The present qualitative study explores minority-group members’ experiences working with majority-group members in Japanese work environments.
Semi-structured interviews were performed with 18 minority-group workers, who regularly engage in intercultural contact with Japanese workers. The interview questions sought to understand the challenges minority-group members experienced during their interactions with their Japanese colleagues, the ways they perceived Japanese culture, and their negotiation strategies to deal with perceived cultural differences.
The findings indicated that the participants experienced certain challenges during their adaptation to their workplace environment. These challenges included rigid workplace norms, a hierarchical yet ambiguous communication style, the language barrier, and a gender gap, which appeared to make it more challenging to communicate and build relationships with their colleagues. Furthermore, the findings revealed that minority-group members resorted to negotiation strategies to cope with these challenges, such as direct communication and questioning, searching for opportunities to develop personal connections with Japanese people and engaging in cultural exchange.
We propose that cross-cultural training should emphasize adaptive strategies towards the integration process rather than educating minority group members about the host culture’s characteristics.
This research stands out by focusing on negotiation strategies and their significance, shifting the emphasis away from the commonly highlighted challenges experienced by minority group members in their host culture.
