world,
where there is decline in moral values, exploitive financial systems, illegitimate governments,
landlordism, lack of education, absence of justice and ineffective operation of incentives and
deterrents. Dr. Chapra believes that there is great repetitiveness in what is written about Islamic
economics which is not serving any cause. An Islamic alternative needs to be spelt out, which can
only really be done after the real position in Islamic countries is analysed, i.e., how individuals,
families, firms and governments actually behave, so the gap between ideals and reality can be
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