In the past decade, the world has changed dramatically in terms of social, political and economic aspects. Combined with the never-ending story of growing advanced technology mainly led by the Internet and the growing impact of globalization on businesses, the way how business is conducted is changing along with the change in organizational structure as well as in the role of manager. The purpose of this paper is to analyze myself profoundly to find out what I can bring to the role of manager that might influence the way I act in that role and to describe and understand human behavior primarily as a future manager. The analysis covers my entire journey from my birth in Japan to the current life in the United States as an MBA student in UNC Charlotte with respect to my feeling, sense and experience. The following analysis is extended from my subjective analysis to objective analysis such as words that I have been given and cognitive style self-assessment to back up my subjective analysis. Finally, a conclusion based on the previous analysis is presented.
Soon after I was born in Japan, my family went to London, United Kingdom, because of my father’s business, who used to work for a Japanese securities company in charge of London office business as a manager. Since I had lived in London until I became six years old, the first language I acquired was naturally English. Because of my parents thought, I was in the local elementary school, instead of being a Japanese school student. I still remember I met lots of friends who have their own cultural backgrounds such as from Asia, South Africa and Europe countries. I took for granted that school has diversified races unconsciously, which made me really upset when I went back to Japan after my father’s mission in London. The first day I went to Japanese elementary school I could not believe myself that everybody was Japanese including my teacher. Although, this is quite typical in Japan from the fact that Japan is the homogeneous nation, I was shocked to see it. Moreover, the biggest problem was the language barrier for me to have my life in Japan, as I could not speak Japanese besides some simple words. To adjust my behavior and my life style, I had to be flexible enough to the new circumstance and people-oriented person to improve my Japanese from conversation. According to Marvin Brower, Mckinsey’s managing partner from 1950 to 1967, flexibility or adaptability is one of the crucial features that leader and manager have to procure to fully be more ready for the competitive circumstance (Brower). When I look back my life around this time, I feel I learned a lesson that affects human behavior. A lesson is that human can understand easily and be sensitive to weak people who have some difficulties or suffer from something, if he or she has had the same difficulties or suffered from the same causes. In my case it was a language barrier and life style as substantial cultural differences. Ironically, I had the second language barrier when I came here to the United States since I had forgotten English, particularly my listening and speaking ability. I strongly believe that I could overcome this difficulty by interacting with variety of students and professors.
Culture has a considerably significant role not only in my way of thinking but also in my way of fundamental behavior. Even though I had lived in London for 6 years and have been in the United States for one year, I feel 100 percent of my identity as Japanese. Japanese culture has lots in common with American culture, however, it is completely different in terms of the degree of essence that influence human behavior. This difference is, as far as I think, primarily derived from the difference in educational system. Since there is too much emphasis on acquiring only knowledge, development of individuality takes the second place in Japan. Most Japanese teachers treat their students as one mass, leading them to be collectivism. On the other hand, the priority of American educational system is to teach to be independent, creative, imaginative and responsible based on the emphasis on individuality. Furthermore, the emphasis is on the training to think logically and to learn how to express thoughts and opinions (Nittetsu Human Development). This difference tends to lead American to be good at asserting themselves, whereas, Japanese to be poor at asserting themselves. I must confess I am one of them, especially in the case when some conflict occurred. As the fact I have grown in collectivism country, I have intrinsic tendency to try to avoid conflicts, keeping overall relationship or atmosphere of harmony as much as I can. This tendency could be both advantage and disadvantage as a manager because conflicts would absolutely occur either in trifling or hostile degree depending on the situation. My father said during the conversation of this self-analysis that I am good at being a group leader because I am persuasive when talking to others in a emphatic way, however, I am not brave enough to talk straight against others when it comes to something bad. This is mainly because of my characteristic of trying to maintain a harmonious balance. Although not being brave enough has negative effect on negotiation or persuasion in certain extent, maintaining a harmonious balance has positive effect to be sensitive. In order to make harmony, it is essential to be sensitive to people and sensitive to situation that both are characterized virtually important features as a manager (Brower). No one can motivate or persuade anybody effectively without having some sense to people or situation. I can say myself that I am more suitable as a supporter of negotiator rather than actual negotiator if situation is severely tense.
