Review of Draft Proposal

From the review Pam suggested that I do a general study on cultural dimensions and then focus in depth on two countries. I think this is a very good idea and I would like to look into the difference between the Occident and and the Orient, otherwise known as the East and the West. To define the scope even further it will be between Asian culture and Anglo culture. Hence I was looking into the Hofstede scores and I think Australia and Japan will make a very interesting comparison since they seem to represent opposites of each other in relation to Hofstede's and Trompenaars cultural dimensions models.

Firstly some interesting points to make about Japan is according to Scarborough (1998) Japan is one of the worlds most homogenised societies as historically it has been very isolated. This has also influenced the collectiveness of the culture as it has been described by some scholars as the 'rice culture' so in order to survive off the land the group has to be able to cooperate effectively. Japan is the only industrialised country in Hofstede's scores to be classified as collectivist. Hofstede also found Japan to be the most masculine of all cultures. This again can be traced back to historical origins, the sumaris and meiji. From Trompenaars research he has found Japan to be a high-context culture, this means that there is a lot of hidden meaning behind words. Whereas a high-content (such as Australia) these cultures are a lot more explicit in their communication. Also from Trompenaars Japan is described as an ascriptive country so status is ascribe to people in terms of age, family, education level etc. The opposite to ascribed culture is achievement based (such as Australia) status is based on one's successes and achievements. Another key feature is that Japan has a strong Uncertainty Avoidance, due once again to the historical origins.

Now Japan's cultural tendencies seem to stem directly from their historical origins and being a very homogenised society these all appear to make sense. Australia on the other hand is a multi cultural society with a colonised history of little over 200 years. Australia could be described as a cultural 'melting pot'. Now how can our culture be defined and categorised when there is such a diverse population? Well from the research common tendencies can be seen and an unique culture can be identified or at least common values. Well I am still deciding whether to focus on Australia, USA or Great Britain; I think the USA or Australia would be interesting because of this cultural melting pot. I need to read further and find where the most relevant literature exists.