I feel that CDE lessons
are generally thought-provoking and engaging, especially using the methods of
tutorials and case studies as we have to read up before the lesson and
therefore the class discussions are more fruitful.
In our first lesson, we
analyzed the “Google Way” of management and innovation, where the principles of
innovation and creativity are encouraged through material perks and particularly
opportunities for personal freedom to explore what employees want, in other
words extrinsic and intrinsic motivations.
Google’s famous “20
percent policy” is an example of this. 80 percent of the employees’ time is
dedicated to assigned projects, with the personal research of their own
choosing. The personal undertakings are subjected to a peer review process and
if the project is found promising, it is adopted as an official, company-funded
project.
This makes the company
particularly attractive to young freedom-seeking graduates. Productivity will
also be enhanced as employees are intrinsically motivated to work harder to
free up their own personal time, and underperforming employees will be weeded
out as those that show little progress will not earn their colleagues’ respect.
This policy has led to the creation of new Google products such as Gmail,
Google News and Orkut.
However, the effectiveness
of the Google way has been questioned. Despite the hype, more than 95 percent
of its revenue is still from Google Search advertising. Sometimes the right constraints
can focus creativity where it is most needed and help ensure the highest investment
returns, as shown in the Apple model.
By deliberately going
against the Google mantra of “Don’t be evil”, Apple has thrived. Apple
creates its products the “old-fashioned” way under the notorious micromanager
Steve Jobs. It is true that it is somewhat
similar to the Asian model of a hierarchical, top-down management approach, but
Job’s famous charisma, which kept everyone going tirelessly to earn his
hard-to-win approval, would be hard to replicate.
Google’s management
style which emphasizes openness and outrageousness is contrasted sharply with
that of Apple, which is famed for it almost cult-like secrecy and dictatorial
approach to its employees. Both styles have their own pros and cons. While
Google epitomizes Western values of liberty and freedom, Apple’s authoritarian
management approach may seem to better fit Asian countries, especially China.
For our second case
study, we looked at why Lenovo and other Chinese companies encounter
difficulties when expanding into the international market. Before that, we took
a Cultural Quotient self-assessment to better understand the importance of
cultural intelligence, which is essential not only for our personal
development, but also for our preparation for an increasingly globalized world
market.
With this
understanding, we can see that it is cultural differences, and Lenovo’s lack of
capacity to solve them and its reluctance to accept Western management styles,
that led to its difficulty in expanding beyond the domestic market. When Amelio
was CEO of Lenovo, he encountered friction between Western and Chinese
management styles. He was frustrated by his Chinese colleagues’ reluctance to
speak their minds and their preference to follow others. Lenovo relied on a
US-consulting firm to help integrate the IBM PC acquisition, but neither of
them fully understands the cross-cultural challenges.
For our third case
study, we looked at Confucian ideology and the impact it has on China today. The
principles of Confucian ideology is the idea of harmony of “Datong”, and that
all men are essentially good, and thus the emphasis on individual moral
attainment. It emphasizes a top-down social order and the ruler has full
autonomy to make decisions as long as they are beneficial for the citizens, while
the people must know their place in the social hierarchy.
Looking beyond its
moral significance, we can see that after years of anti-Confucianism, the
Chinese is again embracing Confucian values and morals to restore some sort of
order in such a volatile and hectic society, besides rising nationalist
sentiments.
The Chinese government
also uses Confucianism as a way to control its people in the face of growing
societal problems such as corruption by emphasizing on moral education, while
in fact moral values relies on the individual’s moral capacity and thus
ineffective in solving the problem at its roots. Confucianism is also used as
an international diplomatic strategy to show the international community that
it only seeks to coexist peacefully with the rest of the world while spreading
cultural hegemony.
All in all, the
assessment structure is certainly preferable to the cold, inflexible tests that
only require cramming of knowledge; it involves classroom participation and
reflective journals which not only stimulates critical and active thinking, but
also allows students to develop at their own pace while catching up with the
lessons. The lessons are fun and lively, enriching and humorous, engaging and
broad-based. I think the lesson package was well-planned but perhaps it can be
more detailed with more time devoted to explain each tutorial. Looking forward
to the next CDE lesson!
