Changing Dimensions in International Business

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Changing Dimensions in International BusinessAuthor(s): Magoroh Maruyama

Source: The Executive, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Aug., 1992), pp. 88-96Published by: Academy of ManagementStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165081

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? Academy of Management Executive. 1992Vol. 6 No. 3.............................................................................................................................................................................

h nging dimensions ninter tion lbusinessMagoroh Maruyama, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo

Executive Overview Changing international business management situations generate newpractices, methods, and approaches. This article highlights some recent changesand gives concrete examples. At the same time, old problems which have notbeen solved require new solutions..............................................................................................................................................................................

In My ViewNew TrendsAs the number and types of firms undertaking out-of-country manufacturing andsales increase, competition becomes keener not only in market share but also inobtaining high quality employees. For example, workers in foreign towns whountil recently depended on a small number of foreign firms as a source ofemployment may by now have several more alternatives, and they can be morechoosy. In fact, early firms which felt established and secure have begun to losetheir qualified employees and potential applicants to new-comers who offer moreattractive or challenging work environments. Job hops have become morefrequent among foreign engineers and professionals.The choice criteria are no longer limited to wages, fringe benefits, working hours,and aesthetic quality of work place, but include considerations such ascross-national career advancement, management adaptation to local cultures,and opportunity to travel in foreign countries. Firms which are not competitive inthese new dimensions will eventually suffer or fail.Cross-National Career AdvancementPromoting a foreign employee from Country A to country B is calledcross-national career advancement. It is a wide-spread practice amongcontinental European firms. Among American firms it is not yet common, but aselect few do practice it already. Electrolux, a Swedish firm, had a French directorin its factory in Singapore. Thomson, a French electronics firm, had German,Irish, and Japanese engineers working together in its laboratory in Singapore. Amanager of Hyatt Hotel in Jakarta was Danish, who subsequently was transferredto Egypt. The head of Michelin-Okamoto in Japan is a German, even thoughMichelin is a French firm.Until recently Scandinavian Airline System did not practice it in its Tokyo office.The effect was negative. In a small local office of twenty people, one cannotadvance very far if there is no cross-national career advancement: youngambitious applicants are not attratcted. Assurances G6n6rales de France does notpractice cross-national career advancement in its Tokyo office. Even though this isnot the only reason, the office cannot easily find capable young Japaneseapplicants.Cross-national career advancement cannot be successful without adequateemployee selection or training. This topic is discussed later in this article.

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The principles ofcontinuity andconvertibility makejob rotation quitenatural and logical forJapanese people.

Management Adaptation To Foreign CulturesThose who are cross-nationally promoted are usually at managerial, technical, orprofessional levels, because those at lower levels have some room foradvancement inside the country. Therefore, cross-nationally promoted employeesusually assume a managerial position in a culture which is foreign to them. Theymust be capable of management adaptation to the host country culture. Culturedoes not just mean how to greet, how to eat, and how to dress. It also means howto interact and how to organize. For example, a very common mistake Americanmanagers make in Japan is to organize the work by dividing the task andassigning them to individuals. If you have five employees in your office in Japan,it is better to give the whole work to the group and let them figure out how to doit. Experienced Americans know this, but even some of them misinterpret thereason. A common misinterpretation is that the Japanese are homogeneous andeverybody wants to do the same thing. On the contrary, the Japanese way ofcarrying out a task is based on the principle of interactive heterogeneity, while theAmerican way is based on the principle of categorized and specializedheterogeneity.The principle of interactive heterogeneity has deep roots. While Greekphilosophers and European scholars were writing books on social organizationand interaction, the Japanese were developing and refining their principles ofinteraction and expressing them in architectural spatial composition, gardendesign and floral arts. European architecture was based on principles of unity bysimilarity and repetition, opposition, tension, and extension. Windows of the sameshape are repeated. Each space and each mass has a boundary, identity, and apermanently specialized function such as a dining room or a bed room. Massesoppose one another. Spaces oppose one another. And mass opposes space.Tension between points generate lines, and extension of a surface or a linegenerates shafts of space. (For details, see endnotes, Maruyama 1981). SimilarlyEuropean and American management is based on the principles of boundary,identity, specialization, opposition, tension, and extension.In contrast, in the traditional Japanese gardens and floral art, repetition of thesame form is avoided, and different shapes, colors, and materials are combined tointeract and enhance the individuality of each element (refer to Exhibits 1 and 2).In traditional Japanese houses, boundaries can be removed and space becomes acontinuous flow, and each space is convertible. The paper partitions betweenrooms can be removed to provide a continuous space. The outer shell of thehouse, mostly consisting of sliding wooden boards, can be opened to make theoutdoor come into the indoor. One can sit in the house and hear birds sing, smellthe flowers in the garden, and look at the mountain. The garden can recess underthe roof into the house, and the floor can protrude into the garden. A river mayflow under the house. Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect, incorporatedthese principles in his work. Furthermore, in the traditional Japanese houses, aroom can serve as a dining room if a table is placed, a bedroom if matresses arelaid, and a playroom if all furniture is removed. The principles of continuity andconvertibility make job rotation quite natural and logical for Japanese people.

