Exploring plural perspectives in Mongolian management: why managers have many roles

Sara Manalsuren

Paper forResearch Seminar Series CCCU Business School

6th January 2016, Canterbury Christ Church University

 Classic, yet not fully answered questions in management studies:  • What managers do?• What managers ‘really’ do? • How do we understand managerial work?

Theoretical debates

RATIONALE

Western/Classic Theories Non-Western / Exotic Theories ‘Classic Four Roles ‘ (Fayol, 1916/30)‘Nature of managerial work’ (Mintzberg , 1973)Convergence-Divergence-Crossvergence (Ralston, 1997)

Indigenous Management Theories • Guanxi (Tsui, 1996) • Blat (Ledeneva, 1998) • Dharma (Gopinath, 1998)• Ubuntu (Jackson, 2013)

 Research Questions • How is management understood? (Mental image) • How is management practised? (Reality) • What influences practitioners’ understanding and practising the

management?

In order to understand managerial practices in context of Mongolia.

Keywords Indigenous management, managerial role, ethnography, Mongolia

THIS RESEARCH EXPLORES

Nomadic Country (before 1921)

13th century, Mongol Empire

Shamanism and Buddhism

Monarchy

CONTEXT OF THE STUDY: MONGOLIA Socialist Country (1921-1991)

Central Government control

Great Purge (1937-39)

Population increase

Free Market Economy (1992-present)

Parliamentary constitutional Republic

GDP growth 17% in 2011

Mineral deposit of 30 trillion USD for 3 million people

Potential to become the next Qatar by 2050

Western Approaches

What managers do?

Nature of managerial work (Mintzberg, 1973/2010)

What influences managerial work?

‘Three levels of culture’ (Schein, 1985/2010)

VoC Institutional Theories

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Exotic Approach: Indigenous management concept

Questions the suitability of using western managerial practices in non-western countries in the 1990s (Marsden, 1991).

Key influences:

Local culture (Tsui, 2004) Local environment (Jackson, 2013)

THEORETICAL GAPS IN IMC

Culturea. Liquidity of Cultureb. Historical, social and economic changes

Management What is notion

of management in IMC? (over- reliance in Western

concepts

Indigenous

management

Concept

PROBLEMATISING INDIGENOUS MANAGEMENT

Inside What is notion of management? “Nature of managerialwork” (Mintzberg, 1973; 2010)

Outside a. Are thingschanging?b. What are

changing?c. What are not

changing/slowly changing?

“Convergence-Divergence-Crossvergence” C-D-C Framework (Ralston et, al. 1997; 2007)

What is Mongolian

Management?

METHODOLOGY Trafford and Lesham’s (2012: 95) “Levels of thinking about research” model to demonstrate chosen methods

Auditing progress

Paradigms: Interpretive

Research Approaches: Inductive

Methodology: Ethnography

Methods: Qualitative interviews Shadowing Visual materials

WHO are Local Managers?

WHAT they do? • How do they manage their daily job, duties, rituals, and other

roles?

WHY they do certain manifestations? • Cultural Influences • Social Influences

HOW MANAGEMENT UNDERSTOOD IN MONGOLIA

Mongolian Non – Mongolian Older /‘Socialist’ managers Younger / ‘Post-socialist’

managers Foreign / expat managers

PARTICIPANTS' PROFILEMongolian managers Managers (20)

Gender Male (17) Female (3)

Public /Private Sector Public (5) Private (15)

Work experience at management level Average 8 years

Member of political party (ies) 14 out of 20

Outside work activities 18 out of 20

Educated in Mongolia/ abroad Locally (5) Abroad (15)

Participated at management trainings Attended (8)

PARTICIPANTS' PROFILENon-Mongolian managers Managers (15)

Gender Male (8) Female (7)

Public /Private Sector Public (1) Private (14)

Work experience at management level in Mongolia Average 3 years

Worked other Asian countries Yes (8) No (7)

Outside work activities (voluntary, charities etc) Yes (4) No (11)

Number of members in their team Average 10

UNDERSTANDING OF AN EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT

Differences People vs Profit

Hierarchies and Networks

Controlling vs Empowering

Planning vs Experimenting

Privacy vs Transparency

Similarities Adaptability

Training need

Finding the right people

WHAT MANAGERS REALLY DO?

• Internal Balancing

• External balancing

• Learning by doing • Creating employees • Care for others

• Controller• Giving pressure

and fear• Parenting

• Building trust • To get things done • Representing

Networking Leading

Balancing Creating

WHY: INFLUENCES IN MANAGING IN MONGOLIA

Culture Nomadis

m

Socialism

Capitalism

Society Workforc

e

Education

Technology

NOMADISM: VISTA METAPHOR Artefacts in the offices that represents the interrelationship between landscape and humans: My mountain

SOCIALISM: EGALITARIANISM• Respect to

Socialist heroes, who brought today

• Carry on Socialist values and legacy

• Co-workers’ culture

CAPITALISM: NEW CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Workforce• Younger workforce, who have overseas experiences• Repatriates, 100K+• Working with expatriate managers from more than 35 countries Education• 101 universities, (16 public, 80 private and 5 foreign branches)• 178, 295 graduates, including 38,105 business and management grads • Curriculum and faculty still 50%+ Soviet style Technology • Networking• Customer Perception • Demand to improve skills

SOCIAL INFLUENCES

Model shaped by deep-rooted nomadic values, socialist and capitalist economic ideologies, all co-existing in contemporary Mongolian management practices.

MONGOLIAN MANAGEMENT

Nomadism-Divergent

Socialism-Converged

Capitalism-Converged

Mongolian Managemen

t-Cross-verged

CONCLUSION: MANAGEMENT PRACTICE IS CONTEXT-DEPENDANT

Management

Practices

Economic

context

Cultural context

Social context

Political

context

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS ARE WELCOME

Sara Manalsuren

smanal@essex.ac.uk

6th January 2016.

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