Case study on inter-cultural communication related problems in Nordic subsidiary with the causes and consequences of linguistic and cultural barriers to inter-cultural communication in Japan.

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ORGANIZING AND MANAGING
ACROSS CULTURE
(ESSAY)

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INTRODUCTION:
This case study describes the problems related with the inter-cultural
communication in Nordic subsidiary in Japan. The cultural differences are
between the Nordic based HRM programs and local Japanese culture and
values. The Japanese people were facing the issue of Nordic based
management system which is totally a new concept for them. Thus Nordic
management had a deep thinking upon this issue because it was leading to
the strike which was ultimately hampering the working of a company. The
modification in these HRM program in accordance to the Japanese culture is
quite necessary.
This study examines the causes and consequences of linguistic and
cultural barriers to inter-cultural communication in Nordic subsidiaries in
Japan. Interviews were conducted with 30 Nordic (Finland, Denmark, Norway
and Sweden) expatriates and 29 Japanese employees show that the main
linguistic barriers to intercultural communication were lack of a shared
language and low motivation to improve foreign-language proficiency. The
main cultural barriers were collectivism, and status and power differences.
Combined, the consequences of these barriers were extensive reliance on
language intermediaries, information filtering, in-group/out-group
categorization, receiver-centered communication and in-congruent
supervisor-subordinate expectations. The interviews suggest that linguistic
and cultural barriers have a differentiated impact on intercultural
communication. Thus, it can be said that inter-cultural communications may

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create confusions among the employees and this may hamper the
performance of employees.
(1) What are the main language and cultural barriers to intercultural
communication in foreign subsidiaries?
Hofstede Model
Hofstede introduced the theory which was mainly emphasized on the
fact that how values within the organization are affected by the culture.
Moreover, according to the viewpoint of Hofstede, culture can be defined as
the collective programming of mind in which differentiation are done with
one person from another.
In this case, Nordic opened a subsidiary in the Japan and in that
Japanese people were appointed along with the Nordic expatriate and there
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they are faced with the issues of cultural differences. There was a huge
difference in the culture of two regions. The main actor of this story are the
employees and management of Nordic expatriate and Japanese employees.
Moreover, management faces a biggest issue in handling this difference.
However, due to this reason Hofstede have propounded this theory. In his
theory, he described various dimensions through which cultural variations
can be analyzed. The dimensions are power status, Individualism v/s
collectivism, masculinity v/s femininity, long term v/s short term orientation,
indulgence v/s restraints and Uncertainty avoidance. In this current scenario,
Nordic people have the culture of individualism while in Japanese culture the
more preference is given to collectivism thus, people react in an individualist
manner which become tough for the company to make them work in a team.
Further, the power distance is more in Japan because people are conscious
about the hierarchical position in an organization. This is altogether different
quality in Nordic people as they are more focused towards equal rights and
being independent. Thus they, react in a negative manner and due to which
conflict arises. Moreover, there is male dominance in Japanese culture
whereas there is female dominance in Nordic culture. This create a greater
conflicting situation in a company between male employees of Japan and
female employees of Nordic expatriates. Further, Japanese are dedicated
towards the avoidance of uncertainty and on the contrary, Nordic expatriates
are less keen towards uncertainty avoidance. On a similar aspect, Hofstede
also examined that there is a culture of long term orientation and Japanese

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culture view their life as a very short moment in a long history of humankind.
Thus, it can be said that Japanese culture and Nordic culture have totally
different culture and this leads to the development of conflicts.
Hofstede model helped a lot in identifying the cultural differences in
Japanese organization with that of Nordic society. But this model have
some limitations due to which clear concept cannot be viewed and due to
which management could not recognize the exact situation and
management of cultural difference cannot be done in a proper manner. The
limitation of Hofstede model are in term of methodological weakness
because use of this model is doubtful as it lays emphasis of national culture.
The study was done on specific sample which cannot be representative of
overall population of nation. However, in the model it was considered that
population is homogeneous which is not correct in reality. Furthermore,
Hofstede model states that all country has their unique culture whereas it is
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not real in actual scenario because of geographical context. Also, the model
do not reflect the actual behavior of individual.
Trompenaars Model
Cultural differences can also be demonstrated with the help of
Trompenaars that also serve as the achievement vs ascription. Here
achievement culture depicts that how people are performing their function.
Here main focus is laid on status whereas ascription culture is also status
based which reflect that what and who a person is. In this regard Nordic
culture is known as achievement where workforce are known for their
competence. Furthermore, main emphasis is laid on colleagues so that their
achievement can be counted effectively. On the other hand, in Japanese
culture people are valued just because of maturity and their age. Japanese
tend to possess ascription culture where they remain unhappy because of
their job profile. However, job profile matters a lot as employees spend their
much of time at workplace. In addition to this Japanese follow the foreign
HRM strategy which is different from values and of Japanese.
Here, people working in Japanese culture do not like to adjust in new
situation but still they are asked to follow the Nordic based HRM program.
Similarly internal orientation is high for Japanese culture where there is low
external control. It is because people do not accept the sudden changes at
workplace and management cannot force them to follow the new practices.
At this juncture, management try to change their strategies in accordance

