An early view of my review of Pattana Kitiarsa’s Monks, Mediums, and Amulets: Thai Popular Buddhism Today has been published. It will appear in the Special Supplementary Issue of the SIU Journal of Management (Vol.3, No.S1, April, 2013).
Read the full review here.
A Report on the International Conference on Management Cases (ICMC) 2012
Professor G.D. Sardana
The International Conference on Management Cases (ICMC), an annual feature, jointly organized by Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida, India, and the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Arlington, USA, has become established as a unique conference in many ways. Not aiming at numbers, the ICMC has rather restricted itself to select not more than 70-75 papers and thereby provide authors with sufficient time for
presentation and discussion. The cases are from live situations, unpublished, original and deal with conflicts or issues confronted by practitioners in contemporary business and management. The conference does not permit participation in absentia. The accepted cases are published in full text as books by an international publisher, with the publication released formally at the time of the inaugural function of the conference.
Read the full report here.
This is an early view of a book review to be included in the SIU Journal of Management, Vol.3, No.1 (June, 2013) issue.
Industrialization with a Weak State: Thailand’s Development in Historical Perspective
Somboon Siriprachai, edited by Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker
NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press: Singapore and Kyoto, 2012. ISBN: 9-789971-696511.
183 + XII pages
Reviewed by John Walsh, Editor, SIU Journal of Management, School of Management, Shinawatra University, Thailand.
One experience that unites all those who study any part of Southeast Asia is the realization that dawns, sooner or later, that such a large proportion of the available knowledge and information is produced by people from outside the region, one way or another. That is why it is considered so important to celebrate the work of local scholars who are able not just to add important perspectives to internationally produced knowledge but who are also able to communicate it effectively to society at large. This is the case with the late Somboon Siriprachai (1956-2008), whose work on economics is captured in this book, which has been published as a collaboration between the National University of Singapore and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University. A preface by Kaoru Sugihara intimates that there were some editorial difficulties along the way, which explains the delay in publication.
At the heart of this book are seven chapters, each dealing with a different but related aspect of industrial development in Thailand over recent decades. Four of these chapters are based on papers included in scholarly books, two others on papers that first appeared in Warasan Setthasat Thammasat (Thammasat Economic Journal), with which the author was associated for a period as Assistant Editor and the last is based on two unpublished papers. The result is a book containing a reasonably coherent body of work, although it would of course have been more thoroughly developed if the author had had the opportunity to oversee it personally.
Siriprachai was clearly devoted to the interests of the common Thai people and his writings have the impression that they could be used at the community level to help people understand why, if Thailand’s economy had been growing so strongly and apparently impressively for several decades, they themselves remained so poor. As a result, he makes repeated efforts to link theory with real-life conditions. He explains economic development in terms of an East Asian industrialization model that incorporate rent-seeking and corruption that, in turn, contributed to growing income inequalities. Additional elements in his analysis include rural-urban migration and declining fertility rates. The authorial style is discursive in nature combined with a relatively small amount of macroeconomic-level data. This would appear to be suitable to a style of pedagogy in which a respected teacher explains the way the world works to receptive students. Insofar as the reader is spared the complex mathematical models of contemporary microeconomics, this is perhaps a good thing. On the other hand, those who have alternative understandings of which factors are important and how they interact with each other can only be persuaded by assertion rather than empirical evidence. This is perhaps one of those epistemological issues that pop up so frequently in the area of management sciences, in which so many different fields of inquiry, economics included, have at one time or another been integrated.
An example of the mode of thinking is presented in the chapter on ‘Development Economics, Rent Seeking, and the East Asian Miracle,’ on p.119: “The East Asian NIEs [newly industrialized economies] initially adopted import-substitution policy because it suited their factor endowments of limited natural resources but abundant cheap labour. However, once the policy had run its course, and once the quality of the labour force had begun to rise, policy makers in the East Asian NIEs were able to make the switch to outward orientation. By contrast, Latin American and sub-Saharan African countries persisted with import-substitution long after efficiency had begun to decline, because the strategy still benefited powerful entrenched goods.” It is, of course, all too easy to pick on a passage, wrench it from its context and then criticize it for not being something it was not trying to be. Nevertheless, this still seems to be a little too sweeping in its conclusions: were all the East Asian NIEs following this path? Singapore, after all, is rather different from Korea and Hong Kong has quite different international relations than Taiwan. Were there no continuing entrenched interests in these countries who could affect policy formation and, if so, what had happened to them all? As previously mentioned, it is perhaps unfair to make these criticisms because the chapters of the book were written for a specific kind of audience.
Overall, the direction of Siriprachai’s thinking is sound and his desire to locate Thailand’s economic development within the specific historical conditions of the country is very welcome. The book will appeal to readers interested in a leading Thai professor’s understanding of the processes active in changing his own country and what those processes mean. In light of the generous tributes accorded to him as a person, then the book would also act as a fitting tribute to a scholar and a teacher.
Early view articles for Volume 2, Number 2 (December, 2012) of the SIU Journal of Management are now available online (http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th/).
The Vol.2, No.2 (December, 2012) issue of the SIU Journal of Management is in the process of being published. I am making some early view articles available here and they will also appear on the official website once some technical problems are resolved. Until the final versions are published, please treat these versions as uncorrected proofs – pagination will be added later.
