Astrid Kainzbauer who not only gave me the opportunity to do this research on the topic of Factors affecting the cross-cultural conflicts of Thai employees in Japanese companies, but also gave me a variety of knowledge related to the study and encouragement that helps me step on every step and achieve the goal of this study. This research aims to identify the factors that influence the cross-cultural conflicts of Thai employees in Japanese companies. Seven interviewees were selected from Thai employees working in Japanese company for more than 1 year.
Therefore, he gave the recommendation to resolve the conflict for both the Thai employees and the Japanese companies. KEYWORDS: Intercultural conflicts / Values associated with words / Human resource management / Work environment / Thai employees. The purpose of this study is to focus on the relationship between Thai employees and Japanese companies in intercultural conflicts, which are caused by differences in the culture of each country.
Along with the supplementary information from the study of the literature review on Traditional Japanese Human Resource Management (HRM) which applied to the Japanese company and by exploring the work-related values of Thai employees and the Japanese company. In the context of the study, this research would like to search for "factors affecting the cross-cultural conflicts among Thai employees in Japanese companies".
LITERATURE REVIEW
Cross-Cultural Differences
- Power distance
- Individualism
- Masculinity
- Uncertainty avoidance
If a Thai worker can do the work by himself, he prefers to solve problems himself, but under the supervision of Japanese managers. Japan 88, Thailand 32], Japanese managers emphasize long-term orientation, always plan the direction of the organization for the next 3-5 years and want every employee in the organization to follow their instructions. In the comparison between Thailand and Japan according to Hofstede's cultural dimensions model, it seems that the degree of masculinity and long-term orientation are the two factors with the most long difference in the result, which may be the main cause of conflict.
Also very long-term oriented, the Japanese consider every single step of their life as part of the long story of life. In terms of business, the Japanese have shown a high rate of long-term investment, Research and Development, rate of capital and revenue growth, as they emphasize not only today, but also the future. In summary, the cultural conflicts between Thai and Japanese culture were the cause of conflicts and misinterpretation in the working environment of the Thai employee in the Japanese company, but there are also work-related values that also lead to conflict within the company.
Work-Related Values in Thai Organizations
All these dimensions are covered in "Factors influencing the cross-cultural conflicts of Thai employees in Japanese companies". Grateful relationship orientation refers to the psychological bond between the group of people out of help and kindness. Work and projects can be done perfectly through the support of this orientation due to good connection and relationship between workers, leaders and third parties.
Education and competence orientation reflect the perception of using education to increase social status and not the result of achievements. The fun pleasure orientation response to relaxed, fun, and joyful behavior in Thai society. Moreover, not only Japanese culture is implemented in the Japanese company and work-related values that lead to intercultural conflicts, but also traditional Japanese HRM that is also rooted in Japanese culture.
Japanese HRM emphasis on the strong relationship between organization and employee, supervisor and subordinates, and results of work in the team. Swierczek & Onishi (2003) mentioned in the study, Japanese traditional HRM that applies to Japanese company consists of lifetime employment: require Thai employee to sign an agreement with the company about working hours and rules. House Union: Most of the Thai subordinates believe that the Japanese union was not beneficial to them as the union in Thailand was not very active for Thai workers.
Thai subordinates prefer to make the decision in groups because they want to avoid post-decision conflict. In Japanese organizations, Japanese managers appear to obtain consensus from the Japanese supervisor rather than from Thai subordinates. These are caused by the lack of language skills and the distance between Japanese managers and Thai subordinates.
Quality Circles: Require employees in the same positions to meet regularly to discuss and identify work-related problems.
Conclusion
This diagram demonstrates the general view of the literature review to collect existing information on differences in Thai and Japanese culture, Japanese HRM that applied in Japanese companies, and work-related value conflicts to investigate the “Factors Influencing the Intercultural Conflicts.” of Thai workers in Japanese companies”.
METHODOLOGY
Primary Data Collection Method
Interview Method
- Sample Selection
- Develop Open-ended questions
- Develop probing techniques
- Conduct the Interview
To explore the factors influencing the intercultural conflicts of Thai employees in Japanese companies, the qualitative interview with open-ended questions is adopted to allow the interviewees to provide an in-depth response to actual experiences. A list of open-ended questions is prepared as a semi-structured interview, as shown in Table 3.2 below. Do Thais have a chance to be promoted to higher level positions (or only Japanese).
