The Israeli way of managing. What are the issues of management in Israel today?

Résumé du document

Israel as a formal State is a new country, but its influence as an economically dynamic partner worldwide is undeniable despite the poorness of its natural resources and the war.
At the start, its population was 806 000 in 1948 but it has been estimated in 2003 to be more than 6.5 million people, composed by 81% of Jews, 16.7% of Arabic Muslims, 1.1% Arabic Christians and 1.2% of Druses. Actually, since its creation, a lot of immigrants came to live in Israel and especially in the 90's with a large number of Russians Jews (more than 1 million). Its population is therefore very multicultural.

The economy of Israel has changed incredibly in the past 20 years: even though the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a major issue, Israel managed to become a rich, advanced and technological country, as it was before simply an emerging country in terms of economical development. This change has been possible because the State has a very high qualified population and has concentrated its attention on developing new technologies.
But Israel remains a mix between tradition and modernity and this specificity tends to reflect on the management. The issues are numerous and complex: how does Israel deal with internationalization and globalization? What is the traditional management and what kind of changes does it have to initiate to face this globalization, to promote exports and play a major role on the international scene?
We will first expose below how tradition does influence the Israeli business and then the changes that have been initiated at several degrees for the Israeli business to stay competitive and efficient.
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Extraits

[...] - A Mehrez, A. Reichel and S. Navon, International Journal of Management dec 2000, vol 17, p 448-556. - Susan Schneider et Jean Louis Barsoux, Management interculturel, Pearson education, 2eme éditionl. 4. Firm strategy, structure and rivalry : cultural impact, strong government Demand conditions: small towns, social community 1. [...]

[...] Fig :The determinants of national competitive advantage 1. Factors conditions: the nation's position in factors of production, such as skilled labor or infrastructure, necessary to compete in a given industry Demand Conditions: The nature of home market demand for the industry's product or service Related and supporting industries: The presence or absence in the nation of suppliers industries and other related industries that are internationally competitive Firm strategy, structure and rivalry: The conditions in the nation governing how companies are created, organized, and managed, as well as the nature of domestic rivalry. [...]

[...] But globalization, necessity to export massively (because the home-market was too small) and increasing number of MNC (multinational companies) in Israel introduced a lot of changes. The government has developed a lot of educational programs in Israel on those specific issues (cf creation of the School of Management at Ben Gurion University of the Begev) and initiated also exchange programs and partnerships with American universities. Management issue started to be a deep source of concern even in the higher spheres of power: for instance, in the ending 1980s, the government implemented the “Modular Preceptor Method” (originally from United States) and evaluated it ten years later. [...]

[...] Therefore, the ownership was communal and social (Rosner M. 1991). This last particularity is very important when applied to the members: there are no shares in the kibbutz and members have no claim on kibbutz assets. So the property cannot be divided among them, either during the existence of a kibbutz or after its liquidation. The concept of communal ownership refers only to the usufruct components of the ownerships rights (whereas in the French Civil Law ownership is composed of 3 unalienable components: usus, fructus and abusus –except rare cases such as in succession law-). [...]

[...] Conclusion: Management in Israel knows a renewal by introducing new programs and partnerships especially from the United States. However, the specificity of Israel makes necessary a careful adaptation and behaviours in Israeli companies differ a lot from the traditional models of management: hierarchy and especially authority remain flexible notions, and the religious and moral heritage still represent an important part of business even though time of old Kibbutzim is over. Bibliography: - Mickael Porter, On Competition, HBS 1996 - Menahem Rosner, Future Trends of the Kibbutz- an assessment of recent changes (University of HAIFA) - Donna Rosenthal, Passport Israel : Your pocket Guide to Israeli business, customs and etiquette, 2001,Novato, CA, USA, World Trade Press - Lucy Shakar, Border Crossings: American Interactions with Israelis, Yarmouth, ME, USA, Intercultural Press Inc - Nestle and Unilever move out from comfort zone, Training strategies for Tomorrow, mars april 2000, vol 14 - Amartya Sen, Business Ethics Code arrive in Israel, the Jerusalem Post april 2004. [...]