Crashes in Culture and Custom: Kelly's Family in Japan - Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

• EXPLAIN THE CRASHES IN CULTURE, CUSTOMS AND EXPECTATIONS THAT OCCURRED IN THE SITUATION.

From the case, they seemed to be numerous complications between what Kelly and her Japanese employees were expecting and the actual reality. These areas of crashes are:

1.1 Management – from what Peter told Kelly, the Japanese employees were expecting a male manager. This showcases differences in terms of power distance between both countries. To the Americans, management is not about gender but about capabilities of the person in charge, and it is due to their low power distances between men and women. However, the Japanese society has a high power distance and men cannot accept taking orders from a female manager and this influence their response and willingness to communicate with each other. Actually, it can be argued to be the reason why Michio's company didn't want to conclude the deal as they were very reluctant to have any conversation with Kelly at the first place.

1.2 Greeting – the westerners have more of a casual form of greeting that ranges from "hi" to "what is your name", as illustrated in the case study, but their Japanese counterparts preferred sharing their information through a detailed complimentary card with their positions and achievements. Kelly did not understand this cultural crash and it resulted to Michio's CEO becoming embarrassed when Kelly put his complimentary card in her pocket and didn't return back the favor with her own complimentary card.

1.3 Task completion – the western were individualistic in nature and preferred completing their task within the stipulated time frame and all by themselves, while the Japanese don't like making individual decisions and preferred to complete their task in a growth through consensus and understanding. This was demonstrated when Kelly asked them to present a presentation slide of how they think the company will be marketed, while the westerns provided such the next day, the Japanese returned needing extra time to consult with their friends and colleagues before presenting the full slide.

1.4 Family value – to the Japanese, family is a private issue and should not be discussed in the public, while the westerners had no problem with discussing family issues in public and instead adopts it as a way of knowing each other. When Kelly became frustrated about the Japanese employees' unwillingness to talk and ask questions, he decided to get them to talk by asking about the employees' family and while the westerners replied with their family achievement, the Japanese kept quiet and altered no words.

1.5 Peer group – to the Japanese, the family is the root of the society and whatever should be done needs to be done with the family, including playing together. However, the westerns had a different view as they believed in per groups and socializing. This area of cultural shock was demonstrated by Lisa and Sam's complain that their school had no playground or backyard for socializing and playing with friends and that all their classmates were not interested in talking.

1.6 Housing and transportation – the case study demonstrated another shock in the area of housing and transportation. When Kelly arrived with her family, couldn't believe that a house that cost so much could have been so little and tiny, and it can mirror the view of spacing between both countries. The western believe that family homes should be spacious to allow privacy for everyone, while the Japanese society preferred tiny home that encourages togetherness amongst members of the family. 

1.7 Workplace socialization – Peter hinted to Kelly that the employees and partner company always spent time drinking after work and it is a sign of socialization within the Japanese society, and Kelly was shocked by such statement. She responded by saying that what if she didn't want to have some drinks with them? But that would be offensive to the Japanese as they believe that if they work together, then they will be able to eat together.

1.8 Criticism and courtesy – to the westerners, good would should be appreciated and bad works criticized, while the Japanese value appreciation at all time because they believe they will be making people unhappy if they criticized their bad efforts. This was demonstrated in the case study where Kelly asked Michio if he liked the presentation, and Michio replied yes. But a week later, Michio's company didn't get back to Kelly and when she asked Peter to follow up, it was discovered that the company was not interested in the deal. Kelly was shocked because she believed that if Michio didn't like the presentation then he should not have said he liked it and should have criticized her weaknesses.

• WHAT STAGE OF CULTURAL SHOCK IS KELLY'S FAMILY EXPERIENCING?

Kelly family is in Disenchantment (frustration or irritation and hostility) stage. This stage occurs between 1 week to 3 months, depending the person and the amount of differences felt. This stage arises when the initial excitements of the culture starts to make you feel insecure and confused with the system (Black and Mendenhall, 1991; Black et al., 1999). At this stage, people starts to fell homesick and wish their friends were around and this was demonstrated in many ways in the case study.

Such cases included when Kelly was going back home with a taxi and the taxi missed the direction which resulted in having her stuck in the traffic. The case study highlighted that at that point, she felt she had one of her female American friends with her to talk to her and sort things out together. Upon reaching home, Kelly discovered that Peter was angrily fixing the dinner, while complaining about small appliances, and that he had no clue about how to fix the dinner. Kelly went to the other room and found her two daughters fighting and complaining of lack of activities, and wanted to go home. Kelly was distressed and felt that the three months has not been a fair trial and wished she knew what to do and had extra time to prepare before coming to Japan.

• TURN BACK THE CLOCK TO WHEN KELLY WAS OFFERED THE POSITION IN TOKYO, WHAT, IF ANYTHING SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE DIFFERENT AND BY WHOM.

Yes, numerous issues should have been handled form the moment she was offered the job. For instance:

The company should have trained her on the Japanese culture – if the company really studied the Japanese market before internationalizing into Japan, then they should have known that they are numerous differences between the two societies. Training Kelly would have helped her learn more about the Japanese culture, customs and expectations and it would have been essential for understanding what to do when faced with cultural shocks such as the one she and her family encountered.

A male manager would have been preferable – Kelly's company was myopic with the Japanese culture and failed to understand the high power that exists in the Japanese market and business dealing. Japanese managers preferred a male manager for business negotiation and this was demonstrated in numerous cases were Kelly employees and business associates ignored her and talked to Peter. Thus, it can be argued that a male manager would have been preferred as it would have lightened the atmosphere between the people and helped in the business negotiation process.

• YOU ARE KELLY, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?

If I was Kelly, I would adopt James Lee's four frameworks of reducing cultural myopia to better understand the Japanese culture and redefine the problem (Adrienne, 2002).

4 step framework to reduce cultural myopia and ethnocentrism:

• Define the problem or goal in terms of home country cultural traits, habits and norms.
• Define the problem or goal in terms of host-country cultural traits, habits and norms.  Make no value judgments.
• Isolate the SRC influence and examine it carefully to see how it complicates the problem.
• Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and solve for the host country market situation.

By adopting these stages as the bases for definition of her problems, I will better understand the differences between the American culture and the Japanese culture, and then find better solutions to these problems. This framework would be helpful as it would also highlight to me why the Japanese counterparts behaved in the way they did, why Lisa and Sam's schools had no playground and why the accommodation was expensive despite being tiny.

Once I have redefined the problem using the framework, I will apply my learning into practices, and hopefully it will speed up my recovery process and pave way for a successful business future and happiness in my family as well.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adrienne, M.T. (2002), "A Comparative Case Study Of Global Marketing And Ethnocentrism: The Internet As A Marketing Tool And Its Effect On The Ethnocentric Messages Perceived Via Us Companies Marketing Across Cultures." Available at: http://cct.georgetown.edu/research/thesisdatabase/AdrienneTony.pdf [Accessed on: 21-04-2012].

Black, J.S. and Mendenhall, M. (1991), "The u-curve hypothesis revisited: a review and theoretical framework", Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 22, pp. 225-47.

Black, J.S., Gregersen, H.B., Mendenhall, M.E. and Stroh, L.K. (1999), Globalizing People through International Assignments, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.