The major problem facing the NBK Company is culture conflict and misunderstanding. Suppose I was the consultant, I would first carry out a survey targeting both employees and managers to understand the root cause of the problem. I would interview with both the employees and the managers at every level to understand better the challenges they face and the contribution of such difficulties in their rate of production. I would also do a study and compare the working culture at the company Headquarters in Japan and compare it with the working culture at the NBK located in America. Such reviews will help find loopholes in this company and what ought to be done to solve the issue of production.
As a consultant, I would interview three groups of people. The first interview will be the top management at the company. My next group would be the middle managers which in this case are mostly Americans. I would then interview employees at the organization. I would interview these people differently based on different questions targeting each group. For the top managers, the likely question will be on motivation, recruitment process, conflict resolution, culture and general perception on issues which may be affecting the production process within the company ( Shin, Hasse & Schotter, 2017). For the line managers, I would ask them questions concerning, communication process, employee motivation and incentives, the relationship with employees, their perception concerning the organization production, and what they think ought to be done to deal with the situation. For the employees, their questions will deal with the satisfaction level working within the company, an area where they would love to see a change. I will be language and culture conscious while interviewing both sides due to culture differences.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
From the case study, the American culture that is evident in love for fun and family. Americans love their families and like having fun. As a result, it is evident that working till late is doing them harm than good within the company. On the contrary, it is evident that the Japanese are hardworking people. To them, hard work is the only means of supporting the family and probably, showing them love. As a result, they have no issue with working till late. Also, hard work is one of the values in this organization. People are committed to meet the deadline at the expense of any other thing.
From this organization's condition, the culture of collectivism is evident. The values of this organization favor the Japanese only. Most of the Americans are complaining. The morning chores, perennial overtime up to nights, lack of motivation, inadequate incentives and the dominant Japanese culture values in this company are suffocating Americans workers. Other than that, the company is goal oriented to a point where they drain every muscle from the workers to achieve their objectives. Lastly, they value the channel of power. For instance, Mr. Akagi could not listen and understand Denise because she broke the chain of command.
The advice for the management is to foster change strategy to implement uniform culture within the organization. They should introduce some American managers at the top positions. For the teams, they should focus on goals, and there should be no segregation based on the culture ( Froese, Kim & Eng, 2016). To individuals, flexibility as a way of adapting to other cultures is critical. For the entire organization, they should have changed in many areas. The first area is to adopt American customs, another area to enhance employees' motivation and the last advice is to reduce overtime jobs or replace it with another useful strategy.
The consultant must understand that culture arises from one country to another. As a result, the consultant should not come up with a strategy that demonizes one culture and favors another. The consultant needs to come up with a balanced lifestyle that supports both Americans and Japanese workers. It is the only strategy that can be effective for the company.
References
Shin, D., Hasse, V. C., & Schotter, A. P. (2017). Multinational enterprises within cultural space and place: Integrating cultural distance and tightness–looseness. Academy of Management Journal , 60 (3), 904-921.
Froese, F. J., Kim, K., & Eng, A. (2016). Language, cultural intelligence, and inpatriate turnover intentions: Leveraging values in multinational corporations through inpatriates. Management International Review , 56 (2), 283-301.
