Cultural Approach in in American and Japanese Corporate Cultures

There are some problems that appear when American expantriates come to Japan or Japanese firms enter American market - most of them nothing else but cultural approaches that make differences in how these two nations understand see corporate culture and business in general: Employment system. Comparing to the U. S. labor market, the Japanese market is very different because of the lifetime employment system in Japan. As a result, Americans and Japanese have different approaches to compensation packages for employees, job evaluation, rate move up the career ladder and, of course, a job change.Personnel Management.

The system of lifetime employment in raising employee loyalty to the company and promotes the development of stable-specific skills. However, in Japan it may be considered an advantage, but when a Japanese company is expanding overseas, it is a weakness. Also such personnel management style limits the number of non-Japanese employees. Naturally, this creates a lot of problems if the company operates in international markets. Corporate culture adoptation.

Since the Japanese typically work at one company throughout their careers, Japanese companies are trying to develop their own internal corporate culture, which is also called congenital. This culture is so strong and closed, that even locals (not to mention expatriates from other countries) find it very difficult to get used to it, especially in the middle of their career. Cross-cultural communication experience. Americans and Japanese are not enough experienced in communication with people from other countries.

And even in US-based Japan firms non-Japanese employees are frequently excluded from information flow, which occurs primarily in the Japanese language among Japanese expatriates and head office employees. Ethnocentric. Most Japanese feel uncomfortable when they have to deal with foreigners, particularly Americans. The problem of Americans for Japanese is that they convince that the American style of management is the best in the world and Japanese often consider such behavior as arrogant.

Communication model. Japanese and American communication models are different.American style is straightforward and prone to open discussion. Japanese style is much more uncertain. Often to realize what the Japanese manager has in his or her mind, you can only by tone of voice and subtleties of language by deciphering.

Japanese are negative to any informal debates, because that implies an open exchange of views. Leadership styles. American managers are direct, they expect their subordinates detailed plans, clear digits. Japanese call American "strong leadership" style insensitive and dictatorial.Japanese managers at first prefer to prepare the ground for decision making. Internal management and decision-making model.

American companies are guided by financial rewarding employees, they value their individuality and autonomy. Each manager has a clear role, and he or she is responsible for any implementations. Within its mandate, the American manager is entitled to everything. Japanese companies, by contrast, practice an intuitive approach to management. Managers have a vague role. In Japanese companies they use a principle of group decision-making.

Centralized management processes.In many Japanese companies decisions are centralized, and the last word is always from the head office. This practice eliminates the independent behavior of branches. Language.

Very few Americans know Japanese enough to use it for business. And most of Japanese speak English well, at least they are able to conduct business negotiations and read documents in English. However, like all normal people, they prefer to do business in their native language. And upper-level positions are usually reserved for Japanese employees even if a company operates overseas.