Lessons learned in the Japanese-American Workplace Understanding Trust Mentoring Communication Delegation Five Pillars of Successful Multicultural Management

Institute Mission: F Articulate the culture-related causes of negative attitudinal outcomes F Provide training ground where managers can explore and develop specific supervisory behaviors F Provide a forum for exchanging experiences and ideas among participants

Curriculum Derived from Research Results Cultural Differences Expectations of: Communication Coaching Delegation Monitoring Perceptions of: Trust Fairness Role Clarity Attitudes about: Quitting Commitment Job Satisfaction “The most necessary training is…how to work with and manage a multicultural workforce.”

Evidence of a Problem? F “If Americans ‘fail’ on a project, they are never given another chance. Yet, Americans are rarely explicitly told what their authority is.” F “In Japan, formal job descriptions don’t exist. This can lead to role ambiguity in the U.S.” F “One source of frustration for Americans is the lack of input in decision making.”

F “Our engineers leave because of the constraints placed on innovativeness and flexibility” F “I seem to have several bosses, which can be confusing.” F “My supervisor doesn’t spend enough time preparing me for this position.” F “There’s a lack of open, honest communication.” F “I can’t make your meeting, Wally, because two of our section leaders just quit.”

Anecdotal Evidence Concerning... F Trust F Role Clarity F Role Satisfaction F Fairness …but, difficult to “teach” these.

Negative Attitudinal Outcomes Culture and the Causal Chain Cultural Differences Intermediate Perceptions Supervisory Behaviors

Supervisory Behaviors F Mentoring –Psycho-social –Career-related F Delegation –Authority-specific –Task-related F Communication –Effectiveness –Formalization F Monitoring –General –Corrective –Intrusive F Interpersonal Exchange –Exchange Quality –Acculturating Exchange –Abusive Exchange...“teachable” in management development and training program.

Research Methodology F Key issues identified by previous focus groups, interviews, and scholarly research F 212-item questionnaire distributed to 20 Japanese-American companies F Statistical analyses explored causal pathways among key factors

Specific Results: Indirect Causal Pathways Involving Supervisory Behaviors F Communication behaviors F Delegating behaviors F Mentoring behaviors F Monitoring behaviors F Interpersonal exchange behaviors

Communication Model Fairness Trust Role Clarity Role Satisfaction Job Satisfaction Commitment Low Propensity to Quit Communication Effectiveness Formalized Communication Multicultural Effectiveness

Delegation Model Fairness Trust Role Clarity Role Satisfaction Job Satisfaction Commitment Low Propensity to Quit Authority Delegation Task Delegation Multicultural Effectiveness

Mentoring Model Fairness Trust Role Clarity Role Conflict Job Satisfaction Commitment Low Propensity to Quit Psycho- social Mentoring Career- related Mentoring Job- related Feedback Multicultural Effectiveness

Monitoring Model Fairness Trust Role Clarity Role Conflict Job Satisfaction Commitment Low Propensity to Quit Invasive Monitoring General Monitoring Corrective Monitoring Multicultural Effectiveness

Personal Exchange Model Procedural Justice Trust Role Ambiguity Role Conflict Job Satisfaction Commitment Low Propensity to Quit Exchange Quality Acculturation Exchange “Non-abusive” Exchange Multicultural Effectiveness

Negative Attitudinal Outcomes Choice of Institute Topics Driven by Research Results Cultural Differences … basics commonly understood. Intermediate Perceptions …”teachable”? Supervisory Behaviors … receive scant attention in most training programs “Chain of causality” often neglected