A point that struck a chord with me from the lesson material was the information about how the history of Japan and their early economy led to strong work ethics and high creativity in the modern inhabitants of the nation as well as their sometimes insular nature that results from their fear of losing their cultural identities (PSU WC, 2019, L. 11, p. 3). The reason this information interested me is that my mother-in-law (Mieko) was born in Japan and lived there through her early twenties. She was in elementary school during WWII, and she has discussed that time period at length with me. The government messaging she heard during WWII was that they had to engage the United States in war because Americans wanted to take over Japan and destroy their culture. In addition, they were told that they had to fight because the Americans would systematically kill every citizen if they ever landed on Japan’s shores. As I’m sure you can imagine, the bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki did little to dispel these notions in the minds of the citizens. She also said that she remembers being shocked by the kindness of the American soldiers when they occupied the country after the war, and by the respect they showed to Japanese history and the buildings and artwork of the cities.

Related to the other point from the lesson about work ethic and creativity, Mieko’s family owned one of the silk factories in Kyoto. She was taught advanced sewing techniques at a very young age and when she emigrated to America, she opened a tailor shop. Her work ethic, skill, and dedication to her craft far surpassed that of any individual I have otherwise met. She has dresses displayed in the Smithsonian, has made garments for famous actresses and musicians, but devoted an equal amount of time and attention to more mundane tasks, such as hemming pants for local customers.

My anecdotal experience with Mieko is born out by research on the topic. The word for business in Japan is keiei, which is the combination two terms: Kei, meaning “governing the world in harmony,” and ei, which means “making ceaseless efforts to achieve” (Taka, 1997, p. 1499). Lipset (1992) found that Japan had the lowest rate of workplace absenteeism of all industrialized nations. (p. 50) In addition, Japan has the highest rate of employment among people aged 65 and older (Lipset, 1992, p. 50). It is interesting to note that the United States had the second lowest rate of workplace absenteeism and the second highest rate of employment among people aged 65 and older.

For managers of corporations who are considering expanding at the international level, this information could have significant meaning. Although there are many differences between the United States and Japan, the information on work ethic provides some basis for common ground between employees from the two countries. Beyond this similarity in work ethic, the two countries share the economic ideologies of capitalism which means there will be fewer competing ideologies that managers must resolve, as seen in the following chart:

 

 

(Ralston, Holt, Terpstra, & Kai-Cheng, 1997, p. 181).

Awareness of these similarities, if properly used, could provide managers with the strong base they need to resolve other ideological differences, such as individual- and group-oriented cultures. Finding common ground is always a good start when trying to blend disparate cultures into a single high-performing organization.

References:

Lipset, S. M. (1992). The work ethic, then and now. Journal of Labor Research, 13(1), 45-54.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). POLEAD 410 Lesson 11: Asia: Focus on Japan. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp19/21911–17997/content/11_lesson/printlesson.html

Ralston, D. A., Holt, D. H., Terpstra, R. H., & Kai-Cheng, Y. (1997). The impact of natural culture and economic ideology on managerial work values: a study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China. Journal of international business studies, 28(1), 177-207. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490097.pdf

Taka, I. (1997). Business ethics in Japan. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(14), 1499-1508. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023/A:1005850728406.pdf

A problem facing today’s fundraisers is how to adjust fundraising techniques to draw in Chinese alumni and parents of Chinese alumni. This post will focus on two areas that are particularly challenging, which are broadening the interest range for giving and gift recognition. Sentence about rise in attendance. The last decade has seen a surge in Chinese student enrollment at American universities, with Chinese nationals now making up about 30% of the American international student body, and numbering in excess of 340,000 students (Zhou, 2018, n.p.). This means that fundraisers, who have typically worked primarily with wealthy Caucasian Americans must learn new ways to interact with a diverse group of prospects and, to date, the sector as a whole has been lagging behind other sectors in applying global theories to their practices.