If you are a manager in Japan, the five employees are like five rocks in aJapanese garden. Their shapes are different, and they interact in a mutuallybeneficial way. They know one another's skills and idiosyncrasies, and theyinteract together to do the whole job. This is the principle of interactiveheterogeneity, and this is why it is better to give the whole job to the wholegroup and let them figure out how to do it.There are many other cultural differences (for details see endnotes, Maruyama1984, 1985a, 1989). A manager can work more satisfactorily if he/she understands

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Academy of Management Executive

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Exhibit 1. Some composition principles of traditional Japanese gardens.

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Maruyama

Soe nwldg f h lngae sthrprreus/e SAmercn ra

behind in this aspect. The head of Michelin-Okamoto speaks Ger Mikoshi

so, shin2

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Exhibit 2: Some composition principles of Japanese floral art.

the cultural differences and adapt his/her management to the culture of the hostcountry.Some knowledge of the language is another prerequisite. Americans are farbehind in this aspect. The head of Michelin-Okamoto speaks German, French,Japanese, and English. Mr. Gadelius from Sweden spoke Japanese. Managersmust sit in meetings. It is very frustrating and inefficient to sit in a meeting withoutunderstanding what is being discussed. Fortunately the number of Americanbusinesspeople who understand foreign languages is increasing. Some languagessuch as Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese are difficult to read and write, but notnecessarily difficult to speak. I know several foreigners who speak Japaneseperfectly without being able to read or write.An easy way to learn a foreign language is to keep listening to cassettes whileyou drive or ride a bus. There are many language cassettes available for thispurpose. A practical suggestion is that when you buy a cassette, copy it on astronger tape. The ones you buy in stores not only wear out fast but also clog themagnetic head of your cassette player with their debris.Individual DifferencesThere are always individual differences within each culture. In fact, you can findany individual type in any culture if you look hard. Very often various types arehidden or camouflaged under the surface of cultrally conditioned behavior. But

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you can discover them although it is sometimes difficult in cultures where peopleare too modest to express their opinion or their individual nature. Some basicunderstanding of the relationship between individual types and cultural types maybe helpful.The way a person organizes his/her thinking and behavior is called mindscape(see endnotes, Maruyama 1979, 1980). There can be as many mindscape types asthere are individuals. But some types are more frequently found than others. Thefollowing four types and their mixtures account for about two-thirds of people inmost cultures:

H-type I-type S-type G-typehomogenist heterogenist heterogenist heterogenisthierarchical isolationist interactive interactivepermanent temporary stability changecompetitive laisser-faire cooperative cogenerativeclassifying randomizing contextual contextualsequential haphazard simultaneous simultaneousone truth subjective many truths many truthszero-sum negative-sum positive-sum positive-sum

Let us not forget that everybody is a mixture of some types, including the typesother than these four.In any culture, there are all individual types. Cultural difference arise when onetype becomes dominant and influences other types. For example in the U.S., thedominant type is an H-I mixture. In Japan, SHG mixture dominates. The twocountries share the H component while differing in other components. Butnon-dominant types exist in each country, in individuals as well as in corporatecultures. They may be hidden in many ways.If an individual's mindscape type is different from the mainstream dominant type,one of the following can happen (see endnote, Maruyama 1992). The individual:(1) finds a social niche where he/she can practice his/her own type;(2) camouflages his/her own type; or(3) becomes able to function in two types: mainstream and own;(4) represses his/her own type into the unconscious, but may reactivate it underfavorable conditions;(5) loses his/her own type completely.From the management point of view, those in the third category are most useful ifthe individual's own type is the same as yours. The person can become atranslator between you and the mainstream type of the host country.

