Submitted

In partial fulfillment

Of the requirements

IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION

GUNG HO

Submitted to:

Presy A. Antonio MM-PM, CSEE

Professor

Submitted by:

Marlon D. Jaranilla

RAMON MAGSAYSAY TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

May 29, 2010

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THE GUNG HO SUMMARY:

In a town in the Midwest United States, the car factory has been shut, leaving
the town economically distressed. A Japanese company, Assan Motors, has
purchased the factory, but will need to be convinced that it is worth re-opening. Hunt
Stevenson goes to Japan to make a presentation to Assan's management, and the
result is that Assan sends a management team to America and the factory was re-
opened, although the workers will earn a substantially lower wage than they had
before in their originally closed factory. Still, Hunt is a hero for having convinced
Japanese investor to re-open the factory and to be employed by the displaced
American workers.

The culture clash is severe, as Japanese management demands far more

regimentation and output than the workers are used to, and unpaid overtime is
expected when output falls short of productivity standards. Management has little
regard for the workers and the quality of their lives, focusing on productivity alone.
The workers become agitated and their relationship with management becomes
adversarial. Hunt, acting as employee liaison, tries to smooth it over, but is unable,
and when a worker intentionally knocks over one of the Japanese managers during
a company baseball game, the situation appears beyond repair.

Japanese management sees little point in keeping the factory open until Hunt
compromise with the management that they can completely finish 15,000 cars in a
month time. Amused by this contention, Japanese management agrees that if this
output is reached, the factory would remain open and workers are entitle to wage
hike provided that they able to make their commitment – 15,000 cars or otherwise
factory will be close for good.

Hunt advises the workers of this deal, but his announcement is met with
incredulity, and, to appease them, he falsely relates that a lesser raise would still be
earned if output exceeded 13,000 cars. The workers give it a shot, but, despite
working long hours and on weekends, they conclude that the goal of 15,000 is
unattainable. Workers, decide to go for the raise that would come if 13,000 cars
were completed. After attaining this goal, the workers walk out on factory when a
dispute arises. Now, Hunt must come clean, and tell his fellow American worker that
he made a deal for 15,000 cars and no increases would be made if ,they were able

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to met the agreed numbers. Hunt has now gone from hero to goat, and his co-
workers are furious.

Still, in the end they put their noses to the grindstone and put their differences
with the Japanese managers aside as the senior executive from Japan is coming to
check on the state of the factory. When the executive comes by, they have fallen
slightly short of their 15,000 target, but the Japanese executive is impressed by the
team spirit he sees in the factory. Liking the way that the Americans and Japanese
are now working together, he decides to keep the factory open, and give the full
wage raises, and the stage is set for an era of understanding among all those
working at the factory.

THE PROBLEMS:
The most glaring and eye-catching problem for Assan Company (Japanese
Employer) and American workers are related to culture and communication. This two
problem arises because of personal and culture differences.

The culture as we can observe are two extreme cultural differences –

Individualism and Collectivism. Asian is known for being and inclines as collectivist
and preferred to be approached in a collectivist way while westerners are known as
Individualist and preferred to be approach on individualistic way.

Individualism is “the opposite of collectivism; together they form one

of the dimensions of national cultures. Individualism stands for a
society in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is
expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate
family only.” While Collectivism “stands for a society in which people
from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive in-groups,
which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in
exchange for unquestioning loyalty.” (http://www.via-
web.de/individualism-versus-collectivism/

The friction between the two groups started when, the Japanese managers
told Mr. Stevenson that the American employees were not loyal as much as the
Japanese employees. Additionally, it was stated that the American employees were
only working for money, starting the job late and leaving early, avoiding job when
they are sick, while their Japanese colleagues were only working for the company,
spending less time with their families, running faster, thinking the future of the
business as it was everything for them. With this remarks, it reflects proves that the

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personality of these two groups differ from each other. It proves that Asian more
particularly Japanese are preferred a collectivist approaches while their counter part
is more on individualistic approaches and that was the main reason of clashes.