China has a rich tradition of philanthropy, rooted in their history of Confucianism and Buddhism, which stressed the importance of helping those in need (Frolovsky, 2019, n.p.). Interestingly, the giving patterns of China differ significantly from North America, with education being the largest sector to which the Chinese donate (Block, 2018, n.p.). This is a positive for fundraisers working on behalf of universities because there is less likelihood that we will be competing with religious organizations for the donations from Chinese alumni. The charts below show the differences in the philanthropic donations by sector between North America and China:

 

 

As we have learned, North America (excluding Mexico) scores 51.33 in uncertainty avoidance (PSU WC, 2019, L. 9, p. 3). China scores a 30.00 in uncertainty avoidance (PSU WC, 2019, L. 10, p. 3). This preference for ambiguous situations on the part of Chinese people has serious implications for fundraisers. Our conversations with donors tend to be very open and clear. American donors openly acknowledge the purpose of our meetings, expect us to come prepared with several different clearly laid out proposals, and provide clear responses, often including precise lists of changes they require in the proposal before acceptance. In addition, American donors tend to respond quickly to proposals with straightforward yes or no answers. My few interactions with Chinese donors have taught me that they prefer to avoid open discussions of gifts during preliminary meetings and I have struggled to gauge their interest in making a gift at all. Fundraisers must learn a new approach for interacting with them, and it is possible that we must move towards a lengthier cultivation process that involves building much stronger personal relationships and having more nebulous conversations about giving in general before we consider approaching our Chinese prospects with proposals.

An additional significant difference between American and Chinese donors is born out by their national scores in individualism. North America (excluding Mexico) scores 81.33 on individualism (PSU WC, 2019, L. 9, p. 4). China scores 20 on individualism (PSU WC, 2019, L. 10, p. 3). This difference should be considered when fundraisers are considering possible projects to present to donors. While American donors (in general) are often happy to give large gifts in exchange for naming rights to buildings or to fund complete programs at a university in exchange for naming rights, these opportunities may be of less interest to Chinese prospects. In fact, research has shown that affiliation, sector interests, and the

practical, real-world applications of programs resonate more strongly with Chinese donors than naming rights or general support of a university (Kuo, Miao, Ichinose, & Hu, 2017, p. 34). This means that fundraisers must be prepared to clearly delineate how funding opportunities will material improve the lives of the targeted program audience and that the donors should have some affiliation with the targeted audience, whether it is through sector interest (such as engineering) or affiliation (such as scholarship support for Chinese students). In addition, fundraisers need to follow-up with information on the impact of the gift, although this should be done with all donors.

Public recognition of donors who make significant gifts to a university is an important part of the gift stewardship process for two primary reasons. First, public recognition demonstrates the value the university places on the donor’s generosity, and second, public recognition serves as an advertisement to the larger community that people find the mission of the university worthy of investment and places the university’s name in minds of potential donors. Thus far, Chinese donors have shown a marked tendency to shy away from public recognition of their giving, perhaps in large part due to the collectivist nature of their societies which places less importance on personal recognition and, in fact, sometimes denigrates it (PSU WC, 2019, L. 10. p. 3). Some universities have seen success with changing this mindset by focusing the public recognition on the opportunity to engage with the community about the good that can be done by supporting the program of interest (Kuo, Miao, Ichinose, & Hu, 2017, p. 36). Another possible avenue for increasing the willingness to engage in personal recognition of giving might be to put the donors in touch with other who have given because of articles they have read about other gifts and convey the real sense that communities are often created this way around a specific cause.

As shown above, the cultural difference between nations affects many different types of interactions between citizens of different countries, on personal, professional, and philanthropic levels. It is vital that people consider these differences as international interactions increase and organizations across all sectors must make adjustments for doing business in our global society.

