A Culture of Diversity in Three Countries - Essay Example

A Culture of Diversity in Three Countries Abstract Unison of humans with an urge to usher an organization into a leading ‘utopia’ will be a successful endeavor, if the unified humans show undaunted, unabated and unabashed conduct. And, if all the parts of an organization conduct this way, they can be fully utilized to have ubiquitous presence all over the world. Ubiquitous presence is the key because every organization will aim to spread to, as many countries as possible. And to get a stronghold in any country, understanding that country’s market, competitors and importantly its culture is an important task to do. And this paper discusses and understands the culture of three countries, USA, Japan and India as part of report to be submitted to an CEO of a company. CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT Organization is an organized human activity, apportioned into different ‘organs’ or departments by the management. ‘Organized human activity’ in the sense, we humans are active both physically and mentally due to the ‘organized activity’ or functions of the various body organs. Likewise, the organization will be active physically, statistically, economically etc due to the ‘organized activity’ of workers, departments and management. “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual” (Lombardi). Among them management role is only crucial because, apart from creating or recruiting or segregating the workers and department, the management only will give them the purpose of their existence in the organization. They do that by giving jobs and guiding them, encouraging them, rewarding them etc And, this duty of the management will be a tough task because like the five different fingers in one’s hand, each worker in an organization will be different from one another having different characters, attitudes, education, background and importantly different culture. Brazzel (1991) defines diversity in terms of human differences that play an important role in the culture and operation of organizations. And the unison of these different humans to work in a single organization to reach a target is, and will always be a difficult proposition. The same scenario will be visible when an organization makes contact with another organization from another culture from another country. So, each organization, influenced by the culture of their setting (that is, their country, region etc), will exhibit a directly opposite working culture. And this situation can only be saved when one organization and its management tries to understand the other organization through the culture of the country, in which it is located. Culture is an evolving thing for every country. “Our culture is evolving and it took us a long time to stabilize the diversity that we now celebrate”(Tewarie, 2006). Cultural elements like music, dress that are visible today will be a thing of the past tomorrow. But there are some elements of culture like God, religions, marriage etc that will continue to have its presence infinitely. From these two contrasting views, one can judge that culture’s longevity will depend on how strong and meaningful it will be to human life. And the longevity or permanency will be guaranteed when the culture gets evolved with the country’s history. And it aptly applies to United States of America. The culture of the United States, known as the Western culture because of its location in the western hemisphere, has lot influences from the British culture, due to the rule of Britishers over USA from 17th to19th centuries. The culture of British spread to USA in the form of English language, religion, costumes etc. The same is the case with India, which was also ruled by British for a period of 300 years. The English language left over by the British has become the unofficial national language of India, spoken by majority of the population. “When you are traveling around India, you can surely get along, almost everywhere, with English” (enchantingindia. Com 2006). So, the only similarity between USA and India, left over by the British imperialism is the English language. But, Japan on the other hand remained untouched by British imperialism maintaining their nativity. And, this is visible by the fact that only minority of Japanese spoke English. So, the important component of culture, the language, in this case the English language can play a great role in understanding other people’s culture. And Japan is at a disadvantage in this issue. So, the similarity between USA and India is the English language and it will be the difference these two and Japan. .”If culture is all the products of human work and thought, there is only one human culture” (Podur 2002). The society of USA consist of a diverse cultures with people from different race, religion, ethnicity etc. living in different parts of USA. Even though white race and religion of Christianity is the most predominant, people from various race and religion do exist with them. Like wise, India is the home to various religion, language, caste etc. “…since India is a secular pluralist state that is home to every religion known to mankind” (Tharoor 2006). But in the case of India, Indo Aryans and Hinduism are the major race and religion. While, Japanese society have no set of diverse cultures in the form of different religion, race etc. It has only one religion of Buddhism with race of Mongoloid given not much importance. So, when we look at these three countries in this aspect of culture, only USA and India is somewhat similar having a multicultural society, even in that case the dominant religion is different for both of them. In terms of Politics or Political background, USA is a hot spot of activity. Activity in the sense, it has a democratic political setup with lot of vibrancy shown by all the political leaders right from President to the senator and even the opposition. The same is the case with India, which has a well-developed democratic setup earning the tag of the world’s largest democracy. “Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal alike.” (Plato). In India, there are numerous political parties from national level to state level. While, Japan also have an effective political setup with a strong opposition. The main similarity between all the three of them is that, all are democratic countries with lot of rights guaranteed. But, the difference is, USA has two party political system while Japan and India have multi party system. And the thing, all the three countries (particularly the politicians) have in common is the culture of corruption. Corruption is a global phenomenon, but in these countries especially India it has percolated into every aspect of common life. “Corruption is a global phenomenon that causes poverty, obstructs development and drives away investment. It also debilitates the judicial and political systems that should be working for the public good.” (UNODC 2007) Another element of culture is the food, and the foods of USA have already attained a kind of cultural identity throughout the world. Its chain of food stores starting from McDonald’s; Kentucky etc have spread its wings all over the world and are defining many people’s taste. “Our most famous American food chain restaurants are McDonald's and Kentucky Fried” (ThinkQuest). But in India and Japan no individual brands have reached the range, the foods in USA have reached. When one look for similarities between the foods of USA, Japan and India, the result will be null because each nation have foods with unique tastes and flavor. For example, the foods of India are mainly known for its spices