Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians – Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Executive Leadership

Beautifully written and packed with essential information on career development for Asians and Asian-Americans, this book is a must read! As a Caucasian with an adopted Asian daughter, whom I adopted when she was 11, I found it eye opening to learn about culturally influenced behaviors that show up in the workplace and in life.. I sent the book to my daughter and her husband, who is Korean-American, as both of them would find it an essential read for their own career development. Leaders, in all fields, could learn a lot about their Asian and Asian-American colleagues and employees, hence, increasing understanding and productivity! Joan Rodman Smoller, Ph.D. former NYU Professor

Jane Hyun articulated the cultural barriers and misperceptions that have kept Asian American professionals from moving up the leadership ladder in the corridors of corporate power. The tools and the exercises will be helpful for the readers to gain some self-awareness of how our behaviors and our values are perceived as either competent or incompetent for increasing responsibility in the corporate world. I personally resonate with many of the examples and case scenarios Hyun described in the book. Ironically, my husband who is a Caucasian American said his parents had always expected him and his brother to pursue one of the professional degrees as doctor, lawyer, and engineer. I told him, "Your parents are more Chinese than mine!" Yes, in every people group and every culture there are exceptions, but Jane Hyun's findings are well grounded in her research and her executive experience as VP Human Resources at JP Morgan.

Loved this book written by an Asian for Asians and nonAsians alike!. A must read for anyone in Corporate America!

It is to Jane Hyun's credit to discuss issues of Asian American professionals on a very practical level. There are however, some caveats for the reader. The book needs to be contextualized within a larger conceptual framework. The overarching issues are ignored within her practical framework, namely: Who needs to change? Who needs to accommodate whom? How much? What are the risks and benefits? Her book appears to be saying that corporate America needs to understand Asians, but it does not need to change. Rather it is the Asian professional that needs to change and adapt. Is the book too heavily assimilationist? It is not clear as Hyun does make a distinction early in her book between assimilation ("adopting ...at the expense of one's own cultural characteristics") and acculturation ("adapting ...while continuing to maintain values, perspectives, and features of one's native culture"). There appears to be little adaptation of any Asian models or perspective to the mainstream USA corporate culture -- page 279 suggests two ways: "Develop cultural competency" and "Make use of your bicultural and bilingual abilities." While recognizing the dominance of USA/Western research and models in the business world, it is also logical and no "one model fits all." Perhaps future research and practices can provide indigenous Asian models or perspectives that can be adapted and work effectively in coporate America or other cultures. The Special Issue on China & India (Business Week, August 22/29, 2005) points out how some USA business models are not applicable. It is not an either/or proposition. By utilizing the juxtaposition of the Asian behavior/values system versus the Western behavior/values system to present her central thesis, Hyun creates a false dichotomy in the mind of the reader. Current business literature is filled with exhortations of "win/win," "both/and," "alignment," and "interdependence" -- all very Asian concepts. These traditional Asian cultural values are at the very heart of what contemporary corporate America is trying to effect in order to add value. So there is a "baby with the bath water" caveat here to the reader. The accommodation needs to be reciprocal, not unilateral. In her Epilogue, Hyun encourages the reader to "Develop an Action Plan That Works with Your Persona." It seems throughout her book that the emphasis is on asking the reader to tailor his or her persona to that which is required for success in corporate America, not on utilizing the behavioral strengths and cognitive positions with which someone who comes with a strong Asian cultural background is imbued. Being Asian -- it seems to Hyun -- puts one in a deficit position. The reader needs to be cautious in the self-assessment, individual profiles, exercises and tools cited. They yield helpful descriptive self-awareness profiles and information, not diagnostic or predictive profiles, and they are dependent on situational factors. There are many suggestions, based perhaps on many years of experience, but empirical data demonstrating their reliability, validity or efficacy are not mentioned. Kudos to Hyun for encouraging the seeking of regular and frequent performance feedback. This is a career self-monitoring technique that is utilized far too little by all employees to help document and strengthen requests for job and salary advancement. In spite of the conceptual conundrums, this highly practical book is a must read. Adrian Chan (Kochman Mavrelis Associates, Oak Park, IL) & Barry Mar (Management & Resources Associates, Seattle, WA)

Jane Hyun helps Asian professionals -and equally important - colleagues and managers who work with them - understand the cultural challenges that are faced in the American corporate work world by those with different cultural backgrounds. A very timely and important topic and practical hands-on book. Understanding the cultural background of a major part of the US workforce will help create more hospitable and productive workplaces.

i found it to be repetitive at some points but the repetition didn't develop into more

I definitely recommend this book for any Asian children of traditional tiger parents, whose parent's views were limited to performance based approval, encouragement by criticism and comparison, nothing but studying matters, so that you can be a engineer, accountant, or doctor. A lot of subconscious traits/thinking bred in that I didn't realize until much later in life. But then again Asian culture does not encourage introspection nor questioning of values. Of course there are strengths, but the weaknesses are greatly damaging in America. This book helps you recognize which of your asianisms work in America and which don't, highly recommended.

The book is well packaged. Not prime but got it fast. Thanks. About book; I'm sure this book is readable as well as Sandra's other books.

I purchased this book a number of years ago, but I still to go back to it. As a Euro-background Canadian I am always inquisitive about how colleagues from different backgrounds are managing in our social and business environments. This book gave me helpful insights regarding values and behaviours of Asian friends and colleagues, as well as the real challenges they face. I particularly appreciate all the interviews and anecdotes given as examples from real lived experience. The book is very readable. Jane Hyun has a lot of experience doing diversity work in the corporate sector and her insights in this area are very appropo. Even though the book was written 20 years ago, the struggle of aligning corporate values regarding diverse perspectives has to move beyond words (vision statements) and "training" to positive reinforcement and accountability measures. Stated values have to be reflected throughout organizational leadership. This is still a struggle in our present context.

Never thought of the cultural influences that affected how I showed up as a leader.

An eye opener for Asians and for the world!. The ideas and tips are good for people from South east asia and Chinese background. May not be fully applicable to Indians but still worth a read.

Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling was groundbreaking for me when I started my career in the early 2000s, as I was trying to make sense of advice that didn't seem to be tailored for a third culture Asian kid. The book helped me navigate stereotypes, gave me pragmatic advice where none existed for parents that hadn't worked in a white collar environment, and the case studies helped me envision alternative pathways beyond the typical accountant/engineer/doctor/lawyer career. I recently picked it up again and found so much wisdom in it. I would love if the author could update the content to reflect some of the newer visibility of Asian personalities in society and also navigating anti-Asian sentiment post-COVID. However, so much still holds true, even though the book is from 2005. I continue to recommend this to Asian-American/Canadian colleagues and for colleagues that seek to understand their experience.