The Thai Cultural and Management Style

Abstract

This report is written in order to study the management style of Thai

manager in organization of Thailand. Regarding the management style, a Thai
administrative often focus on the harmony and unity of goal in the organization.
In addition, the management techniques, consisting of team works and Career
Planning are of their main concern. Finally, Thai executives wish to enhance their
firms’ image and employees’ morale through conducting the ethical and socially
responsible activities. The major tactic deployed to stimulate employees’ ethical
behaviors and mindset is Code of Ethics development.

Background

This study is written in order to study the management style of Thai

manager in organization of Thailand, Thai cultural organization and the Thai
management style. The study has given the definition of culture and cultural
organization and also use some theory for apply the content of study such as
Hofstede’s study.

This report is searched about the influence of Thai organizational culture

on the management and also intends to understand the style and the
characteristic of administrative.This study already analyzed about the efficiency
of the management and organization.

Keywords: culture, organizational culture, management, managerial style,

Thailand.

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Introduction

The term of culture has been defined in variety of meaning.

Anthropologists Geert Hofstede claims that culture from psychological
perspective, and he defined that “ the collective programming of the mind which
distinguishes the member of one category of people from another”. Culture is
“software of mind”. It is an interesting definition. The second meaning of culture,
according to the Oxford Dictionary, it describes that culture is “the art and other
manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively”. The
human intellectual can refer to such as art, music, food, etc. although the
definition of culture has a large concept but culture is belonged to be human
being because culture can distinguishes between human being and animal
because culture sometimes comes from the human manifestation. In my opinion,
people have own culture, such as Thai culture, Chinese culture and American
culture so cultures must be shared by some type of social group and society.

The pervasiveness and importance of values in organizational culture are

basically limited to the psychological process of identity formation in which
individuals present to search a social identity that provides meaning and
connection (O’ Reilly III et al. 1991).

The organization culture maybe generally described as a set of norms,

belief, principle and ways of behaving that give each organization a distinctive
character. Like a national cultures, sometime organizational cultures form and
transform over time, an organization need to respond to the environment
characteristic such as the competitive environment and customer requirement,
with the wider community value held by employees and also the value and
behavior of organization founder and leaders.

The world of competition, administrators is immersed to improve their

organization to competitivewith any other organization in domestic competitor
and international competitor. Therefore the administrators need to bring the
new technologies, new strategies and new idea of cultural management for adapt
and change their own organization’s vision, organization’s structure and the
process of working through evaluation a worker’s performance and the result of
working. These things are called the changeswithin the organization. The
changes in organization maybe accepted by people in the organization and
meanwhile maybe bring the bad result to the organization. Therefore the
administration should realize the cultural in organization and able to apply
something new to the organization to conform the culture of organization.

Leadership Thai Style

The Thai style leadership is powerful in the Thai public sector. Thailand is
one of the countries in Asian of which the majority of Thai is respect the
Buddhism. In my opinion, Buddhism has a deep roots in Thai society. Harmony
and peace are among key aspects in Thai life. A study on Hofstede (1984)
identifies four dimensions for which national cultures differ: Power Distance,
Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism vs. Collectivism,Masculinity vs. Femininity.

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 According to Hofstede's theory, Thailand was ranked the highly for all
four dimensions. Followed from “fundamentals of intercultural communication”
book. Thais are collectivists and leadership that moves toward the direction of
group rather than the individual is effective in Thailand. In terms of goal
orientation and leadership, Thais may prefer to look at planning as a short-term
organisational strategy.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension

Hofstede (1980) has identified four dimensions of work-related value in

differences countries. These dimensions are named 1) powerdistance,
2)uncertainty avoidance, 3)individualism vs. collectivism, 4) masculinity vs.
femininity and 5) Long-term vs. Short-termorientation.

1)Power Distancerefers to the extent to which social group accepts the fact
power in institution and organizations is distributed unequally among
individual.

In some countries like The United States and Australia, the distance is
small or low. The employees have more participate during planning and
decision-making in the organization. The low power distance indicates that
people in organization seem to be equal.

