| Nuvendil said: Part of it comes down to business culture. Japan is a high-context culture. One feature of that is a greater comfort with uncertainty, which extends to timeframes and such. So a Japanese company is going to be more receptive of a development timeline needing an extension and less strict with deadlines. Western companies, on the other hand, are low context and prefer precise time frames, tighter control of deadlines, etc. This isn't the only factor, but it is one. There are obviously far more intricacies to high-context vs low-context cultures, but this is likely the most influential factor in development times. |
Did you read Edward T.Hall? I really like his theories and they could be use to explain Japanese people's behaviour. Westerners seem to be driven more in the idea of finishing a product then improving on the next product. Similar as to how you work on an essay hand it in and you can improve your mistakes in your next essay. While for the Japanese and other cultures the emphasis appears to be in delivering the best product you can-the first time. The Japanese people probably think of it as a work 'in process' while Westerners see the opportunity of improvement once the work is completed within the established boundaries. The Western idea has more practically to it as you will finish a product even if its half-baked its better than having nothing. This reminds me of a lot of American punk bands that released an awful first album but there next one was much better- I am thinking of the Replacements here. That could also be the origin of recency bias! Since people are always improving in their craft, they will tend to think that the latest work is the best.
