For once, everyone experienced writing a film review or reaction paper to a movie. Another file saved on my email is a school requirement about associating business concepts with the film Gungho. The email dates back March 23, 2005. I can't remember what my grade was for this reaction. Anyways, I passed the subject.
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"GUNG HO": A Reaction
INTRODUCTION
Hunt Stevenson has stopped believing that his
purpose of coming to Japan would be realized. He found himself networking
friends who could find him a new job. Soon enough, Hadleyville, is holding a
warm welcome – with red carpet treatment, to Japanese entourage that will lead
the rebirth of the town’s livelihood. Assan Motors, a Japanese car-manufacturing
firm will be in operation employing Hadleyville residents.
Two worlds apart, the task of having American and
Japanese way of making car is as chaotic as imagined. Assan Motors Company,
with a vague organizational structure is in a cross-cultural dimension. Both
parties are convicted with their own interest, the Americans, to make a living
for their family; and the Japanese to maintain quality and precision. Neither
of the groups expected a major clash that may arise in the differences in each
culture – value of quality, perception of time, and family’s worth. They have
different cultures, and that’s what the film shows.
DISCUSSION
The risk in having two nationalities in one
organization was taken on the principle that a whole town will be given source
of income. The town’s condition is fast declining in terms of economics and
industry. One hope that the residents have is for the factory to be in
operation again. As they hope, when its revival happened that’s when the
residents faced a bigger challenge; that is to deal with the Japanese way.
We must build a spirit. We must be a team, one -with
only one purpose. Everyone (would be) thinking only of the company. As to commence operation of
the company, the premise is to do everything for the company and nothing but
for the company. This spells Japanese way of doing things, car for this matter.
For the Japanese, quality is what matters. On the job, there are principles
that come up that set distinction between them.
Zero defects. Japanese are particular with defects. Anything
under quality of doing the job is intolerable. It was said the film that, when
Japanese did a defective job they’re very ashamed of themselves and they won’t
go home unless it was corrected. With the price the goes with the product,
there should have no defects – whether hidden or seen. In one instance, Hunt
said that in products there might be hidden defects, something that’s
intolerable to the Japanese.
Concentrate at work. There are certain
conditions that a person may be comfortable working at. There are points that
the film showed them. Working with music playing, may be productive to
Americans, however, Japanese discards this idea. They prohibit music when
working because they think it makes the workers less concentrated in the job;
and lessen productivity. Americans encourage workers to read to sharpen
knowledge, which Japanese negates as barriers to attention with the works.
Set aside personal matters. One worker whose child
will be taken to the hospital was forbidden to leave the workplace on the
premise that if he did, it would be taken against him. There are also scenes in
the part of the Japanese character, Kazihoro when he neglects his children in
favor of his job. One time, when his wife goes home with a bicycle to be
assembled for their child, he could not set eyes on it because his working.
There are times that he was seen irritated by the sight of his children because
he needs silence.
Battle for
Power
There was battle for power; on who should be
followed and what way should things be done in the organization. The Japanese
wants to impose authority since they are the ones who created jobs for the
particular place in America.
On the other hand, Americans do not want to diverge from what they are – or
what they think they are, superior to any nationality.
However, Americans with families to feed, have to
think of survival. They turned their motivation to rewards as to achieve the
raise in salaries and guaranteed employment. As Vroom’s theory denote, efforts
lead to performance and performance leads to rewards, the workers are motivated
to work well. Though they were just aiming for the half-raise through 13,000
units of car, it is still one good example of motivation. More, when they were
motivated to finish 15,000 units of car is one best example of reward power.
Reward power is one type of power wherein the employee is influenced to work
better if achievement of rewards is expected.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Communicating Cultural
Differences
To be able have a better relationship
with people with other culture, as the film exhibited, it has to be understood
that communication varies according to culture.
Written communication has different connotations
in business practice as culture varies. American way of meeting at one idea is
that proposals are made through written forms. It is one formal way of
suggesting to come up with decisions. With the Japanese way, documentation is
only done when everything has been agreed upon. Written communication serves as
a final decision.
