Seminar paper for Management Seminar

Comparison of European and American Management

Michal Šárnik
HR and Organization Management, Strategic Management
Faculty of Management, Comenius University, Bratislava
Contents

Underlying Factors of Differences 3
Differences across Europe 4
Broad comparison of US and European Management 5
1. Managerial discretion 5
2. Pay differences 6
3. Employment management 7
4. Short-term perspective 7
Comparison of German and US Management 8
1. Cultural differences 8
2. Management Conceptions and Practice 9
3. Labor Legislation 9
4. Industrial Relations 10
5. Organization 10

References......................................................................................................... 12





Underlying Factors of Differences

Although the numerous trends in managerial theory and practice take place in international scope, there is number of factors determining the differences in practice in particular regional conditions. These differences are most obvious between European, American and Japanese styles of management (3). Even that there are clear differences between individual European regions, there is a set of common underlying tendencies to observe and thus we speak about European style of management (6). Especially nowadays, in the time of international mergers and acquisitions, it is important to thing of these differences and to be aware of the conflict and repulsion potential these differences bear in them.(2)
The existing differences in human resource management and organization are rooted in cultural, socio-economic and legislative particularities of specific countries (3). More accurately, they are given by differences in national culture, labor legislation, industrial relations and even historical development. In case of culture, we can trace the differences, for example, around four dimension of national culture defined by Hofstede (Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism, Masculinity) (4). Further, political orientation of state administration determines substantially, whether the state sets legal frame for employment relationships or the legal position of trade unions. Such shift happened under Thatcherist government in Great Britain, where during the liberalization of the economy the position of trade unions were substantially reduced. Similarly, in France, the traditionally socialist governments rooted most of the employer duties in the legislative.