Cross Cultural Management of Japan & United States

For any international organization, understanding cultural differences is very significant in the global context. The article analyzes the role and impact of the cultural perspective when dealing with conflict in the global context. “What seems like a perfectly reasonable approach in one culture may seem ridiculous, disrespectful, inefficient, or unfair to managers from other cultures. Japanese and German managers may be uneasy with conflict resolution preferences that differ from their own.” (Adams, p.110.) The understanding that organizational and global cultures vary results in the connected research supported in several businesses in diverse fields.

Globalization and technological advancement have dictated the need for managers to deal with multiple ethnic groups with different culture in their day to day interactions. According to Kulkarni (2012), cultures play critical roles in individuals, including values, beliefs, humor, worries, fears, hopes, opinions, attachments, and anxieties.

It is crucial for today's business personnel to understand the impact of cross cultural differences on business, trade and internal company organization. The success or failure of a company, venture, merger or acquisition is essentially in the hands of people. If these people are not cross culturally aware then misunderstandings, offence and a breakdown in communication can occur.

Given the close ranking, work relationships between a US company and Japan company should fare well with regard to Power Distance. Some clarity and upfront discussion of who is responsible for decision making would allow this relationship to be effective.

In multinational workplaces understanding how important the significance of cultural differences is larger than we might think. Organizations that are diverse have to work together because their functionality impacts the productivity of the workplace. It is vital to have an understanding the different cultures to develop a strong organization. Certain principles will help you acknowledge that different cultures exist within the organization. As a manager, you have to analyze the reasons for the development of the differences and

2. What are the key problems related to cultural differences and which integration approach should the company follow to overcome these problems?

Cross Cultural management explains the behaviour of people in organizations worldwide, helping managers and firms to understand how to act in business matters dealing with the different cultures. (Adler, 2008)

Cross cultural studies has great impact especially to business managers. National culture or core culture that developed the individual before it is influenced by other factors in the environment and society is subject to change depending on how strong the influences would be. However for the individual to fit in, they have to embrace the new found culture or a new culture might have evolved combining the core values and the current society’s value.

Mismanaging cultural differences can render otherwise successful managers and organisations ineffective when working across cultures. As stated byOsland (1990, p. 4) ``The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture''. Hofstede (1983) defines culture as "the mental programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another" (Hofstede 1983 p. 25). Through the comparison of Chinese culture and Australian culture using Hofstedes five cross-cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and long-term orientation an insightful view into the differences and similarities of the cultures can be obtained (Chong & Park 2003). Human Resource Management

The culture of a place is an integral part of its society whether that place is a remote Indian village in Brazil or a highly industrialized city in Western Europe. The culture of Japan fascinates people in the United States because, at first glance, it seems so different. Everything that characterizes the United States--newness, racial heterogeneity, vast territory, informality, and an ethic of individualism-- is absent in Japan. There, one finds an ancient and homogeneous society, an ethic that emphasizes the importance of groups, and a tradition of formal behavior governing every aspect of daily living, from drinking tea to saying hello. On the surface at least, U.S. and Japanese

In this era of Globalisation, cross cultural management is the biggest challenge that is faced by the organisations. Within the business context, cross culture refers to interaction between different cultures. Cross cultural management refers to managing the employees from different cultural background in one environment (Adler, 2008). Cross culture management is a significant issue within the organisations as the success of an organisation depends upon the smooth interaction of the employees. This paper is aimed at providing insight on the cross cultural management and the main issues and challenges relating to cross cultural management. For the purpose of this paper, two articles, “Cross-cultural Differences in Management”, by Amman & Jordan

Managers were concerned about knowing and understanding each and every perspective of their employee’s cultures. As they know that without studying or knowing the culture, coordination cannot be built between the employees. It is the existing perspective of managers dealing with cross-cultural management (Sultana, 2013).

Effective cross-cultural management has to be grounded in a detailed knowledge of individual cultures. Discuss using examples from two multinational companies.

Now days, the world becomes a one village. Although, there are different kinds of management styles and cultures impact on business management in the world, employees needs to increase their awareness to achieve the organisation targets. Awareness of cross-cultural management includes procedures and policies that are relate to the management of any organisation or workforce with different cultural and background. According

Corporate governance and control in Japan: can the barriers to foreign takeover activity in Japan ever be removed? Japan’s seeming impenetrability to foreign takeovers, largely due to the prevailing corporate culture and governance that allegedly hinders such takeovers, has defined business firms and companies in the last decades (Lebrun, 2001; Gerlach, 1992; Maher and Wong, 1994; Seeman, 1986; Seeman, 1987; Stern, 1998). Such barriers have gradually been buoyed down by the worldwide economic recession of the recent times- an indication that while these barriers may not be totally lifted, the prospect of reducing it is optimistic (Itoh and Vestring, 2001; Larimer, 1999; Seeman, 1986; Seeman, 1987; JETRO, 2002;). Japanese inter-corporate relationships are considered in terms of three different structures of interaction: corporate groupings, financial centrality, and industrial interdependency. Almost all decisions in Japanese business are group decisions, which require virtually unanimous support from the members of the team making the decision Foreign firms, which, to a great extent, need to acquire market shares in Japan, the nation with the world's greatest trade surplus, find their way to major acquisitions in Japan virtually blocked by Japanese customs. They face substantial barriers to acquiring Japanese companies. With Japanese PERs approaching the 100 level, most foreigners will hardly find Japanese firms a bargain. Most of the mergers and acquisitions business has