Cross Cultural Management-Term 4

Prof: Ritu Tripathi

Movie Analysis Report
Million Dollar Arm; Gung Ho
Submitted by:
Srishti Malpath
1511029

Movie Analysis of Million Dollar

Arm

Introduction

This movie is about an American baseball agent who is in search of talented players from
places which hadnt been tapped before. The agents name is J.B Bernstein, who then goes
about creating a reality contest in India in quest to find players who he can then get trained and
convert them into professional players. As the most popular sport in India is cricket and cricket
is in certain ways similar to the game of baseball but still is a very alien concept to the Indian
audience. The crowd is attracted by the offer that is the prize money and also by the
opportunity to go to America and get trained professionally. The cultural shock is when the
two selected players are asked to move to America. As they both are from a small town and
never been anywhere outside their villages/towns, they are hesitant and reluctant to go.

India as a culture is very inclined towards group orientation with big families and tightly knit
relationships. Also as it is shown in the movie, the level of poverty also results in many
families staying together. This is very well shown in the scene when J.B and his colleague visit
the boys village. They are shocked by the differences in the state of living, houses, streets and
people. These boys have no idea about how life outside India was, for example they are seen
shocked when they get to know that they could order food(pizza) just sitting in the house and it
would be delivered at their footsteps.

Overall this movie is a very good example of how some basic issues interrupt
communication and work when interacting with people from different countries. It shows

how learning to accommodate and learn other cultures and their nuances is always handy and
helpful.

Here are some of the dialogues from the movie that depict the cultural shock encountered by
J.B on his first day of visit in India
Vivek(Indian worker): You know, here in India, we do things a little differently than in the US.
J.B : Okay, Vivek, I need things to run on time and smoothly, but actually run on time and
smoothly, not Indian on time and smoothly.
Vivek: Indians love honking and bypassing the system.
Vivek : Don't lose patience, JB. You are going to need it in India. Indians are very good at
spreading the word.

Analysing this movie on the basis of Geert Hofstedes dimensions of cross

cultural differences (National Culture)

1)
H

igh PDI- Low PDI

PDI or the power distance index is the measure of the extent to which power differences are
reflected in a societys organisation. India on one side is a highly power driven culture with a
PDI of 77 whereas America on the other hand is one of the low scorer of this index with 40.
That is in India, more importance is given to the higher authority and questioning them is seen
as an offence or a disregard. Whereas in America all the workers are involved in making
decisions and everybody can demand respect and also there is more of an informal interaction
between people of different strata unlike the Indians. This aspect is clearly seen in the movie.
When J.B visits India, the worker in the Indian office calls him with a Sir-Sir and mentions
it after every sentence of his. This makes J.B feel a little abnormal or new as the Americans
mostly use their names rather than Sir/Madam in most of the circumstances and it is still seen
as being respectful unlike in India. In India, calling an elder or a higher official with their
name can result in them being offended and thinking that they are not respected enough. Same
thing is reflected with the boys in America, they are seen to be very scared to openly talk to

J.B or express any discomfort in front of him due to this power difference concern in their
minds.

2)

Collectivism-Individualism
America is one of the highest ranker on the scale of individualism with a score of 91 whereas
in India families are rather closely knit and they generally work in groups and give importance
to the immediate family and society than just themselves. India has a lower score of
individualism that is 48. India as a collectivist culture is shown in many scenes of the movie.
When the contest is announced and J.B along with his team reaches to the first stop, he is
shocked at the number of people that turn up for the event asks the Indian in his team if all of
them are actually there for his event. Another instance is when the two selected boys have to
fly to America, the scene shows how collectivist culture it is and how the mother of the boy
cries that he is leaving instead of being happy for him to be taking such an unexpected
journey. Also when the finals of the contest are being held, again there is huge crowd of
audience and Ray make a statement that is it something to do with baseball or some kind of a
circus. Many other instances in the movie, its shown how the boys miss their village and
family even though they are in America and are free to do anything without nobody to
question them. This shows the high collectivist culture among the Indians. This also brings
about the face-saving attitude of the Indians and as they are a collectivist culture, their status
in the society and what people think about them becomes very important to them. The scene
when J.B goes to offer bribe to the Indian worker, the worker denies and becomes aggressive
at first as he is in his work area. But then he meets him outside his office so that people dont
judge him and that his reputation in the society is not spoiled.
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3) High Uncertainty Avoidance-low Uncertainty Avoidance

Both the countries score nearly the same score on this aspect with the US on a slightly higher
side (46) and India with a score of 40. This means that both are countries are flexible and do
not fear from uncertainties. If we compare between the two, America is slightly more towards
high uncertainty avoidance which is seen in this particular scene of the movie when J.B in his
first meeting with the Indian worker at the Indian office asks him if everything is ready and in
place. And the Indian replies that everything is set but when asked for the information and
status of different tasks, his answer is rather contradicting and ambiguous. When J.B asks
him if the t-shirts are arrived, he says that they have arrived. But when asked for more details,
he answers that they have arrived at the warehouse and were not there yet, making it
ambiguous and uncertain.