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with Japanese values only instead of adjusting as per Nordic based HRM
programs. Furthermore, individualism vs communitarianism wherein
communitaranistic culture like Japan like to work in group. They are not
happy with working condition because of unfavourable working condition.
Here, management also do not feel themselves liable for the working
conditions. In the same way Japanese want management to take care of their
family's health and safety. Furthermore, by focusing on issues of Japanese
corporation introduced medical aid and saving scheme. On the other hand,
individualism concept is adopted by Nordic culture. Likewise, Neutral concept
is adopted in Nordic culture whereas Japanese people have high emotional
culture Apart from this, Nordic culture is moderate specific and diffuse
culture is high in Japan. Not only this, but Nordic culture follow sequential
culture where Japanese tend to focus on synchronic aspect. The limitations
of Trompennars can be considered by understanding that model takes into
account behaviour aspect of people rather than value. It lays more emphasis
on what people mind is holding and what is in their sight. Thus, it may be
unrealistic at some point of time.
Enthocentric and Polycentric
Different marketing strategies such as Enthocentric, polycentric are
also used to management to business in Japaneseculture. Here, the first one
is ethnocentric under which staffing is done by taking competent personnel
from home country. This process is done just to fill the important position of

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corporate by which manpower can show interest of the home office so as to
align workforce of foreign offices and home headquarter. It facilitates to
reduce the additional cost and remove cultural barriers that exist among
group of people. In addition to this, Poly-centric approach is that corporation
hire host country nationals for some of the important positions. However, this
model is useful only in develop countries so that employees with high
education and appropriate training can be located. It aids to generate
position attitude among employees as local workforce generally has more
capability to handle buyers. On the other hand, polycentric approach may
not be profitable for broader aspect of corporation. Therefore, Nordic based
culture was accepted by Japanese with procedures and planning so as to
makes employees happy and comfortable with work environment.
When the whole scenario was compared than it was found that there
were many issues created due to the inter-cultural communication barrier. If
there is communication gap and than the employees will not be able to work
cohesively in a group or team. It is because in Japan there is a culture of
collectivism and those in Nordic, individualism culture is being followed. Thus,
employees hired from Japan would prefer to work in a team but the
managers from Nordic will not entertain this and ultimately it will lead to the
segregation of employees. Moreover, the cultural differences will also not
leads to the equal distribution of rights to all the employees whereas the
Japanese employees will ask for the hierarchical position in the organization
because of high experience. On the contrary, Nordic employees will not

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entertain this part and it will lead to the release of conflicts among the level
of management. This will also result in the deterioration of the performance
of employees because effectiveness cannot be created during conflicts.
Further, this will limit the growth of company as the profitability will get
lower down due to the ineffective performance by the employees. All these
conflicts have been aroused due to the miscommunication among the
employees and management. Further, there will be stagnant growth of
employees because employees would not be able to adopt the new culture in
a less span of time. All these aspect have occurred due to the inter-cultural
communications. If these barriers are removed than only Nordic subsidiary
can survive in the markets of Japan. Furthermore, these issues will not allow
the firm to create a competitive edge in the dynamic market because
employees of the firm will not become effective and sue to which satisfactory
product cannot be made. Thus, customers cannot be made satisfied if there
is organizational conflicts based on the languages and linguistic culture.
Further, it has been explained that there are several barriers to inter-
cultural communication such as languages and their meaning are different in
Nordic and Japanese culture. Further, the beliefs and values in Nordic differs
from that of Japan and this create a major barrier for the the Nordic
subsidiary to get establish in Japan culture in an effective manner. Thus,
other kind of barriers such as misinterpretation of languages create barriers
for the inter-cultural communication.

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(2) What are the consequences of language and cultural barriers in
foreign subsidiaries?
Intense research have been made on this matter and for that purpose,
exploratory research have been conducted because the type of research is
qualitative in nature. Further, the research was aimed towards the Nordic
countries that is Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway because these
countries have similar culture and its comparison has been made with the
Japan which has altogether different culture. For this purpose, three zone
theory have been applied in which zone one had the people who have basic
language skills, in zone two people has intermediate language skills and
lastly in zone three people had fluent language skills. At the time of
performing the job, expatriate were able to interact directly with the
employees or intermediaries were involved while interacting with people.
Employees who were working in zone one were able to communicate only a
simple messages with their respective team members. Major barrier in this
category was that inter-cultural communication in absence of any kind of
shared language. This made the entire process very frustrating and
complicated.
On the contrary, zone two expatriate were able to communicate with
local people without the help of intermediaries. Most of the expatriate were
able to interact with the localites in Japanese language. Lastly, the zone
three expatriate used a proper strategy during inter-cultural communication.
The strategy was that at the time of interaction, they used the mixture of

