HOFSTEDE CULTURAL DIMENSIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF JAPAN

Team members :
ATUL GUPTA AKASH SHARMA BHUPENDAR SHARMA MOHIT FAUZDAR NITESH AGARWAL SUMIT SOMANI

Introduction
Geert H. Hofstede was born on October 2, 1928 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He received his M.Sc. from the Delft Institute of Technology in 1953, his Ph.D. (cum laude) from Groningen University in 1967. Hofstede served in the Netherlands Army from 1953 to 1955. conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. From 1967 to 1973, while working at IBM as a psychologist, he collected and analyzed data from over 100,000 individuals from forty countries. From those results, and later additions, Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions to differentiate cultures. He later added a fifth dimension, Longterm Outlook.

Introduction Of the CountryJapan has a population of approximately 125 million people packed tightly into a rather small geographic area. The official language in Japan is Japanese. Japanese is spoken only in Japan. The literacy rate in Japan is very close to 100 percent and 95 percent of the Japanese population has a high school education. Japans form of government is parliamentarian democracy under the rule of a constitutional monarch. The Prime Minister is the chief government officer. The dominant religion is Shinto, which is exclusive to Japan. However, the Japanese have no official religion. Culturally, the Japanese tend to be somewhat introverted in their ways. They generally are not receptive to outsiders. When conducting business in Japan relationships and loyalty to the group is critical for success.

*POWER DISTANCE*

Power distance
Power

distance indicates the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally among individuals.

Hofstede: Power Distance

This

dimension focuses on how a society deals with levels of status or social power (and how much they perceive such status as good or bad (right or wrong, just or unjust, fair or unfair)

Basic areas of inequality:

Physical

/ mental abilities and characteristics Social status and prestige Wealth Power Law, rights, rules

High Power Distance company:

Employees

are expected to stay in their place and not make

waves. People who can actually make important decisions are inaccessible, protected by layers of middle management. Managers view employees who challenge norms or questioning decisions as disrespecting their authority. Priority is placed never making embarrassing mistakes, making it difficult to take a stand on anything. Managers are looking for immediately demonstrable results, leading to a focus on tactics over strategy. The powerful feel they have so much to lose that they instinctively go on the defense, only approving safe, comfortable, familiar solutions.

Low Power Distance organization:

Employees

see the results of their actions, and can really feel the difference between what works and what doesnt. Creative ideas can come from anyone. Employees are encouraged to speak up instead of sitting quietly. Lower-level employees are empowered to make important decisions, allowing them to happen quickly and with more context. The company culture values employees who question decisions and challenge accepted norms. Employees are encouraged to try new ideas and allowed to fail gracefully, helping them feel its safe environment for innovation (which leads to the big game-changing ideas). Executives understand the dangers of comfort and monotony(Lack of variety and interest), and they demonstrate their willingness to attempt bold and innovative solution.

Power Distance in Context of Japan

Moderate PDI

Individualism and Collectivism*

INDIVIDUALISM
Individualism stands

for a society in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family only.

COLLECTIVISM
Collectivism

stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive in-groups, which throughout peoples lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty

Differential Values
Individualism Independent Goals Compete Unique Private self-knowledge Direct communication Collectivism Related Belong Duty Harmony Advice Context Hierarchy Group

Traits of high individualistic countries

A person's identity revolves around the "I Personal goals and achievement are strived for It is acceptable to pursue individual goals at the expense of others 'Individualism' is encouraged whether it be personality, clothes or music tastes The right of the individual reign supreme; thus laws to protect choices and freedom of speech

Traits of high Collectivism countries

"We" is more important that "I
Conformity

is expected and perceived positively Individual's desires and aspirations should be curbed if necessary for the good of the group The rights of the family are more important. Rules provide stability, order, obedience

Individualistic Countries
Most Individualistic U.S. Australia Great Britain Canada Netherlands
Least Individualistic (Most collective) Guatemala Ecuador Panama Venezuela Indonesia South Korea Taiwan

100

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

U.S.A. Canada Germany Japan France

ID

Netherlands Hong Kong Indonesia West Africa Russia P.R.C

Country wise graph

Individualism / Collectivism at org.

