EDITORIAL: Concerns of Local Stakeholders in the Asia Pacific
Special Issue on Strategic Dimensions of Organizational Change and Restructuring in the Asia Pacific:
Issue 2, Concerns of Local Stakeholders
Journal of Organizational Change Management, Volume 11, No. 6, pp. 458-460
Dr. Usha C. V. Haley, Guest Editor/Regional Editor (Asia Pacific)

As I noted in the issue on Strategies for foreign investors, the first part of this double issue exploring Strategic dimensions of organizational change and restructuring in the Asia Pacific, regional changes have realigned coalitions and redistributed benefits and costs among stakeholders. We desperately need theory development on this region to guide future investment and to influence present business operations. This sequel issue on the Asia Pacific deals with local stakeholders' concerns, and their responses to new and diverse pressures, in the rapidly changing region. Western researchers, managers and commentators have been contending for generations that Asians are becoming more like us. While global forces impose homogeneity, significant differences still exist between the Asia Pacific's economies and the USA's. The Asian financial crisis has dramatically accelerated this process of change among local stakeholders. Asia has experienced severe crises in the past, like the oil crisis of 1973-74; yet, these crises constituted external shocks. In contrast, the present crisis seems more of a collapse from within, especially with Japan's long stagnation since 1990. Consequently, the Asian crisis raises fundamental questions about changes in the Asia Pacific and whether new strategies appear necessary. In the wake of the Asian financial crisis, many governmental policy makers and managers regard capitalism's Eastern versions, particularly the variety that Japan developed and that South Korea adopted, as creating problems rather than providing solutions. While many aspects of East Asia's community ethos will remain, Asian officials and scholars suggest that the region's economies may emerge from the financial crisis looking more like the US economy. As Lee Hong-koo, a member of the South Korean National Assembly and a former prime minister, said, "The model is now clear. It's not Japan. It's the West. The current crisis has convinced almost all people that that the old style doesn't work. We will adjust ourselves rapidly to the new requirements, which means we will fashion ourselves more like the West, like the U.S. and European model" (New York Times, January 17, 1998). Some trends seem to be affecting local stakeholders and portend major changes for business operations in the Asia Pacific: Governments may control economies less than before. The Korean Finance Ministry no longer chooses borrowers for banks; and the Japanese Finance Ministry has lost its capacity to determine banks' and securities houses' fates. Consequently, despite official Japanese assurances that no big bank would fail, some did. Governments may control economies less than before. The Korean Finance Ministry no longer chooses borrowers for banks; and the Japanese Finance Ministry has lost its capacity to determine banks' and securities houses' fates. Consequently, despite official Japanese assurances that no big bank would fail, some did. Labor markets may display more flexibility, and unemployment rates will rise. Lifetime employment and rigid seniority systems will assume less importance and layoffs will increase. South Korea's unemployment rate may quadruple in 1998 to over 10 percent. Similarly, Singapore, for the first time in nearly two decades, is experiencing significant unemployment and layoffs. Generally, relationships may assume less importance. A more open system may replace the traditional system of linked companies, called keiretsu in Japan and chaebol in South Korea, that conduct business with each other on loyalty rather than price. For the first time, business groups in both countries are allowing affiliates to collapse; similarly, Hong Kong's home-grown champion of relationship finance, Peregrine Securities, collapsed in early 1998. Globalization, and global, rather than national, logic and imperatives are changing the manners in which companies work and perceive their environments, managers interact with stakeholders, and governmental policies affect local citizens. Companies may focus more on making money and less on building market share. Local governments and foreign investors are demanding that Japanese banks and South Korean chaebol disclose more accurate and useful financial information. Everyone is paying more attention to credit-worthiness. The articles in the second part of this Asia Pacific special issue explore the effects of these trends and the changes they are generating and eliciting from local employees, companies and countries in the Asia Pacific. We received so many articles in response to our call for papers that we have an acceptance rate of less than five percent for these Asia Pacific issues. The six articles in this issue focus on the Asia Pacific's major markets and organizations: the articles discuss the effects of some of the large-scale changes in the Asia Pacific on local stakeholders, propose implications for successful and effective organizational restructuring in the Asia Pacific and thereby have implications for further research on the region. The authors in this issue trace the unheralded and paradoxical effects on local workers of fast-changing global environments in restructured economies (such as Nike's exploitation of Vietnamese women workers; and the Singaporean government's deliberate crafting of a culture that will respond to MNCs' needs). The authors also elaborate on local companies' symbolic and substantive responses to competitive pressures (such as the Hong Kong company that imitates Western business practices for symbolic reassurances to local stakeholders; and the Japanese companies that are restructuring and reevaluating traditional work practices in response to new information technologies). Finally, the authors sketch restructuring efforts by governmental organizations in response to deregulation and global efficiency requirements (such as TasElec in Australia and the Internal Revenue Authority in Singapore). I take great pleasure in introducing this special issue on Strategic dimensions of organizational change and restructuring in the Asia Pacific: Issue 2, Concerns of local stakeholders.

Usha C. V. Haley, Guest Editor/Regional Editor (Asia Pacific)
Associate Professor, School of Management
New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA, &
Research Associate, Managing Business in Asia Program
The Australian National University, Australia
E-mail: alamo@compuserve.com

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