1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney
When East meets West in the Workplace
Diversity: the Source of New Value
Mr Nobuo Tateisi
Vice Chairman, Omron Corporation
Deputy Chair of the Council for Better Corporate Citizenship, Japan
1 .When East meets West in the Workplace
To a greater or lesser extent, friction of some kind always arises when East meets West in the workplace. Like many other Japanese companies, Omron has been operating actively overseas for about 30 years since the 1960s, and it would be no exaggeration to say that the history of this period has been one of both friction and harmony. We have encountered all sorts of differences and confrontations in such areas as negotiations, meetings, contracts, day-to-day management styles, decision-making processes, and even everyday ways of thinking.
But, in many cases this friction has not been a simple matter of East versus West, as many of the problems could equally have occurred between countries within the East or countries within the West.
In each case, problems arise from cultural differences built up over a long period of time. National character, ethnic traits, religious views, traditions, and customs make up cultural identities. Differences in these identities, however, are not limited to those found between East and West.
2. Omron's Experience
In order to get closer to understanding the subject we are considering today, I want to avoid mere conjecture and focus on actual experiences of doing business overseas.
When I learned that the topic of my speech would be "When East meets West in the Workplace" the first thing I thought was that there is a fundamental difference between East and West, and the problem in dealing with these differences lies in finding how to enable the two sides to coexist. Regardless of these differences, however, I believe that overcoming any friction encountered in the workplace can be solved by good management.
Generally speaking, when one of our Japanese managers is appointed to a post in a Western country, I believe there are three stages through which he passes when coming to understand the local situation.
During the first stage, only the differences are noticed. This is a time of realization that ones own way of doing things, which were practiced at home until the day he departed, are not universal. Why is that so? Why are there differences? In view of this, the manager becomes convinced amid the conflict I have mentioned that if the countries differ, then just about everything must be different.
The second stage is when, in the course of the interaction that occurs, he discovers and recognizes the mutual differences, and comes to realize that in the final analysis, we are all human beings and therefore not so different.
In the third stage, he considers how to harmonize the differences between the two sides as far as doing business is concerned, and devises and implements management techniques to do so.
In view of this, when interacting with people from other countries it is vital to be aware of the three cultural facets with which human beings are endowed.
The first of these is the innate human nature that exists in the core of a human being. For example, the dispositions common to all humans, such as joy and anger. This facet differs little between nationalities and races and where differences do exist, they are attributable to people's individuality. Because of its universality, this facet can be readily understood by all people.
The second facet is the cultural layer that masks the outward appearance of this individuality, and is expressed in the form of national character, ethnic character, regional character, and religious character. This is the part of human nature that is acquired from the society and community to which an individual belongs, and is responsible for the formation of a culture that is particular to that society or community. As implied by the subject of my address today, this is the facet that is highly diverse and mutually contradictory.
The third facet is what could be termed "the third culture," comprising the rules, standards of behaviour, and atmosphere of a group organized by diverse people in pursuit of a particular objective. In the case of a company it is the so-called corporate culture and encompasses company regulations, corporate philosophies and corporate missions.
The key to creating harmony among these elements is not to interfere with the second, acquired facet of human nature that is comprised of ethnic and national character and religious, cultural, and historical customs and recognize that it is a fundamentally different element that will always be different, whatever you try to do about it. It is totally fruitless to dwell upon these differences. The other party's culture and values should be recognized and respected, and not interfered with needlessly.
On the contrary, from the standpoint of the first facet I mentioned earlier that of seeing all humans as being the same we should go as far as possible to identify homogeneity and commonness. But as far as doing business is concerned, the third facet applies, in which individual companies should have their own rules and standards of behaviour that are laid down clearly as rules and are closely observed. But of course, even company rules are not immune to cultural influences, and thus there should be mutual discussion aimed at determining the rules that should be obeyed, those rules that need to be revised, and creating this third culture to be lived up to by both sides. In this way, individual corporate cultures for each company are established.
