Cross-National Work Experience Interview: A Japanese Experience from working in USA - Assignment Example

Cross-National Work Experience Interview: A Japanese Experience from working in USA The cultural differences between the USA and the Japanese working environment are glaring, according to Melissa Honda, a Japanese woman in her late twenties, working in the USA. Melissa Honda left Japan for the USA in 2010 to pursue a master’s degree in project management, having worked in Japanese construction companies for slightly over four-years, after she had completed her undergraduate. However, after she completed her masters in the USA, she decided to stay and seek work, where she landed a job in a USA construction company based in Chicago. First, according to Melissa Honda, the major glaring difference between the Japanese and the USA workplace culture is the cooperation aspect of the workplace. This cultural difference is referred to as the collectivism vs. individualism difference (Yūki and Brewer, 136). In the USA, there is the tendency of most workers within a working environment doing their tasks on their own, and only engaging others when there is a need. Thus, to the extent that an individual in the USA workplace environment is able to accomplish all the required tasks by him/herself, then there is little engagement with the rest. However, the case is very different in Japan, more especially in the project management related industries, where the workplace mostly constitutes working groups as opposed to individuals. Individuals in Japan collaborate in every aspect of accomplishing their tasks, such that by the end of the project, the work is a product of various contributions, as opposed to being the product of individual specialty. In the high individualistic cultures, self-determination is highly valued (Gudykunst, 241). Thus, the USA work environment comprises of an environment where self-determination plays the biggest role in the accomplishment of tasks, such that there is a high level of segmentation and division of labor within organizations, based on the individual worker’s specialty. On the other hand, Japan presents a collaborated work environment where the tasks are more attributed to group work and group collaboration, such that the individual workers will work well in groups as opposed to working as individuals (Yūki and Brewer, 147). Thus, Melissa initially faced the challenge of accomplishing the designated tasks single-handedly when she joined her organization in the USA in 2012, and had to take a few months to get used to this different culture of working. Nevertheless, having worked for the organization for three years now, Melissa is now capable of working both as an individual and also in groups, where the need arises. This is owing to the fact that the culture of working in groups is still a strong influence in her, since she started observing and learning the culture from a young age, and thus it is difficult to part ways with such a strongly inbuilt culture. Power difference is another area that Melissa had to struggle with in the USA, owing to the fact that in her new job position at the Chicago-based construction firm, her boss requires direct communication and reporting on the designated duties and responsibilities, as opposed to Japan where reporting had to follow a bureaucratic protocol. Therefore, Melissa had to take some months to get comfortable reporting directly to the top management on work aspects related to her designated duties and responsibilities. Nevertheless, she has found this new culture to be very effective and productive, since it saves on the time required for consultation between the workers and the management. The power difference cultural element is yet another major aspect that differentiates the USA from the Japanese working environment (Gudykunst, 236). Power difference is defined as the extent to which individuals accept and allow the differences in power between the boss and the subordinates to shape different aspects of work (Yūki and Brewer, 139). Thus, in the USA, power difference does not play a very major role in defining major workplace aspects, owing to the fact that there is more consultative-leadership. On the other hand, power difference plays an important role in defining the major workplace aspects in Asia, including the Japanese working environment, since the boss position is attributed to higher authority and respect than the junior and the subordinate positions (Gudykunst, 237). In this respect, it is easier for the subordinates in the USA to interact freely with their bosses and top managers, as opposed to the Japanese working environment. The direct communication between the management and the employees allows for the opportunity to forge a cooperative working environment that is not limited by the barriers of bureaucratic communication. The direct reporting culture is an issue that Melissa finds to be very conflicting with her previous working culture, and thus she is unsure whether it would be accepted if she were to introduce it back in Japan. This is because; in high power distance cultures such as Asia, the bypassing of an immediate superior in matters related to workplace reporting is considered insubordination (Gudykunst, 234). The third glaring difference that Melissa has encountered through changing her work environment from Japan to the USA is the future vs. present orientation of goals in the workplace. Japan is characteristic of a past-oriented workplace environment culture, where traditional values and ways of doing things play an important role in shaping how the organization runs (Yūki and Brewer, 144). This is very different from the USA cultural orientation in the workplace, which is more futuristic, entailing setting goals based on both the present circumstances and the predicted future situations. Thus, Melissa Honda has found that working in the USA does not require sticking to the very rigid and old value system of the organization, since the organization value system is highly flexible. Thus, in the USA, according to Melissa, the value system keeps changing and adapting to the organizational environmental changes such the political climate, the economic conditions and the developing social needs. On the contrary, the Japanese working culture can still adapt new changes that are brought about by the environmental changes such as the political transformations, economic changes and the social needs. However, all that has to be aligned with the past and old values of the organization. This way, Melissa Honda holds the opinion that the USA organizational culture is not deep-rooted, and thus identifying with such a culture for long does not really happen. Works Cited Gudykunst, William B. Communication in Japan and the United States. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1993. Print. Yūki, Masaki, and Marilynn B. Brewer. Culture and Group Processes. , 2014. Print. Read More