American vs Japanese Cultures and Their Effects on Management - Essay Example

American vs. Japanese Cultures and Their Effects on Management

• Individualism and Collectivism in Japan

Individualism and collectivism are terms that are used to refer to the level of interdependence a society maintains among its people. It looks at whether people generate their identity through the pronoun “”I” or “we” (Kobayashi, Kerbo, & Sharp, 2016). For the individualistic societies, people are supposed to look after and fend for themselves and their immediate families. They are in other regions referred to as liberals, and they care little about communal or shared glories. On the other hand, collectivism is the exact opposite, since it is the extent to which people define themselves as a group. In this case, people rarely focus more on fighting for their own good, rather for the larger community. In individualistic societies, people often develop loose ties among themselves as everyone minds and goes about their own business (Kobayashi, Kerbo, & Sharp, 2016). This is very contrary to what collectivist groups behave: from the time of birth; people are integrated into strong, cohesive groups that are often made up of extended families. These large groups give their members identity and a sense of belonging and in return, the people have to provide unquestioning loyalty to the group.

On a scale of 0-100, where 100 is the most individualistic, Japan scores at 46. This could be relatively low when ranked globally, but it is the most individualistic country on the Asian continent, especially considering that the rest score between 15- 20 (Takano & Osaka, 1999). Most Japanese tend to think that they are more collectivists than individualists. Often, they are group-minded and will mostly care so much about what the others think of them, and they quite often do things since the others are doing them. Looking at their corporates from a collectivist view, they tend to seek the opinion of everyone before they can make a decision, which means that they value and would like to maintain their harmony. This has also been their tradition whereby it is not unpopular to find a family accommodating up to three or four generations under one roof. However, that is just in their social life. Privately, they tend to be very individualistic. Statistics indicate that most of them prefer living by themselves rather than sharing an apartment. In fact, even couples sometimes decide to sleep in different rooms once they have had enough children. In such a highly individualistic country as the US for example, there are students, including American students who share apartments even up to four or five due to the scarcity of apartments around their institutions and also for the fun of having roommates. However, when Japanese study abroad, they prefer staying alone, which in itself is a very individualistic trait (Takano & Osaka, 1999). More individualism sets in when they have to carry out activities like hobbies and businesses. If they can, they prefer working alone, not unless when it is advisable when they pick just one friend or relative to join them. At work, however, they are more collectivist since they have to work as a team, but that is just when they cannot do everything by themselves. This probably explains their 46 scores, which might change with time.

On the other hand, America is considered a highly individualistic nation, perhaps due to its association with democracy. Some researchers have referred America as the new world, where people are encouraged to seek self-reliance, equality, independence, and personal freedom. This has spread into many fields including the management styles of large multi-billion corporations. People, especially workers, do not necessarily have to be questioned when decisions are being made. Rather, the owners of the corporate make decisions that they think will favor them, and any benefits accruing to others are externalities. Unlike Japan where collectivism is highly advocated, individualism in the US does not recognize it, and when it does, it only makes it look unattractive. Collectivism is painted as being rather dull, especially in the free world where everybody wants to exploit their fullest potential without interference. However, it has at other times proved better than individualism. Kyocera Inc. for example, is a multibillion corporation that is founded on the values of collectivism. This has enabled it to make profits for five consecutive decades. Whether a country is individualistic or collectivist is one of the main dimension of looking at various behaviors in the social and management sciences. This cuts across cultural diversities in such fields as advertising, management styles, and negotiating styles. While in the individualistic America they would be striving to appeal to people by promising self-riches, the collectivist societies would want to emphasize more on group benefits (Kobayashi, Kerbo, & Sharp, 2016). Either way, the US and Japan have grown to become some of the best-performing economies of the age despite running on different dependent ideologies. At a more acute angle, individualism favors the US more than collectivism would favor her while Japan has her way of reaping big from her collectivism.