Religious Aspect:
I believe in Christianity, which is very rare in Japanese society because over 95 percent of Japanese believe in either Shintoism or Buddhism (Asahi Newspaper 263). Of obvious importance is that religion has a substantial influence for anyone on thought, feeling, action as well as behavior regardless of any religion one believes in. The reason why I chose to go Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, is that it is widely acknowledged as one of the oldest Christian institutions in Japan. Based on the principle of Christianity and my social activities through such as volunteer activity, I have gained extremely precious experiences that can be applied to management activity. My unforgettable experience was when I participated in the volunteer activity after the disastrous Kobe earthquake occurred in January 1995. After I finished taking my final exam in my freshman year, I found myself heading to Kobe with my aspiration for trying to contribute to the revival of Kobe. I was totally depressed and shocked that there was no single word how to explain the entire collapse of the city when I arrived there. I engaged in several volunteer activities for two and half weeks, mostly taking care of the people who had lost their houses, jobs and even motivations to live all in sudden by the earthquake. Of considerable difficult was the way how to get people motivated due to their depressed feeling toward everything. Although it took almost entire two and half weeks, I finally could get some people motivated through my tenacity of the empathic way of persuasion. It was one of my valuable moments in my life when I saw people smiling and I felt the unlimited possibility of human ability. What I also felt was that when I have to persuade someone I have to not only give the proper and precise directions or orders based on my purpose or desire, but also listen carefully to a person whom I try to persuade. Listening to speakers carefully changes human behavior positively and friendly, because the more profound understanding and trust from the speakers stem from it.
Cognitive Style Self-Assessment:
The concept of cognitive style self-assessment is based on the human nature that people have their own values, ideas and motivational style throughout their lives. People rarely change these intrinsic core natures that they bring with them even to the work place, trying to reorganize their job to fit into their work preference. By identifying to which extent or degree we put our weight on these core natures, people are able to understand their work styles along with the strength and weakness of characteristics that heavily influence their behaviors in organization. And also, people are able to understand how to communicate and deal with different type of person more effectively to smoothly get the work done (Ancona et al. 17-19). The following analysis is based on the result of my cognitive style self-assessment.
My self-assessment resulted to categorize myself as ENFP (Extrovert - Introvert, Intuition - Sensing, Feeling - Thinking and Perceptive - Judgmental) type, which amazingly explains myself well. The first element, extrovert - introvert, measures the way in which I prefer to communicate and build relationships with others. Extrovert people tend to enjoy meeting and communicating with other people, therefore, they are stimulated by communications and interruptions from others. Introvert people prefer to think things by themselves with less communications with others. Thus, introvert people tend to consider things carefully before taking action or speaking out (Ancona et al. 19, 21-22). Since my result was extrovert, definitely I think I am, I prefer to be stimulated by communicating with people frequently. It is well explained by this element that I have been a people-oriented person since my childhood. I assume this element was gained by the fact I had to move to a different kind of places due to personal reasons. Each time after moving, my relationship with others started from the beginning, therefore, I naturally became extrovert to adjust myself to the new circumstances. In addition, the traditional characteristic as Japanese to give importance to the harmony of relationship further accelerated my degree of this extroversion.
The second element, intuition - sensing, measures the way in which I gather information in order to make a contribution to organization. People who take intuitive approach tend to enjoy ambiguous problem due to their creative vision and insight and prefer to be future-oriented instead of present-oriented like sensing people. On the other hand, people who take sensing approach tend to prefer practical problems based on real things, tested ideas or facts, which in tern lead them to think logically (Ancona et al. 20, 23-25). As I have grown in collectivism country, I may not good at thinking logically, which is substantially considered as essential trait as a manager in order to make sound decision, however, this disadvantage for me will be overcome by learning in UNC Charlotte MBA program. As a merit of being intuitive person, I can be very flexible using imaginative aspect of my personality when I face ambiguous, complex or new problems. My flexibility has been shown through my life to cope with and adjust to these problems, which I can apply to the current borderless and complex business world as a future manager.
