Global hr forum2008-watson wyatt-comparison of korean, chinese, japanese leaderships and their directions for the development of future global talents

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Comparison of Korean, Chinese, Japanese Leaderships and their Directions for the Development of Future Global Talents

November 5, 2008Seoul, Korea

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Introduction Session

Hyuna ChoiOffice Practice Leader, Watson Wyatt Worldwide - Seoul, Korea

Copyright © Watson Wyatt Worldwide. All rights reserved

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Leadership Survey Overview

The purpose of the leadership survey is to find out– How employees view their company’s as-is leadership

level compared with to-be level– How strong the relationship is between current leadership

level and employee commitment level– Whether there is any leadership difference among

countries (Korea vs. China vs. Japan)

An international survey was conducted for employees in various companies in those three countries

– Over 3,600 employees from 111 companies– Internet based survey during ’06.Nov ~ ’07.Sep.


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WW’s framework for the leadership survey

Affecting employee commitmentAffecting employee commitment

Leadership Trait

Leadership Skills Logical thinking Communication

Self-confidence Listen to others Consistency &

clearness Social

responsibility Emotional stability

Characters & humility

Individual- Feel for growth- Fruitful- Collaborating

Team- Objective- Operation- Output

Company- Vision- Mgmt.- System & policy


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Findings – Leadership levels by country For as-is leadership skills, China is the top while Korean

employees requires highest expectation

KoreaKorea JapanJapan ChinaChina

Logical thinking


Communication


Self-confidence


3.53 3.513.71

3.493.36

3.69

3.51 3.44

3.81

3.44 3.41

3.65

Listen to others

As-Is To-Be

5 point scale 4.05 4.13

4.03 4.023.55 3.62

3.61 3.63 3.60

3.613.57

3.65


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Findings – Leadership levels by country (Cont’d) For as-is leadership traits, China is the top while Korean

employees requires highest expectation


Consistency/Clearness


Social Responsibility


Stability


3.47 3.49

3.65

3.453.36

3.72

3.47 3.51

3.673.57 3.59

3.90

Characters/Humility

As-Is To-Be

5 point scale

3.883.92

3.51

4.00 3.98

3.35

3.58

3.34 3.46

3.493.60

3.63


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Correlation between leadership and employee commitment

Korean employees show high level of correlation between leadership and employee commitment

Japanese employees do not seem to be affected by leadership level

Among various commitment factors, leadership level affects team related commitment factors most highly

% of commitment factors which has more than 0.3 of correlation with leadership level


81.1%

13.4%49.5%

Correlation Tendency by Country Implication


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Key takeaways

The level of employee expectation regarding leadership was very much different by country. WW sees this differences come from economic maturity, social characteristics and profile of its leaders. Each country has to address its own leadership agenda.

China: Although the survey shows that Chinese employees are highly satisfied with the leadership, it might reflect that the employees are not so critical and have less expectation on leadership style. But the fast developing economy does require the Chinese leadership to be more balanced, more mature and more globally competitive.

Korea: What is important at this stage is not only building a new leadership style, but also changing people’s perception and expectation of leadership.

Japan: It has become difficult for leaders to motivate its employees by bonus, promotion or salary increase. As performance oriented management does not work anymore, Japanese leaders are required to create interesting and meaningful jobs for its employees.

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Korea Session

GS KimManaging Consultant/CEO, Watson Wyatt Worldwide - Seoul, Korea


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How are Korean Leaders Different?

Strong leadership styles are still widespread in Korea Big gap between employees’ expectation and satisfaction

toward their leaders Extremely reliant on leaders in solving issues and especially

shows a big gap in this area Excessive dependency on leaders in managing cultures and

organizations


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Key Implications Economic development aspect: As Korea’s economic development was driven by

strong leaders, crave for powerful leaders has become common Political and historical aspect: Stereotype of leaders are formed by prominent leaders

who contributed in Korea’s growth throughout the history Social aspect: Desire to escape from responsibility and extreme pressure caused by

complicated social phenomenon Discrepancy is eminent overall

Social maturity (Process, competency, democracy)

Time

Intensity

General leadership curve

Dependency/expectation from leaders in Korea

Expectation Gap

Discrepancy in Leadership Expectation


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Programs and activities that help or aggravate leadership development

Development of “no leadership” model Leadership that does not take away the fun (and give back to)

from employees Change in leader-oriented organization management style

Leadership by employees Develop self-managed employee development training

programs Strengthen social atmosphere that promotes a strong sense of

responsibility


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Case Study

MNC A in Korea: Inner Energy, Passion focused- Identify businesses and jobs: Each individual discover business, so that solutions / projects / new services are driven around one’s own passion and interest - Roles of leaders: Minimal managerial job (related to management responsibilities), participate and take roles equally in projects, frequently receive directions and work from employees - Roles of employees: Have a strong sense of responsibility regarding each individual’s performance, highly self-managed and led despite considerable pressure- Focused on having regard for ‘fun’ between leaders and employees