4) Masculinity-Femininity
The higher the score of a particular country on this dimension implies that the society is a
highly success driven one and that a persons accomplishments are given more importance.
India has a score of 56 and US scores an even higher score of 62. Traits of a high masculinity
culture is that they are more work oriented and money and things are important. Whereas a
feminine culture is mostly relationship and ties oriented. The transition of J.B is clearly seen
in the movie. Before his visit to India, he is shown as a person who is more goal and work
oriented but after his work with the two boys, he understands how he has to slow down and be
there for them and support them to build a relationship and to make them comfortable. Also

J.Bs girlfriend Brenda tells him how he has changed and become more considering and that
she likes him better now.

5) Long Term Orientation-Short Term Orientation

On this dimension, India scores a higher rank with 51 whereas the USA has a score of 26
which is below average. This reflects the idea that Indians are long term oriented and they
always plan for the future and aim at long term things. Whereas the Americans on the other
side are grown up in a culture where short term achievements are rewarded and that is what
they look for. They dont plan for things much ahead in the future. The best example from the
movie is depicted by the character Amit- the translator who joins J.Bs team not for money
or for popularity but for the experience that he can carry forward in the future in becoming in a
baseball coach. He mentions to J.B that he would work for free and all of that just to fulfil his
long term plan of being a successful coach. Whereas its not the same case with J.B and his
company, they just want a big hit and its a short term goal that they have in mind and hadnt
planned much further into future.
6) High Indulgence-Low Indulgence(Restraint)
India scores a very low score of 26 on this factor of indulgence when compared to a high score
of 68 of America. Which implies that Indians are in general very restraint and dont indulge
much in social activities or leisure times in their lives when compared with the American
counterparts. In the movie, the two boys and their translator are shown to be spending time
only on training or staying at home but not in exploring things in the new country. Also in a
particular scene when J.B takes three of them to a party, they seem to get very bored there and

feel very much out of the place in between the Americans. They are shown to just mind their
own business rather than indulge in conversations, dance or meet new people at the party.

Analysis of Halls Silent Languages

The outstanding or most contrasting dimensions were that of time, friendship and context.
Time: It is clearly depicted in the movie how the value of time differs in both the cultures.
India is a polychromatic country whereas America is a Monochromatic one. When J.B
reaches India, he was supposed to be picked up by Vivek, but Vivek forgets that he was
supposed to arrive today. When J.B finally by himself reaches the destination, Viveks reaction
is very normal as if it was okay to forget which depicts the value and importance to time
between both the cultures.
Friendship: Coming to the aspect of friendship, Indians maintain a rather different relationship
with their superiors, they do not treat them as equals. As seen in many instances in the movie,
J.B is always called with a Sir by the two boys, his Indian colleagues and even the auto and
cab drivers.
Context: Americans are very straight forward in their communication and express clearly what
they expect from the other party. Whereas on the other side, Indians are very ambiguous and
dont talk about details most of the time. When in the starting J.B asks Vivek about the T-shirts,
he replies that they are here but when asked to show them he hesitates and then tells him
clearly where they are and what to do to get them delivered soon.
Another instance of context is the bribe scene. First of all, bribe is mentioned as bypassing
the system which in itself makes it very ambiguous. And when J.B meets the worker in
charge of the T-shirts and offers him a bribe, he denies it because the Face-saving aspect of the

Indians as I mentioned in the first part of the report. But later on he meets them outside to
accept the offer. This confuses and makes it difficult for J.B to make sense of the ambiguous
talks.

Conclusion
This movie is an adaption of a real life story of two boys who were chosen to be coached
professionally in baseball by an American agent. The movie depicts cultural shocks on J.Bs
first visit to India as well as when the boys first travel to the U.S. It shows very well how both
of them find it uncomfortable and strange out of their country and cultures and how during the
course of the movie, they forgo of the differences, become more adaptable and
understanding of the other culture.