retaining a strong curry flavor, which has became popular all over the world. While, Japanese foods mainly concentrates on soups and noodles with more emphasis of eating foods in raw state like sushi. “When people think about Japanese food, they usually think of sushi” (Liu). There is one thing common to India and Japan in the department of food, which is; both the countries have Rice as the staple diet. And have frequent servings of Rice all through the day “Cinema is a worldwide phenomenon” (Wenders). In the aspect of popular culture all the three countries have the common ground, which is cinema. USA, Japan and India all have cinema as one of their popular culture and each one’s cinema is seen and appreciated in each other’s country as well. Especially, the films made in USA have made their presence felt in both these countries and even changed the life style of the people of respective countries. Like wise films made in India mostly reflect the traditional culture of the country, while Japanese films mainly animated ones and horror flicks reflect their culture. While cinema is the similarity between the three countries, the themes and stories of it doesn’t show any similarity at all, each showing their uniqueness only. And in the cultural ceremony of marriage, each country has lot of differences. While marriage is one of the important events in all the three societies of USA, India and Japan, the conduction of it and the associated ceremonies shows lot of distinctness. In USA, the normal process of marriage will start with dating, then proposing and the eventual marriage in the church. Japan follows a somewhat same format in marriages. But, in India, the marriage is an extensive at the same time extravagant ceremony. Even the process of marriage consummation, is a long drawn out affair with Parents playing the central role. “An Arranged Marriage in India is defined as a the type of wedding alliance brought forward by parties other than the bride or the groom -- typically the parents” (Kamat 2005) So, these are the cultural similarities and differences that is visible when one does the a Comparative Country Profile of USA, Japan and India, making use of relevant academic models Each country is different from others on many aspects. From different people, language, climate, food etc, etc… the list is a never-ending one. And based on these differences, the concept of management also evolves into different styles. The various management styles visible in the functioning of an organization are clearly dependent on the culture of a country. That is, when one looks at the management style of USA, one get the feeling that, it is an open management with no holds barred attitude. All the targets and goals of the organization are being reached with lot of aggression and also sometimes manipulation. And, the important feature of the management style of USA is, even though there will be a hierarchy inside the organization, all the individuals of the organization from the Managing Director to a security guard will enjoy openness and it will visible in every part of their interactions. Especially, the habit of calling each other by their names and not by the respected terms or their job positions. That is, in most of the organization in USA, the head of the organization or even the manager or supervisor will advice their fellow workers (subordinates included), to call each other by their first names and not by formal and respected terms like Sir, madam, mister etc. And, when we analyze this managing style from the Japanese and the Indian management styles there will be lot of differences. That is, in Japan, in their organizations there will no such openness like calling the superior officers by their first names. Because, there will be a inbuilt social order which gives the leaders a kind of superior image, so they will addressed with respected ness. The same is the case with India, its management style is a closed one and with hierarchy maintained strictly, it won’t allow this kind of act like calling one’s boss by his/her first name. For many years now, the Japanese management style is regarded as the best performing style in this whole world. And, its style evolves with the technological change that the country has undergone over the years. In the Japanese management style, all the workers form part of the social order, within the organization. “Under the Japanese management style, the organization is one where all employees are regarded members of a social clan” (Corporate Savy). This management style is significant because all the employees are tuned to think, that their organization is part of their family and working for it, is identical to working for his/her family. This form of management extends the retirement age of the employees. That is, in most of the Japanese organization, there won’t be a retirement age for the workers even if the become elderly. The management style followed in India is quite different from the above-mentioned styles because it is of closed type. Closed type in the sense, all the important people in the management form a exclusive group and it would be difficult for the lower level workers to approach them. And the management people also will never come down, let alone allow the subordinates to call them by their first names. So, each country has different management style and there appears to be no similarities between the styles. So, from these information one can understand that USA’s culture and management style has lot of differences as well as similarities with the culture and management style of the Asian countries of India and Japan. So, when our managers deals with the managers of these two countries he/she has to take into consideration some key issues to make the interaction more effective. “Managers have to perform many roles in an organization and how they handle various situations will depend on their style of management” (rpi.edu) Firstly, when our manager interacts with an Indian manager, he should ‘break the ice’ by wishing to him in the Indian way. That is, Indians always gets excited when some one appreciates and felicitates their culture, and wishing them in their way can be the beginning. Then, Indians especially managers are more likely to get emotional in quick time both in the positive direction and in the negative direction. Positive in the sense they will show lot of happiness and also expect others to reciprocate it. Negative in the sense, they could easily get edgy and tensed up during the conversation, which can result in abuses, fights and in total, the end of the interaction and partnership. So, the Indian managers should be handled with lot of care. Indians always love food and if it is a casual meeting, restaurant could be the best place to interact. Because their favorite foods always lighten their mind and interaction could move smoothly. And, the key areas our manager should concentrate when dealing with a Japanese manager is, he should show respect to the Japanese manager in the outset itself. As Japan’s style of management involves erecting a social clan inside the organization, the role and respect for all the workers, managers, executive officers are clearly defined. Because of this senior managers will have lot of self-respect and our manager should take it into account while interacting with them. Japanese are great fans of technology and gadgets, and always try to integrate technology in each of the ventures they enter, so our manager should be up to date with the latest technology and make the interaction effective. Thank you Reference: Brazzel, Michael. 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