B Company: Process driven and differentiated Responsibilities- Organization management: Managed according to a thoroughly established process, value processes and systems developed by the organization’s competencies, minimize influence of leaders - Differentiation of responsibilities: Clearly acknowledge different roles of leaders and individuals, differentiate areas where leaders and employees each have to focus, important to focus in one’s own area of job

C Daily News Paper: Fun and Responsible Culture- Leadership style of the CEO: Minimal involvement and expression of detailed work, continuous communication, execute employees ideas unconditionally (even if they are not related to the natures of their work) - Employees: Strong sense of responsibility, self-managed, minimal support from leadership, work for fun and not for reward and pay

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China Session

Smilla YuanGeneral Manager, Principle Consultant, Watson Wyatt Worldwide - Shanghai, China


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How are Chinese Leaders Different?

According to the survey, overall satisfactory rate toward leader is high.

– Key strength of Chinese leaders are “Strong sense of responsibility” and “good execution power”.

– Chinese leaders are relatively weak in mainly two areas, one is setting up own career target, control emotion,etc. The other is in subordinates’ motivation and development.

Employees are working with pride of company and feeling to grow up, even they feel their workload is too much.

Satisfactory rate goes up when leader gives the feeling of fairness and stability and leader is strict to him/herself. First and foremost employees’ resistance is very high toward indecent leader.


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Primary Factor Analysis : China

Humanity and dignity as leader

Stable relationship with followers

Fairness

Ability to drive work

First Factor

Second Factor

Third Factor

Fourth Factor


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Key Implications Under the fast-growing environment, China faces shortage of quality talent,

and due to the “Lost-generation” situation, experienced leaders are in big shortage.

Average Age of CEO

Source: UN; National Bureau of Statistics of China & Province Government Statistic data

50 49

37

0

15

30

45

60

USA Europe China

Sources: CEO Succession 2003 “The Perils of Good Governance”, Booz Allen Hamilton and “China Leadership Style Survey”, 2005, Korn Ferry

Age Distribution of Population

“Lost Generation”of the Cultural Revolution


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Key Implications (con’t)

Because of big shortage of leaders, Chinese leaders are relatively younger than other areas, who might be lack of people managing experience, while these leaders are relatively strong in delivering result and execution.

When considering promotion, past performance and hard qualifications are most considered, while there is less attention to their potentials in managing people, including motivating and developing people. This might explain Chinese leaders’ weakness.


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Arising trend shows that companies are looking forward to recruiting experienced leaders, and the leaders themselves care about their leadership style and are keen in developing balanced leadership.

Due to the talent localization, MNCs are more willing to invest in local leadership development by sending their senior leaders to participate external or internal leadership developing program.

State Owned Enterprises generally have traditional leadership standard and promotion criteria but now they also wish to benchmark global leadership standard so as to make the leadership globally competitive. Currently more and more SOEs start to set up new leadership models and leadership development programs.

Private companies leaders are generally strong entrepreneurs, while they are looking forward to developing professional leadership style to address the challenge of growing size of the company and the growing needs of management system standardization.


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Case Study

As the largest mobile operator in the world, China Mobile adopted the Step-by-Step way to develop the leadership of the whole huge group.

Public ListedPublic Listed One CM One CM StrategyStrategy

Key Focus

GlobalizationGlobalization

Market-oriented HR System design and implementation

2000.-2002 2005.-2006

Customer focus Strategy focus

Global Mindset

Leadership model design and implementation

Recruit leaders and talent globally

Leadership Traits

2006.-Now

One CM One CM StrategyStrategy

2002.-2005

Performance oriented

Result oriented

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Japan Session

Shinji KawakamiConsultant, Watson Wyatt Worldwide - Tokyo, Japan


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How are Japanese Leaders Different?

Create a flat organization and promote delegation Have enough competencies and responsibilities on

their job Have high self confidence Give clear instruction to members

So, they look excellent leaders !


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Jobs that leaders create are not exciting Members can not have the feeling to contribute to

the society Members can not feel “I am growing” Weak relationship with members

However,


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Create interesting job which they can enjoy

Be respectable superior

Members’ expectation to leaders


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Key Implications

Decrease in authority of position

Decrease in sense of belonging to organization

Decrease in so call “luck motivation” without “grows motivation”


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Leadership that makes members engage in their job

Introduce HR systems that focus on “internal rewards” rater than “external rewards”


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To make members engage in their job

SignificanceSignificance

Engagement

Vigor Pride

Absorption

Difficultyof Job

Difficultyof JobCompetencyCompetency


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Externalrewards

Equivalent Individual

Ex.Basic Salary

Ex.Short term incentive

Ex.Improvement of work environment

Ex.Support to carrierdevelopment

Total Rewards

Internalrewards


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Case Study

Change in promotion standard in a major pharmaceutical company

Leadership training program in a major advertising agency

Other unique HR systems


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Global hr forum2008-watson wyatt-comparison of korean, chinese, japanese leaderships and their directions for the development of future global talents