How cultural differences can affect communication patterns, Business Management

Assignment Help:

In the past, doing business in Japan was a difficult, complicated, and often unsuccessful venture. In addition to different languages, social customs, and histories, the United States is a low-context culture; Japanese is high-context. In recent year, however, several U.S companies have overcome the many economic and cultural barriers facing foreigners in Japan.

DSP Group Inc. is one such company. The Californian-based semiconductor manufacturer generates nearly half its profits from sales in Japan. That is why the firm's chief executive office moved with his family to Tokyo and lived there for more than one year, cultivating Japanese customers and suppliers. The Tokyo office consists of six desks wedged into a tiny building, but DSP executives see it as a good start in ‘fitting in'. One says, "To compete in the consumer electronics market, we have to be here."

DSP management has also learned to take care of the details. Japanese consumers are discriminating buyers, and small imperfections - small, that is, by American standards - are large for Asian customers. Japanese customers pay close attention to the quality of work put into products, and notice such things as shoddy soldering or welding. Even a slight imperfection can kill a sale if a Japanese consumer questions whether all the products are made poorly. Sloppy packaging signals careless manufacturing to Japanese consumers, so DSP devotes extra care to packaging.

Finally, DSP managers and other foreign businesspeople who want to make money in Japan must learn to watch their image. Firms that sell items through catalogues have found it prudent to remove some low-priced products from Japanese catalogues even though the same products are big sellers in other countries. Why? Japanese consumers tend to judge products according to their product lines and overall performance of their manufacturers. If some catalogue items seem cheap, Japanese consumers may very well question the quality of all the merchandise in the catalogue.

Question:

(a) (i) Explain what you understand by low-context and high-context cultures.

(ii) From reading this case, explain how culture has an impact on the way we communicate, taking into consideration the medium of communication that DSP used for its product.

(b) Discuss some key cultural differences between the United States and Japan.

(c) Explain how these cultural differences can affect business communication patterns.

(d) (i) What can the U.S firms or firms from any other country, learn about doing business in Japan from reading this case?

(ii) Does collaboration make it easier or harder to work through the complexities of a different culture? Support your answers with valid examples.


Related Discussions:- How cultural differences can affect communication patterns

How do you and your organization define system, Problem 1. How do you a...

Problem 1. How do you and your organization define system? Mention the systems that require engineering. Defining system Mentioning the systems that require engineerin

What is the suitable procedure of job evaluation, What is the suitable proc...

What is the suitable procedure of job evaluation? Procedure of Job Evaluation: 1. Know the job to be evaluated. 2. Define and analyse the needs of the job. Write-down

What is a theory, QUESTION 1 i) What is a theory? ii) Identify and d...

QUESTION 1 i) What is a theory? ii) Identify and describe the functions of theories. QUESTION 2 i) How do communication theories help us? ii) What is communicatio

Career Goal, Can you check my career goal if this is correct and if not can...

Can you check my career goal if this is correct and if not can you re-write it for me..

BSBMGT616A, ? Develop a separate summary statement for each potential ally ...

? Develop a separate summary statement for each potential ally for a co-operative venture that describes their alignment with MacVille’s vision, mission, values and attributes, as

What are the steps in management planning process, What are the Steps in Ma...

What are the Steps in Management Planning Process? Main Steps in Management Planning Process as follows: Planning can be described as deciding in advance what is to be complete

Describe the four stages of the creative process, 1). Explain the meaning o...

1). Explain the meaning of Goal Setting and how it can increase the employee performance? 2).  The head of operations at Nano Tech Systems announced that the company "empowers i

Organisation decision to invest in a new enterprise system, (a) When measur...

(a) When measuring the returns on technology investments, Douglas Hubbard (2007) argues that "Everything Is Measurable". Discuss this statement in relation to an organisation's dec

Explain the various modules in detail with example, Question 1 Normally wh...

Question 1 Normally when we review a potential software suppliers and we tend to focus only on the potential product's functionality and cost. Though these elements are significan

Elaborate - we communicate primarily with words, QUESTION At the Season...

QUESTION At the Seasons Inn . . . Bala is waiting in her supervisor's office. She has come to talk with Manoj about a problem concerning next week's staff schedule. Just aft

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd