Japan Is A Collectivist Culture Essay

The extend of a culture’s interdependence within its society and amoung the member is addresses as either individualism or collectivism. A culture can either value individualism which means that personal rights and freedom are greatly valued or they can be highly collectivist which means the sense of community and harmony is highly expressed (Hofstede Insights 2017). Unlike Australia which is individualistic, Japan is a collectivist culture in terms of business association because as a community, they highly value loyalty within their groups and collaboration when making decisions (Gudykunst 2003). In Australia, self-expression is encouraged as well as valued and when it comes to communicating. People can contribute to conversations and make their opinion known. Though people are given the freedom and their personal rights

All group members must be addressed as one because the Japanese believe that collaboration is highly crucial for the group to achieve their desired goal as one. This means that any losses and achievements must never be addressed to one group member because the whole group should be equally responsible for each loss or achievement. If a person is singled out for a loss, it shows that the group lacks harmony and if they are singled out for an achievement, it puts an emphasis on that person’s personal achievements. Asking a Japanese group member to undermine or go against another group member must be avoided because the act would be requesting them to go against what they believe in. This is because collectivism cultures respect group harmony and work together to achieve their company goal therefore by asking them to undermine a group member, it affects harmony and it becomes an obstacle in achieving company goals as a group (Hofstede Insights 2017).

The degree of which a culture values traditional gender roles determines whether the culture is