Question

You talk to Kenji, the Japanese manager of the Swedish plant. He says the workers are uncooperative and do not carry out the instructions that he conveys to them. He shows you several emails in which they complain that he is too dominating, and that they find it hard to tell what he is thinking. What is your response to this situation?

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation: Cultural differences can affect the workplace and how employees cooperate. In a business it is crucial to determine employers and employees' cultural differences to decipher how these differences can be incorporated into the work place so that everyone can operate cohesively.

So it is important to take the best choice and investigate this situation further. Before forming an opinion, make sure you have viewed everyone's perspective. Try and figure out why the workers are disobeying Kenji's orders, but also determine why Kenji has such a dominating and unreadable personality.

It is important to note that Sweden is a low - context culture. This means that Swedish people communicate information in explicit and direct ways. Facial expressions, gesture and other forms of non verbal communication aren't heavily used or taken into consideration when communicating, and people often communicate verbally only, to get taken their points across. Japan however is a high context culture and relies on non - verbal cues such as traditions and context to communicate information.

Because of the different cultural contrasts Kenji should consider providing more clearer, more verbal (and less ambiguous) instructions to his employees so that communication is better understood by all the parties involved.