1.

i) Different treatment for women.

In Nomura, women are treated differently. Men and women were separated while
training. Even tho they have high qualification in education, the company want to
train the women employees how to make tea.

ii) Seniority
Nomura have a culture that older employees are seen to have higher rank or status
than younger employees. In Lehman, they don’t see age as a status or a rank.

iii) Amount of time decision made

Management in Nomura have longer time to make decision because they are
collectivism. They need to consider everyone opinion in the group before making
decision.

iv) Loyalty
Nomura value loyalty with their client. In Lehman, profit is the most important things
but Nomura doesn’t want a quick profit. They want to build business relationship for
future investment.

v) Dress code
The dress code in Nomura is very strict compared to Lehman. The employees must
not stand out among others. Women required to remove highlight from their hair, to
wear sleeves no shorter than mid-bicep, and to avoid brightly colored clothing.

2.

Nomura tried to blend two culture together at first but they soon realize that
something need to change. Nomura’s global attitude is polycentric attitude. It is
because Nomura realize that the employees in the host country know the best how
to approach and practice for running their business. The managers of Nomura know
that every foreign operation is different and hard to understand. So, to combat this
problem, the Nomura’s managers let the employee at the host country to figure out
how best to do things. For example, they promotes a handful of non-japanese
employees to high-ranking position. They also promoted the ex-Lehman executive,
Jasjit “jesse” Bhattal from India to committee to make the company more globally
oriented.

3.
Difference

i)Americans are very informal. They tend to treat people alike even when great
differences in age or social standing are evident. Meanwhile, Japanese are famous
for its formality and politeness. Japan even have 3 level of formality in language. So,
the atmosphere in Japanese company is very professional because of this formality
language.

ii)Americans are direct. They often talk straight to the point. Japanese people are
generally indirect communicators because of their politeness and they afraid to
disturb the flow of the communication.

iii)Americans are independent and individualistic. They always proud of their

freedom and believe that individuals can shape and control their own destiny.
Meanwhile, Japanese are collectivism. Japanese people generally not selfish in
making decision and always ask agreement of the other in the groups.

Similarity

i)Americans and Japanese both value punctuality. They keep appointment calendars
and live according to schedules and clocks. Americans believes that punctuality is the
way to judge the character of a person. Meanwhile Japanese people are very
punctual because its rude to not shows up on time.

ii)Americans and Japanese both are competitive. Americans are very competitive
because of their pride of freedom and the chase of opportunity. Japanese also very
competitive because its part of their culture.

These difference can bring challenge to Nomura especially in term of

communication. Not only they have to deal with language barrier, they also have
difference in communication. Americans will struggle with the formality and
Japanese will feel weird if their coworkers are too friendly. But they also have
similarities. Both culture value punctuality and work hard to be better at their job.
These similarity can help their company to grow.

4.

Intellectual capital
Nomura’s managers need to increase their knowledge about international business
and and the capacity to understand how business works on a global scale. They
cannot effectively influence their employees who are different from themselves
without a good understanding of what those differences are. For example, Lehman
bankers found out that the process for getting approval on deals was more slower
and more difficult. The managers need to understand why in this kind of method
works in Nomura but doesn’t work well in Lehman. After understanding the
differences, the managers can make a reasonable decision.

Psychological capital

Increasing psychological capital means openness to new ideas and experiences. This
can create more possibilities and more perspective for the company. For example,
Nomura has promoted a handful of non-japanese employees to high ranking position
and they also promoted an ex-Lehman executive and foreigner, Jasjit “Jesse” Bhattal,
to the committee. This changes might gives the company a new perspective.

Social capital

The managers have to learn the ability to form connections and build trusting
relationships with the employees who are different from them. For example, Hiromi
Yamaji, Head of global investment banking, moved to London, and Naoki Matsuba,
global head of equities, moved to New York for the purpose of reducing the Tokyo-
centric nature of the company and understand business outside of Japan.