• Uncertainty Avoidance in Japan

Uncertainty avoidance in Japan is the measure by which the Japanese community handles the fact that it is almost impossible to predict what the future holds, such that it puts them in a dilemma of either trying to control it or to just let it happen. Since this brings ambiguity and anxiety, it is the extent to which the people feel threatened by the ambiguity and the fear of the unknown that is referred to as uncertainty avoidance. Japan scores highest in uncertainty avoidance with a score of 92, higher than any other country in the world ("Japan - Geert Hofstede", 2016). For a fact, risk and uncertainty are unavoidable elements in every business venture or operations that any individual, firm, or government can venture into. However, they get even more present when it comes to international teams and global business counterparts. Different people view risks differently, and their attitude towards it is equally divergent between cultures. This plays a great role into how individuals or countries are perceived by their counterparts. A closer look at cross-cultural awareness provides insights into how cultural attitudes towards risks affect cross-cultural communication, the international management styles, and working practices.

Geert Hofstede examined how the attitude towards risk and uncertainty can affect how things are done and called it the uncertainty avoidance approach. It is the measure of how societies handle and are affected by ambiguity and the thought of a possible risk. This understanding of how international counterparts perceive risk helps to understand their behaviors, plans, and communication in international business. Countries and cultures that portray high uncertainty avoidance have little tolerance for ambiguity and vagueness in their everyday operations (Maclachlan, 2016). This is to mean that they prefer being thorough and doing everything to their best. They are risk averse and in most of the cases, they strictly follow rules and a well-structured environment and hate unstructured situations. This is the case with Japan. Understandably, Japan is geographically disadvantages as it is prone to so many threats, including geological and environmental risks. They, therefore, keep in mind that they need to progress with utmost precaution so that they minimize the impact of the threats in the event that they strike. It has then become a Japanese culture to establish stringent laws, rules, regulations and control mechanisms that can prevent any ambiguity or occurrence of risks (Gallant, 2013). On the other hand, such societies that are risk inclined do not have to follow very strict rules in their operations and often keep bending them from time to time to suit the situation. In most cases, they usually are not in much danger, and the probability of risks occurring is often low. The US is one such society that allows her citizens to be flexible, increasing their freedom of choice and expression. In fact, the US scores below average on the uncertainty avoidance dimension with a score of 46.

Characteristics of low uncertainty tolerance are sometimes advantageous, such as when employees tend to remain with the same employer for a longer period of time (Maclachlan, 2016). This is an advantage to the management as there will be lower turnover costs and training costs will be reduced when new employees are being absorbed. However, while this is obviously advantageous, it limits the people from exploration and making flexible decisions, meaning that they might never realize their fullest potential. On the other hand, less cautious countries like America provide for high labor mobility which encourages the sharing of skills and optimal exploitation of one’s area of specialty. It also follows that in countries that are risk averse, decisions are made by consensus, which might essentially reduce the pace at which such decisions are made. This applies mostly to decisions that involve bringing about a change; Japanese are more conservative, and it takes them longer to vet and evaluate before making any changes. On the other hand, the risk inclined America has it that the decisions are made by the management, and even though the subordinate could have their input, the final decisions are arrived at from the helm. This ensures that decisions are made fast and implemented equally fast. This can perhaps explain the high diversity of American corporations relative to those of Japan. With this, it is likely that projects are carried out more strictly than in the US, considering that they are trying to minimize the effects of such potentially catastrophic events as the tsunamis and volcanic eruption. This does not mean that low uncertainty avoidance cultures are any bad. While risk-averse cultures still hold on to their cultural gender role stratifications, risk-inclined countries encourage their people, including women to take the risk and get actively involved in management and other productive activities (Maclachlan, 2016). It has been found out that risk inclined countries allow their people to be more open to innovation and change by breaking the status quo. Through their readiness and willingness to take risks, they approach projects from different perspectives and their attitude towards deadlines is more relaxed as they have a higher preference for flexible rules and informal activities. In a business setting, the US got into a credit crisis due to low uncertainty avoidance when American companies started giving mortgages to people they were not 100% sure that they would pay back. These became bad debts. Other companies also decided to take the risk of buying the bad debts to make some profit, and eventually the US economy hit its worst as it almost totally collapsed. On the other hand, this has never been the case in Japan.