“Gung Ho” produced by Ron Howard in 1986 is a comedy drama involved in American and Japanese culture. Its story is about Hunt Stevenson-an American former foreman working for a local car manufacture closed for nine months-making an effort to persuade a Japanese company to take over the plant for reopening, he successful ultimately. Then, a Japanese executive named Takahara Kazuhiro is sent to be in charge of the plant; however, culture clashes become inevitable between Japanese manager, Kazuhiro and American workers representative by Hunt because of business cultural differences.
Overall, I will analyze some distinct cultural aspects, which cause cultural conflicts via two main characters Hunt and Kazuhiro through a series of events and scenes.
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In high power-distance culture, people accept disproportionately allocated power (Hofstede, 1991) and tolerate inequality with natural assumption (Sagie & Aycan, 2003) while those in the low-power distance find “important to minimize or even eliminate social class differences” (Hofstede, 1991); there is uneasy acceptance of the privileges connected with the position (Mead, 2003). Particularly in business, people have a fear of punishment in the event of disagreement with the management’s decision in high-power distance cultures, but less strong in the low-power distance ones. (Mead, 2003). Kazuhiro is an example of people living in the high power-distance culture since he accepts more power along with higher status of his boss though his boss orders him to sing and chant in a ridiculous way as “Ribbon of shame” for his previous poor performance. However, as an American, whose country is considered low-power distance (Hofstede, 1991), Hunt takes it easy when his workers call him just last name in a host of scenes. In addition, his communication manner in conversations with his Japanese manager, Kazuhiro is relatively open and informal despite his lower status in the plant. He even fights against Kazuhiro when having conceptual contrast with Kazuhiro in worker evaluation with no fear of punishment. All of his above features depict a Western person belonging to a low- power distance
The rapid growth of globalisation and internationalisation of trade in resources, especially human capital, has made managerial of culture differences ever so important as to understanding the different variables (Hofstede G, 2010). In this paper, the Power Distance Index (PDI) of both Chinese and aboriginal traditional cultural value and belief in family, social life and workplace is going to be examined under the scope of Hofstede’s dimensions. To a truthful stereotype, both culture heavily emphasis upon power distance in a form of age-grade social hierarchy, the variance in its operation however made these cultures unique. The value and beliefs of Confucianism has embedded upon every aspect of Chinese life, putting emphasis upon power
The story has an external conflict between the main character and her daughter in regarding best way of disciplining Sophie but this conflict is based on the internal one. The main conflict of the story is the internal conflict of the Chinese immigrant who decides to live in the United States but carries the values of her native country with her and therefore, finds it difficult to accept other types of behavior, such as the actions of the Irish family. Her internal conflict is evident when she
• What are the ways in which each major character experiences conflict (either with self, with other characters, or with the social and/or physical environment)?
Japan is home to millions of individuals. All of them with different beliefs, religions, and traditions. Japan has a long and influential visual arts history. More specifically, the Japanese film industry has had a large influence on the cinematic world stage. Due to Japans tragic and destructive history, several different categories of society were affected. Their economic industry and visual arts industry are just some examples. Japans history has had consequences on both its social and political sectors. These reactions/repercussions can be seen in Japans film industry. In my paper, I will be looking at the political and social issues involved in the movies Spirited Away and Roshamon. The repercussions of World War 2 are important in understanding both of these Japanese films. The women portrayed in these films are both respected and docile. Moreover, the genres of these films have had a lasting effect on society.
First, power distance is the first dimension in Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. Power distance is the “extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 2017). When comparing China and the United States, China had twice as high power distance score than the United States. The high-power distance score in China shows that it is acceptable to have inequalities in their society, and that the people accept and expect power is distributed unequally.
There are age related conflicts, cultural conflicts, religious conflicts and value based conflicts. This movie is a film highlighting many cultural conflicts. These conflicts continuously erupt in a working class Michigan neighborhood. We will first examine a scene with religious cultural conflict. In the same scene we will see age based cultural conflict as well. Next, we will examine a racial cultural conflict between the Hmong people and an American. After examining cultural conflicts, we will show two examples of popular culture in the film. Then, we will provide the conflict management styles we would have employed to bring the same result as the current ending without the bloodshed and a general opinion of the film.