The mindscape type of a person's mindscape type is expressed in the decisionprocess, spatial composition, social interaction pattern, aesthetic preferences,world view, and so on (for details, see endnotes, Maruyama 1992). To discover thehidden types, is it useful to hold conversations on many topics, interact in manysituations, and observe the behavior carefully.Differences Between Countries In The Same RegionIt is a mistake to lump all European countries together, all Asian countries inanother block, and all African or Middle Eastern countries in their respectivegroups. In fact, the difference between Indonesia and Korea is greater than that

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In fact, the differencebetween Indonesiaand Korea is greaterthan that betweenJapan and the U.S.

between Japan and the U.S. The dominant type in Indonesia is an extreme S, andthe dominant type in Korea is a strong H. We saw, on the other hand, that SHGpredominates in Japan, and HI is the mainstream in U.S.A.A country may be more similar to another in a different part of the world than toits neighbors. The Danish culture is closer to the Indonesian culture than to theSwedish culture in terms of the mindscape characteristics. Let us take one aspectof the Danish culture as an example.In the Danish culture, (see endnotes, Maruyama 1961) the main purpose ofinterpersonal communication is maintenance of familiar atmosphere and relationof affection. A small group of friends often sit together in the same cafe, eating thesame pastry week after week, telling the same or similar gossips. Subtle variationsare considered interesting. For example everyone knows that Mr. X ties his leftshoe first, then his right shoe. One day he reverses the sequential order. Thisbecomes big news. Less subtle information is avoided because it may disturb thefamiliar atmosphere. It is impolite to explain things, because such an act assumesthat someone is ignorant. It is also impolite to ask questions on anything beyondimmediate personal concern, because the respondent may not know the answer.It is often considered aggressive or offensive to introduce new ideas. One prefersto repeat the same old jokes. Discussion on politics or economics is taboo except inmarginal enclaves. Safe topics of intellectual conversation are art, literature, andmusic, on which people are expected to disagree without embarrassment.A foreign businessperson eager to discuss what is outside the immediate businessneeds is likely to be met with a strong silent resistance.When confronted with a discussion, even if it is intended to be friendly, Danestend to withdraw and become silent. They also tend to think that interpersonalunderstanding is impossible. I do not understand myself. Why should I try tounderstand others? is the way most Danes think. Kierkegaard, the 19th centuryphilosopher, was quite Danish in the sense that he considered interpersonalcommunication to be very difficult or impossible except through God. But he wasquite un-Danish because he expressed his sufferings. His philosophy is understoodmore by foreigners than by Danes.In contrast, in Sweden (see endnote, Maruyama 1961), the purpose of dailyinterpersonal communication is transmission of new information or frank feelings.One prefers to be silent unless he/she has an important message, while inDenmark one must keep talking. While Danes are affect-oriented, Swedes areperformance-oriented.As this example demonstrates, your friendly behavior of asking questions orexplaining things may have a negative effect in some cultures, and you may notknow why it does not work. It took me four years of living in Denmark to realizewhat I was doing wrong.Let us take another example, this time from Singapore. Directors from countrieslike Sweden assume that if they keep their door open, their employees will walk inand talk with them, but nobody comes. Chinese Singaporeans, who constitutethree-fourth of the population in Singapore, cannot go over the head of theirimmediate superior. In fact, one avoids running into someone even accidentallyon the street who is higher in rank than his/her immediate supervisor, for fear ofbeing misinterpreted by whoever might happen to be around. In Japan probablynobody would walk into the director's office either, but the reason is different. InJapan an employee can talk with the director anywhere if he is spoken to by thedirector. It is also interesting to compare this with the French practice. In France,one may write letters to Mr. X's superior concerning Mr. X, but must send a copy

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Thomson of Francethinks that if youselect the rightperson, no training isneeded, and if youselect a wrong person,training is useless.

