Team Management Systems in the Asian Banking System

Nikki Mead and Rod Davies 1996

Team Management Systems in the Asian Banking System

Team Management Systems in Asia

Perhaps more than any other management technique available worldwide, Team Management Systems is truly international. Right from the start, the initial research has involved practising managers from all parts of the world. The initial development sample in 1984 included 10% from Singapore and Malaysia as well as respondents from UK/Europe, the Americas, and Australasia.

This has resulted in a technique which is equally relevant across all cultures and avoids the xenophobia of many other techniques. Countless examples have been documented of trying to implant “American” management philosophy into Asian management cultures, resulting in confusion and not the uncommon financial disaster!

Apart from the representation of Asian managers on initial development groups, the ITMS database now includes over 500 Asian managers who have completed the TMI. Major organisations using the system in the region number over 50 and include Swires, the Hong Kong Bank, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Police Force, the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, Malaysia Airlines, Ipmuda, and Petronas, along with major hotels and government groups. A Japanese translation of the TMI is already validated and available, the Mandarin version is nearing completion of validity tests and final testing and a Malay version in under development.

Every culture in the world has its own priorities and uniqueness. To a large extent, Asian management owes a large debt to traditional Chinese management structures and, to Confucianism. This is not to ignore the other distinct management cultures existing throughout the region, including the unique Malay business culture, the always fascinating mixture of American and Filipino styles evident in Philippine organisations, and the Thai approach to business.

The strength of the Chinese organisation lies in its structured and pragmatic approach to business. The proliferation of successful Chinese family owned businesses in tantamount to this, and this approach, has spread far from China itself, not only to the success story that is Hong Kong which is the jewel of the crown, but also to South East Asia countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

While initially the concept of Team Management would seem foreign to this culture, Asian business, like all other regions in the world is changing to organisational structures and processes which afford the flexibility to cope with the international competitiveness which is central to business now and to the Asia Pacific Century which lies ahead.

No longer are economies insular, with companies competing primarily within their own boundaries but governments worldwide are dismantling protectionist policies and companies are being thrown open to international competition and co-operation. One only has to look for examples at the increasing power of the European Economic Community (EEC), the deregulation of banks in Australia in the 1980’s (and now also in Malaysia and other Asia countries), Dr. Mahathir’s ASEAN trading group proposal and last but not least APEC.

It is no accident that the blue chip and most respected companies in the region are talking more about empowering employees, more flexible organisation structures and team management. The most recent Asian Business survey, while analysing the success of their top 100 Asian companies pointed to just this. Singapore Airlines is just finishing going through a major restructure, reducing the number of formal levels and introducing more employee involvement. The outgoing chairman of the Bangkok Bank has also emphasised team management as the key to growth within the group.

Reliability and Utility of the Team Management Index in Asia

When a psychometric instruments are designed, they are put through a rigorous testing procedure to determine their reliability and validity. Reliability refers to their ability to return the same score if completed on more than one occasion by a respondent. Validity is testing to see whether a test actually measures in practice what is touted to measure. The TMI is no exception to this procedure and has returned results in excess of the commonly accepted standards.

However, a test should be evaluated for each particular group it is used with, and accordingly the reliability of the TMI has been calculated for differing sexes, age groups, occupational groups and countries of administration. The Research Manual and Updates (Davies: 1985, 1983 and 1994) summarise this material in detail, but suffice to say here that the TMI and TWI is just as valid and reliable for use with Asian management groups as Western management groups. Part of this is due to the involvement of the region in early testing and concept formulation. For the psychometrically literate, Table 1 provides the intercorrelations of the 4 major scales, EI, PC, AB and SF with this group of 548 Asian managers when compared to the worldwide sample.

The table indicates that the major scales related in the same way when used in Asia or the rest of the world.

	EI	PC	AB	SF
EI	0.0	-.34 (-.35)	-.14 (-.20)	-0.4 (-.10)
PC	-.34 (-.35)	0.0	.24 (.20)	.13 (.36)
AB	-.14 (-.20)	.24 (.20)	0.0	.22 (.31)
SF	-0.4 (-.10)	.13 (.36)	.22 (.31)	0.0

Cronbach Alpha values also attest to the reliability of the questionnaire when used with Asia groups. The Japanese translation as well, has proved to be reliable for a Japanese group and the Mandarin translation is showing early promise.

As far as utility is concerned, the first author can attest to the great value of using TMS in groups ranging from government training organisations to Petroleum and Trading organisations. The most fruitful discussions focus on how team management concepts and the existing culture of an organisation can be merged to improve functioning without destabilising a successful system. As team management if often a substantial change to some organisations, working together patiently over a 1 or 2 day session results in sound progress towards positive organisational and individual change.

Asian Team Management

A sample of 548 managers who have completed the TMI in Asia was used in this analysis. Respondents had a minimum age of 21 and a maximum age of 59, and 65% of the sample were male. Functional areas of respondents were Personnel/HR/Training/Recruitment (19%), Sales/Marketing/PR (17%), Consultancy (16%), Finance/Accounting (15%), Production/Construction/Control (14%), Corporate Planning and Development (13%), Administration (9%), Design/R&D (6%) and Managing Directors/CEOs (2%).

Over 20% were from the Banking/Finance industries, with other industry sectors well represented being the Public Service, Airlines, Trading, Manufacturing, Automotive and Oil/Petroleum.

Figure 1 and 2 compare the distribution of role preferences between Asian respondents and the rest of the world. The sectors relate to the 8 sectors of the Team Management Wheel and figures and percentages of respondents with that role preference. Rounding errors result in some totals not adding up to 100.

Several interesting differences emerge. Most importantly, note the smaller percentages for the Explorer-Promoter (4% vs 10%) and Creator-Innovator (33% vs 25%) and Thruster-Organisers (29% vs 24%). This would make intuitive sense. People with high structured and analytical scores tend to be Concluder-Producers and Thruster-Organisers. This would seem congruent with the Chinese management style.

The Banking/Finance Industry

Figures 3 and 4 compare Asian respondents in the Banking and Finance industry with the rest of the world. Here the differences are even more obvious. Note that 43% of the Asia sample are Concluder-Producers, which is not surprising for the Banking/Finance industry, but it is still much higher than the worldwide sample foe bankers and financiers (27%). Most importantly, there are far less Creator-Innovators (3%) and Explorer-Promoters (3%) in the Asian Banking/Finance sample than the worldwide sample (8% and 9% respectively).

Points for Discussion

Banks and financial institutions often promote managers internally, and it is quite sensible to suggest that people are attracted to the profession because of a liking and competence for logical and practical work, as well as numerate ability. It is quite logical therefore, that the bias towards the Concluder-Producing, and Thruster-Organising, sections of the wheel should be evident in this profession. However the low numbers of Creator-Innovator and Explorer-Promoter in the Banking/Finance industry seems to be further emphasised by the low numbers in Asia generally.

Deregulation of the financial industry leaves such institutions open to more competition than they have been used to; such competition requires Creator-Innovators and Explorer-Promoters with their creative skills and extrovert temperament and thought could be given to encouraging more balanced teams in these industries.

Conclusion

The TMI is well placed to make a major contribution to organisation development in the Banking and Finance industry in Asia. The flexible rather than prescriptive nature of the technique, the culture free development, as well as demonstrated reliability and utility in Asia provide a sound basis for applied work in the field.