Expat Profile Paper

To accomplish this expat profile, an American national named John Hawk is chosen who currently lives in Japan. As far as the background of Mr. John is concerned, he was born in Texas, USA and completed his MBA from Harvard University. After completing his education milestone i.e., an MBA from a prestigious institute of the World, his professional journey paced with MNCs (multinational corporations) at several positions in his native country. He worked in multiple managerial positions in the country offices of joined organization for several years with enthusiasm and high-level professional achievements. His sufficient experience and professional skills urged the company to offer him the country-manager position at the Japan office. It was a surprising challenge for John as he was very little aware of Japanese culture and language. With the amalgamated emotions of surprise and gladness, he accepted the challenge concerning the said offer by the company and moved to Japan. However, in their personal life capacity, he is 44 years 44-year-old married guy blessed with two children. So in 2015, he arrived with his family to Japan and started his new job in the Tokyo office of the company.

Since his arrival in Japan, John had to confront and adopt very different life style and work, in the context of culture. This also posed various challenges to John while performing his duties as country manager. The cultural cleavage between his native and host countries is very wide and even somewhat contrary to each other. In USA, independence and individual freedom are considered as cultural values that urge to have particular mind and opinion regarding any aspect (Morgan, 2022).While Japan demonstrates a collectivist community culture adorned with harmony, politeness, respect for each other especially for elders, and unique social order (Coulmas, 2023).  In USA, direct communication in alliance with individualistic approach is high social value and cultural boost. However, in Japan the non-verbal communication with specific gestures and actions are considered as cultural priority.

Furthermore, with widened cultural gap John tried to navigate his job role effectively and efficiently. But as an expatriate in Japan, he faced several severe problems along with cultural issues. The top ranking among them was the Japanese language along with Japanese customs. He tried hard to learn the language as it was dire need to communicate with colleagues and staff along with resident community. In addition, for introducing new management styles and implementing novel ideas in the organization, the language could become a monstrous barrier. Due to immense struggle, he leaned the language but till to date could not become fluent in Japanese. Along with him, his family members also suffered from the same panic situation to pace and survive at new place. For successful learning, the members of this family had undergone various language courses, tutorial classes and improved their language skills. Other than the verbal language, Japanese populace also has strong nonverbal communication aspects with deep meanings (Odeh et al., 2021). This nonverbal Japanese language also took time and effort for smooth and successful understanding. Such a language aspect is not the part of American culture at all.

In this context, John faced several cross cultural issues, among which the most significant was cultural shock that pose severe consequences. He faced anxiety and disorientation along with frightening feeling in this strange world with a new and unexpected culture. He had to align and adjust himself with social values, cultural norms, specific communication gestures, customs and habits of populace. Instead of direct expressions of opinions and freely speaking habit, he had to choose his words carefully and even to communicate without words for the sake of harmony and social order of Japanese people. Similarly, he had to face problematic situations on visits to USA, especially in the gathering with his family and friends. It looked like his life has hung up in the twilight of two contrary’s cultures and while adjusting in Japan he unintentionally forgot the cultural freedom of USA. It provokes a state of mind like readjusting in his native country whenever he returns. In addition, he missed the slow and evolutionally arises of new cultural impressions of American society which often posed strangers’ feelings in his mind and heart.

Moreover, in the context of organizational concerns, he had to navigate special aspects of Japanese business culture. For example, he used to learn Japanese protocols and etiquettes of honoring the superiors and elders in business meetings along with specific ways of card exchanging. He had to make efforts to learn both the Japanese job and work values to address and lead his staff and colleagues. The huge problem was the non-expression of opinions by colleagues as it was practised in America. Similarly, he learnt how to keep balance between the unspoken needs of employees along the goals of the company. It required a deep understanding of the cultural values of Japanese society to deal with the local staff of the company. He had to find the procedures to make his employees motivated and dedicated to the work.

Finally, it can be inferred that John as an expatriate faced numerous issues in Japan. These comprise social, cultural, cross-cultural communication, and Japanese etiquette, etc. He had to struggle to navigate the business culture of the country which ascent very confusing issues. His adjustment along with his family members was time-consuming and effort-based. In addition, the language barrier in alliance with non-verbal communication aspects proved hurdles for adjustments. Overall his accepted position of county manager in Japan needed much effort on his part to discharge his duties efficiently.

References

Coulmas, F. (2023). Japanese Propriety, Past and Present: Disciplined Liberalism. Taylor & Francis.

Morgan, M. (2022). Television and democracy. In Cultural politics in contemporary America (pp. 240-253). Routledge.

Odeh, B. E., Linda, A., Eze, J. U., Mamah, J. G., & Eze, A. N. (2021). Non-verbal Communication Used by Parents to Their Children in Presence of Visitors in Ovoko. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 12(4), 533-542.