The world is full of cultural collisions. Every day people meet other with different worldviews. This concept of cultural collision, is shown perfectly though Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. In the story it is the cultural collision, of the introduction of Western Ideas into the ibo society, that causes Achebe’s characters to grow and change. One character in particular is forced to reevaluate his sense of identity because of the cultural collision. This is the character of Okonkwo. The collision challenges Okonkwo’s sense of self, as a religious leader or an Egwugwu, as a leader of his people, and as a man. It is Okonkwo’s response to these challenges, that shapes the meaning of the book of that as your world changes so must you or you
Hierarchy and status are considered highly important in both Japan and Mexico in addition to a strong separation between the work and home life. Both Mexico and Japan rely on strong work relationships and loyalty in addition to having top down style of commination and information flow. Both countries have a belief in collectivism over individualism, according to Hofstede’s Value Dimensions, with Japan slightly higher on the index, similarly for the masculinity index. The implications of these characteristics can be viewed in each countries’ management approach. These societal values and characteristics influence each countries’ business behavior and methodologies. (Deresky, 2014)
Doing orientation, power distance and determinism are three cultural values that connect with the United States expectations of competition, achievement and personal goals. Doing orientation supports the American expectation of competition because doing orientation is an employee valuing work priorities over personal priorities (Kirkman, Gibson & Shapiro, 2001). This connects to competition because if a person is focusing more on work then they value work and would compete against another employee to keep their job if the opportunity presented itself. Status and power are desirable in America so power distance is encouraged because it puts a high importance on status and power, which is something they work to achieve (Kirkman, Gibson & Shapiro, 2001). Determinism on the other hand is something America is low in because they do not view their failures or successes are in
Another cultural issue that is mentioned in the film is ritualization. In the film, the Colonel is impressed by the importance of rituals in Japan. This ritualization is shown completely in this film. For example, In the other places, it is rare to see clients and geisha bowing to each other before the intercourse, but this is a norm in Japan.
Dr. Hofstede performed a comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. In the 1970’s, as a Dutch researcher Dr. Geert Hofstede, collected and analyzed data from 116,000 surveys taken from IBM employees in forty different countries around the world. From those results, Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions of differentiate cultures. These include: Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Masculinity-Femininity (MAS), Individualism-Collectivism (IND), Power and Distance (PD). After a further study of the Asian culture by researcher Michael Bond in 1991, Hofstede added a fifth dimension in his theory, Long- and Short-term time orientation (LTO), also referred to as the Confucian Dynamism. His research has framed how cultural differences can be used in professional business transactions. Geert Hofstede 's dimensions analysis can assist the business person in better understanding the intercultural differences within regions and between countries.
culture. This movie clearly brings out the cultural clashes and conflicts between the high context Chinese culture and the low context American culture.
Power Distance is the dimension that deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of power distance a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable, therefore subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defence against power abuse by superiors. Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People
The dimension of power distance affect the HR activities by reactions to management authority differently among cultures. There will be greater status and authority differences between superiors and subordinates if the power distance increases. The next factor is individualism which it can up to which people in a country prefer to act as individual in the group. Asian countries more toward to group-oriented meanwhile United Stated more prefer to individualism. The last factor are masculinity and femininity which means masculine is for men and femininity is for women. The person with assertiveness, success, and competitiveness well known as masculine meanwhile feminine known by quality of life, close personal relationships, and
As far back as history can be told mankind has struggled between balancing culture, power and politics. Many wars have been fought and many people have placed their lives on the line in order to stand up for what they believe in. The combinations of culture, power and politics have spilled over into the workplace. In today’s business environment individuals have much more to worry about than just completing their assigned tasks. Organizational culture, power and office politics influence day to day operations as well as govern the atmosphere within the organization. The amount of impact that power and politics have in the workplace, directly reflect the organization’s culture formally as well as informally.