 

References:

Block, F. (2018, August 1). Chinese philanthropy continues to surge. Penta. Retrieved from: https://www.barrons.com/articles/chinese-philanthropy-continues-to-surge-1533156780

Frolovskiy, D. (2019, January 25). China’s philanthropy boom. The Diplomat. Retrieved from: https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/chinas-philanthropy-boom/

Giving USA (2018, June 14). See the numbers – Giving USA 2018 Infographic. Giving USA. Retrieved from: https://givingusa.org/tag/giving-usa-2018/

Kuo, V., Miao, J., Ichinose, D., & Hu, M. (2017). Global Chinese philanthropy initiative report. Retrieved from: https://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/GCPI_Report_Single-Pages-jn-hn5.pdf

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). OLEAD 410: Leadership in a global context.  Lesson 10: Asia: Focus on China and India. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp19/21911–17997/content/10_lesson/printlesson.html

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). OLEAD 410: Leadership in a global context.  Lesson 09: Central America and Mexico. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp19/21911–17997/content/09_lesson/printlesson.html

Zhou, Y. (2018, October 2). The impact of Chinese students in the US, charted and mapped. Quartz. Retrieved from: https://qz.com/1410768/the-number-of-chinese-students-in-the-us-charted-and-mapped/

This post will focus on how planned change theory can be applied to the fundraising focus of a small non-profit. This non-profit currently relies on many small annual gifts to fund their budget and future projects. They have been successful in the past but are now facing state budget cuts and problems with their building that are due to delayed maintenance. They will have to cut programs and services if they do not change how they view fundraising and change the focus of their fundraising efforts. The executive director hopes to change the focus of the fundraising efforts of the nonprofit to major giving as opposed to annual giving, as she knows that the potential exists for the organization to receive more money from one major gift than from all of the annual gifts combined.

Planned change occurs in three phases. The following graphic demonstrates the cyclical nature of the theory and how each step leads to the next during the application of planned change.

(Mulder, 2012, n.p.)

The first is unfreezing, which involves motivating employees to change by using disconfirmation to create discomfort with the current situation among employees, inducing a sense of guilt or anxiety among employees, and then highlighting an alternative that will alleviate their anxiety and discomfort (PSU WC, 2019, L. 5, p. 4). In this situation, the executive director could explain the immediacy of the budget shortfall and explain that part of the cause is a failure on the part of all staff members to focus on the appropriate type of fundraising, which in this case is major gifts fundraising. According to Schein (1988), however, the executive director must take care to not create too much discomfort or anxiety as the employees could end up feeling too threatened. (p. 4-5) Schein goes on to suggest that one way to avoid this is by having a consultant present the disconfirmation information so the employees are less likely to resent the executive director at this stage.

A consultant could also play an important role in the next step of the planned change process, which is changing. Change can be accomplished through creating a connection with a respected individual who then teaches the new behavior to employees and also through ensuring the environment at the organization is supportive of the change so employees do not find pockets of resistance when speaking to others about the process (PSU WC, 2019, L. 5, p. 4). In the case of the nonprofit, a consultant provides a ready figure from whom the employees can learn and consultants often engender a sense of respect that employees may not have for their more familiar managers or directors. The consultant must provide training and an action plan for employees to follow as they make the move towards major giving.

The final stage of the planned stage theory is refreezing, which is ensuring the changes are permanent by creating a supportive environment in which to practice the new behavior and ensuring employees have the tools they need to be successful (PSU WC, 2019, L. 5, p. 4). The nonprofit must go beyond providing training to employees in the workplace if the organization is to successfully change focus to major gifts. Frontline fundraisers will need to shadow other major gift professionals so they are comfortable with the process of cultivating donors during meetings and will need extensive practice with roleplaying to practice asking for large gifts. The nonprofit could partner with another nonprofit that already does major gift fundraising so their employees can receive mentoring and the Board of Trustees should be asked to serve as role-playing partners for the employees as the natural distance between staff and Board members will imbue a sense of reality to the role-playing activities. It is important for the consultant to also attend meetings so he or she can provide feedback to employees about how they can change their process to improve their success rates. A last important piece of this final stage is that the executive director and employees should have realistic expectations about the length of the process so they do not feel discouraged when if they do not see significant results immediately.

