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This article explores trust in the managerial context of integrity, performance and benevolence in contemporary Asian societies. Empirical evidence is drawn from three small Asian societies where reform and transitions characterise the current socio‐economic scene. As these countries attempt their recovery process from the severe economic downturn of mid 1997, managers of work organisations are calling on unique Asian ways of responding to global imperatives. Trust may be considered as a unique feature in these countries and it may be considered to be a central element defining the managerial frameworks. Indeed, the study findings allow us to suggest that trust is perceived strongly by the managers in these countries to be not only as the key critical assumptions but also it defined internal and external relationships.

Outlines the impact of economic reform in India at the organisational level by exploring relationships between the societal priorities of the new reform context and espoused work goal priorities of very senior Indian managers in key economic sectors. The paper attempts to capture the shift in work goals of senior managers during the period of current reform. Empirical evidence gathered through a survey of 421 senior Indian managers sponsored by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, forms the basis of this paper. The empirical analysis points to an increasing convergence in reform values amongst senior managers, on the one hand, while demonstrating an absence of wider social vision, on the other.

This study reports the changing perceptions of work goals in a transitional society. Mongolia embraced market ideology in the decade of the 1990s after 70 years as a centrally planned economic system. This study of 208 managers points to interesting directions for many similar countries in central Asia undertaking deliberate and wide‐ranging changes. This paper departs from the traditional research approach in terms of its context specificity and in the recognition that no study of this nature has been previously undertaken.

Explores relationships between relevant work setting variables in a Hong Kong organization. The study examined a set of Western assumptions in terms of structural properties of centralization and formalization and the view that they will be negatively associated with workplace responses of motivation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, while an enriched job content will be positively related to employee responses. There was empirical support for most of the connections of this framework, but formalization was observed to have positive relationships with employee perceptions and affections. In addition, there was evidence that the responses of the incumbents were influenced by the assessed demographic characteristics. These results provide further evidence that organizational members pay moderate attention to demographic attributes, yet this factor has not been a prominent component of contemporary job design research. The findings are reported in terms of the need to consider both demographic and sociocultural effects when explaining responses of individual employees.

In an increasingly competitive global environment, impacted by a myriad of social, economic and technological forces, managerial roles have, over the past two decades, undergone dramatic transformation. Indeed, managers around the world are struggling to redefine their roles and responsibilities against a backdrop of the classic ten roles of managers espoused by Mintzberg in the 1970s, which were based on research in the US context. Yet these traditional roles are still widely taught in universities and training programs, and particularly all over Asia with the spread of Western business education literature. The relevance of the Mintzberg formulation in the Asian context was the aim of this four country study. The study reports the importance and degree of use of the ten Mintzberg managerial roles in the contemporary Asian context. The findings suggest although the roles overlap considerably, they are acted out in a very different manner. Implications for the findings in an international market arena are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the linkages between strategic interaction and relationship value, with a variety of co-creating value strategies as conceptual mediators.

This study reports on a field survey conducted in the Chinese manufacturing industry. A total of 180 questionnaires were sent to customers of service providers, and 120 valid responses were received, representing a response rate of 66.7 per cent. The data were then analyzed by using a number of statistical tools.

The results suggest that strategic interaction leads to a positive effect on the relationship value without any regard to the size of the customer. However, the mediating effect of product-based service is more significant for large-size customers, whereas the mediating effect of integrated managerial service is more significant for medium- and small-size customers.

This study explores how value might be created in a business-to-business context in a service supply chain from a relationship marketing perspective. It distinguishes product-based service and integrated managerial service as co-creating value strategies and further clarifies the different mechanisms underlying their relationships with strategic interaction between service supplier and customer. In particular, this study suggests that although strategic interaction may yield superior relationship value, the size of the customers will determine what kind of co-creating strategies would be preferred.

Process flexibility (PF) is seen as a hedging instrument against demand uncertainty. This paper aims to examine capacity decisions for both flexible and dedicated processes under production policies such as make-to-order and make-to-stock. The study identifies some relative benefits, in terms of expected profit, of the process flexible plant over the dedicated ones. Furthermore, the advantage appears to be contingent upon the decision on the preset service level.

Using the sample-based optimization procedure, a detailed computational analysis is undertaken to identify the conditions under which a flexible plant is preferred over a dedicated plant. A combination of genetic algorithm and sample-based optimization procedure is used to capture the effects of preset service level. The factors controlled in this paper include the demand variance, demand correlation, capacity investment cost and the product price.

According to this study, in a dedicated process changing to a flexible process is not justified for the same level of demand correlation even with high demand variance. In fact, a strict control on the preset service level prefers the dedicated strategy. The advantage of a flexible plant increases as the demand correlation decreases, product price decreases, price asymmetry increases or capacity investment cost increases. With a preset service level constraint, a flexible process should be preferred to a dedicated one only when the capacity investment cost is high or the products have low contribution margins.

The PF index is introduced in this paper to measure the benefit of a flexible plant over a group of dedicated plants. The benefits were found to be contingent upon the decision on the required service level.

The purpose of this paper is to present a broad historical review of critical wisdom literature of ancient Indian tradition and examine how these precepts can complement and enrich the contemporary managerial frames.

The paper attempts to critically review remarkably deep religious and secular traditions of India and integrate them in a conceptual model.

The paper findings point towards the need for a holistic frame in overcoming fragmented viewpoints of contemporary management by strengthening the reflective domains of the managerial world.

The limitation of the paper lies in its didactic nature and the specificity of the contextual boundary limiting its ready transferability.

The paper provides a pointer in extending horizons of business or non‐business organizations in opening up their possibilities for achieving holistic managerial perspectives by combining economic, social and other higher order sustainable goals.

The paper's contribution is in its integrative value of some of the key themes of Indian wisdom literature and demonstrating their relevance to the modern management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of learning, trust, and innovation in the auto‐component industry in China. The paper traces the shifting parameters of achieving global competitiveness.

Research was conducted with 82 auto‐component manufacturing companies from the Yangtze River Delta region of China. Empirical studies relating to the level of trust in supply and level of learning orientation were conducted based on a conceptual model and a four‐part hypothesis.

The key findings of the research strengthens the argument that the auto‐component manufacturing sector has been noticeably moving away from the old “contract” and “catalogue” mindset to a mindset of “collaborative innovation.”

The paper has a significant practical implication not only for the auto‐component sector, but also for other industries where collaboration and trust are critical.

The authors have developed a number of implications from the findings of this research. It is becoming increasingly important to build a trusting network with designers and manufacturers in order to add value to dramatically shifting industry features.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strength of organisational strategy, technology intensity and entrepreneurial orientation as predictors of managerial global mindset intensity in the Indian and Chinese service industry.

A pluralist research design that captured quantitative and qualitative data from 239 Indian and 210 Chinese indigenous managers was evaluated to test the hypothesised relationships of a conceptual model that was developed from the contemporary relevant literature.

The results of the investigation demonstrate that technological intensity and entrepreneurial orientation were significant determinants of managerial global mindset intensity. Qualitative information that revealed technological intensity and entrepreneurial orientation were dominant drivers from developing and nurturing managerial global mindset intensity.

In spite of both study countries having large populations, the evaluated sample sizes were of reasonable magnitude. The evidence of indicators that strongly reform the domain of global managerial mindsets has considerable application for corporations operating in the international marketplace.

The rising dominance of the service sector as well as the changing economic, political and social landscape are compelling organisations to more fully understand the dynamics of the dramatic shifts in managerial thinking.