Question

When people in the U.S. travel abroad to let's say China or Sweden, the cultural differences may seem stark at first, however, if we look at something like Hofstede's five dimensions of culture, we can better contextualize differences. How do the five dimensions help you understand cultural differences between Germans and Japanese?  

Answer 1

Q1.

ANS: Hofstede's five dimensions of culture: culture can be defined as the learned and shared way of thought and ideology among a particular group of people or society. Culture may vary with underlying differences in values and attitude around the world.

Hofstede's identified five dimensions that help in understanding how values differences across a national culture that can have an impact on individual behaviour at work.

These are the following five dimensions that help us to understand cultural differences between Germans and Japanese:

1. Power Distance: can be defined as the extent to which the less powerful member within an institution or an organization within a country feel the power is unequally distributed among its members.

• Germans: it consists of a highly decentralised structure consist of a strong middle-class society. Comparatively, Germany has lower power distance as compared to Japan. A direct and participative communication and meeting style are common in germans and leadership are challenged with expertise and skills.
• Japan: it consists of a borderline hierarchical society. Japanese are always conscious of their hierarchical position in society and act accordingly. It is believed that Japan has always been meritocratic society giving preference to hard work.

1. Individualism: it is the degree of interdependence a society maintains with its members.

• Germany: society consists mainly of an individual one. They believe in small families focused mainly on parent-children relationship rather than aunt-uncle relationship. They strongly believe in self-actualization ideology. Loyalty is based on the personal preferences of people. They believe in direct communication telling the truth even if it hurts.
• Japan: they are generally focused on collectivistic society. They are more focused on group harmony rather than individual harmony. Japan is a paternalistic society where family name and asset is inherited by the eldest son of the family. Comparing with Germany the degree of individualism is less.

1. Masculinity: A high score indicates masculinity which shows a society which is driven by competition, success and achievement. Whereas, low masculinity indicates Feminine society that indicates the quality of life as a sign of success.

• Germany: it is considered as a masculine society. Performance is highly valued. School system separates student into different types of school at the age of ten. Managers are expected to be assertive and decisive.
• Japan: is considered as the most masculine society in the world. At a very young age, children learn to compete on sports day as groups. Japanese workaholism is also a sign of masculinity. They believe in excellence and perfection in their material production (monodukuri). Comparing with Germany, Japanese society is more masculinity than Germany.

1. Uncertainty avoidance: it is the situation in which the members of the culture feel threatened by an unknown or ambiguous situation in the future.

• Germany: is among the uncertainty avoidance countries in the world. They focus on detail to create a certainty that a given project is well thought off. Germans prefer to compensate for their higher uncertainty by strongly relying on expertise.
• Japan: is one of the most uncertainty avoidance countries in the world. Japan is constantly attacked by natural disasters like earthquake and tsunami and volcano eruption, under these circumstances japan has always prepared themselves for any uncertain situation. In the corporate sector, japan put a lot of effort into the feasibility study and assessing the risk factor to deal with the uncertain situation in the future. Comparing with Germany, Japan scores high in Uncertainty avoidance than Germany.

1. Long-term orientation: this dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future.

• Germany: is considered as a pragmatic country. They believe that truth depends on the situation, context and time. They show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed conditions and mould itself to the situation.
• Japan: their society is considered as a long-term oriented society. Japanese see their life as a very short moment in a long history of mankind. Corporate Japan is always focused on improving their R&D even in economically difficult times. They all serve the durability of the companies and to serve their stakeholders and society as a whole. Comparing with Germany, Japan is highly future-oriented than Germany.