Japan and GermanyJapanese and German cultures, in the Hofstede 5 Dimensions Model
Power distanceThis dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it
expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us.
Power distance is defined as
the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
JAPAN. At a score of 54, Japan is a mildly hierarchical society. Japanese are always conscious of their hierarchical position in any social setting and act accordingly, but are not as hierarchical as most of the other Asian cultures. Some foreigners experience Japan as extremely hierarchical because of their business experience of painstakingly slow decision making process - all the decisions must be confirmed by each hierarchical layer and finally by the top management in Tokyo. Paradoxically, the exact example of their slow decision making process shows that in Japanese society there is no one top person who can take decisions, as in more hierarchical societies. Another example of not-so-high power distance is that Japan has always been a meritocratic society. There is a strong notion in the Japanese education system that everybody is born equal and anyone can get ahead and become anything if he or she works hard enough.
GERMANY. Highly decentralised and supported by a strong middle class, Germany is not surprisingly among the lower power distant countries (score 35). Co-determination rights are comparatively extensive and have to be taken into account by the management. A direct and participative communication and meeting style is common, control is disliked and leadership is challenged to show expertise and best accepted when it is based on expertise.
IndividualismThe fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is
the degree of interdependence
a society maintains among its members.
It has to do with whether people´s self-image
is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves
and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.
JAPAN. Japan scores 46 on the Individualism dimension. Certainly Japanese society shows many of the characteristics of a collectivistic society: such as putting harmony of group above the expression of individual opinions and people have a strong sense of shame for losing face. However, it is not as collectivistic as most of Asian neighbours. The most popular explanation for this is that Japanese society does not have extended family system which forms a base of more collectivistic societies such as China and Korea. Japan has been a paternalistic society and the family name and assets were inherited from father to the eldest son. The younger siblings had to leave home and make their own living with their core families. One seemingly paradoxical example is that Japanese are famous for their loyalty to their companies, while Chinese seem to change jobs more easily. However, company loyalty is something which people have chosen for themselves, which is an individualistic thing to do. You could say that the Japanese in-group is situational. In more collectivistic culture, people are loyal to their inner group by birth, such as their extended family and their local community. Japanese are seen as collectivistic by Western standards and seen as individualistic by Asian standards. They are more private and reserved than most other Asians.
GERMANY. The German society is a truly individualistic one (67). Small families with a focus on the parent-children relationship rather than aunts and uncles are most common. There is a strong belief in the ideal of self-actualization. Loyalty is based on personal preferences for people as well as a sense of duty and responsibility. This is defined by the contract between the employer and the employee.
Communication is among the most direct in the world following the ideal to be “honest, even if it hurts” – and by this giving the opportunity to learn from mistakes.
Masculinity / FemininityA high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by
competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner / best
in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organisational behaviour.
A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring
for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success
and standing out from the crowd is not admirable.
The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine).
JAPAN. At 95, Japan is one of the most masculine societies in the world. However, in combination with their mild collectivism, we do not see assertive and competitive individual behaviours which we often associate with masculine culture. What we see is a severe competition between groups. From very young age at kindergartens, children learn to compete on sports day for their groups (traditionally red team against white team).
In corporate Japan, employees are most motivated when they are fighting in a winning team against their competitors. An expression of masculinity in Japan is the drive for excellence and perfection in material production (monodukuri) and in material services (hotels and restaurants) and in presentation (gift wrapping and food presentation) in every aspect of life. Japanese workaholism is another expression of their masculinity. It is still hard for women to climb up the corporate ladders in Japan with the masculine norm of hard and long working hours.
GERMANY. With a score of 66 Germany is considered a masculine society. Performance is highly valued and early required as the school system separates children into different types of schools at the age of ten. People rather “live in order to work” and draw a lot of self-esteem from their tasks. Managers are expected to be decisive and assertive. Status is often shown, especially by cars, watches and technical devices.
Uncertainty avoidanceThe dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score.
JAPAN. At 92 Japan is one of the most uncertainty avoiding countries on earth. This is often attributed to the fact that Japan is constantly threatened by natural disasters from earthquakes, tsunamis (this is a Japanese word used internationally), typhoons to volcano eruptions. Under these circumstances Japanese learned to prepare themselves for any uncertain situation. This goes not only for the emergency plan and precautions for sudden natural disasters but also for every other aspects of society. You could say that in Japan anything you do is prescribed for maximum predictability. From cradle to grave, life is highly ritualized and you have a lot of ceremonies. For example, there is opening and closing ceremonies of every school year which are conducted almost exactly the same way everywhere in Japan. At weddings, funerals and other important social events, what people wear and how people should behave are prescribed in great detail in etiquette books. School teachers and public servants are reluctant to do things without precedence. In corporate Japan, a lot of time and effort is put into feasibility studies and all the risk factors must be worked out before any project can start. Managers ask for all the detailed facts and figures before taking any decision. This high need for uncertainty avoidance is one of the reasons why changes are so difficult to realize in Japan.
GERMANY. Germany is among the uncertainty avoidant countries (65). In line with the philosophical heritage of Kant, Hegel and Fichte there is a strong preference for deductive rather than inductive approaches, be it in thinking, presenting or planning: the systematic overview has to be given in order to proceed. This is also reflected by the law system.
Details are equally important to create certainty that a certain topic or project is well-thought-out.
In combination with their low Power Distance, where the certainty for own decisions is not covered by the larger responsibility of the boss, Germans prefer to compensate for their higher uncertainty by strongly relying on expertise.