...Cross Cultural Communications between Canada and Japan Management 340 December 2, 2010 Executive Summary Japan witch is located off the eastern edge of Asia has a current population of 127 million people. Japan witch operates as a free market has the 3rd largest economy in the world and has a labour force of over 65 million people. In Japanese culture is expected that employees have lifetime commitment to their employers. The Japanese people recognize responsibility and work as extremely important characteristics of their culture. The responsibilities are divided into very small details and are incorporated into a family-style working environment. Business leaders and management participate in all activities. The employees in Japan are motivated by private recognition, the corporate missions of the company, stability, and most importantly being part of a winning team. Formal meetings are considered times for employee to share ideas and visions. In Japanese culture employees can contribute regardless of status. Furthermore informal meetings are seen as occasions to build personal relationships and should contain no direct business discussions. Since Japan has one of the most indirect languages, and many messages are metaphorical it is important to refrain from saying terms such as “No” and “You”; these terms can be seen as rude and should be placed with appropriate terms. Instead of saying “You”, refer to contact by their last name...
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...I. Introduction When conducting business in a country with a culture that is unknown to you, it is best to prepare and understand that country's traditions and culture as best as possible. In order to be successful in business in Japan, one must understand the dynamics of an intercultural relationship on a business level as well as a personal level to ensure that no offense is created . This report will focus on Japan; what differences we see between Japan and Canada culturally while studying abroad, and what helps create a strong successful business relationship. II. Determinants of Culture Culture is a system of values and normalities that are considered a way of life in society. Culture influences how we think, talk, pray, eat, dress, interact and, communicate. Our behaviour, attitude, personality and beliefs have been shaped by the culture we were raised in. “Culture is transmitted through language, material objects, ritual, institutions and art, from one generation to the next.” (n.d., Dictionary) Even with the effects of globalization, countries around the world are still distinct from one another. So how do we really set apart one culture from another? Here are the determinants of culture: * Social Structure - Consists of institutions, rules, and practices. Social structure assigns roles and powers to individuals in a society. It is the social relation of one person to another person where a stable arrangement of institutions by which the people in...
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...organization. There are essentially two types: hierarchical, and democratic. In a hierarchical structure the most power is held by the highest ranking individual, where as in a democratic structure, power distribution is uniformed among the individuals. The classification of high-context versus low-context cultures based on the amount of information that is implied versus stated directly in a communication message. In high-context cultures, the meanings of the messages are found in the situation and in the relationships of the communicators, or are internalized in the communicator’s beliefs, values, and norms. In low-context cultures, less emphasis is placed on the context. Instead they rely on explicit verbal messages. Understanding these differences is essential to accurately decoding the message. Communication specialists estimate that three-fourths of our communication is nonverbal and takes place through our behavior. Nonverbal cues serve as the markers of ones’ identities. The way people dress, the accent pattern, and the nonverbal way of gesturing, all deliver messages to others. A culture’s perception of time can alter the message being communicated. In a culture that uses linear time, tasks are sequential. The focus is on the task to be completed within a certain framework. Cultures that view time as flexible are reluctant to strictly measure or...
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...Assessment of Japan Bobbi Rieger, Chelsea Bergman, Sanam Amid-Hozour, Shirabe Yoshida University of British Columbia Okanagan In order to expand Webster Incorporated into the global market we have to consider which market would permit Webster Inc. to enter while allowing them room to grow as the competition is fierce within the faux wood industry. Our team believes the most profitable option for a global market in regards to expansion would be Japan. There are many reasons as to why this would be beneficial to Webster Incorporated. Historically, Japan and Canada have had high levels of exchanges, all the while maintaining a stable relationship. Trade between the Japanese-Canadian markets has been approximately equal in terms of importation and exportation. The most important factor of this being that one of Canada's major exports to Japan is lumber. Currently, there is a trade agreement between the two; the “Innovative Japan-Canada Economic Framework” was launched in 2005 to maximize the Japan-Canada economic relations and cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2011). More recently, in June of 2010 the customs administrations of Japan and Canada have signed the Mutual Recognition Agreement on Authorized Economic Operator programs. This program has allowed simplified and fast-tracked customs proceedings (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2011). These proceedings will contribute to furthering secure and facilitated trade between the two...
