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Introduction
As todays managers and executives expand their business activities beyond local markets, they must deal with culturally diverse employees, suppliers, and clients. ... More and more, western executives are sent to this country to run companies and Japanese executives are also sent abroad for the same reason. ... This is also the case for Japanese managers being sent to western countries.
In a first part, we will briefly present Japan and the Japanese culture. We will then talk about the business world in Japan and explain the multicultural management issues and problems relative to this subject. ... We will mainly talk about the United States, but will also give some examples of other Western countries such as France and Switzerland
Part I : Japan and the Japanese Culture
4) Japan : brief overview
• Geography: Japan is located in eastern Asia and it comprises a curved chain of more than 3 000 islands. ...
• GDP: According to the World Bank, the country’s gross domestic product at the turn of the century was approximately 23 500 dollars per capita.
• Money: Yen
• Official Language: Japanese
The country has been in the throes of an economic recession that has been going on for over 10 years. ... The Japanese company from the automobile industry was experiencing losses, until its purchase by the French Renault, who sent one of its top executives, Carlos Ghosn, to take over the management in this Asian unit and restore the company to profitability.
The second example is McDonald’s Japan : the fast food giant McDonalds Corp has recently (end of May, 2003) placed one of its veteran executives at its Japanese unit on Friday, in an effort to halt sliding sales in its largest overseas market. ...
Just like McDonalds and , there are more than 3,300 foreign companies and 800,000 foreign business people in Japan right now. Among these companies challenging the Japanese market, US firms consist of 45. ... Unfortunately for many American executives assigned to Japan, the cultural difference is one of the main obstacles in terms of achieving happiness in both their business and personal life. It is necessary for the expatriates and their families to understand the Japanese culture and manner in order to comfortably live and manage in Japan.
6) The Japanese culture :
To be successful in todays global market, business people must be familiar not only with the economic and political climate of the country in which they are dealing, but also with its cultural nuances. ...
a) Japanese values :
The Japanese values are the following :
– Silence : Japanese people do not show their emotions. ...
– Tradition : Japanese traditions have a strong influence on people’s behaviour, and Japanese cultural celebrations are done all over the country. ...
– Group : the notion of group is one of the core values of the Japanese culture. ...
The notion of group is reflected through the 3 following examples:
- “The quality of life” : only 39% of Japanese respondents opted for individual freedom, against 69% for the United States
- “Which kind of job?” : only 40% of Japanese respondents opted for a job in which individual credit is received, against 72% in the United States
- “Whose fault was it?” : 32% of Japanese opted for individual responsibility (54% for the USA)
The value of silence can also be seen through this example:
- “Feeling upset at work”: Japan had the highest score: 74% of the Japanese would not show their emotions openly.
b) Hofstede’s parameters :
Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Individualism Masculinity
Japan 54 92 46 95
USA 40 46 91 62
France 68 86 71 43
Through an analysis of Hofsede’s parameters, we can point out several characteristics of the Japanese culture :
First, the power-distance is medium. Japanese managers are both willing to encourage participation of their subordinates and to keep the hierarchy stable. ... This score also emphasize the importance of the group in the Japanese culture.
The country has a high masculinity index: this means that Japanese are mainly aggressive and have a masculine attitude. ...
Japanese and Western Cultures, whether we are talking about France or USA are very different, almost opposite… However, we have seen that western executives are often sent to Japan for financial reasons. Japanese executives and managers are also sent to western countries, although not for the same reason. In fact, Japanese companies send their top executives to manage their western subsidiaries for confidence reasons. ... To illustrate this notion of confidence, we could quote Meg Pei’s book “L’homme de Tokyo”, in which a Japanese executive working for Yamamoto’s Corp. ... Yamamoto announces him that he will have to leave the Japanese unit, he gives his employee the following reason : “I need someone that I can trust”
Part II : The Japanese Business World
5) Important elements of culture in the Japanese business world :
a) Japanese values :
Japanese seems to be a major challenge for foreigners because it is a difficult language to learn with a complicated writing system. Moreover, relatively few Japanese are able to speak it in a way easily understood by a Westerner. Language is one of the main cause of problems in multicultural management when one talks about Japan: the Japanese language is closely linked to culture the culture, and ideas refer to values and beliefs.
b) Gender Relations :
The Japanese society is not only masculine in its attitude (as seen with Hofstede’s parameters), but also highly male-dominated. ... Japanese people are very reluctant to women being their boss or leader. ... As Japanese usually bow to salute (whereas Americans only shake hands), the space is automatically wider. However, as a show of warmth for Western visitors, the Japanese associate may clasp both your hands into his/hers while shaking hands, which means you may have to stand closer than you would otherwise do.
Japanese greet customers, visitors, superiors and fellow workers by bending forward, regardless of time and place. However, the non-Japanese will usually be greeted with a handshake. It is best to let the Japanese host make the choice and then follow that example.
Approximate Word count = 4960
Approximate Pages = 19.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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