to Mr. X. This is not required in Japan, nor in the U.S. It is also interesting that thesentences in this paragraph, which are in English, are rather complicated andawkward. However, this paragraph can be written much simpler, moreaccurately, and concisely in Swedish and Russian by using reflexive possessivepronouns which do not exist in English. I had to paraphrase some sentences usingawkward expressions such as Mr.X.A businessperson must remember that the approach which works in Germanydoes not work in Holland, and what works in Hungary does not work in Romania.Foreign TravelResidents of countries where foreign currency is hard to obtain, such as Hungary,cannot easily travel abroad. Opportunities for foreign travel on the job is atremendously attractive incentive.Selection and TrainingWhether you are sending a manager from your country to a foreign country, or aforeign employee to be a manager in a third country, an adequate system ofselection and/or training is necessary (see endnotes, Maruyama 1990b).Thomson of France thinks that if you select the right person, no training is needed,and if you select a wrong person, training is useless. In the selection, Thomsongives a high priority to knowledge of the foreign language and interest in theforeign culture. It had directors in Singapore who were interested in theneighboring Indonesian culture. Siemens of Germany also thinks that selection ismore important than training. But unlike Thomson, its criteria tend to be health,marital status, and having no school-age children. While there are schools forFrench dependents in major world cities, Germans enjoy no similar convenience.Americans, who tend to think that training can change anyone, seldom havetraining programs on foreign cultures and languages, though there are exceptionssuch as Teradyne of Boston.Older Japanese firms tend to practice neither culture-based selection nor training:they dispatch their employees with a very short notice, often as short as twoweeks. But some of the younger firms practice selection and/or training. Hondamatches its employees' individual personality characteristics with the host countryculture. Honda can do this because many of its senior managers and executiveshave lived in foreign countries. Matsushita provides training of six months ormore, with many languages to choose from, including Chinese, Russian, andArabic.Some Korean firms have very thorough training programs. An example is the useof culture houses. An employee that will be sent to Germany, for example, is putin a German house where he is confined until he is able to eat, live, and sleeplike a German.Endogenous Market Research Based On Observation Of User HabitsTechnologically excellent products may fail if they do not match the users' habits.Users' habits cannot be discovered by interviews or questionnaires. They must beobserved.In the early 1980s Japanese cars tended to stall on the streets of Beijing. Thereason was that drivers in Beijing stopped the engine while waiting for the redsignal to change, and in many Japanese cars the air-conditioning kept runningafter the engine was stopped. The battery went dead and the engine could notstart. The problem was in the way the switch operated. But from the point of viewof the users, the entire car was defective. The solution was simple: to modify the

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The secret of judo is tomake your opponentfall by his ownmomentum. If hepushes you, you pullhim. If he pulls you,you push him. Thismethod is extremelyuseful in internationalbusiness.

ignition switch to stop the air-conditioning when the engine was stopped. Tounderstand such problems, observation of users' habits is indispensable.Observation methods which had been developed in sociology, anthropology, andanimal behavior study were used by some firms.Hakuhodo, one of the leading marketing firms in Japan, has used observationmethods at several occasions. One was a study of consumer shopping patterns.The researcher picked every n-th person from a train station and followed theperson into various shops. Several patterns were discovered (see endnotes,Maruyama 1985b). For example, young people tended to gravitate toward hiddenstores that carried nonstandard items, located a little distance away from thestation. They avoided neatly classified shelves and preferred to discover unusualitems in a mixed heap of miscellaneous articles. They liked shops that frequentlychanged their merchandises or interior decoration, giving a new atmosphere eachtime. These shops purposely create a degree of inaccesibility by being located inthe complicated maze of small alleys and by having no identifiable mark outside.Two other types of shops were also found nearby: pumping shops and spongeshops. The pumping shops, or the established large stores in the center of thecommercial zone, attract a crowd and spill out the overflow of people into thestreets. The sponge shops, located in the alleys near the main streets, absorb theoverflow. Some of the sponge shops turn into the hidden specialty shops.Hakuhodo also used participant observation methods in some cases.A videotaping method was used by an American firm to study the users' habits inthe kitchen. In the U.S., home kitchens usually have two sinks. Theoretically, oneis for soap water and the other is for clean water. Video cameras were installed inseveral home kitchens. In the beginning the users were cautious and used thesinks as the theory projected. But after two or three weeks, they were no longerconscious of the camera-they came out in nude for example and used onlyone sink.In both cases, the research was conducted by members of the culture under study,not by foreigners. This is called endogenous research. In this type of study, theresearchers use the concepts in the culture to formulate the focus, devise themethods, and interpret the data.From now on, firms which use endogenous researchers to study users' habits willbe far ahead of firms which rely on questionnaires and interviews. (Problems inconducting endogenous research in foreign cultures are discussed in the endnoteMaruyama 1978.)Strategic JudoThe secret of judo is to make your opponent fall by his own momentum. If hepushes you, you pull him. If he pulls you, you push him. This method is extremelyuseful in international business. Strategic judo consists in turning obstacles intoadvantages. Remember that obstacles annoy your competitors as well. Whoevercan devise a way to overcome the obstacles before your competitors do can winthe game. Going a step further, you can regard an obstacle as a tool with whichyou can outdistance your competitors.Here are some examples. A Japanese regulation required desk telephone sets tohave a fuse in the circuit. This regulation had a cultural background. In Japan, incase of an accident due to a product defect, consumers tend to blame thegovernment for the lack of strict safety regulations instead of suing themanufacturer. Consequently, regulations multiplied unnecessarily. SomeAmerican firms wanted to sell their telephone sets in Japan and tried to argue thatsuch a fuse was unnecessary. Even if they had been successful in their argument,

