Managing Organizational Change for BMW in the Emerging Chinese Market

Front Cover
GRIN Verlag, 2007 - Business & Economics - 28 pages
Scientific Study from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, Hawai'i Pacific University (HPU), course: MBA class, 23 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Change is often not welcomed, because it is more comfortable to do things the way we've always done them and change is often perceived as a threat. But change has always been a reality of life and is even more so today. The challenge for leaders is the transformation of their organization at this time of fast change. In this context, the research paper will analyze how the German car manufacturer BMW can apply organizational change and development theories to ensure highest quality and increase its market share in the emerging Chinese market. China's explosive growth, which has turned its car market into the fastest-growing in the world, has attracted foreign automakers in hordes (Welch, 2004). Over the past decade, nearly every major car company has entered the Chinese market and so did BMW. The German car manufacturer invested in the local market and formally opened its first production facility in Shenyang. BMW entered a 50-50 joint venture with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd in 2003 and opened a 450-million plant, which will produce both BMW 3-series and 5-series models. BMW, which sells its three brands BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, is thus the only carmaker in the premium segment that produces locally in China (Welch, 2004).
 

Contents

Introduction
3
Literature Relevant 5 Summary 9 Methodology
9
Relationship of Findings to Research Question 15 Conclusion and Recommendation
15
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 8 - Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose. Everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. Collectivism as its opposite pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive ingroups, which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty, (p.
Page 8 - Power distance can ... be defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Page 8 - Uncertainty avoidance can therefore be defined as the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. This feeling is, among other things, expressed through nervous stress and in a need for predictability: a need for written and unwritten rules
Page 6 - Buyers compete with the industry by forcing down prices, bargaining for higher quality or more services, and playing competitors against each other — all at the expense of industry profitability."13 Important determinants of the buyer power, explained by Porter, are the following.
Page 7 - Port (1993, p. 36) define virtual organizations as "a temporary network of companies that come together quickly to exploit fast-changing opportunities. In a virtual corporation, companies can share costs, skills, and access to global markets, with each partner contributing what it is best at.
Page 8 - Organizational culture is shaped not only by technologies and markets, but by the cultural preferences of leaders and employees (Trompenaars, 1998).
Page 14 - In weak uncertainty avoidance cultures, like the USA and even more in the UK and, for example, Sweden, managers and nonmanagers alike feel definitely uncomfortable with systems of rigid rules, especially if it is evident that many of these are never followed. In strong uncertainty avoidance cultures, like most of the Latin world, people feel equally uncomfortable without the structure of a system of rules, even if many of these are impractical and impracticable. At either pole of the uncertainty...
Page 13 - Local managers can adopt more authoritative management attitudes in the subsidiaries even if their international bosses behave in a more participative fashion.
Page 3 - Purpose of Study The purpose of this study is to examine the current situation regarding the Chinese market and potential issues for BMW.
Page 20 - D. (2004). Driven — Inside BMW, the Most Admired Car Company in the World.

Bibliographic information