Диссертация (1152616), страница 24

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A high turnover took place. Up to 50 people requested to beassigned to another project. By November, down to 20 members, the team comprisedonly 3 of the original members and the rest were new. The team leader was nowreduced to a mere normal leader of an underperformed team. The new team nevermanaged to performed as before.”Jeta Prakash & Lalzarzova, 2010, Bangalore, India, extracted from [60]A3: Why Do Japanese Fall Asleep In Meetings?“One of the most common questions I receive from Americans who work with Japaneseis, “Why do Japanese fall asleep in meetings?”The fact is, when Japanese close their eyes in meetings, most of the time they aren’tactually asleep! Often, closed eyes are a sign that a Japanese person is listening intently.Japanese believe that by closing their eyes, they can hear more effectively, because theyare screening out the visual stimulus and focusing only on the sound. Because Japanesefind it challenging to listen to English conversations for long stretches of time, they areespecially likely to use this technique in meetings with Americans.Unlike Americans, Japanese don’t have the custom of maintaining eye contact with theperson who is talking.

So the action of closing one’s eyes, which appears to Americansto be extremely impolite, carries no such negative connotations for Japanese. Andtypically Japanese are unaware that closing one’s eyes strikes Americans as being rude.143Japanese typically don’t realize how disconcerting, or even insulting, this habit can beto Americans.Once, earlier in my career, I was giving an important speech. While talking, I lookedover at a senior Japanese person in attendance, who I was hoping to make a goodimpression on.

His eyes were closed, and his face wore a placid expression. He reallylooked like he was asleep! Even though intellectually I knew that Japanese often closetheir eyes when listening to English, on an emotional level I panicked, thinking, “Oh no,I’m so boring that this key person is sleeping!” Through the rest of the speech my eyeskept darting over to him, each time to find him with his eyes still closed.

However,when the speech was over and it was the time for the question-and-answer session, hishand was the first one that darted up. He asked a very incisive question, the content ofwhich indicated that he had indeed been listening to my talk very carefully. Phew!In a meeting-type situation, if you see Japanese closing their eyes, it may be anindication that you need to slow down your speech and make sure you are speaking in away that is not too complicated and doesn’t use too many idioms. Be aware, however,that some Japanese will close their eyes almost no matter what––it’s that ingrained of ahabit.

You may also want to consider changing the format of your meeting, toencourage more discussion and interaction.Another reason why Japanese close their eyes in meetings occurs in the case of seniorexecutives. Typically this is limited to the one highest-ranking individual in themeeting. They will sit with their eyes closed and their head tilted downward, looking forall the world like they are catching a catnap.

However, this is merely a way for them todisguise their nonverbal signals––as if they had drawn a shade down in front of theirface. Senior executives tend to do this as a way of keeping their cards close to them andnot letting everyone know their reaction to what is being said.

If they didn’t do this, allthe other Japanese in the meeting would be scanning their expression for clues as towhat they are thinking.144Closing one’s eyes and tilting one’s head downward is also a way for a senior executiveto demonstrate that they are not the one who is running the meeting.

In Japan, seniorpeople will often take a sideline role in order to give younger employees a chance toshine by taking center stage. It may also be the case that the younger employees speakbetter English and thus are better suited to the primary speaking role. Also, in Japaneseculture being quiet is thought to be more dignified, and thus is more appropriate for asenior person than being talkative. Of course, this is the opposite of the Americancustom of having the most senior person take the lead in the meeting and do the mosttalking. So it’s particularly unnerving to Americans when the senior-most personappears to be sleeping––it seems like a sure sign of failure! Just be sure to temper youremotional reaction with this logical information on why this is happening.Recently I saw a senior American executive at one of my clients, a major Japanese firm.He had attended the shareholder’s meeting of the parent company in Japan a short timeprior to that. He said “Rochelle, I’m going to have to make you eat your words aboutJapanese really concentrating when they are closing their eyes in meetings, because atour shareholder’s meeting there were several guys who really were sleeping, there wasno doubt about it!” Of course, there are occasions when Japanese actually do fall asleepin meetings.

(You can usually tell this is happening when someone’s mouth falls open,their head nods, or they are snoring!) However, this is something that is typicallyoverlooked in Japan, because their fatigue is usually a result of legitimate activities suchas staying up late for overseas conference calls or entertaining customers. Furthermore,because in typical Japanese meetings large numbers of people are invited even if theirconnection to the topic is only indirect, meeting participants who are not at the center ofthe discussion may feel that they can safely catch a couple winks.

It’s not considered tobe as rude as it would be in U.S. culture, because there is no norm like we have in theU.S. that requires all participants to make a contribution to the conversation. Often, justbeing present to show your support for the topic is deemed to be sufficient. This wouldcertainly be the case in the shareholder’s meeting that my client attended––in Japan145such meetings tend to be ceremonial, and would not require the board members to makeany statements or participate in discussions. It’s their presence alone that is required.”Rochelle Kopp, 2011, Managing Principal, Japan Intercultural Consulting, extractedfrom [60]A4: Locus of control in a Korean-US leadership teamIn the mid-1990s, I was asked to facilitate an executive teambuilding session with ateam of twenty-six leaders in a Korean electronics company in their US headquarters inNew Jersey.

The participants were evenly divided between managers from the US andexpatriate managers from Korea. In general, the Korean expatriates occupied the higherlevel positions, with the US managers reporting to them. The reluctance to admit nonKoreans into key leadership roles was only one of the reasons the human resourcesdepartment sought to discuss, explore, and bridge cultural differences and buildeffective and cohesive teams.As always, when asked to provide impact and improvement in a short period of time, itis important to demonstrate the reality of fundamental cultural differences to theparticipants and leverage the awareness generated by engaging participants in a processof constructive reconciliation. I chose to engage the participant groups in a survivalsimulation. The participants were assigned to one of five teams.

Each team wasprovided with the same instructions: each group was stranded in the desert with theirmini-bus on a road that was rarely traveled and without hope to reach a gas station.Besides a map and description of the geographic environment, each group was given aset of materials, food and drink items, tools and equipment (no mobile phones!) in theirpossession.

The groups were then instructed to decide and agree on a suitable survivalstrategy within a given period of time.146The participants were divided into five teams: two mono-cultural teams, one with fiveKorean participants and one with five US participants; two teams with only one memberfrom a different cultural background each (i.e., one team of four Koreans and one USmanager, and one team of four US Americans and one Korean manager); one team ofsix participants evenly split between the Korean and US managers.The difference in survival strategies between the two mono-cultural groups illustratessignificantly different assumptions about locus of control.

The all-US team generated avery detailed and differentiated plan to enhance their chance of survival:Rationing of available food and water sources that accounted for the likely spoilageof the various itemsA schedule for rest and wake periods for each team member to guarantee twentyfour-hour monitoring of any movements and opportunities for attracting helpA division of roles and responsibilities among the team members, including arotation among various geographic lookout positionsDetailed action paths accounting for a variety of possible contingenciesA plan for converting the various components of the mini-bus into new andimprovised tools and implements that would aid in the survival. Among these:A mechanism to reflect sunlight and send emergency messages to airplanesPlans to convert the radio of the mini-bus into a communication deviceA sequence for burning all flammable materials to send clearly visible emergencysignals that could be recognized from the largest possible distanceA communication and signaling system that allows the team members to split up,scout the area, and send messages to coordinate activitiesHunting and digging devices that allow the team to look for additional foodsources and construct a safer, warmer, and more conducive baseIn the same period of time, the all-Korean team developed a very different strategy.

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