In Search of Appropriate Methodology: From Outside The People's Republic of China Looking In
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Nigel Campbell** Manchester Business School
Andre Laurent*** INSEAD Abstract. Choosinga methodologydetermineswhat we can study as well as the rangeof possibleresultsand conclusions.This study took an instrumentthat had been developedin the West and used extensivelyin Europeand NorthAmericato investigatemanagerial behaviorin the People'sRepublicof China.For a numberof reasons, it failed to produce a valid and reliable descriptionof Chinese managerial behavior. This paper investigates some of the methodogicalissues involvedin extendingwestern organizational knowledgeto the East. It raisessomefundamentalquestionsabout being "outside,looking in". The People'sRepublicof Chinahas becomea focus of interestfor managers andacademicsalike.Thisstudyattempted to investigatethebehaviorof Chinese * Nancy J. Adler is an Associate Professor of OrganizationalBehavior and CrossCulturalManagementat McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Adler received her MBA and Ph.D. from UCLA. Her researchfocuses on internationalmanagement issues and cross-culturalmanagement issues. She has published numerous articles, produced the film, 'A Portable Life,' on the role of the spouse in overseas moves, and written books on the InternationalDimensions of OrganizationalBehavior (Kent Publishing, 1986) and Womenin Management Worldwide(M.E. Sharpe 1987). ** Dr. Nigel Campbellis Directorof the ChinaResearchUnit and a Lecturerin Strategic Management.He spent twelve years in internationalbusinessbeforejoining the staff of the ManchesterBusiness School in 1980. Dr. Campbell first visited the Asia-Pacific Region in the 1960s and has been a regularvisitor to Chinain the last four years. *** Professor of OrganizationalBehavior at INSEAD, Andre Laurentis a graduate of the Ecole de Psychologues Praticiens de Paris, the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Degreein Sociology andDoctoratein Psychology)andHarvardUniversity(International TeachersProgramme).He was an industrialpsychologistwith Pechineyin West Africa, spent three years with the Institutefor Social Research at the University of Michigan as ResearchAssociate and Study Directorbefore joining INSEAD in 1970.
The authors would like to thank Professor Richard Holton (University of California-Berkeley) for his assistance in Tianjin as Dean of the United States program. We would also like to thank Shirley Zhuang (Universityof Hawaii) for her excellent researchadvice on the People's Republicof China, and Joel Leutch for his researchassistance in analyzing the data. Without their help, there would be no study. Received: March 1988; Revised: April 1988; Accepted: May 1988. 61
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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONALBUSINESS STUDIES, SPRING 1989
managersrelativeto managersin a numberof westerncountries.It failed. In investigatingthatfailure,we beganto learnsomeof the rulesandcaveatsfor locales. models,andmethodsto non-western constructs, western-based extending learn
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