Gung-Ho Movie and Hofstede Essay Example

States have very high value in individualism. This is pointed out over and over in the movie. An example of this is when an American worker and his Japanese boss have an argument over why the American has to learn how to do every job in the factory. The Japanese boss says “everyone learns everyones job; no one is special. ” Another example is when another American worker wants to have the day off to go with his son to the doctor. His American boss thinks that this is fine but the Japanese boss says no because “work will suffer”.

This shows you how different countries see things. The Americans think of family concern over the concern of the company, whereas the Japanese think that being part of a group is a must and so not working because of your son going to the doctor is not something you should do, This brings us right to collectivism. Collectivism is doing something not just for yourself but for the good of everyone involved. It has nothing to do with the individual and everything to do with the overall group’s success. This is what the Japanese value highly.

They always reinforce this throughout the movie about how they will do whatever it takes for the company to do good. One of many examples of this is when the Japanese show up to play the softball game. Before the game starts you see the Japanese team working together and participating in a team warm up. The Americans make fun of this and think of it as something that makes them weaker. When the game starts you

are able to see exactly how this hurts the Americans. The Japanese play a “small ball” game and worry about getting runners on base and relying on everyone working together to get runs on the board.

The Americans, who are less team oriented, try to do everything themselves and try to hit the ball as far and hard as they can every time they come up to bat. Another example is when Hunt Stevenson goes to Oishi Kazuhiro’s house for dinner. They soon get into an argument where Oishi Kazuhiro says “I do not understand American workers, they come five minutes late and leave two minutes early, they stay home when they are sick, they put themselves above the company. ”. This is a combination of individualism versus collectivism as well as a Power Distance

Power Distance is how the power is distributed in a company. Western countries including the United States usually have small power distance because everyone is treated equally no matter the position they hold. Americans are more concerned with how each person participates no matter how high up on the ladder you are. Japanese on the other hand have a very high power distance. People higher up on the ladder are always seen applying their power to the people below them. This is most evident during the first few minutes of the movie when you see how the people are treated uring the Japanese manager training. The people taking the training have no rights and are always obedient and are apologetic for being the way they are. They are treated exactly how we treat people in military boot-camp. Another

one of Hofstede’s dimensions of culture values is uncertainty avoidance, which is a measurement of how much members are anxious about things they are unsure about, so they tend to minimize uncertainty to cope. As with everything else in this movie, the Japanese and Americans are on the opposite ends of this measurement. The Japanese have very high uncertainty avoidance.

This is demonstrated in the film when they do not let the Americans read newspaper’s in the restroom, smoke cigars while working or listen to music while on the job. It makes the Japanese seem very ridged in structure where as the Americans want to have a very relaxed work environment. As shown in the film high uncertainty avoidance companies tend to have more management structures, and have very strict rules and punishments. Masculinity and Femininity societies tend to clash as well. With the strong masculinity that Japan respresents, people value assertiveness and ambition. The feminine cultures value relationships and quality of life.

Many people think that this difference can be measured in quantity of life versus the quality of life. But this value also takes gender roles into account. The Japanese masculine country’s women are very much the same as the American women were during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Women had few rights and were expected to stay home and raise children, take care of things around the house, and have dinner ready by the time the man got home. Since this time the United States has become more and more feminine. In the 1980’s when this movie takes place women had every right that men had, opposed to Japan where women

still had very little rights.

This can be seen when Hunt Stevenson’s girlfriend refused to leave the dinner table unlike the Japanese women when the Japanese announced that they were going to talk some business. The final Hofstede dimension is short-term verses long-term orientation. The countries who are long-term oriented tend to focus on the future: persistence/perseverance, thrift, and shame. This is exactly how the Japanese look at things. This is evident in the movie when Oishi Kazuhiro’s boss decides to try to start this plant in America.

He is interested in the long term benefit and outcome this could create. This is the total opposite of a short-termed group who puts more energy and thought into both past and present. In the movie the Americans are trying to produce fifteen thousand cars in a month. This is obviously a short-term goal because none of the Americans are thinking about the month after, all they care about is making the quota for this month. Overall I could point out many more instances where Hofstede’s dimensions can be related to the movie, but it would just be repeating the same things over and over.

What is more important is to look at these differences and see them for what they are. Not right or wrong, but different. Like the movie when everything is all said and done, people have to compromise between these different dimensions. With compromise you can accopmlish many great things. As someone once told failure is the key to sucess. I would have to say that this comes true in the movie. Only after learning from one another and failing

many times do both the Japanese and Americans come together and figure out what works best for both parties. As a consumer we get the best of both!