Big or high power distance means a big difference between the employees
and the managers or leaders. With a high power distance both the leaders and
employees have an opinion that they are unequal. Therefore they have the
hierarchy system such as family, relationship. People in organization have a few
the decision-makers. It is east to say that the power is a centralize, the decision
only is from the leaders and managers. Therefore the employees are often
waiting for the leaders to give orders.
In Thailand, this dimension deal with the fact that power distance is big or
high. Therefore, the Thai society is not equal. This high power distance
influences the behavior of directors, managers, and employee.

2) Uncertainty Avoidancewhen uncertainty avoidance high or strong, we can

feel that the organization has a lot of rule, so we may have as little uncertainty.
The employees work in the same company in many years. The leaders in
organization work with the daily activity. Especially, a small company always be
like that.

In a society with strong uncertainty avoidance, time is money. There is a

strong inner urge to work hard such as Thailand, Japan and Korea. These
countries are strong uncertainty avoidance.

When uncertainty avoidance is low or weak, People are more relaxed,

easy-going, quiet and do not show emotion. In addition, time is free, working
hard in not virtual. People are less stress and anxiety. Leaders in a high position
work with the strategies question. The decision-making process is important in
the organization. They are not always in many small organizations.

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3) Individualism vs. Collectivism

The degree to which individuals are supposed to look after themselves or

remain integrated into groups, and families. They usually emphasize on “I” and
“we”. The collectivism indicates that a tight social framework in which people
distinguish between in a group and out-group.

Even though the same country, like China, and Thailand but many
organizations have a different culture.In my opinion, Thailand is a characterized
as a collectivism culture. This means that Thai organization always emphasize is
on group orientation and teamwork. This collectivism is also supported by the
patronage system, which enables the formation of strong strategic alliances and
coalitions. The aspect of life in Thailand is from deciding which people to hire or
which administrator should be promoted to a position of higher status. And in
the same time, the employee and leader must make a good relationship because
in collectivistic societies, the companies prefer to hire people who belong to their
family. Relations between the employees or citizens are more important than the
work task. There is no real spare time; the work and the spare time become
blurred.

In collectivism societies the individuals want to have practice, good

physical conditions and possibilities to use their proficiencies. Practice is to drill
and also to be better and learn new things. They want to have good light and
other physical conditions when they work. They want to use all their
proficiencies in the work. These three things have to do with the
interdependence for the employees to the organization and the leader.
Everything is focused on doing the best for the collective and to reach
concordance. Management means lead groups. Often the company belongs to
families

The individualistic culture, people prefer focus on individual interests and

the identity is built on the own individual. In the individualism cultures, the
companies don’t want to have employees from the same family in their
organization. The work tasks are more important than relationships. In the
individualistic organization, the individuals appreciate spare time, freedom and
challenge. They want to carry out the work in their own way. The work should, at
the same time, be a challenge so the employees feel that they create something.
These three things show that the individual is independent of the organization
and to the leader.

4) Masculinity vs. Femininity

Hefstede has divided into the two parts, he describe the social role of men
and women in the society. It refers to distribution of emotional role between the
genders.

Masculinity means the society tend towards assertiveness, acquisition of

things and away from concern for people, and the quality of life. Meanwhile,
femininity indicates that caring attention to people’s feelings and need. In a
society with femininity, quality of life is a high priority. Work in order to live but
a society with masculinity, money is important.

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 In the masculine culture the people live to work. The employees
often prefer money more than spare time. The society expects men to have a
career. The choice of career depends on the possibility to succeed. A leader in the
masculine culture often wants to have a strong hierarchy, where he/she as the
boss is alone on the top. In an organization with a masculine leader, things like
performance, money and material success, are important. It is often big
organizations.

In the feminine culture, people work to live. The spare time is more
important than to earn more money. Both men and women must have a career; it
depends on their own will. It is the interest that decides the choice of work. It is
often small organizations. For feminine leaders it is important with relations to
the workmates and teamwork. With a feminine leader, people in organization
want to be on the same level or equal. In the feminine culture, a leader wants to
be in the middle as a coordinator. They prefer smaller organizations. It’s
important with a dialogue with the workmates or teammates.