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...International Management (Fall Semester) Individual Case Write Up 1: Amazon Goes Global 1. Why did Amazon choose the United Kingdom as its first entry location? Why not other countries such as Canada and Austrlia? With the emergence of a global marketplace, Amazon has since ridden on the waves of the opportunities that comes with globalisation. After more than a decade of expansion, Amazon’s international operations accounted for about 43 per cent of its revenue, bringing in $26.28 billion in 2012. This shows the significance of targeting the international markets. However, entry into foreign market does not come without risks and costs that resulted from barriers created by distance. The CAGE Framework of distance by Ghemawat explained distance as 4 main attributes – Cultural, Administrative, Geographic, Economic.1 To address these risks and costs, it is crucial to first assess the extent and type of differences between the USA market and the United Kingdom market. Amazon’s entry into United Kingdom (UK) can be attributed to minimal distance and various similarities, which allowed Amazon to significantly reduce risks and costs. Primarily, the UK market has a lot of similarities to the US market in terms of cultural, administrative and economic distance. UK has the second most number of native English speakers (60 million), after US (231 million), and is also the place where English was first spoken. Since books were the primary products sold by Amazon, the similarity...
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...can never be equally balanced between people. People come from different countries with different cultural backgrounds may have divers perceptions toward such unequal distribution of power. It is apparent that people from some cultures or countries such as Japan, China, and Malaysia are more tolerant of power inequality than those from western countries as Canada, America or Netherlands. Japan is a representative country known as its high power distance compared to other countries. Japanese employees are highly depending on their boss or people who are higher position than they are insight of whether their performance or behavior is right or wrong. People who are less powerful in the workplace are generally not encouraged or too afraid to express their disagreement or opposite idea to their managers or senior workers. On the other hand, in the western countries such as America, employees or even children are encouraged to express their feeling or even disagreements to their managers or parents even if it could be a little disrespectful. Brainstorming is one of the key to enhance people’s creativity to most western countries but being considered as disrespectful in most Asian corporations. Culture difference results in different power distance in the workplace have been an essential issue for managers to regulate their employees with different backgrounds and cultures. Let’s take two corporations examples from Asian and western countries, IMB Japan and Dell Inc. Dell Inc. as...
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...2007). Hofstede, a Dutch academic wished to find an explanation for cultural differences across the world, in relation to society and business. He began by researching why various concepts of motivation did not work in the same manner in all countries. Hofstede based his studies on an extensive IBM database, receiving 116,000 questionnaires from IBM employees from over 70 countries, and in 20 languages. The gathering and evaluation of this study took 6 years, at the end of which, Hofstede concluded that the way people in different countries perceive and interpret their world varies along 4 dimensions. Hofstede’s model is known as the 4+1 model due to the addition of another dimension some years later. Theoretically this model appears to be effective in business context, however, after in-depth analysis, it can be seen that difficulties may arise for the international manager when trying to apply it. The first dimension, Power Distance, refers to the degree of inequality between people in both physical and educational conditions in a culture. In ‘High Power distance’ societies, the power is concentrated amongst the few highest people, of who make all the decisions. Therefore, the others in society have no choice but to obey, and carry out the decisions made. Differences in wealth and power are accepted more readily in these types of societies, a prime example of a high power distance society would be Japan. In “Low Power distance” societies, power is much more widely circulated...