Meetings. Almost similar to how written
communication is treated, meetings are conducted formally with the
Americans to discuss a project, to resolve an issue, and propose ventures.
Meeting as a team also serves as a discussion to balance pros and cons of the
subject until the team has come to an agreement on what option to take. In
contrast, the Japanese sets aside discussions at formal meetings. Deliberations
and other processes to come up with decisions are done through informal talks.
By the time the team holds a meeting, a consensus has been reached.
It is to be cited there are instances in the movie that
agreements were not done in formal meetings. It was in a dinner when ladies
have to be excused to discuss important matters. In that dinner, Hunt was
supposed to be fired had he not been given a second chance. One major point of
the movie, the main proposal to raise wages had 15,000 units achieved, was
agreed upon on a lake when they were bathing.
Non-verbal communication also set diversity in different
cultures. Americans observe eye contact in interacting to any person to denote
sincerity and truthfulness. On the other hand Asian, including the Japanese
find it rude to look at the other person all throughout the discussion. The
Japanese may feel about Hunts gestures to be improper when he talks, when it is
just practically how Americans act. In the same manner that Hunt thought that
the proposal he had in Japan
was nixed because they were silent in his presentation. Japanese could just be
that silence when proposals are made.
Teamwork
As film gears toward conclusion, it is apparent that
principle of teamwork is necessitated. On this inference, there has to be
ground rules, which would serve as a basic agreement with how team works and
how things will be done.
Work norms. The organization should determine what normal
condition is like. Any deviation from it would be a case to work on. There has
to be explanations with how the unlikely things came about, and how should they
be given solutions. Norms is one basic issue that resulted as a problem in the
movie. Americans think that American way – carefree attitude is the norm; and
that’s what should prevail.
Facilitate norms. With the organization working at norms, the
operation should then be handled and maintained at certain level. There is a
need for the norms to be controlled to be able to determine at what intensity the
unit/members should be working at. In the film, norms are facilitated in the
point of view of the Hunt (for Americans) and Kazihoro (for Japanese). The two
characters preserve what their culture is and as well respect the other. It is
in the both characters that find equity in situation.
Communicate norms. Team members need to be informed with what
these norms are. There are several means to communicate them. Members should be
in knowledge to where the communication would be channeled to have smooth flow
of information. It was seen in the film that employees have a meeting in a
large crowd where everyone can hear their concerns in term of employment.
Quality Management as Professed by Japanese
Assan Motors, enforces quality and accuracy. With
what prevails in reality and as the movie conveys, Japanese way of doing things
is synonymous to quality. This feature is attributed to various factors; one of
them is by these three names in the field on quality management – W. Edwards
Deming, Joseph M. Juran and Kaoru Ishikawa.
With these three gurus mentioned and later to be
discussed, in some ways where the film might be inspired. The gurus mentioned
experienced cross-cultural diversity dealt in the workplace –either by working
with the Japanese (Deming and Juran) or by being Japanese (Ishikawa) himself
working with Americans. The principles hereunder could be recommended as
prescriptions to quality management.
Deming, statistics professor at New York University
in the 1940’s went to Japan
after world war to assist the Japanese in Including quality and productivity.
To his credit, Deming’s 14 points is now used as prescription needed to achieve
quality in an organization. The key elements of Deming’s points are constancy
of purpose, continual improvement and profound knowledge.
- Constancy of purpose. He stressed that poor quality comes from the
system itself, not with the employees. The system should have a constant
purpose by which employees are aware of. This is where the employee
behavior and perspective in the organization and working habits would come
from. If the purpose were constant the employees would not be confused
with what the organization stands for. For sure, any purpose that the
organization has is geared toward the promotion of efficiency and
productivity.
- Continual improvement. Adapt new philosophy that comes with time. It
is not enough to launch changes, see to it that entails more benefit than
not doing anything. There are parameters available in the industry,
improvement is not only beating one performance, it can also be measured
with how it fairs in comparison to others of the same industry. Continual
improvement denotes being at par with others, if not getting ahead of
them.