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English and Japanese language. Further, this strategy separated these
employees from local people and other expatriate who were having low level
of Japanese proficiency. Zone three expatriate have different kind of benefit.
Moreover, the cost of compensation was also low because only few
employees were required to provide training for the English Proficiency.
After analyzing the whole scenario, it was found that the main issue
was related inter-cultural communication barrier. Moreover, the cultural
values of the employees of Nordic were undermining. It has also been found
that there are several communication barriers which consists of language
barriers, cultural differences and presentation styles. The most common
issue is related to language is that all people who belong to different country
and region tend to speak other type of language. It is the reason that
employees cannot accomplish their objectives on right time. However,
English as common language is needed to be set in order to reduce the
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impact of such kind of barriers. In this regard, several practices are used by
corporation expanding at global level so as to integrate workforce. On the
other hand, every culture has its own business ethics, accepted behavior,
decorum and set of values. In fact, facial expressions and gestures are also
different for all religion owing to this people face communication barriers. For
example, to shake hand it quite common in Nordic culture but the same may
not be accepted in every culture. However, it might consider wrong in some
situations. Apart from this, presentation style is also the fact which creates
communication barriers among respondents. Here, separate group or
country has different way of presentation and asking questions. For example,
American like to have brisk pace whereas Latin American like speech with
high emotional appeal. In this way, different communication barriers are
associated with cross culture.
Furthermore, it has also been identified that cultural values and
language have direct impact on intercultural communication in multinational
organization. This is because Japanese tends to focus on flexible culture
whereas Nordic culture wants to strong organizational culture. However,
Nordic culture believes that management must have rules and regulation
with regards to culture by which employees do not face problems when they
come across global. For this purpose, cross culture is maintained effectively
to enhance the level of satisfaction among employees and motivate them to
work with integrity. However, cultural differences are invited in every
organization where conflict easily takes place. The reason behind the same is

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that employees do not find favorable working condition and work satisfaction.
Owing to this, companies suffer from issues like low productivity, high
employee turnover and customer dissatisfaction. Thus, it is very important
for corporation to assess the barriers related to values and languages of
employees and accordingly diversity is needed to be maintained. This in turn
issues faced by firm can be minimized to a great extent.
This barrier has a intense negative impact on the organization's
working because the employees of the organization will not understand the
exact meaning of the languages and thus management style will also be not
fitted in the Japanese culture. This will be highly difficult for the Nordic
expatriate to manage the Japanese people in an organization. Moreover,
effective performance cannot be obtained from the local Japanese people.
This will impact the profitability of the company and competitive edge could
not be created in a Japanese region as well.
The collected information depicts that corporation expanding at global
level should put efforts to reduce barriers related to communication. At this
juncture, language translator could be used at the initial stage. This aids to
support Japanese even after adopting Nordic culture. English as common
language needs to be adopted at workplace which in turn employees can
work with integrity. Further, regular meeting and effective mode of
communication like telephone and mail should be used on the regular basis.
It will support employees to adjust with situation and cope up with changing
scenario effectively. In addition to this, awareness needs to be developed

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among employees and understanding must be developed with regards to
cultural diversity. In short, emphasis is laid effective communication so as to
enhance the level of motivation and satisfaction among the existing
workforce.
Moreover, the company can encourage the strategy being adopted by
the zone three expatriate so that they does not face the issue of being
neglected and also the communication issue. Moreover, the company has to
adopt the culture of Japan in order to make the employees feel satisfied and
to retain them in the organization. This will help in creating competitive edge
in the context of effective and efficient employees. If the employees are
highly effective and they are satisfied at the same time, than they can make
the customer satisfied and also the business can be grown or developed.
Zone one people should be trained and also the English language should be
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made the most widely used language in the organization so that
communication barriers can be removed. This will help the company to earn
maximum profits in the market of Japan and also competitive edge can be
created in the industry.
The entire study being carried out has supported in knowing that
cultural difference has direct influence on the communication. Further, it is
well known fact that culture and religion of individual plays a significant role
especially at the time when any individual interacts with other. Moreover, it
acts as a hurdle as sometime individual may not able to speak the language
which is understandable by all. This directly leads to rise in situation such as
communication barrier where individual may not prefer to interact with each
other. Apart from this, companies which are operating at global level hire
individuals who are from different background and areas. Due to this reason,
their way of interacting and other things are considered. In every business
enterprise, it is one of the main issues such as how to deal with multicultural
workforce for the betterment of company as adoption of one single language
is beneficial but it is quite difficult to manage. On the basis of culture and
religion, individual may speak different language and working style may also
be different. Therefore, in this cultural difference acts as a barrier due to
which individual may not prefer to be a crucial part of the communication
process. Apart from this, different theories along with models applied such as
Hofstede model is effective enough to understand about the cultural
dimensions. This model relies on six dimensions which are associated with

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national culture such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance index, long
term vs short term orientation, masculinity vs femininity etc. These
dimensions support in knowing the overall behavior of people living in the
society and how they interact with one another. In short, this model has
enhanced the efficiency of the entire study and has supported to accomplish
the aim of study. Through this, concept regarding cultural differences has
been better understood.