MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING IN JAPAN, THE U.S., AND HONG KONG

Although there has been a good deal of prior research on differences between Asian (i.e., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea) and American business practices, few studies have dealt with comparisons of approaches to decision making in the various cultures. This paper addresses how levels of openness, conflicting advice, centralized control, and disagreement across different countries may affect decision making. It may be that the “common wisdom” which suggests Japanese decision making exclusively involves cooperation ignores the existence of conflict in Japanese decisions. In fact, Japanese decision makers may be more open, resolve conflict prior to reaching consensus, and exert less centralized control than decision makers in the U.S. and Hong Kong. This could help explain their abilities to make effective business decisions in Japan.