Cultural Differences and Communication in Japan

This assignment examines the influence of cultural differences on communication within a multinational corporation based in Japan. It specifically focuses on the challenges faced by expatriate employees from Zone Three and proposes strategies to improve intercultural communication within the organization. The analysis highlights the importance of understanding Japanese culture, promoting effective communication channels, and fostering a sense of inclusivity among employees from diverse backgrounds.

ORGANIZING AND
MANAGING ACROSS
CULTURE
(ESSAY)
1

ANSWERS:
This case study describes the problems related with the inter-cultural communication in
Nordic subsidiary in Japan. The cultural differences are between the Nordic based HRM
programs and local Japanese culture and values. The Japanese people were facing the issue of
Nordic based management system which is totally a new concept for them. Thus Nordic
management had a deep thinking upon this issue because it was leading to the strike which was
ultimately hampering the working of a company. The modification in these HRM program in
accordance to the Japanese culture is quite necessary.
This study examines the causes and consequences of linguistic and cultural barriers to
inter-cultural communication in Nordic subsidiaries in Japan. Interviews were conducted with 30
Nordic (Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden) expatriates and 29 Japanese employees show
that the main linguistic barriers to intercultural communication were lack of a shared language
and low motivation to improve foreign-language proficiency. The main cultural barriers were
collectivism, and status and power differences. Combined, the consequences of these barriers
were extensive reliance on language intermediaries, information filtering, in-group/out-group
categorization, receiver-centered communication and in-congruent supervisor-subordinate
expectations. The interviews suggest that linguistic and cultural barriers have a differentiated
impact on intercultural communication. Thus, it can be said that inter-cultural communications
may create confusions among the employees and this may hamper the performance of
employees.
(1) What are the main language and cultural barriers to intercultural communication in
foreign subsidiaries?
Hofstede Model
Hofstede introduced the theory which was mainly emphasized on the fact that how values
within the organization are affected by the culture. Moreover, according to the viewpoint of
Hofstede, culture can be defined as the collective programming of mind in which differentiation
are done with one person from another.
In this case, Nordic opened a subsidiary in the Japan and in that Japanese people were
appointed along with the Nordic expatriate and there they are faced with the issues of cultural
differences. There was a huge difference in the culture of two regions. The main actor of this
2

story are the employees and management of Nordic expatriate and Japanese employees.
Moreover, management faces a biggest issue in handling this difference. However, due to this
reason Hofstede have propounded this theory. In his theory, he described various dimensions
through which cultural variations can be analyzed. The dimensions are power status,
Individualism v/s collectivism, masculinity v/s femininity, long term v/s short term orientation,
indulgence v/s restraints and Uncertainty avoidance. In this current scenario, Nordic people have
the culture of individualism while in Japanese culture the more preference is given to
collectivism thus, people react in an individualist manner which become tough for the company
to make them work in a team. Further, the power distance is more in Japan because people are
conscious about the hierarchical position in an organization. This is altogether different quality in
Nordic people as they are more focused towards equal rights and being independent. Thus they,
react in a negative manner and due to which conflict arises. Moreover, there is male dominance
in Japanese culture whereas there is female dominance in Nordic culture. This create a greater
conflicting situation in a company between male employees of Japan and female employees of
Nordic expatriates. Further, Japanese are dedicated towards the avoidance of uncertainty and on
the contrary, Nordic expatriates are less keen towards uncertainty avoidance. On a similar aspect,
Hofstede also examined that there is a culture of long term orientation and Japanese culture view
their life as a very short moment in a long history of humankind. Thus, it can be said that
Japanese culture and Nordic culture have totally different culture and this leads to the
development of conflicts.
Hofstede model helped a lot in identifying the cultural differences in Japanese
organization with that of Nordic society. But this model have some limitations due to which
clear concept cannot be viewed and due to which management could not recognize the exact
situation and management of cultural difference cannot be done in a proper manner. The
limitation of Hofstede model are in term of methodological weakness because use of this model
is doubtful as it lays emphasis of national culture. The study was done on specific sample which
cannot be representative of overall population of nation. However, in the model it was
considered that population is homogeneous which is not correct in reality. Furthermore, Hofstede
model states that all country has their unique culture whereas it is not real in actual scenario
because of geographical context. Also, the model do not reflect the actual behavior of individual.
3

