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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[...] societal organizations to the modern forms of business, management in Israel keeps still today its specificity compared to others models. Everyone who plans to do business in Israel has to be prepared to face unordinary situations The competitive advantage of Israel Israel has succeed in being a major partner today by creating competitive advantages that can be summarised into four factors, according to M. Porter (On competition, The competitive advantage of Nations, p 167, ed. Harvard Business Review Press, 1996). [...]
[...] In terms of human resources, organization and French labour law, we are far away from our perception of relationships in business: this would be considered insubordination, lack of precise repartition of tasks, etc Changes and influence of the United States Short economic past, religion, tradition and war have led to a very particular country and way to do business. The immigration and the impulsion of the government in educational programs to enhance the leadership in high technologies have put Israel as a leader in this domain, while religion heritage and community feelings have drawn a way of managing ethical and equal, based on trust, fairness and spontaneity (which also contributes to innovation). [...]
[...] M Richards accompanied his employee in Israel to meet the Israeli team of the firm. The technical director Yossi received them and brought them to a tour of the company, explaining them in English the problems that have arisen for the project. Then they joined the whole team in order to have an informal meeting. The technical director was presenting them the solution adopted for the testing delay but some members of his staff brutally interrupted him, started speaking in Hebrew very loud for five minutes. [...]
[...] This type of organization may explain part of the management and business behaviours today in Israel: this model has participated of the construction of the economic framework of Israel and has some resurgence today in terms of management. For instance, the notion of community and the principle of equality still exists some way in the private sector for Israelis owned companies The Israeli managerial exception . As shortly mentioned above, resurgence of kibbutz form of organization appears in Israeli business: the notion of social community remains presents and strong in business today and the Israelis often work more as a team as individuals. [...]
[...] 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. This program aimed to improve management skills of the senior executives in Israel public services and it concerned so far members of the Knesset, directors generals of ministries, mayors of cities and other senior policy makers and administrators. [...]
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