As
an Indonesian who had worked in a local company, my experiences prove that the
company hierarchy in Indonesia is very important. So we need to know those
people who have the highest position and how to act on them. For example, in
the writing emails, those with a higher position, his name is written first.
This hierarchy can be also be seen on the way to greet someone. People who are
older or higher position must begin with the title ‘Ibu’ for woman, or ‘Bapak’
for man, and then followed by their name. For instance Ibu Irene or Bapak Tom.
Meanwhile,
in terms of appearance and manner of dress, Indonesia also upholds the decency
to dress. And one that may be important to remember is hanging out or 'drink'
along with the boss after work is rare in Indonesia, except the boss and
subordinate relationship is already very close.
Besides
working in an Indonesian company, I also had to have several clients of
Japanese companies. Basically, the characteristic of Japanese
company is not too different from the Indonesian. Maybe it's because we come
from the same clump of Asian culture. As reported by Japantoday, in Japan
company, 'harmony is the best thing' and courtesy to superiors is something
that is still adhered to in the world of business and corporate ethics. One
example of an expression of harmony that is when we complete a project successfully,
then we should express this sentence in our leaders, "Thanks to you.
Because of you we can complete this project successfully." Despite that most
of the projects was carry out by us, but it is important as a form of
the highest award for the guidance from our leaders. In the mean time,
when we have a difference of opinion, we should not immediately reject that
argument. We can use a polite sentence like this, "I actually
understand what you mean, but what if ...". In addition, according to The Economist 2010,
one of the things that we need to understand as well is the Japanese workers
are usually loyal to one type of company. And the most senior leaders of the
company have always come from within the company. Therefore replacing the top of
leaders with someone from outside the company, especially when the leaders come
from different countries, it is "highly unusual step" (The Economist, Tokyo, 2010).
Finally,
in my opinion, how we understand other corporate culture in the connecting with
our career is essential. To be able to run
our task easily, we have to have a flexible interpersonal skill. So we know
what we have to deal with the company culture where we are working in and with who
we are working to.
References
Miller, A. (2013, April 02). Difference in business culture
between Japan & West.
TD & KC. (2010, July 21). Japanese corporate culture
opening up. The economist, Tokyo.
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