There is a lot of difference between the East and the West when it comes to leadership and authority. In the West, leadership often tends to be task-focused and straightforward. East Asian managers, however, tend to focus more on determining who is awarded a role or task. In the East, the personal relationship often determines who gets to do what. In the traditional East Asian culture, the boss is all-powerful and the organizational hierarchy is a critical element of managing an organization or business. As a boss, you are expected to know all the answers and be the source of clear direction. In the East, people expect the boss to instruct and lead at all times, and staff will wait for that instruction and thus be heavily dependent on the boss. This means that people lower down the organization tend to take less initiative and ownership. This is a behavior that might be viewed by some Western managers as avoiding responsibility. Titles are also very important. First names are not appropriate and people use formal titles to address the boss, thus formality and respect must be observed. As many people might already know, managing conflict in public or at open meetings is largely avoided in the East. In East Asia, losing face is a major taboo. It is viewed as something quite shameful. Addressing difficult problems at an open meeting that results in someone being criticized is a big mistake. That is not to say that East Asian managers do not have conflicts with each other. Rather they will deal with any conflicts in private and in a confidential manner. At open meetings, East Asian managers are likely to be indirect and reserved. They will handle differences in a soft and circuitous way. In the West you tend to be quite happy to address problems at an open forum. It is often viewed as a positive experience. Conflict is often dealt with in an open and direct way, that is, where problems occur, they are frequently dealt with head on.