Lp3.1 Assignment: Communication And Negotiation

Internet Exercise- Working Effectively at ToyotaWhat type of communication and negotiation challenges do you think you would face if you worked for Toyota and were in constant communication with home-office personnel in Japan?Linguistic challenges are the first challenge in communication. The Japanese have unique way of speaking English, similarly to other countries. The uniqueness may be presented in the difference in pronunciation, intonation, English words assign different meaning or unique expressions borrowed from the Japanese language and other languages such as French and German. For instance, in Japan, the expression “she is very smart” could be interpreted to mean that the lady is thin, rather than well dressed or intelligent. Second is the difference in business customs of the two cultures. The Japanese believe in group decision making as opposed to individual authority. Whenever a decision is to affect several people, all the individuals are informed of the policy, in the order of their hierarchy. This is different from the American culture where hierarchy in information distribution is not a major concern. What type of communication training do you think the firm would need to provide to you to ensure that you were effective in dealing with senior-level Japanese