·
Profound knowledge. First step to achieve
profound knowledge is for every unit of the organization to know what the
company wants; and it is to achieve optimization through quality management. A
company who has everyone, wanting to attain optimal benefits, is the most
likely to achieve quality. Another key element is to reduce variation. There
are numerous variations available for grabs, yet organizations need not to
deviate with what quality set. Had there be diverse move to be done, the whole
standard should be reset. Lastly,
psychology needs to be given attention. Employees are the prime movers of the
company; therefore understanding of behavior is important. When the company
knows what the employees want, it follows that there has something to be done
to satisfy it.
Juran being on of the forces of Japan’s
quality, advocate that quality as fitness for use. He thinks that achieving
quality is not as technical as Deming’s statistical approach. What he believes
is that quality is controllable by the management, with the responsibility that
defects be managed.
Ishikawa, though influenced by Deming and Juran,
has his own set of quality management. Business practitioners find the fishbone
diagram to be very useful in analyzing events and cases organization – an
ishikawa’s idea. Quality can be managed through study on relationship of cause
and effect.
RESOLUTION
The progress of the film does not leave issues
unresolved there’s much about the differences that has come to agreements.
Zero defects. In the process, the American understood the need
to come up with quality product. Coming up with quality product is synonymous
to eradicating defects. Rewards served as an important motivator in this
realization. Japanese may be given credit for imposing quality, yet it is as
well to be commended that Americans realized them on the right way and not
because it was enforced.
Concentrate at work. Concentration was also
realized through motivating factors that are available in the situation. What
works is that Japanese learned to respect such habit since the realize that
music has no adverse effect in work habit.
Set aside personal matters. With the orientation that
company first before everything, Japanese are still human. They can still feel
for their families. It just that these feelings are suppressed because of the
training that they had. Towards the end of the film, Kazihoro brought out this
issue because he felt that his family is more important. He realized it because
of what he sees in Americans who care for their family, besides their
dedication at work.
The main resolution happens when, towards the end of
the film, when everyone, Americans and Japanese work as a team to see to it
that 15,000 units are achieve. Aside from the literal working together of two
nationalities as a team, it also served as a metaphor that cultures –in terms
of work habit, values and belief, come to terms and unity to attain goals.
CONCLUSION
Americans always feel that they are special. They
don’t like to be part of a team.
This particular statement is one of the most
striking points of the film. Japanese said that every man’s love is job and
that they should work as a team. In the first part of the film, the scenario is
that Americans do not want to be under the Japanese system. They insist to have
it their way, which the Japanese think that is wrong, when that the reason why
the previous factory closed down in the first place. Being superior and
special, did the Americans discard the principle? Not in any way.
One of the motivations that Hunt did is for
Americans not to settle for the second best. If Japanese were able to
manufacture 15,000 units of car, in the name of this premise and the rewards
they were expected, they should.
When Mr. Sakamoto commended to Kazihoro “You have
a good team”, he replied, “I have good men”. Besides with the
purpose and quality that Japanese have, there’s still human in them that feel;
and that’s what Kazihoro personified in the film.
Sure, good
team is composed of good men, provided that good men work for one purpose –that
is to achieve optimum results. This leads to a result to a whole that is
greater than the sum, i.e. Gung Ho.
Annex:
Main characters:
- Hunt Stevenson – is the hero of his town when his proposal with the Japanese
worked. He was hired in the company and in the process; and blamed to be
cause of almost-shutdown had he not redeemed himself and the situation in
the end.
- Mr. Kazihoro – is the Japanese executive who listens to American, and is
willing to compromise had he not fear to be reprimanded by his superior.
- Mr. Sakamoto – is the chief of Assan Motor, who’s feared by all the Japanese
by being strict in sticking with what Japanese are.
- Buster – is the obese friend of Hunt. His moment in the film is when he
slammed against one of the Japanese executive during the softball game. He
was eventually reassigned as a utility worker for that.
References:
Lori Breslow – Sloan Communication Program, 1997
William J. Stevenson – Operations Management, 2005.
A reaction paper presented to
Jose Benjamin P. Sabido
Submitted by:
Richard T. Guevara
MMBM