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...the town’s biggest employer-a failing automobile assembly factory. He is sent to Japan to convince the Japanese that buying this factory is in mutual interest. The movie is about how the Japanese and American cultures try to work together to successfully run the factory. For the most part, the Japanese management and the American workers cannot manage to get along because of cultural differences. The Japanese insisted on discipline, company fitness routines, and putting work before family. Keaton gets into a dispute with one Japanese middle manager over the man's unwillingness to stand up to his own uncle to ask for some time off to be with his newly born child. In the United States, people value individual rights whereas Japanese people have priority over the overall good of the group so that their individual. It is believed that Americans show more concern for interests of themselves and their families, rather than others. Therefore the early leave is acceptable within the American companies. However, being part of the group is essential in Japan; therefore, that request for early leave is against the overall good of the team, and slowing down the production. There were examples of differences as obvious as the eating in two separate break rooms. This was a very funny movie. I really enjoyed it, but I also learned a lot from it, too. It’s easy to laugh at the dramatized misunderstandings between the Japanese and the Americans, but these problems really do exist in real life...
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... Ó Springer 2007 Cultural Values and International Differences Bert Scholtens Lammertjan Dam in Business Ethics ABSTRACT. We analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences. We look into the firm’s human rights policy, its governance of bribery and corruption, and the comprehensiveness, implementation and communication of its codes of ethics. We use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2,700 firms in 24 countries. We find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered in different countries. When we associate these ethical policies with Hofstede’s cultural indicators, we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm’s ethical policies, whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies. KEYWORDS: business ethics, codes of ethics, cultural values JEL: G300, L210, M140 Introduction Are there differences with respect to the ethical policies of firms that are headquartered in different countries? And are there differences among firms that belong to different industries? Chryssides and Bert Scholtens received his Ph.D. at the Universtiy of Amsterdam. Since 1999 he has been working at the Department of Finance of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research particularly looks into the interaction between financial institutions...
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...What is goal congruence? It simply means making sure your goals are in harmony with and aligned to what you really want in life. An Important Illustration: Let's say you hate your job so you set a new goal find another job. You're so desperate and emotional to leave your current work situation you focus your goal on what you are feeling in the moment. Your goal: Find a better job, that pays money, with less stress. Maybe you follow the SMART goals formula and add specifics that you can measure, such as you want to find this job within four months and your minimum salary requirement is 10% more than your current job. Let's say four months later you achieve your goals - you have a better paying job and less stress. However, you're still dissatisfied, because the new job is not challenging. Your workday seems extremely long and you're unhappy. When you ensure your goals are aligned with what really want in life then you will be happier in the long run. If you would have taken the time to focus on what you really wanted your job search may have taken you in a new direction. In the end, you'd be doing work you love, with more energy, and interest. You'd feel a sense of accomplishment and be happier. Never underestimate the power of effectively aligning your goal. It's the foundation for really smart goals. Objective: Setting Personal Goals that Will Spark Your Enthusiasm and Lead to Lasting Success You Want to Be With the 3% That Succeed! 97% of people do not know how...
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...the lives of large numbers of people. Their earlier perceptions about such a loss of saliency coincides with the 19th century emergence of modern-industrial states, where social theorists such as Durkheim, Weber and Marx, theorised that status based social differentiation was replaced by the social class as the driving force in society. Ethnicity and racial differences were viewed as surviving anachronisms, dating from pre-modern, traditional societies. This analysis was shared by social commentators and policy-makers who operated with an often implicit view that assimilation of minority groups had either occurred, or was in progress. The trend towards global cultural homogenisation, typified by the metaphor of the "global village ", presaged a quickening of this type of development. Even in those industrial nations such as Australia, Canada or the USA which continued to receive large numbers of immigrants, assimilation was viewed as the inevitable process. By the 1960s, the ethnic rights movement and unrest in a number of the Western industrial countries led to increased questioning of assumptions that ethnic differences were of declining significance. The re-emergence of major ethnic divisions within the former USSR and Eastern Europe has coincided with a major growth of international population movements as a response to economic changes as much as political unrest or demographic pressures (Castles & Miller 1993;Kritz et al 1992; Stahl et al 1993). Together these changes...