In this context, something that we Japanese are almost always confronted by in the workplace is a sense of values about work that relates to both the second facet of culture and what I have called the third culture, or corporate standards.
Typical examples of this are the sudden issue of instructions for overtime work or for coming in to work on a holiday, or the extension of meetings beyond their scheduled period. Japanese put work and the organization first, unless there is some extraordinary reason for them not to. On the upside this can be called diligence and love of work, but on the downside, self-denial and denial of family are certainly not desirable.
Nevertheless, if people are asked to make a choice between giving priority to their work or their families, Japanese people tend to give maximum priority to their work. By contrast, in the West it is generally accepted that individuality rules, and that individual needs are given priority over those of the company. But if we think carefully about this, it becomes obvious that the problem lies not in the actual giving of orders for overtime or vacation work, but lies with management's way of dealing with this issue. In Europe and the United States it is not the case that no overtime is done. If instructions are issued in a proper manner in accordance with the rules, then overtime is done without objection.
This question of overtime work, although the essence of the problem is not quite the same in Japan, is not confined to Japan. This is illustrated by the tragicomic story of a software engineer in the United States who was so absorbed in his work that he never went home, leading his wife to sue for his return. The situation varies from country to country. In the manufacturing sectors of rapidly growing Asian countries, for example, both companies and employees see overtime as a valuable and indispensable source of income. Management must consider these important cultural differences when creating this third culture in order to create harmony when East meets West in the workplace.
3. Japanese Values
This issue is related to differences in the degree of economic development and in values, and also to management problems. And in Japan, too, in recent years the way of thinking and the values of the younger generation have been undergoing great change. Even in industry, firms have been moving with the timesadopting a more respectful attitude towards the rights of the individual, and devising new norms of corporate behaviour. I think I could add the following comments about the general characteristics of Japanese people with regard to their jobs throwing in a little self-criticism in the process.
Japanese people have a very strong sense of duty towards their work, showing enthusiasm for seeing something right through to its completion, even if this involves self-sacrifice. However, Europeans and Americans are more strategically minded and efficient in regards to working speed and productivity. The Japanese are good at making plans from a long-term perspective, but not necessarily good at implementation of these plans. Decision-making is complex and slow, because priority is given to building a consensus within an organization. But once a decision has been made, the strength of the entire organization is brought to bear, and action is swift. Teamwork is valued in the workplace as reflected in a well-known Japanese poem that states akashingo, mina de watareba kowakunai, or in English "When the light is red, if everyone crosses together there is no fear". Due to this, however, it can often become difficult to ascertain where responsibility lies in a Japanese organization.
A reason for this is that for Japanese people, the concept of teamwork implies the pursuit of homogeneity, in which the concept of the individual is weak. By contrast, teamwork in the West means an aggregation of individuals brought together in order to harness their collective strength.
Japanese companies in the West face so many problems and issues that it would be impossible to count them. As reflected in the mildly self-mocking axiom "Commonsense in Japan is irrationality elsewhere in the world." Primers and handbooks on doing business overseas are published and widely read in Japan as a means of preventing trouble arising as a result of these kinds of differences in culture and commonsense. But it must be said that, despite this, the more deeply rooted in culture these characteristics are, the less likely they are to change.
4. The Asian Century
The problems I have been talking about are drawn from the general experience of Japanese companies, and many arise as a result of factors peculiar to Japan. This does not apply to all Japanese companies, as there are many that are more Westernized and international in character. In the same vein, the example presented by Japan cannot be applied to all other parts of Asia because of its diversity.
There are significant differences even between Japan and its two nearest neighbours, Korea and China. What is more, East Asia is rapidly gaining an important place in the world economy as a growth center, and investment from around the world is increasing sharply. Because of this, the opportunities for the West to encounter the diversity of the East are sure to multiply swiftly in the future.
