Culture's Consequences in Japanese Multinationals and Lifetime Commitment

Nobuo Takahashi, Toshio Goto and Hideki Fujita
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Nobuo Takahashi: Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
Toshio Goto: Kokumin Keizai Research Institute
Hideki Fujita: University of Tokyo

No CIRJE-F-2, CIRJE F-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: Hofstede's Culture's Consequences (1980) found out four dimensions of culture from the survey of IBM. To inquire into the cultural features of Japanese companies (three leading companies of the computer industry) and 13 subsidiaries of nine countries, we adopted the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) and the power distance index (PDI) out of Hofstede's four dimensions of culture in order to conduct two surveys; IT96 and IMS96. Including IBM Japan, UAIs of Japanese companies are high and these results correspond to lifetime commitment that has been pointed out in the argument of Japanese management. Within Japanese multinationals' environment, however, it should be noted that such a high UAI is observed only in Japan and not in their subsidiaries located outside of Japan. Based on Takahashi's (1996) perspective index, the differences of the mobility among overseas subsidiaries can be explained while the existence of lifetime commitment in Japan can be identified.

Pages: 19 pages
Date: 1998-05
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