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...Chapter 1 The Scope and Challenge of International Marketing * International Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. * Differences of Intl Marketing from National marketing: the difficulties created by different environments and the need to coordinate international expansions across cultures to achieve efficiency and effectiveness to achieve firms’ goals. * Globalization: the increased mobility of goods, services, labor, technology, capital throughout the world. * HOW does globalization affect Canadian marketers? Positive impacts * marketers how now much more access to more information about their markets and consumers (domestically and internationally) * much easier communication with suppliers and consumers today * because of free trade agreements, easier to penetrate/venture into other foreign markets * opportunities to lowering production and marketing costs due to the ability to standardize products and processes * and ultimately benefit from having to deal with fewer national currencies (e.g transactions could be in US Dollar, or Euros because EU nations use that), which reduces risks and costs. Negative impacts * small Canadian companies and marketers find it difficult to compete on an even playing field with larger transnational companies. * Globalization is forcing...
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...globalization is rampant in the business world between all continents. Fueled by transnational circulation of ideologies, languages and the use of bi-lateral ties to improve the economies of less developed countries to the extent of embracing enhanced forms of barter system such as to use the population of a lesser developed country to manufacture products for a 1st world country. Jobs are created for the needy; products are manufactured for the other. Student exchange is a form of a globalization effort where students are exposed to an alternative lifestyle. Candidates who take part in such programs, such as the one run by The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations or CLAIR together with several Japanese Ministries, brings in to Japan, participants from over 36 countries with a total of *4,334 participants to date in a globalized effort to promote grass roots internationalization at the local level by inviting these participants to assist in international exchange and foreign language education in their local governments, boards of education and schools through out in Japan. The Japanese seeks to foster ties between the Japanese citizens and the participants through a project known as JET or The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. Challenges are plenty, but can be resolved. Let’s take a look at a situation that had taken place a couple of years back regarding a student and her superior during her stay in Japan. * Source of information via http://www...
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...INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT Subject : INTERCULTURAL MANAGEMENT INTAKE I |Student’s name |: Trương Vũ Hoàng | | |ID |: VN1001788 | | |Date of completion |: 07/01/2016 | | Topic 1- Analyze the role of cultural factors that can create comparative advantage for a company. Give some relevant examples. CONTENT Culture is a complex category and diversity. To understand the nature of culture, we should consider the cultural elements. Based on the concept of culture,It can be divided into two basic sectors culture which is material culture and spiritual culture. Material culture: the entire value creation is reflected in the material wealth created by man. These are commodity products, working tools and materials consumption, the economic infrastructure such as transport, communications, energy; social infrastructure such as health care, housing, education system and financial infrastructure like banking, insurance and financial services in the society. Material culture is expressed through the material life of the nation. Therefore, material culture will greatly influence to educational level and...
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...INDEX Introduction The challenge of crossing cultural boundaries The meaning of culture: foundation concepts Why culture matters in international business National, professional, and corporate culture Interpretations of culture Key dimensions of culture Language as a key dimension of culture Culture and contemporary issues Managerial guidelines for cross-cultural success Page 1 to 1 Page 1 to 5 Page 5 to 6 Page 7 to 9 Page 9 to 9 Page 10 to 14 Page 14 to 17 Page 17 to 19 Page 19 to 21 Page 21 to 23 1 Introduction There are few things more representative of U.S. culture than American football. It is an extravaganza, complete with exciting halftime shows and peppy cheerleaders. The game exemplifies national pride. The national anthem is played, flags are unfurled, and uniformed players charge up and down the field like an army in the throes of often violent conflict. The teams’ huddles divide the game into small planning sessions for the next play. In the United States, the National Football League (NFL) oversees the sport and, like any successful business, wants to score in new markets. The NFL first tackled Europe in 1991, with plans to establish American football there. After years of failed attempts, NFL Europe emerged as six teams, five of which were based in Germany (such as the Berlin Thunder, the Cologne Centurions, and the Hamburg Sea Devils). Earlier teams established in Spain had failed. Why did American football triumph in Germany but fail in Spain? An...
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