American and Japanese cultural interaction in the movie Gung Ho

Stevenson has just arrived at the management training program for Japanese executives. Keaton witnesses Gedde Watanabe’s character Takahara Kazihiro taking part in the training program through donning ribbons of shame while begging upper management for a second chance as a manager. Stevenson’s response to this is to recommend that he “wear them [the ribbons] on the inside” (Blum & Ganz, 1986) in an attempt to minimize the shame of the action.

While this comment may seem acceptable to Stevenson as Americans place less emphasis on power distance, to Kazihiro it is in fact dismissive of Japanese business hierarchy and would be against the norm. This example is also a good representation of the differences in collectivism of the Japanese and the individualism of the Americans that will be examined later. As the Japanese place more importance on hierarchy and their place in society, all managers within the training camp would follow the instructions of their superiors unequivocally. Comparatively, the Americans who would feel they are being shamed by such an action, would have issues following the instruction set out to them in this scenario.

In the case of this example there is no perfect way to make this interaction seamless between the two cultures as it involves both power distance and collectivism vs individualism, the second of which is one of the largest differences between the two cultures. Due to this, the most effective method to manage this cultural gap would be to ensure there is an understanding of the social norms in a business setting between employees and management of both cultures, so as even if participants don’t see eye to eye on the situation. In this case it would’ve resulted in Stevenson understanding and accepting the act of begging for a second chance instead of implying to Kazihiro that it is something he should be ashamed of.

Uncertainty Avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance is the dimension that represents a cultures ability to deal with uncomfortable, ambiguous and uncertain situations. A high rating on this scale would determine that the culture does almost everything they can to avoid being put into avoiding these sorts of situations. The Japanese are notoriously avoidant of uncertainty to an exemplary degree in all forms of social interaction. This is in stark contrast to the American mindset where they are more open to uncertain situations and will confront them if need be. In Gung Ho this is represented throughout the theme of the movie as there is an underlying uncertainty of whether the two cultures will be able to mesh and work together to create a successful working environment. The Japanese CEO of Assan Motors attempted to mitigate this uncertainty by implementing a trial run at opening the factory with a set goal of 15,000 cars to be produced.

Furthermore, while opening the factory they hired Stevenson to attempt to branch the gaps between the two cultures and create a fluid workplace. These steps taken by Assan Motors were in an attempt to avoid all possible factors of uncertainty and manage all forms of risk the process may be presented with. A second and more concrete example of uncertainty avoidance is that all employees of the factory were to be trained in all functions of the job so they can manage if any subdivision of the factory were to run into problems be it staffing or something else. This act was to minimize uncertainty and possible loss of production to the company. In contrast to this the American workers believed they should work on just their specialized jobs and if something were to happen to a department, they could deal with it then, rather than being prepared and working in jobs they were not specialized for.

This example is difficult to come up with a solution for as there is such a stark contrast between American and Japanese attitude to uncertainty avoidance. Hypothetically, the best way to deal with this would be to create an organizational culture where working as a team and having interchangeable roles is the norm, but that is easier said than done.  In this situation a way to deal with the conflicting ideals is coming to a compromise where both sides can accept what has been decided on. A theoretical compromise would be training staff for all roles but allowing the majority to designate they most proficient/specialized role and attempt to allow the workers to work in their specialized sub division of the factory whenever possible.

Collectivism vs. Individualism

Individualistic cultures emphasize “self-respect, autonomy, and independence” (Deresky, 2017, p. 120) and people are expected to primarily take care of themselves and their families. On the opposite side of the spectrum, collectivism represents the need for a society in which relatives and members of a group (foundation, workplace, etc.) will look out for each other in exchange for loyalty to the collective. Depending on what scale of the dimension you are on, it will determine if you view your self-image as an individual or a collective.

Americans boast one of the most individualistic cultures in the world. American culture is based on freedom for everyone, with an emphasis on everyone in society and government being equal.  In a business setting both management and staff expect to be involved in both sharing information and consultation. A further application of this in the business world is that everyone is expected to be self-sustaining, ambitious and reliant on themselves rather than relying on others. Contrasting American culture, “People from a collectivist country, such as Japan, believe in the will of the group rather than that of the individual” (Deresky, 2017, p.120). This is emphasized by the control of groups over individuals through enforcing social pressure and humiliation among those who act under individualistic beliefs to maximize their values of saving face and creating harmony among its members.

Gung Ho represented this in multiple ways. The first and most notable of which was the conversation between Stevenson and Kazihiro when discussing why the Japanese would like everyone to be trained for all jobs. Stevenson states “You’re in America now, we like to feel special.” (Blum & Ganz, 1986) This is in response to Kazihiro stating that every employee should be cross-trained so they can perform all jobs in the factory. Another example of the individualistic tendencies of Americans are when there was a discussion between the American union leader and workers in which the union leader listed why they cannot go to work for Assan as their wages do not align with union policy. The union members responded to this by mentioning beliefs that are critical to the individualistic dimension. The primary example of that was the worker who stated, “who’s going to feed our families if we don’t go to work” (Blum & Ganz, 1986). As previously mentioned, taking care of oneself and their immediate family is one of the key aspects of the individualistic viewpoint.