When you are assigned any projects, most of the projects are long term or short term. If you have the opportunity to be a manager in a Japanese company, what do you want to use or change in a Japanese company. The interview takes place with two-way communication from the face-to-face interview between the interviewer and the interviewees.
In this research, the interviews take place in the form of a personal conversation and a telephone call. The interview venue is meeting rooms, offices, and classrooms for a quiet and formal atmosphere that can help the interviews flow smoothly and encourage interviewees to express in-depth information about their experiences.
Research Framework
DATA ANALYSIS
- Cross-Cultural Differences
- Hierarchical system
- Relationship of employees
- Level of dedications
- Project Assignment
- Human Resource Management
- Work Environment
- Work behavior
- Reward system
- Findings Conclusion
In the last part of the interview, the interviewees were asked to give their recommendation to the Japanese company, Ms. A and Mr. G mentioned that the hierarchical system should be based on both length of employment and performance through performance appraisal. They believed that longer tenure equals more experience resulting in better performance, which leads to conflict with Thai employees within the company. Because their performance and achievements while working in the company were not promoted.
Ms.C mentioned to her Japanese managers during the difficult time, her manager often became angry and clearly spoke in rude words. Teamwork was done with close relationships and cooperation from the team of colleagues. The second part of the Interview conversation was used to search for Human Resource Management (HRM) in the Japanese company.
All the interviewees worked in the Japanese company with no requirement to sign the employment contract. On the other hand, it helps employees to be better off in the evaluation of the trial period. The change of managers can be considered as a bad problem found in the Japanese companies in Thailand operated by Japanese managers.
Likewise, empowerment from the meeting helps employees to be aware of what is happening and what to do in the future. For commitment level conflict, there have been differences in commitment in some companies that lead to conflict among Thai employees. Project task conflict was an indirect effect due to the degree of commitment and detail-oriented Japanese culture that caused conflict in the flexibility of the work environment within Japanese companies.
The conflict found from the interviews was the change of managers caused by the work permit of foreign managers leading to the rotation of managers, resulting in the loss of power. Comparison of findings from interview and literature review identifies differences and agreements in Factors affecting intercultural conflicts of Thai employees in Japanese companies in Thailand. In HRM factors, the change in managers' conflict also unexpected can be found from the literature reviews.
RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
Conclusion
Recommendations
- Cross-Cultural Differences
- HRM System
The highly implemented seniority in Japanese business was a result of emphasizing the older employee and long duration of employment means higher power. Employees who result in the high achievement and performance should be promoted to the higher positions along with the consideration of the duration of each employee's employment. On the other hand, in addition to the increasing duration of employment, which takes time and is impossible to speed up, Thai employees should always seek opportunities to improve performance by looking for more challenging tasks in the same or different work area, to learn new skills and abilities .
When the company thinks about the hierarchy, improving the skills and abilities of each employee will strengthen the intention to be promoted. After applying the above-mentioned recommendation, the company will have more eligible employees at each specific position in the hierarchical system, resulting in more accurate measurements of both the performance and experiences of each employee. Due to the conflicts in the relationship between employees, a Japanese company should strengthen the relationship of employees from different countries by establishing language courses for both Thai and Japanese to learn foreign languages.
Moreover, all employees in multinational company must be careful to use the languages that cannot be understood by everyone in the conversation. Managers and supervisors must accept the responsibilities of monitoring and motivating employees to work in the right directions. On the other hand, Thai employee must set their own goals along with the company's goal to improve the commitment and motivation to achieve both goals and also plan for the schedule of each work or projects so as not to fall behind in the wrong directions not.
He also said: "My managers are old-fashioned people, everything in the company must follow traditional sequences". The company should organize a formal meeting to introduce the new managers and clarify the hierarchy in the company and each department. On the other hand, employees should give new managers time to adjust and adjust to the company, helping new managers learn the company's culture and norms.
Employees should also remember to always respect the new managers and not overlap their tasks.
Limitations of Study