Employee-employer

relationship Hiring and promotion decisions Managerial focus Task vs. relationship priority

JAPAN me-ism and group-ism

Individualism V/s Collectivism (40) The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups.

Japans low score in this dimension makes them a collectivist society. This behavior is inbuilt in them from childhood. Correlated with the moderate power distance & a sense of group belongingness. Success is highly dependent on group efforts in japan. Maintaining the group harmoney is advisable.

MASCULINITY V/S FEMININITY

Masculinity
Masculinity

focuses on the degree the society reinforces, or does not reinforce, the traditional masculine work role model of male achievement, control, and power. A High Masculinity ranking indicates the country experiences a high degree of gender differentiation. In these cultures, males dominate a significant portion of the society and power structure, with females being controlled by male domination. A Low Masculinity ranking indicates the country has a low level of differentiation and discrimination between genders. In these cultures, females are treated equally to males in all aspects of the society.

Femininity
refers

to the distribution of emotional roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. IBM studies revealed that(a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other. The assertive pole has been called masculine and the modest, caring pole feminine.

Hofstedes Masculinity/ Femininity Dimension

Gender

differentiation strikes anyone who visits Japan or who studies the Japanese language, which decrees that men use different speech patterns and words from women Hofstede has confirmed this observation empirically. Japan ranked highest in the world, with a 95 Masculinity (MAS) score.

JAPAN GRAPH

Uncertainty Avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance is deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man's search for truth
risk

found in life and the resulting beliefs and institutions that the society has created to try to avoid these. The high positive scores on the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) indicate low tolerance for ambiguity and unstructured situation. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy.

The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible,
Weak Uncertainty Avoidance 1.Uncertainty is a normal feature of life 2.Comfortable in ambiguous situations and with unfamiliar risks 3.What is different is curious 4.Students comfortable with open-ended learning situations

5.There should not be more rules than is necessary 6.One groups truth should not be imposed on others

Strong Uncertainty Avoidance 1.Uncertainty in life is a continuous threat which must be fought 2.Fear of ambiguous situations and of unfamiliar risks 3.What is different is dangerous 4.Students comfortable in structured learning situations
5.Emotional need for rules, even if they will never work 6.There is only one truth and we have it

Japan
Japan

has a high score of uncertainty in the workplace making them are unable to work in unexpected situation. They prefer to use sets of protocol, rules and regulation to avoid making mistakes. Japanese do not like drastic changes. According to a study, during the 1990s communication explosion. Japanese prefer to use mobile phones rather than computers As an international manager, instructions given to employees must also be fixed and making changes in between will make subordinates fell unsecure. It must be done in a strict and serious approach. Ex:environmental change. As a manager its always a necessity to follow the specific rules and procedures in consensus manner. Research by Nakai Fuki (2002) Japanese are more reluctant to express their ideas or feelings clearly because they fear they might damage the atmosphere of interpersonal harmony. This practice will allow a sense of security towards the subordinates.

4. Uncertainty Avoidance - how society and individuals attempt to deal with the inherent uncertainties in life
Rank 1 2 3 Country Greece Portugal Guatemala Score 112 104 101 Rank 28 29 30 Country Equador Germany (West) Thailand Score 67 65 64

4
5 5 7 8 9 10

Uruguay
Belgium Salvador Japan Yugoslavia Peru France

100
94 94 92 88 87 86

31
31 33 34 35 36 37

Iran
Finland Switzerland West Africa Netherlands East Africa Australia

59
59 58 54 53 52 51

10
10 10 10 10 16 16 18 19 20 21 21 23 24 24 26 27

Chile
Spain Costa Rica Panama Argentina Turkey South Korea Mexico Israel Columbia Venezuela Brazil Italy Pakistan Austria Taiwan Arab Countries

86
86 86 86 86 85 85 82 81 80 76 76 75 70 70 69 68

38
39 39 41 41 43 44 45 46 47 47 49 49 51 52 53

Norway
South Africa New Zealand Indonesia Canada USA Philippines India Malaysia Great Britain Ireland Hong Kong Sweden Denmark Jamaica Singapore

50
49 49 48 48 46 44 40 36 35 35 29 29 23 13 8