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Experiencedsalespersons knowhow to avoid arguingwith their customers.but this common senseis often forgotten ininternationalbusiness.

it may have taken years to change the regulation. A quick strategy would be toput a fuse in the product while competitors waste their time arguing.Six years ago French ski makers who wanted to sell their skis in Japan were toldthat Japanese snow was different from French snow. Here again, it would havetaken too much time to argue that the snow in the two countries was the same. Aquick business strategy would be to go along with the Japanese view and tell theJapanese that you will design your skis for the Japanese snow. Experiencedsalespersons know how to avoid arguing with their customers, but this commonsense is often forgotten in international business.When the environmentalist movement mounted in the U.S., most firms opposedstricter regulations. But one firm made use of the environmentalist movement. Afish-farming firm devised a system to remove toxic elements from water beyondthe current requirement, and pressured the government by means of theenvironmentalist movement to establish a new requirement which the firm couldmeet but its competitors could not. This was an example of proactive marketing(see endnote, Maruyama 1990a).ConclusionChanging international business situations generate new managementdimensions. Firms must keep up with them and even go a few steps ahead ofthem to be competitive.

Endnotes For more details, see the following:H. Hendin, Suicide in Scandinavia (New York:Grun and Stratton, 1964).M. Maruyama. Multilateral Mutual CausalRelationships among the Modes ofCommunication, Sociometric Pattern andIntellectual Orientation in Danish Culture.Phylon, 22, 1961, 41-58.M. Maruyama. Endogenous Research andPolyocular Anthropology, in Perspectives onEthnicity, edited by R. Holloman and S.Arutiunov, (Den Haag: Mouton, 1978).M. Maruyama, Mindscapes, World FutureSociety Bulletin, 13, 1979, 13-23.M. Maruyama, Mindscapes and ScienceTheories, Current Anthropology, 21, 1980,589-599.M. Maruyama, Denkmuster: Metaprinzipiender Umweltgestaltung, Garten und Landschaft,October 1981, 806-815.M. Maruyama, Alternative Concepts ofManagement: Insights from Asia and Africa,

Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 1, 1984,100-111.M. Maruyama, Mindscapes: How toUnderstand Specific Situations in InternationalManagement, Asia Pacific Journal ofManagement, 2, 1985a, 125-149.M. Maruyama, The New Logic of Japan'sYoung Generations, Technological Forecastingand Social Change, 28, 1985b, 351-364.M. Maruyama, Epistemological Sources ofNew Business Problems in the InternationalEnvironment, Human Systems Management, 8,1989, 71-80.M. Maruyama, International ProactiveMarketing, Marketing Research, June 1990a,36-48.M. Maruyama, Organizational Structure,Training and Selection of Outer Space Crewmembers, Technological Forecasting andSocial Change, 37, 1990b, 203-212.M. Maruyama, Context and Complexity (NewYork: Springer-Verlag, 1992).

About the Author Magoroh Maruyama was born in Japan in 1929. He graduated from theUniversity of California Berkeley in mathematics with honors, and did hisgraduate studies at the Universities of Heidelberg, Munich, Copenhagen andLund, obtaining his PhD. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley,Stanford University, University of Illinois, University of Uppsala in Sweden,University of Montpellier in France, National University of Singapore, and isprofessor of international business at Aoyama Gakuin University of Tokyo.

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Changing Dimensions in International Business

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