Building High Performance Team in Top Management

International Joint-Venture:
Building High Performance Team in the Top Management
by Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra & Daisy Zheng
Keynote Speech
Cologne, Oct 14 2010

Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
IJV: Building High Performance Team in the Top Management_v1.0 / 2010-08 2
14 years in Germany
7 years in China
Born and grew up
in Indonesia
Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra – Cross-cultural and Business Psychology
Dipl.-Psych.,Technical University of Braunschweig
Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management
Dr.Phil.,University of Regensburg
Intercultural Psychology and Strategic Management
Executive Education,INSEAD
HR Management in Asia

IJV: Building High Performance Team in the Top Management_v1.0 / 2010-08
Index
3
1 Top Management Team in International Joint-Venture 3
2 Success factors for High Performance Team 7
3 Suggested actions 16
4 International Joint-Venture with Chinese Corporation 23

Top Management Team
in International Joint-Venture
4

IJV as Strategic Option for International Expansion
5
International
Joint-Venture
Government
Regulation
Managing Risk
& Economy of Scale
Creating Synergy
Strategic Alliance
...

Top Management Team in IJV
6
Parents Company
Performance
Management
Culture &
Selection System
Cultural
Background
Host - Guest
Temporary
Career Station

The Success of IJV depends very much on:
How Successful the Top Management could ...
7
Communicate
Interact
Collaborate
as a High Performance Team

Success Factors
for High Performance
Top Management Team in IJV
8
The content presented below is based on literature review and recent studies of an Asian-European JV.

Case: Chinese – German IJV
9
The discussion on the problem of the Chinese-German
collaboration and communication are often done in rigid dichotomy
and lead to frustration:
• Chinese (culture) and German (culture) are both strong
cultures with long tradition so they can not be changed
and we can not do anything.
• Shareholder CN (Chinese) and Shareholder DE (German) are
our shareholders, they are our bosses and their strategic
goals seems to be different and make our collaboration
difﬁcult.
Between the Chinese management and German assignees, there
are a number of possible different perception on:
• the understanding of management and business objectives
(Chinese or/and international market)
• the problem awareness
• the needs of change (urgency and speed)

Critical Challenges for Top Management Team in IJV
10
Shareholders Influences & IJV Structure
Organizational
Identification
Business
Focus
Efficient
Communication
Cross-Cultural
Understanding

How to Keep the Balance?
11
The rapid growth and change of China’s economic and social
situations as well as the changing strategy of the parents company may
change the balance of the win-win situation from the IJV.
Objectives & Strategies Organizational Structure Historical Background International Assignment
• Profit
• Expansion
• Technology
development
• Cost control
• Market acquisition
• etc.
• Counter part system
• Decision making
power
• Relationship with
parent company
• HR relevant issue,
e.g. C&B, promotion,
career development
• etc.
• History of mother
country
• Cultural background
• Success factor in
parent company
• Market position of
parent company
• etc.
• Management selection
• Pre-assignment
training
• Performance
assessment
• Promotion system
• Assignment term
• etc.

Organizational Identification of IJV Top Management Team
12
Meaning of “WE”
Perception of Chinese to
German colleagues
Perception of Germans to
Chinese colleagues
• The
members
of
Top
Management
Team
(TMT)
of
IJV

face
the
simultaneous
demands
of
different
policy

makers
in
each
parent
company.

• It
is
important
for
TMT
how
they
perceive
their
roles

in
the
IJV.

• Organizational
identiCication
referred
to
how

individuals
perceiving
themselves
and
their
work

organizations
as
intertwined,
sharing
common

characteristics
and
destiny

Corporate Identification & Role Understanding
13
Organizational identification with the parent company or with the IJV?
Guest-Host role perception caused by short-term assignment
How well the IJV’s mission, vision and value is communicated and established?
Meaning of “WE”
• Parent company comes first
• No sacrifice for the IJV
• No obvious contribution to
the IJV
Perception of Chinese to
German colleagues
Perception of Germans to
Chinese colleagues
• Parent company comes first
• No independency
• Take risk for the IJV to
achieve parent company’s
objective

When Culture Collides
14
Different cultural backgrounds and orientations
Inappropriate cultural expectation to the counter part
Inefficient intercultural collaboration
• Differences in cultural
values, social norm and
traditions
• Different working styles and
decision making processes
• Cultural differences have big
impact on communication
and cooperation
• Difficulties in local
adaptation, incl. politics,
business practices, social
influences, personal
relationship, etc.
• Different understanding of
“being professional”
• Diverge in management
concept and practice
• May not know that the others
do not know
• May not know how much the
other can understand
• May not know what you can
do to help the other
understand you

Efficient Communication
15
“original
message”
“received
message”
Communication platform
Language barriers
Communication nourishment
Information intransparency
Teams,
through
interaction
and
historical
responses
to
shared

experiences,
create
context-‐speciCic
working
cultures.
Communication

plays
an
important
role
in
coping
with
diversity
on
various
levels.

