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September 14, 2004
Mastering the Infinite Game: How East Asian Values are Transforming Business Practices
| Title | Mastering the Infinite Game: How East Asian Values are Transforming Business Practices |  |
| Author | Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars | |
| Publisher | Capstone Publishing Ltd, UK | |
| Date | ||
| ISBN | 1 900961 083 | |
| Reviewed by | John Thackara | |
| With its unique insights into the success of East Asian economies, this is a provocative yet strangely reassuring book by two of Europe's most interesting management theorists. For after blowing us out of our comfortable mental boxes the authors reconnect and reframe the facts. With Eastern and Western management cultures illuminated, and the opposites unified, perhaps this time Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars really have squared the circle. The economies of Asia continue to develop at an unprecedented rate, with China now growing faster than any capitalist country ever before. In the West, the tendency is to explain away this development as the result of factors like cheap labour. This book explodes such myths, arguing that Asian growth is actually the result of complex social, cultural and economic factors. The main thesis (adapted from the theory of James P. Carse), is that Western corporations play to win (a finite game), while the Tiger economies play to learn (an infinite game). From East Asia, the authors contend, the West can learn to better form groups, teams and communities in the workplace and in society. | ||
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Posted by Books Editor at September 14, 2004 09:33 PM