Trompenaars Model
Cultural differences can also be demonstrated with the help of Trompenaars that also
serve as the achievement vs ascription. Here achievement culture depicts that how people are
performing their function. Here main focus is laid on status whereas ascription culture is also
status based which reflect that what and who a person is. In this regard Nordic culture is known
as achievement where workforce are known for their competence. Furthermore, main emphasis
is laid on colleagues so that their achievement can be counted effectively. On the other hand, in
Japanese culture people are valued just because of maturity and their age. Japanese tend to
possess ascription culture where they remain unhappy because of their job profile. However, job
profile matters a lot as employees spend their much of time at workplace. In addition to this
Japanese follow the foreign HRM strategy which is different from values and of Japanese.
Here, people working in Japanese culture do not like to adjust in new situation but still
they are asked to follow the Nordic based HRM program. Similarly internal orientation is high
for Japanese culture where there is low external control. It is because people do not accept the
sudden changes at workplace and management cannot force them to follow the new practices. At
this juncture, management try to change their strategies in accordance with Japanese values only
instead of adjusting as per Nordic based HRM programs. Furthermore, individualism vs
communitarianism wherein communitaranistic culture like Japan like to work in group. They
are not happy with working condition because of unfavourable working condition.
Here, management also do not feel themselves liable for the working conditions. In the
same way Japanese want management to take care of their family's health and safety.
Furthermore, by focusing on issues of Japanese corporation introduced medical aid and saving
scheme. On the other hand, individualism concept is adopted by Nordic culture. Likewise,
Neutral concept is adopted in Nordic culture whereas Japanese people have high emotional
culture Apart from this, Nordic culture is moderate specific and diffuse culture is high in Japan.
Not only this, but Nordic culture follow sequential culture where Japanese tend to focus on
synchronic aspect. The limitations of Trompennars can be considered by understanding that
model takes into account behaviour aspect of people rather than value. It lays more emphasis on
4

what people mind is holding and what is in their sight. Thus, it may be unrealistic at some point
of time.
Enthocentric and Polycentric
Different marketing strategies such as Enthocentric, polycentric are also used to
management to business in Japaneseculture. Here, the first one is ethnocentric under which
staffing is done by taking competent personnel from home country. This process is done just to
fill the important position of corporate by which manpower can show interest of the home office
so as to align workforce of foreign offices and home headquarter. It facilitates to reduce the
additional cost and remove cultural barriers that exist among group of people. In addition to this,
Poly-centric approach is that corporation hire host country nationals for some of the important
positions. However, this model is useful only in develop countries so that employees with high
education and appropriate training can be located. It aids to generate position attitude among
employees as local workforce generally has more capability to handle buyers. On the other hand,
polycentric approach may not be profitable for broader aspect of corporation. Therefore, Nordic
based culture was accepted by Japanese with procedures and planning so as to makes employees
happy and comfortable with work environment.
When the whole scenario was compared than it was found that there were many issues
created due to the inter-cultural communication barrier. If there is communication gap and than
the employees will not be able to work cohesively in a group or team. It is because in Japan there
is a culture of collectivism and those in Nordic, individualism culture is being followed. Thus,
employees hired from Japan would prefer to work in a team but the managers from Nordic will
not entertain this and ultimately it will lead to the segregation of employees. Moreover, the
cultural differences will also not leads to the equal distribution of rights to all the employees
whereas the Japanese employees will ask for the hierarchical position in the organization because
of high experience. On the contrary, Nordic employees will not entertain this part and it will lead
to the release of conflicts among the level of management. This will also result in the
deterioration of the performance of employees because effectiveness cannot be created during
conflicts. Further, this will limit the growth of company as the profitability will get lower down
due to the ineffective performance by the employees. All these conflicts have been aroused due
to the miscommunication among the employees and management. Further, there will be stagnant
5

growth of employees because employees would not be able to adopt the new culture in a less
span of time. All these aspect have occurred due to the inter-cultural communications. If these
barriers are removed than only Nordic subsidiary can survive in the markets of Japan.
Furthermore, these issues will not allow the firm to create a competitive edge in the dynamic
market because employees of the firm will not become effective and sue to which satisfactory
product cannot be made. Thus, customers cannot be made satisfied if there is organizational
conflicts based on the languages and linguistic culture.
Further, it has been explained that there are several barriers to inter-cultural
communication such as languages and their meaning are different in Nordic and Japanese
culture. Further, the beliefs and values in Nordic differs from that of Japan and this create a
major barrier for the the Nordic subsidiary to get establish in Japan culture in an effective
manner. Thus, other kind of barriers such as misinterpretation of languages create barriers for the
inter-cultural communication.
(2) What are the consequences of language and cultural barriers in foreign subsidiaries?
Intense research have been made on this matter and for that purpose, exploratory research
have been conducted because the type of research is qualitative in nature. Further, the research
was aimed towards the Nordic countries that is Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway because
these countries have similar culture and its comparison has been made with the Japan which has
altogether different culture. For this purpose, three zone theory have been applied in which zone
one had the people who have basic language skills, in zone two people has intermediate language
skills and lastly in zone three people had fluent language skills. At the time of performing the
job, expatriate were able to interact directly with the employees or intermediaries were involved
while interacting with people. Employees who were working in zone one were able to
communicate only a simple messages with their respective team members. Major barrier in this
category was that inter-cultural communication in absence of any kind of shared language. This
made the entire process very frustrating and complicated.
On the contrary, zone two expatriate were able to communicate with local people without
the help of intermediaries. Most of the expatriate were able to interact with the localites in
Japanese language. Lastly, the zone three expatriate used a proper strategy during inter-cultural
communication. The strategy was that at the time of interaction, they used the mixture of English
6

