The culture differences between Sony and B&O
The focus of our comparative analysis lies on two multinational corporations competing within the business of audio-video equipment. The two corporations are the Japanese company, Sony, and the Danish company, Bang&Olufsen (B&O). These two corporations were chosen primarily because the two were in the same business which sets the basis for our comparison. Secondly, we feel that the Japanese and the Danish culture appear to be very dissimilar. Finally, we chose the two because of the accessibiliy of useful information regarding them.
As Sony and B&O are in the same business, one can discuss to some degree, that these two companies are competing for same customer groups; Sony is high volume orientated, whereas B&O is using a strategy of focus. B&O is differentiating itself by offering distinctive products with focus on design that appeal to high-scale customers. Although the two companies are not targeting on the same market, their business environment is similar in the aspect that they both produce high quality audio-video equipment targeted to the global market. Because of the distinct difference in national backgrounds of the two and despite somewhat different marketing strategies, we believe it will be interesting to compare the two.
Power distance
The first dimension in a \indicates to what extent the society accepts that an organizations is controlling the power, and the organization is distributing this power in its particular way. This belief is reflected in the minds of both powerful as well as less powerful members of the society. The dimension can be considered as the degree of inequality among people in a country that is \by the people of that specific country. This ranges from relatively equal to extremely unequal. We have chosen the following examples as extreme examples of how the mindset of the society of a country could be. This is as said \extremes,\therefore, almost everybody should fit into somewhere between the two extremes:
Table 2.1: The Power Distance Dimension
Small Power Distance Superiors consider subordinates to be people like me. The power should be legitimate Large Power Distance Superiors consider subordinates to be a different kind of people. Power is a basic fact of society that and is subject to the judgment as to antedates good or evil. Its legitimacy is whether it is good or evil. The way to change the a social system is to redistribute power. irrelevant. The way to change a social system is to dethrone those in power.
The scores for the Power Distance dimension are respectively; 20 for Denmark’s concern, and 54 for Japan. Hofstede has categorized the results on every dimensions of the countries into the following three categories: high, medium and low. One thirds of all the countries is represented in each category. The results in the Power Distance dimension puts Denmark into the category of low Power Distance culture, although Denmark is near to the category called medium in which Japan is presently represented.
The problem-formulation listed five hypotheses. The hypotheses are our expectations pertaining differences in the HRM approach of Sony and B&O. But how exactly will these differences reveal themselves in relation to human resource management in the respective companies and Hofstede’s five dimensions?
Our first hypothesis expects the power distance in Sony to be larger than that in B&O We assume this will reveal itself by the following characteristics:
?
Sony has a higher pay differentials between boss and
employees.
?
Sony has more formal relationship and formal
communication.
?
B&O’s employees generally have more informal
relationship with their employer.
Individualism The second dimension is individualism. It concerns the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as an individual or as a member of a group. The opposite extreme to individualism is collectivism. Collectivism
is
characterized
as
low
individualism.
In
a
collectivist-oriented culture one learns to respect the group. It is typically family, organization, or clan that serves as a platform for a group, and one learns to respect the members. One expects a group to protect themselves as its members. As a member of a collectivistic culture, one differentiates between in-group members and out-group members. In countries with a individualistic culture, one is educated to think of oneself as \stand on one’s own feet, and accordingly, feels a very low loyalty to the group. On the other hand, one also doesn’t expect that the group will stand
up
for
one
in
retuen.
The
extremes
on
the
Individualism-collectivism dimension, in a negotiation perspective is described in the following:
Table 2.2: The Individualism Dimension
Collectivist Friendship are predetermined by stable social relationships, but there is need for prestige within these Individualistic The need is for specific friendship relationships \There is emotional dependence of individual institution on organizations \There is emotional independence and of individual on organizations and institution
There is also a difference between the Individualism dimension. Denmark has scored 75 on this dimension. As Denmark is considered as a \which only scored 46, which indicated a medium collectivistic culture.
In relation to our hypothesis, the values of B&O compared with that of Sony is more individualistic; we expect following findings:
?
Sony is, to a higher extent, looking for potential
employees with teamwork-skills.
索尼的企业文化概述(英文版)
