索尼的企业文化概述

1、1 / 15The culture differences between Sony and B&OThe focus of our comparative analysis lies on two multinationalcorporations competing within the business of audio-video equipment. Thetwo corporations are the Japanese company, Sony, and the Danish company,Bang&Olufsen (B&O). These two c

2、orporations were chosen primarily becausethe 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 verydissimilar. Finally, we chose the two because of the accessibiliy of usefulinformation regarding them.As Sony

3、 and B&O are in the same business, one can discuss to somedegree, 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 ondesign th

4、at appeal to high-scale customers. Although the two companies arenot targeting on the samemarket, their business environment is similar in the aspect that they bothproduce high quality audio-video equipment targeted to the global market.2 / 15Because of the distinct difference in national background

5、s of the two anddespite somewhat different marketing strategies, we believe it will beinteresting to compare the two.Power distanceThe first dimension in a natural culture, calledPower Distance, indicates to what extent the society accepts that anorganizations is controlling the power, and the organ

6、ization is distributing thispower in its particular way. This belief is reflected in the minds of both powerfulas well as less powerful members of the society. The dimension can beconsidered as the degree of inequality amongpeople in a country that isaccepted by the people of that specific country.

7、This ranges from relativelyequal to extremely unequal. We have chosen the following examples asextreme examples of how the mindset of the society of a country could be.This is as said the extremes, therefore, almost everybody should fit intosomewhere betwee n the two extremes:Table 2.1: The Power Di

8、sta nee Dime nsi onSmall Power Dista neeLarge Power Dista neeSuperiors con sider subordi nates to bepeople like me.Superiors con sider subord in ates to be adiffere nt kind of people.3 / 15The power should be legitimate and issubject to the judgment as to whether it is goodor evil.Power is a basic f

9、act of society that antedates good or evil. Its legitimacy is irreleva nt.The way to ehange the a social system isto redistribute power.The way to change a social system is todethr one those in power.The scores for the Power Distaneedimension arerespectively; 20 for Denmark s concern, and 54 for Jap

10、an. Hofstede hascategorized the results on every dime nsions of the countries into the followingthree categories: high,medium and low. One thirds of all the countries is represe nted in eachcategory. The results in the Power Dista nee dime nsion puts Denmark intothe category of low Power Distanee cu

11、lture, although Denmark is near to thecategory called medium in which Japan is presently represented.The problem-formulation listed five hypotheses. The hypotheses are ourexpectations pertaining differences in the HRMapproach of Sony and B&O.But how exactly will these differences reveal themselv

12、es in relation to humanresource management in the respective companies and Hofstedes fivedimensions?4 / 15Our first hypothesis expects the power distance in Sony to be larger thanthat in B&O We assume this will reveal itself by the following characteristics:?Sony has a higher pay differentials b

13、etweenboss and employees.?Sony has more formal relationship and formal communication.?B&Os employees generally have more informal relationship withtheir employer.IndividualismThe second dimension is individualism. It concerns the degree to whichpeople in a country prefer to act as an individual

14、or as a memberof a group.The opposite extreme to individualism is collectivism. Collectivism ischaracterized as low individualism. In a collectivist-oriented culture one learnsto respect the group. It is typically family, organization, or clan that serves as aplatform for a group, and one learns to respect the members. One expects agroup to protect themselves as its members. As a member of a collectivisticculture, one differentiates between in-group members and out-groupmembers. In countries with a individualisticculture, one5 / 15is educated to think of oneself a