The organization with the feminine culture, people prefer welfare rather
than things. A feminine leader can see equal opportunity, solidarity, care of
humans and relations as keywords. Many women have a high position in the
organizations. Both men and women can be responsibility-taking, determined,
ambitious, soft and take care of people in the feminine society. In the religion,
they interpret God as friendly. The feminine culture results in less poverty and
more welfare.

5) Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation

Long-term versus short-term orientation refers to the extent to which a

culture programs its members to accept delayed gratification of their material,
social, and emotional needs. Thailand is a middle level of this dimension. It is not
as much as for most Asian countries.

In the working life, these things like learning, honesty, self-discipline and
responsibility, are important. Spare time it is not that important. The leader and
the employees have the same goals. They often invest in long-term personal
networks. To live together with relatives who are married into the family is
normal. The mothers take care of their children.

Societies with this thinking have values that requite greetings, favours
and gifts, respect the traditions, “protect the face” and personality stability. Effort
shall give quick results. The essence is the sale profit for the year. Freedom,
rights, accomplishments and to think by themselves are important thing in the
working life. Spare time is important. There is a social pressure on the people to
spend money. The leader and the employees don’t always have the same goals.
To live together with relatives who are married into the family is a source of
problem. The children often go to kindergarten, where other people than the
mother take care of them.

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The Conclusion of Hofstede’s Culture Dimension

There are several studies thatexplore about Thai culture by focusing on

Hofstede‟s Cultural Dimensions. Prpic and Kanjanapanyakom (2005) find that
Thai culture has a high Power Distance and is Collectivist and Feminist in the
Thai cultural context. They describe Thai concepts such as kreng jai (not wishing
to impose on others), namjai (showing concern for others) and jaiyen (being
kind) as being examples of this. These concepts accord with Siengthai and
Vadhanasindhu (1991) who find that Thai subordinates always follow Thai
cultural norms such as kreng jai, bunkhun and nam-jai in the workplace (also
called reciprocity of goodness, thoughtfulness, generosity). Therefore, the
managers have to recognise these norms in order to create good relationships
with their subordinates. This concept is known as namjai, which means “water of
the heart”, and it can be representative of the Thai people (Prpic &
Kanjanapanyakom 2005).

Background of Thai Culture

When foreign workers enter into Thailand, they would come across cross
cultural challenges issues in many different situationsor some culture shock.
However they are able to obtain a new culture by across aboard. Some culture
has become excitingto learn something new in theirlife, such as meetings,
greeting, perception of time and so on. In Thai organization culture,
Thaissometime may not be familiar to work with foreign workers so some Thai
workers or employees hasto spend long time to know the foreign workers.About
in this case, they should focus on the Thai culture, and attempt to aid and
produce further of explanation to foreign workers wishing to come to Thailand
in order for them to be able to better adapt to the Thai working environment.

In my opinions, culture is a very important factor for managers to think

about the management because if they have to work in some other nation or
region, the managers should know how to adapt the working style. For example,
if Thai managers are working in the USA, so they have to learn a lot about USA
culture before starting a job. Pornpitakpan (1999) researched how the culture
affected business relationships among Thais, Japanese and Americans. The
results suggest that Thai and Japanese people belong to collectivist cultures
which focus on fitting in with others, social harmony, interpersonal sensitivity,
and conformity. Americans belong to an Individualistic culture, which focuses on
independence, and a lack of concern for other people.

Thailand is a high-context and collectivism culture so Thais often avoid

about the conflict with others, they would like to show and pretend a respect,
Thais effectively are able to their control emotion, modest and politeness and
know the appropriate pronoun to greet other. For example if I meet the leader
who are older than me, I will say “khun are… or thun” (叔叔先生。。。or 先生).

On the other hand, Thai employees who disagree with others just keep
quiet. Niratpattanasai (2000) suggests that they do not like to make a quick

6
decision, and they do not like to talk with co-workers in the meeting room. Many
expatriates find that Thai people frequently seem to agree in the meeting room.
Thai people always nod in agreement, but it does not mean that they are
agreeing. They merely nod because they are polite and want to be friends with
others.

The Management Style of Thai Executive

Thai society has very strict rules. It defines everyone’s position in a rigid
hierarchical structure and this extends into the corporate world. Many
businesses or departments are run like families, with the leader leads the
subordinate everything to work with so the subordinate have to follow what
leader order to.

