Väitöskirjan Mallipohja

SHAIDUL KAZI Managerial Decision-Making Behavior and Impact of Culture Experience from three Countries: India, Bangladesh and Finland ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the Auditorium Pinni B 1100 of the University, Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere, on December 18th, 2009, at 12 o’clock. UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere Department of Management Studies Finland Distribution Tel. +358 3 3551 6055 Bookshop TAJU Fax +358 3 3551 7685 P.O. Box 617 [email protected] 33014 University of Tampere www.uta.fi/taju Finland http://granum.uta.fi Cover design by Juha Siro Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1485 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 920 ISBN 978-951-44-7932-8 (print) ISBN 978-951-44-7933-5 (pdf) ISSN-L 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X ISSN 1455-1616 http://acta.uta.fi Tampereen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print Tampere 2009 I wish to dedicate this work to the memory of: My father Kazi Abdul Jabbar, who dedicated his life to empowering others through education. And My mother Kazi Akhter Banu, who never compromised in anything when bringing up three small boys. Her spirit lives on all of us. 3 4 Acknowledgements In order to complete a task, the individual’s own ability and willingness are root factors. However, the surrounding people and institutions are also needed to help, support and encourage the individual to accomplish the task. The current study Managerial Decision-Making Behavior: Experience from three Countries is an offspring of the PhD dissertation. During the process of this study, I received help, encouragement and support from many people and institutions to whom I have incurred debts of gratitude. I first remember my supervisor, Professor Juha Vartola, from the department of Management Studies, University of Tampere, who took a sincere interest in my work and gave me all the necessary support and encouragement for its completion. I thank my former colleague, Dr. Klaus af Ursin, who read the preliminary version of my work and gave me valuable comments. I am deeply thankful to the reviewers of my work, Professor Akhter Hussain of Dhaka University, and Professor Markku Kiviniemi of Helsinki University, who read my manuscript and gave me valuable comments. Their comments and suggestions have greatly assisted me in improving my work. I want to thank my friends and colleagues at TAMK/University of Applied Sciences for their sincere interest in my PhD work. The current work would not have come to an end without the financial support of TAMK; the person who played a vital role in this cause is TAMK’s R&D director, Dr. Perttu Heino. The library of TAMK helped me by providing necessary books whenever I needed them, either from their existing book stock or through distance loans or purchases of new books. I am thankful to the authority of the Department of Management Studies, University of Tampere for bearing language checking expenses. I thank my colleague, Simo Vesterinen, for translating the English abstract into Finnish. My thank goes to Ann Seppänen and Eija Iso-Junno as well, for their part in checking language and text design respectively. Both of them have been so flexible for my cause. I am grateful to my maternal uncle, Afzal Millat, for his care for me, and for providing me with emotional support whenever I needed it during this work. My 5 thanks also go to my aunt, Kabita Khanom, who once told me when I was a boy of seventeen years old that I might someday pursue a PhD degree. My brother Shahedul, and sister-in-law Nahida, have both helped me by providing their all-out cooperation and support during the process of this work. My other brother Zimmu has also been a source of inspiration and support in my current endeavor. Finally, I want to thank my sons, Kashpian and Tariq, who have been important sources of courage and support which helped me to complete this work. During the writing process of this work, Kashpian and Tariq have both asked me so many times, “Daddy when will your doctoral work be done?” My reply was always “Soon”. I would like to tell them now that “Here it is.” Irjala, November 2009 Shaidul Kazi 6 Foreword Travelling is an interesting thing. It is even more interesting when you travel to foreign lands because it acquaints you with new cultures. Acquaintance with new cultures changes your attitude and thought process or at least adds new ideas to your existing knowledge/interest base. Acquaintance with new cultures may yield positive or negative feelings in you about the cultures, or may encourage you to study the cultures further. As a Bangladeshi, after India, Finland was the second foreign land which I visited. When I arrived in Finland on August 29, 1991, it was not just for a short visit; it was meant as a long-term stay as I had come to pursue my education at the University of Tampere. Because of huge cultural gaps between Bangladesh and Finland, my early days in Finland were full of negative feelings and experiences about Finland and Finnish culture. In order to cope with the negative feeling and experiences, I became interested to study culture in general and Finnish culture in particular, as well as the impact of culture in management. The interest has become even more intense since I began teaching at TAMK/University of Applied Sciences in January, 1999. TAMK/University of Applied Sciences has paved a way for me to meet people from different cultures and teach courses to multicultural groups made up of participants from different continents. My interest to study culture has led me to embark on the current study. After being so many years in Finland and through huge multicultural interactions one thing I have firmly understood is that “one cannot gain anything from a foreign/host/new culture through a hostile attitude to it, but gains are hidden in strong curiosity and efforts to know and study the culture.” Not less important is the desire to cope with it. My strong curiosity and strenuous efforts to know the Finnish culture and a desire to cope with it have made me very comfortable with Finnish culture today. For a foreigner, the Finnish culture and environment are both “very hard” and difficult to get into, but once you do get in, you feel very “soft and comfortable.” Your efforts have to be made on two fronts simultaneously; getting adjusted to the Finnish culture and getting adjusted to the Finnish natural environment. 7 I personally firmly believe that culture is a strong determinant factor that influences human behavior in general and particularly managers’ behavior in making decisions. Consequently, my principal effort in this work has been to analyze and expose the dimensions of those influences from managerial points of view. On the subordinate participation issue which has been the main focus of the current study, wide variability in practice was found in the sample companies in the case countries. I consider this variability to be rooted in the different cultures - at family, national, and organizational level - in the case countries; (“different” in the sense that culture in one country is different from culture in another one). International businesspeople - I suggest that whenever you go to do business in a foreign country, first master the cultural practices of that country. As one Indian manager says: (q1) Indian culture is different from European culture. Whatever decision you want to take it should be made based on local perspective (India, table 3, manager no. 2, date of interview 27.10.2005). I suggest you start from the root or family culture, then focus on the national culture; as the last step turn your attention to organizational culture. In this study, I have tried to expose cultural practices mainly at two levels - national and organizational - of the three case countries and how these practices influence managers in ensuring subordinate participation in decision-making processes. I will consider my effort worthwhile if the study assists you in understanding the general decision-making environment in the case countries, and particularly the decision- making environment in medium-sized companies in the industrial fields of electronics, electrical goods, and textiles. Shaidul Kazi. 8 Abstract In recent decades internationalization has forced more and more companies to expand their business operations across national boundaries. The trend has led firms to face different and unknown cultures. In international business, business success is strongly contingent, among other factors, on how business executives manage a new and unknown culture. Therefore, understanding other cultures and how those cultures influence business activities is indispensable for international operations and making appropriate business decisions. The current study is about managerial decision-making behavior and how the process is influenced by culture. Culture is one factor among many others which is active in shaping and reshaping the ongoing decision-making process and style. As the core issue of analysis, the study analyzes on a comparative basis the participation issue in the managerial decision-making process. The participation issue has been analyzed from the managerial point of view; it examines how managers ensure subordinate participation in the decision-making process. Empirical information on subordinate participation in managerial decision- making has been collected from twelve middle-sized and three large companies in three countries: Finland, India, and Bangladesh. The industrial sectors represented are the textile sector and the electronics and electrical sector. Personal interviews were conducted with forty-six middle- and higher level managers in the companies concerned. Although the interviews were based on an open-ended standardized questionnaire, certain issues were discussed with interviewees beyond the questionnaire.

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