The third element, feeling - thinking, measures the way in which I make decisions after I have gathered the information. The people who take feeling approach tend to make decision that is related to or based on their values, beliefs or perspective on life. On the other hand, the people who take thinking approach tend to make decisions based on quantitative analysis or clear criteria to get logical and fair solution (Ancona et al. 20, 25-27). As a feeling type person, it is true that I frequently make decision taking into account my own values and beliefs that are all derived from my culture, religion and experience I have been having. When I participated in volunteer activity at Kobe, I should not have participated in because my collarbone was broken at that time. However, I could not refrain myself from heading to Kobe, which behavior is well explained by my feeling type trait. And the reason why I cannot be aggressive enough when persuasion comes to something bad is that my behavioral natures are based on my thought of not hurting other people at all, according to my father.
The final element, perceptive - judgmental, measures the way in which I allocate my time with setting up my priorities. Perceptive people tend to enjoy searching and finding information to know what option they have before action, while judgmental people tend to like clarity and order to implement decisions and resolve issues (Ancona et al. 20, 27-28). Since I am perceptive person, I sometimes become information overloaded and cautious before I take actual actions, which is well explained by the characteristic as perceptive person. This characteristic is derived from my desire to work on a number of projects simultaneously and desire to be kept alert for new knowledge and opportunities. Especially the desire to acquire new knowledge is greatly strong so that I am open-minded person and curious to everything I do not know or I am not familiar with. This strong desire motivated me to study in the United States, where my open-mind and curiosity are filled with great satisfaction.
Model of organizations is changing dramatically due to the current high competitive environment both in domestic and international market. Even though there are lots of strengths in classic model of organizations, they seem to reach the limitation to adjust and survive in the current world. According to Deborah Ancona et al., organizations are thriving and approaching to be networked, flat, flexible, diverse and global (3-12). As organizations alter the degree of these five new essential elements, individual managers' skills, needed to contribute and fully perform effectively within organizations, should be altered as well.
In order to perform effectively
in networked organization, which activity is based on team unit with the
emphasis on interdependence across the organization, mangers should be good at
teamwork (Ancona et al. 11-14). Taking this characteristic into account, the
role I would be able to bring is facilitating the atmosphere in a positive and
friendly way, keeping the harmony of the teamwork. Flat organizations are lean
and have less layers of management extending horizontally, therefore, managers
should need to develop negotiation skills internally as well as externally to
work pragmatically with different kinds of departments (Ancona et al. 7-8, 14).
The roll I can bring in flat organizations is encouraging empathic listening
and speaking attitude with tenacious spirit. Since flexible organizations are
able to response variety of action to keep their competitive advantages and not
to get behind from the current events, managers should develop their skills of
multitasking (Ancona et al. 8,15). Regarding this characteristic, the roll I
can bring is promoting the assurance of each work by communicating successively
as an extrovert person. Diverse organizations, which have variety of
perspectives, career paths and incentive system, are derived as the
organizations get networked, flat and flexible. Managers need to develop
listening skills and the capacity for empathy to understand other people
(Ancona et al. 8-9, 16). What I might be able to bring in diverse organizations
is enhancing the sensing ability to further develop the needed skills. Finally,
since global organizations, strengthened by the international treaty such as
WTO or NAFTA, have to conduct their businesses internationally besides their
native countries, managers need to develop their skills in cross-cultural
communication (Ancona et al. 9-10,
15). Having an experience of having lived
in a several countries other than my native country for over 7 years, I can
bring the way of seeing and thinking the works from different perspective.
[1]Ancona, Deborah., et al. Managing for the Future: The "New" Organization. Ohio: South-Western College Publishing, 1996
[2]Ancona, Deborah., et al. Managing for the Future: Integrating Multiple Perspectives. Ohio: South-Western College Publishing, 1996
Asahi Newspaper. Japan Almanac. Tokyo: Asahi Newspaper, 1997
Bower, Marvin, "Developing Leaders in a Business." The McKinsey Quarterly. 4. (1997): 14pp. Online. Available: http://mckinseyquarterly.com/orgniz/dele97.asp. September 11 1999.
Nittetsu Human Development. Talking about Japan. Tokyo: Aruku, 1995