Research Article
Techniques for Brand Image Dimensionality and the Use of Various Tools to Investigate and Improve Brand Personality – Makarand Upadhyaya and Vinita Mohindra Here
Commentary
Women Entrepreneurs in the Mekong Region – John Walsh Here
Book Reviews
Facing the Torturer: Inside the Mind of a War Criminal by François Bizot – John Walsh Here
Democracy under Stress: Civil-Military Relations in South and Southeast Asia by Paul Chambers and Aurel Croissant, eds. – John Walsh Here
Capital Accumulation and Women’s Labour in Asian Economies by Peter Custers – John Walsh Here
Extra
Call for Papers, About Shinawatra University and Editorial Advisory Board Here
The additional articles will be added in due course; estimated time of arrival for the definitive version of the new issue is December 31st, 2012.
(Download formatted version here)
SIU JM Research Note: The Minimum Wage in Thailand
Nearly every country now has a minimum wage rate and some of those who do not are thinking about introducing one: Malaysia, for example, is discussing the necessary legislation and proper rate that will best suit the economy.
The level of a minimum wage in a country is generally decided by a tripartite body – that is, it is composed of representatives of the government, employers and employees (represented by a labour union body if this is permitted). Since employers usually vote against any increase in the minimum wage rate and employees usually vote for it, the decision usually comes down to the government. Either the government will decide based on what is best for the country or industry concerned or else it will decide based on whether it is influenced more by the employers or the workers.
Although the impact of imposing a minimum wage on an economy is generally positive, especially for people who would otherwise be receiving wages which do not provide a decent, livable level of income, the impacts on different groups of workers will vary. In some cases, there may be job losses and in other cases the workers will benefit not just from wage increases but also because employers, realizing that their employees are more expensive to maintain, will invest more in training and new equipment to ensure that they get more value from those workers.
It is difficult to compare the impact of minimum wages from one country to another because there are so many differences between the countries and their economies. Important differences include the relative proportion of formal and informal workers, the number and skills of migrant workers and the degree to which the labour force is segmented – that is, the ability of workers to move from one industry to another. Another important difference is the extent to which workers are permitted to organize themselves, to have freedom of association and freedom of speech so that they can be represented effectively in public discourse and in the tripartite decision-making body: in Thailand, these rights are restricted.
The minimum wage increase in Thailand to 300 baht in seven provinces, with the promise to roll the increases out across the whole country, represents an increase of more than 40% – which is much higher than the inflation rate. It is, at least in part, a political increase. The purpose is to help Thailand break out of the Middle Income Trap – the inability to achieve any more economic growth under the current model. It is intended that employers will respond to the increase in wages by investing more in their employees, which is part of what will be required to help Thailand move to the next step of economic development.
John Walsh, Editor, SIU Journal of Management, Shinawatra University, August 2012
The full version of Vol.2, No.1 (June, 2012) of the SIU Journal of Management has now been published. It is available here.
Chang, Ha-Joon, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism, SIU Journal of Management, Vol.2, No.1 (June, 2012), pp.116-9, available at: http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th/files/SIU%20JM%202-1%20-%20Chang.pdf.
Myint-U, Thant, Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, SIU Journal of Management, Vol.2, No.1 (June, 2012), pp.112-5, available at: http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th/files/SIU%20JM%202-1%20-%20Thant.pdf.
John Walsh, “The Opening of Myanmar and Dawei Industrial Estate,” SIU Journal of Management, Vol.2, No.1 (June, 2012), pp.105-1110.
Abstract:
The Dawei Industrial Estate is set to be the largest in Southeast Asia and it is intended to become the means by which Myanmar will become a modern nation, one which sweeps away the legacy of the colonial past and carries the people to a new, better and more modern world. What is the meaning of this?
Keywords: Alienation, Burma, Dawei, Industrial Estate, Myanmar
John Walsh is Assistant Professor at the School of Management, Shinawatra International University and Editor of the SIU Journal of Management
Read the full paper here.
Mahmoud Moussa, “Cross-Cultural Competency Dilemmas: Thai Automotive Companies,” SIU Journal of Management, Vol.2, No.1 (June, 2012), pp.75-100.
Abstract:
Today, those in managerial positions have become increasingly aware of the importance that cross-cultural understanding plays in enabling their staff, wherever located, to work positively. Such knowledge will become increasingly important as a result of increasing globalization. Competency is a problematic notion encompassing attitudes, values and knowledge affecting job performance. The possible lack of intercultural competency may be a possible hurdle for multicultural organizations in Thailand, in particular those with aspirations to become global in the future. The purpose of this study is to identify the competencies required by those involved in services of an intercultural nature. Obstacles need to be identified and addressed according to the differing cultures in such companies. Interviews were conducted with nine participants in top management from four international automotive companies in Eastern Thailand. The data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Several issues were highlighted, including the need to orientate foreigners about Thai culture; the varying range of differences in working styles, apropos to their cultures; the barriers experienced by competing cultures; the perception of success in an intercultural environment and, finally, how diversity can strengthen team building.
Keywords: Culture, Intercultural Research, Thailand, Work
Author: Mahmoud Moussa is a faculty member at the International Business Management Program in Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Read the full paper here.
