Chinese Indonesians own most Indonesian private domestic capital despite being an ethnic minority (3–4% of population)
and having suffered extensive discrimination. The case links the Chinese businessmen’s values to socialisation
during childhood and then examines how their interaction with the Javanese culture of pribumi employees, ethnic tensions
between employers and employees, and organisational and economic factors affected management control. Consistent
with previous cultural contingency research the Chinese owners’ preferences resided with controlling behaviour
through personnel and behavioural controls, low budget participation, centralisation, subjective rather than objective
controls, and tentatively, few rewards tied to results and the use of group rewards. Whether Chinese managers exhibited
longer term orientations concerning planning and rewards could not be ascertained. However, ethnic tensions and commercial
considerations mitigated the owners’ ability to control according to cultural preferences. Based upon these findings
reflections on past research and suggestions for further developments are made with respect to methods,
methodology, and incorporating a broader range of theories and issues, especially ethnicity, politics, and history.