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International Management - Rodchenko VV

Section 4. PRACTICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT

4.1. US management. The general concept of management

The leading US companies in recent years has spread the concept of "industrial democracy" - form of complicity, which gives employees at all levels of the organization the right to participate in decisions that affect them. There are four types of experiments to attract workers to management: on the shop floor, through the workers' councils, the program of profit sharing, delegation of representatives of the workers in the corporation's board of directors (in the US it is a rare exception). Not the last role is played by socio-technical methods and planning, aiming at the integration of the psychological and social needs of the workers and the introduction of new technology, which was reflected, inter alia, in the spread of semi-autonomous teams, quality control circles (for example, Japanese). To take steps to alleviate the alienation of working people from the property (shares through the distribution system), and from the government (through the introduction of some form of self-government) give scope for the development of creativity and self-awareness of employees, provide tangible economic benefits. But this is accompanied by a shifting of workers performing work along with the most time-consuming and routine functions of managerial labor (control over the quality of production, the state of labor discipline and so on. N.). However, "industrial democracy" promotes egalitarian attitudes among workers who strongly desire to avoid the risk inherent in the company's owners, it is in contradiction with the principle of unity of command in the workplace and the imperatives of commercial efficiency [7; 20; 26].

For some time a serious problem, which posed a threat to the competitiveness of US industry as a whole, was to extract short-term profits. Since the shares of a growing number of US companies found themselves in the investment portfolios of mutual and pension funds, the head of the executive bodies of these companies come under increasing pressure over the increase of return on invested capital. This was the result of competition in attracting investors from investment funds. Therefore, determining the value of steel have no long-term economic results (for example, a 10-year period), and short-term (3-6 months).

This "short-sightedness" was much less of a problem for companies that are in the hands of one or financed mainly through loans and bond issues. They had only to worry about the payment of interest on loans, and not on the level of return on invested capital. Therefore, they felt significantly less pressure to increase current profits and can focus on achieving long-term growth and gaining market share.

A growing number of US business executives came to the conclusion that if the production unit has difficulty, then it is easier to sell or close, than to spend money on recreation. Such considerations have led to a significant de-industrialization and economic restructuring. In many cases, attempts to maximize short-term profits created threat to the company's viability in the long term.

For example, the New York-based manager "American Telephone and Telegraph" hit the top management fast and spectacular increase in the level of revenue and profits. He was soon transferred to a higher position on a national scale. But his successor, faced with a situation that threatens devastating consequences for the telephone network in New York. Subscribers who are out of town, could not get through to their counterparts in New York during a working day, the city was almost impossible to find a working phone booth. The explanation was simple: "to operate successfully" predecessor simply refused all kinds of repairs, but the most important, as well as on investment.

The greatest benefit from a short-term policy of American companies, Japanese companies got funded by their parent banks (at least until the recent economic downturn in Japan, where some companies have faced difficulties in the payment of interest on loans). Over time, some American corporations, especially the three automobile giants and manufacturers of computer chips, decided to ignore the pressure on their assets and shift to expand its market share and long-term policy (and even more decisively than the Japanese).

What caused such a significant progress in the behavior of managers? Undoubtedly, the role played by many factors, but the decisive factor was the interest of American managers in options, to give them the right to buy shares of their company at a discount. Since the effect of options appears only in a few years, then, using similar financial incentives, corporations gradually forced their managers to focus on maximizing corporate performance in the years ahead, and not in the coming months. The best way to ensure the future growth of the value of shares and options in the hands of managers - is to obtain high profits in the 10-year term. At the same time, however, we have to give up a high rate of short-term profit.

Of course, the practice of stock options is not new, but recently there has been a tendency to issue them for a shorter period. Moreover, if the time of treatment options is stretched more than 10 years, there is no guarantee that this or that manager can withstand the constant desire to maximize profit in the current quarter. However, more frequent use of long-term incentives and lengthening maturities of options led to a growing number of managers is changing the timeframe of its orientation. For example, the giant aircraft - Boeing has used futures for their shares to raise interest non-managerial staff in long-term work. It is assumed that it will encourage employees to save on costs and to make proposals that promote the growth of output and productivity.

At present, focus on the use of shares in companies as an incentive is not limited to the hired personnel and managers of companies: Director of many banks do not get paid in cash, and the bank's shares. Using shares as an incentive more than anything else explains the success of the United States in conducting long-term technological innovation. The bulk of the new states created in the country today, managers who develop new products or new manufacturing process and publicly placed shares of their companies. Naturally, a significant number of shares they leave themselves, and this is the source of their wealth.

In the US, recent practice has shown that no single global idea can not be implemented without the appropriate skills of managers. From modern management increasingly requires a global vision of the problems. Strategy, no matter how comprehensive they may be, can not be realized as long as the leaders of the highest levels of the company does not take a fresh look at its responsibilities.

Global vision requires a fundamentally different lines of thought compared to previous approaches (see. Subsection 1.5).

Consider the behavioral aspects of inter-ethnic and multinational managers, determining their ability to operate in several countries. For a manager for a long time working in a foreign country, it is extremely important to know the features of its culture, rules of conduct in the negotiations, as well as the host country's language. These skills are required for international experts, but it is absolutely not enough for a worldwide (global) scale.

To acquire these skills, global manager would have to visit all the countries, and to explore all existing customs and languages. Instead, global thinking presupposes the existence of certain basic skills on the world market, the formation of which depends on the ability to move the business into new territories without direct experience in each of them. Speak the language of the contracting countries, which had previously been a distinctive feature of the head, working on the international market, it is now optional. Enough to know the English language, which has already become a global language of business, and you can successfully work virtually anywhere in the world.

Global strategies include new conceptual elements that were not peculiar to the national, international and multi-national thinking.

To think globally, is not enough to possess a global vision and be able to apply the new strategic concept. It is important that the global management treated available information based on new principles. competition requirements do not allow firms to passively wait for the globalization of markets. Globally-minded manager should be ready for serial partial globalization activity strategies of diverse markets, t. E. To globalization, despite continuing differences.

Traditionally, workers of many international companies acquired management skills in the foreign missions. Such trips often lasted several years, were prerequisites for the further promotion, especially in European companies, and to a lesser extent in the US and Japanese companies. Travel to effectively contribute to the development of skills required to work at an international level, in particular language learning, and international negotiations. But these skills are not sufficient to achieve a global vision. Many experienced in the field of international leaders have not learned to think globally. A significant proportion of the required global thinking elements constitute the cognitive, analytical, factual and conceptual skills. They are easier to master than those relating to behavioral, positional t. E. Inherent nature of identity.

Leading institutions for the training of managers in the United States have a good base to influence the process of global thinking. Training programs allow managers to achieve a sufficient effect for the week, while the traditional business trips abroad last year. It is helpful to develop a global mindset immediately, bypassing the lengthy process of formation of national and multinational management skills.

Now the successful US managers believe that only those firms that provide the first globally-minded professionals themselves, will be able to achieve success and a significant competitive advantage in the coming years.