Hong Kong and Japan: Commerce, Culture and Contention
This article analyses the nature of contemporary Hong Kong–Japan relations in their economic, political and cultural dimensions, setting the relationship within the broader context of Sino-Japanese relations, concerns about identity and nationalism within Hong Kong, and changing Japanese commercial priorities. While the commercial and popular cultural ties between Japan and Hong Kong remain dominant, since the mid-1990s political issues have become more visible in Hong Kong–Japan relations. Changing moods within Hong Kong about the handover and, after 1997, about the nature of the redefined relationship with China have had an important influence on the political economy of Hong Kong–Japan relations.
Outsourcing : Culture / Cohesion ’ s Impact on Vendor Performance
Our investigation examines the increasingly important relational success dimension at the micro level of the outsourced employee. We study the impact of client and vendor organizational culture and group cohesion on the performance of vendor employees working in collocated IT teams. Surveys were distributed to IT vendor employees, focusing on employees of offshore IT service providers. The respondents were employed by vendor companies and worked at client locations. We found that vendor organizational culture has a significant and positive impact on vendor employee performance located at client sites while client organizational culture does not. We also found, that group cohesion at the client site positively impacts vendor employee performance, while group cohesion at the vendor company does not. This research contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the differential impact of multiple cultural and team influences on the quality of work of collocated vendor employees. Keywords—Organizational Culture, Group Cohesion, Vendor Performance, Outsourcing/ Offshoring
China eyes Japan
What influence does the history of Japanese aggression in China have on Chinese images of and policies toward Japan today? Is Chinese acrimony and assertiveness toward Japan in the latter 1980s the product of calculated bargaining pressure or compulsive emotional nationalism? And what are the prospects for Sino-Japanese relations: increased political alignment or continued instability and friction? These are among the questions Allen Whiting, a leading scholar of Chinese foreign relations, addresses in this book. Working largely from interviews and from an examination of the Chinese media, Whiting finds that Chinese policy toward Japan embodies an uneasy tension between hostile imagery and pragmatic interest, manifest in increasing tension during the years 1982-1987. He challenges the commonplace assumptions that post-Mao Chinese foreign policy is pragmatically determined by economic and strategic calculations. Instead, Whiting argues that Sino-Japanese relations are vulnerable to Chinese images based on bitter memories of Japanese aggression combined with misperceptions of Japanese politics and society as well as provocative remarks by Japanese officials. These images are transmitted to younger generations by Chinese mass media with little challenge from more informed governmental and academic specialists. He concludes that, although there is an increased sophistication in the Chinese understanding of the United States and the Soviet Union, this is not yet evident in the case of Japan.