Masculinity vs Femininity

In this dimension masculinity is the amount that society will be driven by the desire to succeed, compete, achieve and an inherent lack of concern for others. In a masculine society “women are generally expected to stay home and raise a family” (Deresky, 2017, p.121) while the men are expected to provide for their families. The other half of the dimension is femininity. In a feminine culture a higher emphasis is placed onto relationships, quality of life and having concern for others. Both Japanese and American cultures are predominately masculine. In Japan employees are at their best when they are competing against firms in the industry and businesses desire perfection from their employees. Similarly, American culture has the population strive to be the best they can be, which is an inherently masculine desire.

The example of the masculine dimension in Gung Ho was when Audrey asked to stay at the meeting during dinner at Oishi’s house. She asked, “nobody minds if I stay, right?” (Blum & Ganz, 1986) after Stevenson asked her “Why don’t you… you know… leave?” (Blum & Ganz, 1986) While nobody verbally complained outright on the Japanese side due to their high context culture and conflict avoidance, it was clear through nonverbal communication that they were uncomfortable with the fact she would be staying at the table and listening to the meeting. The reason behind the employees being uncomfortable is due to the extreme masculinity-based culture in Japan, women are generally not expected to be a part of business-related talks and are instead expected to stay at home and care for the family.

My recommendation to Stevenson would be to accept that the culture in Japan is staggeringly masculine, and to send Audrey away from the table even though it may cause conflict between the two of them after the meeting. While this is not an ideal solution, due to the unbelievably masculine culture of Japan the male members discussing business were unlikely to be satisfied with anything less than what they consider the norm. After this the next step would attempting to slowly incorporate aspects of femininity into the organizational culture, to show that the feminine side of the dimension has its positives as well, and that the involvement of women in business should not be shunned. This would be more likely to yield success rather than attempting to brute force the situation and force a viewpoint upon the primarily masculine Japanese employees and management.

Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation

The long-term vs short-term is similar to how it may sound. A low rating (Long Term) on this dimension means that you prefer to conform to traditional ways and norms while being hesitant to change. In the words of Deresky (2017, p. 122) “the extent to which a culture programs its members to accept delayed gratification of their material, social and emotional needs.” However, cultures with a short-term orientation strive to achieve short term results and profitability and will punish or reward members of society or in this case a business, accordingly.

Most cultures in Asian countries follow a long-term orientation and Japan is no different. In their society it is acceptable to sacrifice current success for the long-term benefit. In business terms this is demonstrated by significant investment in research and development and the accompanying goal of providing profit not by the quarter but over the long-term lifespan of the business. The other half of this analysis will consider the American viewpoint. Americans have a short-term oriented view and value results above all else, this is emphasized by the business norm of publishing quarterly financial reports and the constant desire to innovate in order to find new ways to reach their goals or provide profitability.

Gung Ho demonstrates the innate difference between a long-term and short-term orientation of the cultures when Kazihiro mentions to Stevenson that Assan may not ever open the factory in America, who at this point “thought it was already open.” (Blum & Ganz, 1986) This demonstrates the difference in viewpoints because Stevenson believed if the company had already hired workers and began manufacturing that they factory was a sure thing and they were committed to staying open for a long period of time. This contrasts with what Assan believed as they were looking towards the future of the company based on their culture of long-term orientation. If the factory was not able to serve them for generations, they would not consider it worthwhile to continue running, hence why they performed a 15,000-vehicle trial run.

The only recommendation I have in this case is that both parties should have done their due diligence in terms of communication. Clearly both parties had come to a different conclusion of what both the present and future held for the factory. This confusion could have been prevented if they considered each other’s viewpoint and tried to clearly mitigate cultural expectations and communicate their own point of view to receive clarification.

Indulgence vs. Restraint

Hofstede’s final cultural dimension is indulgence vs restraint. A culture that prioritizes indulges is defined as the extent to which individuals attempt to manage and control their desires and impulses. A culture like Japan that ranks low in this dimension would be considered restraint, which entails that they have an emphasis on restraint and do not put any emphasis on having leisure time for oneself or the desire to seek gratification. Specifically, people in restrained cultures find having desires and impulses are wrong and that it is improper to indulge oneself. A high ranking on this scale would mean the culture is indulgent, this would define them as a culture that puts a significant amount of importance on having leisure time wand also achieving some sort of gratification may it be from oneself or others.