Given the tremendous diversity of the East, the term "East" is simplistic. If you will permit me to digress slightly, I have the impression that Westerners find the Japanese temperament very similar to that of the Chinese. Some may find this difficult to believe but from the perspective of the Japanese, the temperament of the Chinese people seems closer to that of Westerners. Last year a Japanese research institution, The Life Design Institute, issued a report based on a survey of how the Chinese people regard the Japanese. This report made a number of points and recommendations to Japanese businessmen that show insights into the differences between the Japanese and Chinese people.
First, the way Japanese people assess things is highly distinctive among the peoples of the world, and certainly differs from the way the Chinese assess things. If we follow Japanese rules, we will not be able to have fruitful relationships with the Chinese. We must work to restrain our Japanese attitudes and ways of thinking when dealing with the Chinese.
Second, the Japanese are a homogeneous people whereas contemporary China is highly diverse and complex.
Third, the Chinese are ethnically distinct from the Japanese, and show similar characteristics to Americans. They dislike reliance on groups, and place strong emphasis on the self. They are extremely individualistic though in a way different to Americans.
Fourth, very close friendship is essential for establishing relationships of trust. To develop a relationship with a Chinese person to the point where they will help you without thought of any gain or loss to themselves, you must bare your soul. This is a difficult thing for Japanese people to do.
These four points illustrate how different the Chinese and Japanese are, even though they look physically similar and both use a written language based on Chinese characters.
It is important that we see things from the perspective that whether it be West or East, if countries differ then values will differ too, and thus heterogeneity is natural. From this perspective, these differences must be mutually respected and recognized. And there are aspects on each side that should not be interfered with by the other, for example national character, ethnic character, religious attitudes, and age-old customs. Of particular note is that diversity is considerably more abundant in the East than in the West. Each Eastern nation has a long history and a culture that has evolved to its present form over a long period of time.
When we think of it, the richness of the world lies in the fact that it is not uniform, but abounds in diversity, and that richness has been developed through the accumulation of interchange between the world's diverse elements.
Marco Polo reached China by travelling along the Silk Road; in the age of the great voyages of discovery Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan headed for Asia; and the British East India Company provided spices to the countries of Europe, and through contacts with diverse cultures, also imported splendid products and cultures. And today, after passing through Europe to America, the tide of the world economy is shifting towards Asia, where an age of encounters with a new diversity is dawning. This encounter with an abundance of new cultures can only be described as being tantamount to the discovery of a new continent.
5. Diversity - the Source of New Values
In the global economy in particular, the West has long engaged in international exchange, and in the field of trade and commerce in particular, this long history of commercial interaction has given rise to a common set of rules. These were subsequently laid down as the present-day Western-oriented business rules and systems centered on the industrialized countries, and have become the universal standards for the world as a whole.
In the East, by contrast, countries have historically confined economic activity to within their own borders or to a certain limited area and as a result of this, diverse and independent cultures with significantly different business systems were created.
Today the world economy is progressing away from a conventional regionally-oriented structure, and towards a wide-ranging division of labour. In East Asia we see particularly active flows of investment from around the world into the NIEs, ASEAN, China, Vietnam, and India. The region is achieving rapid economic development as the world's key growth center. Against this backdrop we have seen the emergence of APEC, which combines 18 nations and territories in Asia, Oceania, and the Americas in a single broad economic area, and which is dedicated to liberalizing trade and investment within the area, and to fostering mutual economic development. APEC ranks as one of the world's foremost economic areas, along with the EU and NAFTA, and amid the trend towards globalization represented by the World Trade Organization, it has great prospects.
Just as in the past, contacts and interaction between East and West have given rise to the creation of a new culture. Amid the present great tide of globalization sweeping the world, we are ushering in an era in which we will see the evolution of a new culture created through the interaction between diverse cultures over a more extensive area than we have ever seen before. At the same time this will be an age of new encounters between the diverse cultures of East and West.
When East meets West in the workplace, this brings about the creation of new cultural values, and the encounters between this diversity are the wellsprings of the creation of these new cultural values.
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