Communication
has
positive
inCluence
on
management
interaction

effectiveness,
strong
relationships,
and
Cirm
performance

Business Focus
16
Market focus
Align with strategy
Leading position in industry
Management efficiency
Business
focus
includes
IJV’s
service
strategy,
market

strategy
and
itself
core
competence.
Market
strategy

referred
to
the
focus
on
international
market,
or
domestic

market.
And
the
competence
of
the
IJV,
including
human

capital
and
technological
advancement
will
facilitate
the

business
performance

• Involvement, understanding and
support from both counter parts
• Identify key account
• International expansion
• Customer distribution
• Short-term and long-term profitability
• Follow / Lead industrial trends
• Contribution / Input from both counter parts
• Keep cost and productivity balance
• Updated leadership and management skills

Suggested Actions
to Enhance Performance
in TMT in an IJV
17

Chance and Challenge:
Higher Potential Needs a Better Competence in Team Work
Adler, 1997
Current Productivity Potential Productivity Process Loss
An important element here is how the Top Management
Team identify themselves as well as their competence
and sensitivity in dealing with cross-cultural
differences.

Intercultural Team Performance Curve
19
Above averageBelow average Performance average
Monocultural
teams
Intercultural
teams
Intercultural
teams
• Normally intercultural
teams show either a
below or above
average performance.
• This results amongst
other things from the
handling of different
cultures.

Is Cross-Culture Adaptation a Universal Value?
Andere Länder, andere Sitten.
Allá donde fueres,
haz lo que vieres.
À Rome,
fais comme les Romains.
郷に入っては郷に従う.
Lain ladang lain belalang,
lain lubuk lain ikannya.
入乡随俗
20
Tolerance?
Differences Harmonization?
Heightened Sensitivity?

Critical Challenges for Top Management Team in IJV
21
Shareholders Influences & IJV Structure
Organizational
Identification
Business
Focus
Efficient
Communication
Cross-Cultural
Understanding

Proposed Top Management Team’s Development Objectives
22
1. Team Norm. Top Management Team should agreed to speak with one voice to the
outside world, incl. their direct report and employees. Differences and conflict of
interest should be whenever possible only discussed internally.
2.Understanding each other. Development of a better cross-cultural understanding
for both sides (training, coaching, cultural events), also due to the increasing
international businesses.
3.Efficient communication. Better utilization of different communication channels
and tools, e.g. English proficiency, change of the traditional meeting form,
encouraging across “boundaries” informal event.
4.Corporate culture fit. Consistency in the implementation of the corporate culture
(vision, mission, value) where the TMT should play the “role model” and use this
tools whenever possible in the decision making and performance assessment
process.
5.Clear business focus. In agreement with the shareholders, agreed on a clear
business focus.
6.Team Spirit. After some sign of improvement, team building activities can be
considered.

Sample of Possible Process to Solution
23
1. Objective Business Perspective
How to deal with key account customer,
who contributes to xxx revenue, yyy profit
& zzz strategy?
2. Culture Practices Perspective
What could be the cultural differences in
“treating” VIP customer in China and
Germany?
3. Company Perspective
Relate them to the Company mission
statement on customer satisfaction and
supreme reputation !
4. Real Customer Case
Use the agreed guideline which is based
on the three perspectives above to discuss
on the real case.

The People of Republic China – 中华人民共和国

Characteristics of Chinese Counter Part
25
Personal relationship and trust
Pragmatic result driven
Hierarchy power relationship
Select & Assign someone who has:
• professional strong competence
(e.g. with a good track record)
• affinity of Chinese culture
Suggestion for Top One from two
counter parts (e.g. GM):
• Come with clear objective
• The identity should belong to the IJV
but not their mother companies

Collaboration with Chinese:
Differences between Nowadays and 10 Years Ago
26
Limitation of • Language
• Knowledge
• Physical
Chinese:
adapt to the other counter part more
Development of
• Economy
• Knowledge
• Language
Chinese:
start to take the leading role more
10 years in China · 10 years in China · 10 years in China · 10 years in China · 10 years in China

Thank You
Keynote Speech
Cologne, Oct 14 2010
contact us at hora_t@mac.com
visit us at http://sinau.me
follow us at twitter@htjitra

Building High Performance Team in Top Management

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