and Japanese language. Further, this strategy separated these employees from local people and
other expatriate who were having low level of Japanese proficiency. Zone three expatriate have
different kind of benefit. Moreover, the cost of compensation was also low because only few
employees were required to provide training for the English Proficiency.
After analyzing the whole scenario, it was found that the main issue was related inter-
cultural communication barrier. Moreover, the cultural values of the employees of Nordic were
undermining. It has also been found that there are several communication barriers which consists
of language barriers, cultural differences and presentation styles. The most common issue is
related to language is that all people who belong to different country and region tend to speak
other type of language. It is the reason that employees cannot accomplish their objectives on
right time. However, English as common language is needed to be set in order to reduce the
impact of such kind of barriers. In this regard, several practices are used by corporation
expanding at global level so as to integrate workforce. On the other hand, every culture has its
own business ethics, accepted behavior, decorum and set of values. In fact, facial expressions
and gestures are also different for all religion owing to this people face communication barriers.
For example, to shake hand it quite common in Nordic culture but the same may not be accepted
in every culture. However, it might consider wrong in some situations. Apart from this,
presentation style is also the fact which creates communication barriers among respondents.
Here, separate group or country has different way of presentation and asking questions. For
example, American like to have brisk pace whereas Latin American like speech with high
emotional appeal. In this way, different communication barriers are associated with cross culture.
Furthermore, it has also been identified that cultural values and language have direct
impact on intercultural communication in multinational organization. This is because Japanese
tends to focus on flexible culture whereas Nordic culture wants to strong organizational culture.
However, Nordic culture believes that management must have rules and regulation with regards
to culture by which employees do not face problems when they come across global. For this
purpose, cross culture is maintained effectively to enhance the level of satisfaction among
employees and motivate them to work with integrity. However, cultural differences are invited in
every organization where conflict easily takes place. The reason behind the same is that
employees do not find favorable working condition and work satisfaction. Owing to this,
7

companies suffer from issues like low productivity, high employee turnover and customer
dissatisfaction. Thus, it is very important for corporation to assess the barriers related to values
and languages of employees and accordingly diversity is needed to be maintained. This in turn
issues faced by firm can be minimized to a great extent.
This barrier has a intense negative impact on the organization's working because the
employees of the organization will not understand the exact meaning of the languages and thus
management style will also be not fitted in the Japanese culture. This will be highly difficult for
the Nordic expatriate to manage the Japanese people in an organization. Moreover, effective
performance cannot be obtained from the local Japanese people. This will impact the profitability
of the company and competitive edge could not be created in a Japanese region as well.
The collected information depicts that corporation expanding at global level should put
efforts to reduce barriers related to communication. At this juncture, language translator could be
used at the initial stage. This aids to support Japanese even after adopting Nordic culture. English
as common language needs to be adopted at workplace which in turn employees can work with
integrity. Further, regular meeting and effective mode of communication like telephone and mail
should be used on the regular basis. It will support employees to adjust with situation and cope
up with changing scenario effectively. In addition to this, awareness needs to be developed
among employees and understanding must be developed with regards to cultural diversity. In
short, emphasis is laid effective communication so as to enhance the level of motivation and
satisfaction among the existing workforce.
Moreover, the company can encourage the strategy being adopted by the zone three
expatriate so that they does not face the issue of being neglected and also the communication
issue. Moreover, the company has to adopt the culture of Japan in order to make the employees
feel satisfied and to retain them in the organization. This will help in creating competitive edge
in the context of effective and efficient employees. If the employees are highly effective and they
are satisfied at the same time, than they can make the customer satisfied and also the business
can be grown or developed. Zone one people should be trained and also the English language
should be made the most widely used language in the organization so that communication
barriers can be removed. This will help the company to earn maximum profits in the market of
Japan and also competitive edge can be created in the industry.
8

The entire study being carried out has supported in knowing that cultural difference has
direct influence on the communication. Further, it is well known fact that culture and religion of
individual plays a significant role especially at the time when any individual interacts with other.
Moreover, it acts as a hurdle as sometime individual may not able to speak the language which is
understandable by all. This directly leads to rise in situation such as communication barrier
where individual may not prefer to interact with each other. Apart from this, companies which
are operating at global level hire individuals who are from different background and areas. Due
to this reason, their way of interacting and other things are considered. In every business
enterprise, it is one of the main issues such as how to deal with multicultural workforce for the
betterment of company as adoption of one single language is beneficial but it is quite difficult to
manage. On the basis of culture and religion, individual may speak different language and
working style may also be different. Therefore, in this cultural difference acts as a barrier due to
which individual may not prefer to be a crucial part of the communication process. Apart from
this, different theories along with models applied such as Hofstede model is effective enough to
understand about the cultural dimensions. This model relies on six dimensions which are
associated with national culture such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance index, long term
vs short term orientation, masculinity vs femininity etc. These dimensions support in knowing
the overall behavior of people living in the society and how they interact with one another. In
short, this model has enhanced the efficiency of the entire study and has supported to accomplish
the aim of study. Through this, concept regarding cultural differences has been better understood.
9