This study explores the creation of the control system in a hi-tech corporation that seeks to be modern and efficient, to see how managers create a new managerial system by combining Western theories with the Chinese context. All social action is constituted by a multiplicity of discourses and meanings. Understanding this action requires knowledge of the ways in which people in specific circumstances connect these discourses and negotiate their complex meanings. Here the concept of organizational culture is seen as a process rather than a stable structure or system. This case study views corporate management as a complex and uneven historical process that entails heterogeneous cultural practices shaped by diverse meanings, sentiments, and representations. In the study I find the managerial practice is presented and constructed through the manipulation, interpretation, and discourse of socio-cultural meanings. Thus it concludes that the managerial practice in the hi-tech company actually involves the integration of a constructed cultural tradition with an idealized managerial modernity. / This study explores the socio-cultural meanings behind the managerial behavior of the hi-tech corporation and how it is presented and practiced in people's daily-life. As a kind of social phenomenon, managerial control and management's attempt to seek the commitment of employees towards the organizations is universal, but in daily practice, it takes on different forms and content due to the different cultural context. This study can help better understand how China's socio-cultural traditions influence the managerial practice and the cultural discourse in contemporary Chinese corporations. / This thesis is an ethnographic study of the organizational behavior and managerial culture in China's Silicon Valley, Zhongguancun Hi-Tech Park, located in northwestern Beijing. It focuses on one corporation to explore how a scientific, effective and standardized managerial system is being created, interpreted and practiced. The study is based upon nearly one year of fieldwork in two corporations that manufacture mobile communication equipment. / 田宏亮. / Adviser: Joseph Rosco. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-09, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-231). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Tian Hongliang.

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of appreciative inquiry (AI) on the development of organisational culture after a merger. The empirical study was con-ducted among the employees of a telecommunications company in South Africa. AI was conducted after a merger of teams within a department of the organisation to assist in the development of a new and combined team culture. Interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) was used to determine the impact of AI on the new culture. The sample size for the study was 35 for the AI session and 20 for the IQA. A qualitative approach was adopted in this study in order to understand and explore the experiences of individuals who had recently been a part of the change process. The research design was based on IQA, a structured approach which constructs a systematic representation of the experience. It was found that AI allowed the teams to gain a new understanding of and insight into what it meant to work together as a unit. A significant difference was noted in the IQA facilitation that was performed six months after the AI session. This re-search therefore confirmed that the AI had a significant positive impact on the culture of the organisation under investigation. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This project presents the cultural significance of establishing and maintaining business relationships with Chinese counterparts. It includes sample training modules to provide intercultural training for all firms engaged in business with China.