Culture Clash
Culture Clash
Cultures place more value
on equality or equity when
recognizing contributions'The procedure I used to recognize high performing employees worked when I introduced it in Boston," Dan Romney told colleagues at an executive retreat. "The same system bombed here in Osaka."
Dan had been an executive at a multinational bank in Osaka, Japan, for a year. When working in Boston, he distributed company profits by identifying the best employees and rewarding them according to their contributions. If people worked hard and were clearly contributing to organizational goals, they received more end-of-year benefits than average-performing employees. Dan's approach proved popular and was adopted by other executives in various American branches of the bank.
When Dan tried to introduce a similar system in Osaka, it proved to be very unpopular. Employees who received year-end bonuses did not seem appreciative, and Dan felt that morale in his division had decreased. He could not figure out why his incentive system worked in one country but not the other.
Dan has encountered a cultural difference in the relative emphasis placed on equity and equality in the distribution of employee benefits. If executives set up systems based on equity, they identify high performing people and reward them more than average-performing employees. With equity, attempts are made to reward people based on their individual contributions. Employees who contribute more, for example by bringing in more business to the bank, are rewarded more.
If executives set up systems based on equality, they make attempts to give similar amounts of rewards to all employees. The emphasis in an equality-based system is to recognize the work of all employees, not a smaller number of high performers. Equality based systems are common in collectivist cultures, such as Japan, where there is great value placed on being a member of a group. If one or two people receive more rewards than others, this may interfere with group harmony. High performers themselves become uncomfortable if they are centered out for special attention. Employees justify equality with statements such as, "Yes, there were some outstanding performers this year. But next year, other employees may be outstanding. It is best to look at the contributions of the group over the long run."
There may be some changes in the future. Japanese employees may become more attentive to their own careers and may downplay company loyalty. The promise of lifetime employment in Japan has been weakened by the Asian economic crisis. Companies have instituted layoffs. College graduates do not have the range of choices among jobs that they did 20 years ago. Japanese businesspeople might become more attentive to keeping up good resumes, and a listing as "employee of the year" is an attractive entry.
The purpose of this column is to increase understanding of human behavior as it has an impact on the workplace. Special attention will be given to miscommunications caused by cultural differences. Each column will start with a short example of such confusion. Possible explanations will be offered to encourage thought about these issues.
Richard Brislin is a professor in the College of Business Administration,
University of Hawaii. He can be reached through the
College Relations Office: cro@cba.hawaii.edu