An example of this dimension in Gung Ho would be the evolution of Kazihiro’s family as the film progressed and the family became further exposed to American culture and norms. During the film you can the transition from restraint of the Japanese culture to the American typical indulgence through his family specifically in how they act at home. In the beginning of the film the family home was very organized and cleanly, while at the end of the film the wife and the routine around dinner has become more carefree and the children were allowed to play with more toys and watch television, something that can be inferred as a rarity during the initial times when the family’s house is viewed.

Cross-Cultural Interactions

Negotiation

Negotiation is another interaction in which cultural differences shine through. The primary example of this is in the film is when Stevenson presents his pitch to the Japanese Board. This negation highlights the disconnect between cultures in two ways. First, Stevenson makes a joke during the presentation and it receives the visible disproval of members of the board. This represents the fact that the Japanese prefer a serious, businesslike approach to meetings and negotiations. Another cultural difference witnessed in the negotiation was the board was silent throughout and Stevenson was uncomfortable and assumed they were uninterested until he was told by a board member to continue. This represents the American need for feedback while also demonstrating how the Japanese prefer to remain silent, watch and absorb what is being presented.

The final example from the negotiation was when his presentation finishes, Stevenson sees the lack of questions as a lack of interest and believes that his pitch to the board has failed. As the viewers saw shortly, this was not truly what had happened and if Stevenson had understood Japanese culture, he wouldn’t have believed negotiations failed. This disconnect displays the part of American culture that they expect to strike a deal as soon as possible or even during the negotiation process, rather than allowing the other party to take their time to discuss and consider all possible risks and uncertainty that may be prevalent. The aforementioned disparity between cultures is especially noticeable in negotiations with a high uncertainty avoidance culture like Japan, as demonstrated when the proposal was accepted by Assan after careful deliberation.

My recommendation is that Stevenson should’ve begun by studying on how the Japanese conduct their business in order to appropriately conduct himself in front of the board. It is possible that his conduct or rather in this case, misconduct in front of the board could have been viewed as insincerity and therefore caused his pitch to Assan to fail. Furthermore, studying would up on negotiation would have been beneficial for the future interactions with any future Japanese he had to negotiate with.

High Context vs. Low Context Cultures

The Japanese have a high context culture. This entails that one doesn’t often share their feelings and thoughts out loud and instead rely heavily on nonverbal communication like body language, proximity and phrasing to share their feelings. Furthermore, this culture is one where people avoid openly declining/saying no as often as possible. This differs strongly from the Americans low context and confrontational culture. One difference of the American culture form the Japanese is the willingness to say no. Americans will willingly talk about and even encourage the talking about of tense or uncomfortable subjects while the Japanese do their best to hide their opinions if it may cause a conflict

An example of this in the movie is when Stevenson is asking for directions trying to find Assan headquarters. Stevenson talks to two Japanese citizens, both of which give him the wrong directions after their conversation. This was most likely because neither of them fully understood what Stevenson was asking but because of their nature of their culture to avoid uncertainty and confrontation they provided him with an incorrect answer rather than no answer at all. Ideally, Stevenson would’ve picked up on the nonverbal communication that the Japanese citizens were unaware of what he was asking and left them to their devices while looking for other ways to find the location of the Assan headquarters.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is defined as “the belief that management technique used in one’s own country are best no matter where or with whom they are applied.” (Deresky, 2017, p.486) During the film there was an example of ethnocentrism demonstrated by the Japanese. Following the initial opening of the factory the Japanese attempted entice the Americans into participating in a workout routine prior to the start of the work day. The Americans were unwilling to participate, and it ended up causing a disconnect between the two cultures right at the beginning of the project. While some of the blame can be laid onto the American factory workers for being to stubborn to participate, the Japanese should have taken into consideration that what works for their culture may not work as well in other cultures due to their inherent differences.

The recommendation in this case is the same as many others but made to Assan instead of Stevenson and the Americans. As a large company building an overseas operation it is imperative to do research into every facet of the workplace that might be encountered. This is even more important for a business in a culture like Japan that places emphasis on uncertainty avoidance. Educating themselves would’ve allowed them to alter their management practices and start off the workplace on the right foot rather than with a disconnect from the very start of the factory’s opening due to the inability to understand that different cultures require different management techniques.

Conclusion

To summarize, Gung Ho provided a slightly dated, but comedic and realistic look into the cultural barriers that exist in multicultural company using two very different cultures. Using Hofstede’s value dimensions allowed a detailed analysis into the strained interactions between Americans and Japanese in the film. Hofstede’s dimensions permitted further breaking down of interactions to determine what part of each culture’s norms, business practices and customs were involved in each negative interaction between the two cultures. As shown in the end of the movie, the employees of both American and Japanese culture were able to eventually work together in a mutually beneficial relationship, albeit after many hardships and a significant amount of effort rom both parties.