The Thai management of often gives the highest importance are harmony
in business and in the same organization because they prefer to avoiding
commotion and conflict in the same organization. This phenomenon is also
connected to the organization culture of giving direction, setting goal and course
of operation so that everyone follows the pate laid down by top management.

In many Thai organizations, managerswould like to participate with

employees because they can collect some information from subordinates and
then keeping improve their own management skill or develop their own
organization. Moreover, the managers or leaders can practice in the autocratic
decision-making. In Thailand, there will be only top-down decision-making
process, especially the original Thai owned company. The staff is not familiar
with empowerment style of the management. They are happy to work with the
organization’s environments. About in Thailand the lifetime employees are not
often mentioned in Thai business style. It depends on the inter-personal
relationships between the same management and employees especially in family
businesses.

Meanwhile, Managers need to have strength, flexibility, and agility in

order to ensure the continued survival of the organization. The type of business
leadership should be appropriate to group personalities and needs. Management
systems should be selected that are appropriate for subordinates, groups of
business leaders, situations and types of leadership personality in order to
increase efficiency and respond to the need for achievement in working
performance.

The relationships between managers and subordinates are also

important. The main characteristics of Thai people are always smiling while
communicating with their subordinates in both positive and negative situations.
The characteristics of Thai executives can confuse Western people. For example,
most of Thai people smile in any situation, even though they aredisagree or
anger, but they are always softly spoken with people. They are very polite and
very quiet, which it does not mean they are satisfied. Sometime the
characteristics of Thai people are hard to understand for Westerners unless they

7
know the people for a long time. There are two tactics that Thai managers use
with their subordinates. According to Noypayak and Speece (1998) Thai
managers focus on both soft and hard tactics and use these tactics to control
theirsubordinates. The hard tactics tend to involve using power and position to
get subordinates to achieve organizational goals. Soft tactics include ingratiation,
rationality, inspirational appeals and consultation.

1. The Tradition Thailand Corporate Culture

1.1) The Central of Work : Thai people are relaxed and easy to work. They are
late in starting their work and return home very early or on time. Sometime
Thais are accepted to be late for meeting but no more than five minutes because
many people cannot avoid the traffic jam. When Thais are going to be late for
meeting, they have to let someone else know in advance.

1.2) Paternalism in Superior – Subordinate Relationship: In firms, the

subordinates respond by showing the proper respect and obedience to the
leader. Some firms the leaders have respond in such the subordinate’s family.
However, the leaders would pay attention to their subordinates in the firms. Thai
managers hold considerable power and they also feel that they carry a greater
degree of responsibility for the personal lives.

1.3)The Decision - Making Process and Personal Accountability: Manager

cares to admit, and make the decision in the company.

1.4) Emphasize on Employee:Again, Thai culture’s strong power distance.

“Employees are expected to be told what to do”(Hofstede, 1991) If organization
is implemented using which a high degree of employee participation, the Thai
culture may create barriers tothe success of the implementation. Not only
mightemployees feel uncomfortable being asked toparticipate, they may not
even know how. In addition, the Organization’s implementation may not
workbecause it is essential to have employee participationfor it to work, and
Thai culture creates barriers toletting that happen.

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Summary

Management styles of Thai executives nowadays have the highest focus in

human skills, followed by conceptual skills. The roles considered to be important
to focus on comprise negotiator role and next in the list are the role of providing
direction to the overall operation and the role of pioneering and adventurous
entrepreneurs. The basic principles being attached with the highest importance
are harmony and unity of direction which will drive the corporate towards the
desired course efficiently besides focus is also made on appropriate
remuneration and equity.

In general, Thai executives have more positive attitudes than negative

attitudes towards their subordinates. They are of the opinion that their staff are
responsible and can work independently and have high determination to
complete the work. As for as human resource management is concerned the
tactics being focused most include team works, career planning respectively. On
the front of ethics and social responsibility, the aim is made on getting feedback
of good public image and morale-boost to subordinates. The tactics most
commonly used as impetus for instilling ethics and social responsibility in the
staff include ethical codes and training in ethics for all staff members.

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