A few notable issues can arise when management relies on planned change theory in the workplace. One is that the process assumes that all employees of the organization agree to work in the same direction, which is difficult to achieve in most organizations (Bamford & Forrester, 2003, p. 547). Bamford and Forrester (2003) also touch on another problem with planned change within the current fast pace of most business environments: the focus on planning and objectives makes the process cumbersome and prevents nimble movements in reaction to changing conditions. (p. 548). The possibility exists for these issues to arise in the capital campaign because failure to secure any of the lead gifts will force the organization to rely more heavily on the annual giving revenue stream, which counteracts the plan to move toward securing major gifts for the majority of project funding.

Planned change theory can be an effective tool in creating organizational change if properly applied. However, as I discussed in the preceding paragraph, it is important for organizations to reevaluate their goals throughout the process to ensure the planned change is still taking them in the correct direction. A plan that is too rigidly adhered to in the face of a changed environment could do considerable damage to an organization in the end but, if everyone is aware of this pitfall and willing to adjust, planned change can lead to significant performance improvements that are long-lasting.

References:

Bamford, D. R., & Forrester, P. L. (2003). Managing planned and emergent change within an operations management environment. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 23(5), 546-564. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/jxk29/Downloads/Managing_planned_and_emergent_.pdf

Mulder, P. (2012) Lewin’s change model. ToolsHero. Retrieved from https://www.toolshero.com/change-management/lewin-change-model/

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). OLEAD 410: Leadership in a global context.  Lesson 05: Learning and Change in a Global Setting. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp19/21911–17997/content/05_lesson/printlesson.html

Schein, E. H. (1988). Planning and managing change. Retrieved from https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/2217/SWP-2069-21344604.pdf?sequence=1

An important concept covered by Moran, Maron, and Abramson (2014) is the idea that it is important to focus on intercultural similarities in addition to differences when leading in the workplace. (pp. 54-55) This is something that tends to be overlooked in the organizations that I work with because managers are so focused on ensuring that they understand every individual and what will make that individual feel he or she is part of the team. This can be an overwhelming task and can, in my opinion, lead managers in the wrong direction when they are trying to bridge cultural divides. One of the primary steps in achieving productivity within groups is co-operation, which is achieved, in part, through decreasing perceived differences between group members (McGuire, Todnem, & Hutchings, 2007, p. 601). This is what makes the idea of intercultural similarities so important. Focusing solely on differences actually works at cross-purposes with this step of decreasing group differences because it forces group members to focus on what is different about their co-workers rather than finding common ground that can make it easier for them to relate to each other. While differences are also important, I have seen a high-level of divisiveness created in the workplace when those differences are highlighted throughout the organization.

I attended a training once at a nonprofit in which employees were asked to talk about cultural differences that set them apart from others in the group and the importance of those items to their cultural identity. In most cases, this was productive and helped people get to know each other better and understand more about the backgrounds of their fellow employees. There was, however, a particular case that ended up causing significant problems with how the employees viewed one woman. She explained that it made her very uncomfortable with other women in the office questioned their male supervisors and when a female supervisor gave directives to male subordinates because she practiced a faith in which men were leaders and women were followers. This caused an uproar in the session and, rather than finding common ground with the woman, her coworkers began to attack and ostracize her. This is a clear case of the importance of focusing on similarities and also of the importance of nonviolent communication, which is communication that leads to an understanding of every person’s right to determine his or her own beliefs (Moran, Moran, & Abramson, 2014, pp. 63-64).

One possible solution would have been for the moderator to take control of the conversation and draw out the woman’s feelings of discomfort to refrain in such a way that others could equate it to the discomfort they felt due to their cultural differences. Although this still accounts for the difference, it does find common ground, which is the emotional aspect of issue. Because changing the entire reporting structure of the organization was not a viable solution, changing the focus of the conversation would have been more effective than arguing about whether the woman’s faith was right or wrong. I think this type of conversation that hones in on the similarities of human emotions across cultures can form a bridge to better understanding.

 

References:

McGuire, D., Todnem By, R., & Hutchings, K. (2007). Towards a model of human resource solutions for achieving intergenerational interaction in organisations. Journal of European industrial training, 31(8). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/215383437/fulltextPDF/241C16F31ED5460CPQ/1?accountid=13158

Moran, R.T., Moran, S. V., & Abramson, N. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences: Ninth Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.