Abstract
The responses of 365 managers from 34 Singaporean subsidiaries of multinational companies are used to profile the stereotypes these individuals hold of each other. The managers' replies to 18 semantic differential items show greater agreement on each other's managerial performance and style between expatriate and local managers in British corporations than in Japanese corporations. The results from American corporations are between these two.
Stereotyping has been shown to be a very common phenomenon in international relationships (Davidson and Thomson, 1980). Despite some recognition of the importance of stereotyping in international business situations (Hays, 1972), very little empirical work has been conducted into the general process of stereotyping in multinational corporations (viz. Stening and Everett, 1980; Whitehead and King, 1973). Even less research has been conducted on the stereotypes held by expatriate and local personnel in multinational corporations of their own group (auto-stereotypes) and of other groups (hetero-stereotypes).
This study examines the auto-stereotypes and hetero-stereotypes held by expatriate and local managers in Singaporean subsidiaries of British, Japanese and American corporations. It is apparent from the comparative management literature that there are differences in attitudes and behaviour among managers from these countries (Haire, Ghiselli, and Porter, 1966; Ronen and Kraut, 1977). There is insufficient basis, however, for anticipating variations among them in terms of their auto-stereotypes and their hetero-stereotypes. This exploratory study presents evidence on the nature of those variations.
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The authors are members of the Department of Management, The University of Western Australia.
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Stening, B.W., Everett, J.E. & Longton, P.A. Managerial stereotypes in Singaporean subsidiaries of multinational corporations. Asia Pacific J Manage 1, 56–64 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01734311
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01734311