American International Journal of Social Science

Cross Culture Management-An Examination on Task, Relationship and Work Overload Stress Orientations of German and Japanese Working Adults
Lam D. Nguyen, Bahaudin G. Mujtaba, Darrin Kass, Quan H.M. Tran

Abstract
People from different cultures value, believe, and act differently. Cultures influence social behavior and practices. Research in cross-culture management has discussed a great deal the different leadership and management practices across culture. This comparative and cross-national study uniquely examines the task, relationship, and work overload stress orientations of people in two countries from different continents: Germany (Europe) and Japan (Asia). As a result of the analysis of 463 responses including 232 from the German sample and 231 from the Japanese sample, some significant differences were found. In terms of task orientation, it appears that German and Japanese respondents have similar moderately high scores on task orientations. There was a significant difference in task scores based on gender. Male respondents were more task-oriented than female respondents. However, there was no significant interaction between place of birth and gender in the task scores. In terms of relationship orientation, there was no significant difference between German and Japanese respondents although German respondents scored slightly higher than Japanese respondents. No significant difference was found in the relationship scores based on gender although female respondents scored slightly higher than male respondents. There was no significant interaction between place of birth and gender in the relationship scores. In terms of work overload stress orientation, no significant difference was found in the stress scores of German and Japanese respondents. There was no significant difference in the stress scores based on gender although female respondents scored slightly higher than male respondents. However, there was a significant interaction between place of birth and gender in the stress scores. In this paper, literature on the behavioral approach to leadership, stress perception, and German and Japanese cultures are presented along with practical application, suggestions and implications for future studies.

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