COMPARISON OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN U.S.A AND JAPAN

Presentation by,

Vishnu v s

Ist sem MBA

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.

JAPAN

The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (US), America, or simply the States, is a federal republic consisting of 50 states, 16 territories, and a federal district.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

speeD v/S Consistency

Speed vs. Consistency Generally U.S. company’s decision making is quick. Superiors give some great leeway to subordinates so that they can decide and make decisions quickly. Unfortunately there are some errors that can come because of that.

Japanese company’s decision making is in stages along their corporate hierarchy. Their decisions are very cautious and conservative and sometimes slower than U.S. companies. These stages are backed by plenty of meetings and documentation. This minimizes error and brings consistency at all levels.

Roles & Responsibilities

Roles & Responsibilities for Individual vs. Group

The U.S. company’s roles are very individualized. Contribution of individual is very important as linked to company goals.

Japanese companies require individual contribution to the whole group but recognize that the whole group must succeed otherwise the individual’s contribution has no meaning.

RisK TakerS v/S risk Adverse cultureS

Risk Takers vs. Risk Adverse cultures

If we ask something to achieve for them, they’ll say “We can do it” even they thought they can do it 50-70% probabilities. After they accepted, they try to achieve as close to 100%.

If the Japanese feel that it’s possible to achieve most likely 100%, they don’t say “Yes”. Their agreement is careful because they want to be accurate. They make sure it is exactly 100%What the Japanese say is important. If they are not right it will reflect bad on them.

Time Spent

Time Spent Collaborating vs. Collaborating Time

Spent

US companies aim to do meetings efficiently as much as they can. The meetings are fewer and less time. If meetings are too plenty the people seem to resist them.

Meetings are very common in large companies. They value the process to agree with everyone who is related to their project, so they have many meetings and spend a lot of time in meetings.

CommunicatioN

Remote vs. Face-to-Face communications

Contacting clients by email or on the phone seems to be more natural in conducting business relationships.

They respect meeting each other face to face. It is important to them for conducting business relationships.

StructurE

Loose vs Structured Working Styles

Basically the working style is almost the same as Japan. It is very flexible, where working from home is very normal. They have a cubicles for each employee which focuses on a persons independence-high walls, isolation, and spaciousness.

Most Japanese companies work regular office hours and they don’t permit working at home. The work environment is set like a school class where the head of the department is at the top of a row of desks. There are group oriented- no walls, no cubicles and closeness.

RewarD

Self-Sponsored vs. Company-Sponsored Retirement Rewards

employee salary system, This system is one of the things that does not encourage people to stay with companies. One exception is the pension systems in the US.

Japanese are encouraged to stay in one company by the monetary rewards. These are company sponsored payments independent of the person’s salary. The longer they stay the higher the company sponsored payout is to them.

Personal life v/S work lifE

Personal Life vs. Professional Life

Family and personal time is the priority in the US. Work-Life balance is a must. There is some socializing outside of work but not as a group.

In Japan, priority is on the work life. It is given work is the center of life.

Did you KnoW..?

Japan's literacy rate is almost 100%.

Coffee is very popular and Japan imports approximately 85% of Jamaica's annual coffee production

Many couples in Japan celebrate Christmas like Valentine's Day. It is definitely more of a "lovers" holiday in Japan

Did you knoW..?Twenty-seven percent of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

Liberty was a gift from france, seven rays on her

crown represents the seven continents

the

The current flag of the U.S.A was designed by a 17- year

old for a school project.