Response to Chapter 7, Ryo

The reading this week is about long-term oriented or short-term oriented. Long term-oriented stands for virtues oriented for future prosperity such as thrift and perseverance. In contrast, short-term oriented stands for the values related to the past and present such as respect for tradition and preservation of face. Mainly, Asian countries are considered as long-term oriented and the Western countries such as U.S. are considered to be short-term oriented. In the business, the top seven values selected by the Asians were hard work, respect for learning, honesty, openness to new ideas, accountability, self-discipline, and self-reliance. The Americans selected freedom of expression, personal freedom, self-reliance, individual rights, hard work, personal achievement, and thinking for oneself. Long-term orientation stands for a society in which wide differences in economic and social conditions are considered undesirable. Short-teem orientation stands for meritocracy, differentiation according to abilities.
I think that the description in perspective of business is correct. For example, the U.S. companies tend to have diversity in the office and each worker is required to make values. So they have to express their opinions effectively in order to be recognized as competent worker. In contrast, Japanese companies, which are considered typical long-term oriented, tend to require workers to be cooperative with each other, rather than competing with each other. In a good sense, each worker think of the benefits of the company rather than personal praise.