Twenty-first International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

This study focuses on how Japanese people learn new business knowledge generated in different cultures. After World War II, Japanese companies had drastically grown based on low cost by introducing Anglo-American companies’ technology. But now, their cost has become higher and they need to transform their business model from catching up with Anglo-American companies to creating new idea by collaborating with Anglo-American companies. In order to do so, Japanese companies started introducing Anglo-American business learning methods which enable business people to generate new ideas by actively participating in discussions. However, these methods were developed based on Anglo-American cultural assumptions, such as individualism and a low-context culture. As Japanese people grew up in a different culture which values collectivism and a high-context culture, it is hard to understand Anglo-American business knowledge. Based on qualitative interviews, the study analyzes cultural impediments and enablers generated from this cultural gap and discusses how these factors affected their learning. This result implies that in order to learn business knowledge generated in different cultural values, it is not enough to simply introduce the knowledge and business learning methods, because cultural gap negatively affects learners’ understanding and learning. The research result will support solving the problems of Japanese companies which aim to globalize their ideas and take alliance with Anglo-American companies. The research is expected to bridge the cultural gap in knowledge transfer and activate strategic alliances between organizations which have different values.