Monday, October 6, 2008
Week 7 #1
In chapter 19, Geertz states that culture is that " webs of significance; systems of share meaning." ( Griffin,E), ( P 251). Also, Griffin, E mentions that Japan`s industrial output has more cultural value than technology. When people walk in any Japanese company, people can feel strong Japanese cultural value mix into the workplace. One time, I went to Japan to visit my friend`s company. Manager of every department was the king of the department. Every worker had to listen to and follow the manager`s orders. When the workers were rebuked by the manager; they only said yes whatever the manager was right or wrong. Also, the manager was always the first one to leave the department to have lunch or go home; and then the workers could leave. In Japanese culture, wife has to follow her husband`s orders, children must follow their parents` orders, and youths have to listen to seniors. They put their culture into the workplaces whatever people like or dislike.
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I think that it is a positive thing to enlist your cultural values in the workplace. This makes for a more cohesive company structure within and symmetrically tied to the outside world around you. It can be positive when your culture has structured values, but might be very negative within a culture of a more fluid regime. A lackadaisic culture would lead to an overly flexible work environment where things might not get done, hierarchy is not respected. People may tend to bend the rules as there are very few to begin with and the ones that do exist are ambiguous. There are so many subcultures within American culture, that it would be hard to have an overall cultural value hierarchy across the board. That very freedom of values is one of the great things about America, leading to a wide array of businesses and companies to choose from.
I also believe that it is very advantageous to have cultural values tied into the workplace because it strengthens the environment.
It seems that in Japan, for the most part, there is one dominant culture so integrating this culture into the workplace strenghtens it. However, like Cinderella mentioned, there are so many subcultures within American culture - what would that strong dominant culture be that was woven into the workplace? What IS American culture?
Indian culture is similar to Japanese culture in the sense that it is more of a male dominated society. After you get married, the woman is supposed to move wherever her husband's job is, even if she makes more...a woman is supposed to value her family much more than anything else, whereas a man can spend more time outside the family and have more freedoms.
I do believe that some of a person's culture should be instilled in the workplace, but in a society like ours, it is hard to put too much. Personally, I think if it is going to help the company grow, and work more efficiently, then it is alright, but if it is only going to distract people from getting their job done, or either have people constantly question authority, then it is not good for the company. In Japanese culture, I just feel that it's okay because it's something that works for them. In our culture, we are too individualistic and complex. It would be like having a thousand different ways of doing something presented on one simple problem.
I think the way the japanese culture has blended with traditions and the penetration of western culture and capitalism. They have kept the tradition, which is most likely fueled as the belief that they will be blended if they do not. If you look at other experiences regarding the loss of a sense of culture, the Native American experience and African American experience, in which much of the culture was lost by the outside influences. Now each culture is very different from before. The Japanese, culture has good as well as bad features, especially the devalue of one person to another, especially that of women to men. America is not upfront about their gender inequality in the business world, but Japan sure is.
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