Communication is the second problem:

When communication reached to the maximum boiling point in Assan
Company plus when Mr. Stevenson told the American employees that they will
receive a minimum wage increase if they able to meet the 13,000 minimum number
of complete cars production for the month. Mr. Stevenson knew well what could
motivate the American employees – higher wages, but he knows and understood
that he was in big trouble when the Japanese manager un-intentionally mention
during chance conversation with one American employee that no wage increase
would happen if they fail to meet the 15,000 number of cars produce for the month.

At this point, workers were very frustrated and angry when they learned about
Hunt Stevenson’s lie. This indicated us that a serious miscommunication existed
among the managers, Mr. Stevenson and the employees. Plus, more importantly,
almost everybody in Assan Motors had specific problems. Unfortunately, nobody
took the first step to talk to each other and thresh out their problem. Thus, problems
were not clearly expressed and naturally no solution could be found.

ANALYSIS OF THE PLOT:

1. The story of the movie is about discipline, hard work and loyalty both in the family
and in the organization that we are in for. The movie tells more about the attitude
of American employee in the work place, the things that can pleases and
motivate them; while Japanese employees exhibit their values through work
dedication and loyalty to organization. This movie tells more about the
differences of two cultures trying to blend by way of working in one common
vision and purpose.

2. Both the manager (Oishi Kazihiro) and the representative of workers (Hunt
Stevenson) could not meet to a common point were their knowledge and ideas in
running the factory and lead the workers in attainment of their common goal.
Both of them are not willing to compromise for the benefit of the organization and
the employees itself. Working attitudes, habits between the two conflicting culture
always and if not most of the time gets in the way. Japanese manager failed to
motivate their subordinate thru proper training and supervision while Mr.
Stevenson is not even honest and good motivator to his fellow American as well

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 that resulted always a clash between the bosses and the workers. Mr. Kazihiro &
Stevenson failed to recognize the importance of team work and team
understanding; they failed to recognize the primary cause of their problem –
culture differences and communication openness which the key ingredients in
making the organization run smoothly. Both (Kazihiro & Stevenson) is a leader,
but unwilling leader to lend a hand and compromise. A leader should always
know how to act in a balance way to reach the organization objective, less this
objective cannot be met at all.

3. The movie is a little bit funny because of the actions and actuations of the actors
and actresses. But in general, they able to portray their respective role that
makes the movie more interesting to watch.

4. The production of the film, editing and other cinematographic background is

significantly good, but definitely Gung Ho movie production is not comparable
with the present craft of movie being produce now days due to much improve
technology used in film production down to editing and dubbing.

CONCLUSION:
According to WIKIPEDIA, the core meaning of Gung Ho is “enthusiastic or
Dedicated” while according to Chinese translation Gung meaning “WORK” and Ho
meaning “HARMONY”.

From the title itself of the movie “GUNG HO”, it connotes that they should
work together with harmonious relationship to attain the common objective of the
organization. The movie bring us new learning that as long that we work together,
set aside our differences and personal biases including our cultural differences, then
it is not impossible to accomplish something worthwhile.

In the movie it proves that the spirit of teamwork, perseverance, dedication,

and honesty brings good result. The movie bring us remarkable lesson to learn and
adapt for our daily lives. Not only for our personal gain but for the benefit of the
organization.

RECOMMENDATION
In my opinion, proper collectivism is good for American because it can make
workers more loyal to the company which will improve individual and collective

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efficiency. And Japanese should learn from their western counterpart but without
letting go of their good working values. Japanese should be considerate and provide
a little bit freedom of their workers for them to innovate provided that company rules
and regulations are observe, labor instruction follow and objective is met. However,
to effectively adapt the changes when we learn something from different countries or
cultures, it is important that we should integrate the theory with our local practice or
fact. And this can only happen if one is willing to compromise for the good of the
organization and for the benefit of everyone well being involved in the organization.

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