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谢谢我们的老师 Philip Rose 

1.      Introduction

This report is going to analysis the movie Gung Ho relative to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Then give suggestions on what things can American’ learn from the Japanese way of business management, and what can the Japanese learn from the American style of Business management.

     2.  Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

2.1 High and Low power distance business culture

According to Hofstede’s (1986) power distance dimension which focused on how a society deals with the fact that people are unequal in physical and intellectual capability, high power distance cultures were found in countries that put more emphasis on the development of personal ability than the power and wealth, while the low power distance cultures pay more attention to the restraint forces of power. For example in the beginning of the movie, in Japan, the Japanese managers who failed were facing the punishment with all kinds of shame sticking on their cloth. And even being strapped liked they are slaves but no one ever resisted. Also the organization in Japan shows clear differences in rank, people from different level behave different ways. All these apparently show that Japan is a high power distance culture country.

Workers in American can have more flexibility in their workplaces, they can dance, listen to music when they are working (showed in the movie), and rank differences ignore in certain situations, for example the manager Hunt was the manager in the factory but outside the work, Hunt and his workers are friends. Those indicate that American is a low power distance culture.        

2.2 Individual and collective business culture

Hofstede (1986), states that in individualistic societies, the ties between the individuals were loose and individual achievement and freedom were highly valued. In societies where collectivism was emphasized, people integrated into strong groups and everyone was supposed to look after the interest of his or her collective.

There are many scenes in the movie show the individual and collective business culture differences between Japan and American. The most impressive one maybe that Kenji’s wife ask he to assemble the bicycle which is a birthday gift for his son, but he refuse because he’s busying in working, his wife became mad at him that she shouted “why American man can have time for their children.” It clearly shows that Japanese are so collective that they can even sacrifice their family for the interest of the company. While the Americans whom showed more individual seldom or won’t do that. Also doing the Japanese morning exercise together is also new to individual culture countries like Americans.     

2.3 Masculine and Feminine business culture

Hofstede (1986) suggests that in masculine cultures, social gender roles are significant different, tough values like achievement, assertiveness and competition, determined cultural ideals. In feminine cultures, sex roles were less sharply distinguished. We can see in the movie the role Japanese men and women played in life are totally different, men work outside and women take care of the house and children at home. In American little differentiation was made between men and women. We can found out in the scene that when the men are going to have a meeting after dinner in Kenji’s home, the wife of Japanese men left right away, but Hunt’s girl friend stay still and had no willing to leave. It shows that Japan is more masculine and American more feminine.     

2.4 Low and High uncertainty avoidance business culture

     Hofstede (1986) says that uncertainty avoidance dimension measured the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by unknown or uncertain situation. The movie shows that Japan is high uncertainty avoidance and American is low uncertainty. As you can see when Hunt invites Kenji to play baseball, and the day the Japanese show out in tiny uniform suit, then warm up and so on, in a word, everything is in order, certainly under some instructions. While the Americans look more easygoing, leisure suits as usual, not frighten of uncertainty.    

    3.  Recommendation

    In my opinion, proper collectivism is good for American because it can make workers more loyal to the company which will improve the efficiency. And Japanese should give more free to their workers, instructions, orders should give as less as possible, create a low uncertain avoidance environment can inspire ideas and innovation. However, when we learn something from different countries or cultures, it is important that we should integrate the theory with our local practice or fact.        

    4.  References

Movie:《Gung Ho》

Book: Hofstede (1986),”The Cultural relativity of Organizational Practices and Theories”