Understanding and Effectively Managing Asian Employees

Abstract

Asian‐American is a quite diversified ethnic group. Each nationality maintain its own culture and identity while most still enjoy a similar central Asian culture. The Asian population is rapidly growing, especially on the West Coast of America where 17 percent (Patel, D.I. 1988) of the total population is composed of Asians. By the year 2000 only 15 percent (Hutchens, S. Jr. 1989) of the additional workers drawn to American corporations will be whites, i.e. most new workers will be from other ethnic groups including Asians. Asian employees present a particular group pattern of behaviour and attitude which results from their cultural backgrounds, e.g. lack of initiative, respect for authority and self‐restraint. They also experience problems in handling the English language and expressions. American management faces the challenge of understanding and effectively managing Asian employees. A competitive edge will be obtained by whoever best understands this new diverse labour force of which the Asian employees are a significant part.

Citation

Hou Larson, H. and Kleiner, B.H. (1992), "Understanding and Effectively Managing Asian Employees", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 18-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb010571