Case Analysis Sony Corp

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International organisations frequently give their staff abroad assignments. The question is, how effectively do these managers perform? The answer to this can determined from their previous work experiences and culture and the values and culture of society where they grew up. An example of this can be seen in the Wall Street Journal article “Culture Clash Crimps Sony CEO; Stringer Must Rely on Subtlety as He Attempts to Effect Turnaround”. Sony Corp. appointed a new CEO Howard stringer from America to help turnaround the company starting in Japan; however, Mr. Stringer has only a small amount of experience in electronics himself and an immense group of engineers, technologies and products that he has to learn. This situation has left him greatly dependent on his Japanese managers for their capability and skills. For the most of Mr. Stringer's first three months as CEO he spent trying to figure out how to work with his new Japanese management team, in particular the president of Sony Ryoji Chubachi, a Sony engineer, in which Mr. Stringer described as "a thoughtful, careful representative of the Japanese approach.” As Mr Stringer is from America he is used to a western approach to management not a Japanese, which has proven to be a difficult challenge for him to overcome. There a six dimensions in which management styles can be determined, these are; Supervisory Style, Decision Making, Communication Pattern, Control Mechanism, Interdepartmental Relations and Paternalistic Orientation (Schein, 1981). Management styles and the perceptions of different managerial dimensions vary considerably; Japanese managers tend to adopt an open, face-to-face communication, which decreases barriers to information flow and Interdepartmental communication is highly encouraged (Nimgade, 1989). Paternalistic orientation is high as managers present concern for their employees’

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