Movie Analysis of Gung Ho

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Introduction

The plot of the movie Gung Ho runs around the cultural differences and clash between two
countries when Michael Keaton who plays the role of an American employee goes about
convincing a Japanese automobile company to open their factory in America. The movie
beautifully shows how such cultural issues can impact the whole business of the company.
Lets now analyse the different dimensions of Hofstedes theory based on this movie.
According to the theory, The US is a low PDI country with the power distance index of 40
which means that there is not much dominance from the higher authorities on the lower
employees. Coming to the dimension of individualism, the US scores a 91 which means that in
such a society importance is given towards individual needs. Comparing these two dimensions,
we can say that the work conditions in the US are such that the hierarchies are created for
convenience which create an informal yet a very participative structure wherein both the
employers and the employees have a say in decisions and that the managers generally take
decisions after consulting with the employees. Now if we compare this to the culture of
Japan: Japan scores a power distance index of 54 and 46 on the aspect of individualism (more
towards collectivism). Which shows that in the Japanese culture, importance is given to the
hierarchical position and the employers or the higher managers get more say in making
decisions. As it is more of a collectivist culture, most of the decisions are highly group
oriented and mostly paternalistic.

These measurements were demonstrated in the film for example, Hunt Stevenson (American
worker) is shown to have a very informal and a casual relationship with the employees,

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involves and consults them for the decision making and does not hesitate to question his senior
employees. Also it shown how the American employees are more individual and are
concerned with their personal time and not place the company as their top most priority.
Whereas the Japanese manager has a rather formal relation with the other employees and fears
or hesitates to question his boss. We will also discuss about the impact that these difference in
values create on the HRM practices of the companies. Analysing this movie seems like an
innovative and an entertaining way of better understanding the aspects of cross cultural
differences and how to overcome them to smoothly run such a firm.

Movie analysis on the basis of Geert Hofstedes dimensions of cross cultural

differences (National Culture)

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High PDI- Low PDI

This index is used to measure the extent to which the position(hierarchy) or power differs from
one society to the other. Japans PDI score is 54 whereas that of the US is 40, which means that
the Japanese give a lot of importance to the hierarchical ranking and the position and even in
social settings, they act in accordance to it. On the other side, there is not much difference in
power in the US, that means that every employee is seen and accepted to have a unique thought
process and that every one of them is special or unequal. This is depicted very well in the
starting part of the movie when Hunt meets Oishi during his training program and is wearing
ribbons of shame and being trained to be a better manager. Hunt in this scene does not give
much importance to the situation as he does not understand the management-employee
relation in Japan. Japan being a high PDI country, the employees tend to follow the demands
and guidelines of their managers and mostly fear to answer back to them even if they find
something inconvenient which is not so in the case of the Americans. Also Oishi mentions in a
conversation with Hunt that he would not understand because he hasnt been through the
management training by the superiors that Oishi did.

Collectivism-Individualism
This aspect measures the extent to which people of a particular culture/society tend to give
importance and attention to their immediate self, families or if they tend to mostly integrate in
groups of larger size. In a collectivist society, people act and give importance to groups than
individuals. America with low power distance and high individualism (91), gives emphasis to

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individual accomplishments/achievement, equal rights, lower hesitation with the top

authority and on informal mode of communication. Japan is on the other side with a low score
on individualism (46) and tends to give importance to group harmony, paternalistic culture and
more loyalty to the company. So there is yet another clash between the two communities which
is depicted in the movie. We could see how the Japanese employees never complained and
blindly did anything that their superiors asked for whereas the American employees put
themselves ahead of the company all the time. And when they were asked to fulfil a huge
order of 15000 cars, they immediately started discussing among themselves, retaliated and
questioned back the authority.

High Uncertainty Avoidance-low Uncertainty Avoidance

This dimension measures the preparedness and a cultures planning and ability to deal with
uncertain situations. The US has a score of 46 on the uncertainty avoidance index, which is
below average and implies that they dont stick to a certain thing and are mostly accepting to
new innovations and ideas and have a willingness to try out new/different things. Whereas on
the other hand, Japan is one of the highest scorer on this dimension with an index of 92. This
implies the well planned, long and detailed contracts and decision processes that they follow.
The whole movie is based on the uncertainty which keeps us wondering if indeed they will
succeed in delivering the results or not after handling all the cross cultural and
communicational differences.

Masculinity-Femininity

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The US scores high on the dimension of masculinity (62) which implies that the society is
highly driven by success and achievement and also indicated that high importance is given to
ones personal accomplishments. And japan on the other hand is one of the highest scorer on
masculinity in the world with a score of 95. But japan is a collectivist economy rather than an
individualistic economy, which makes it shift towards giving high importance to work and
perfectionism. We can encounter this aspect at the ending of the movie when they American
plant workers mange to reach the goal but the Japanese counter parts find a few of the cars not
up to their expectations and perfection and decide to fire them. After which Hunt, the
American manager convinces them for another chance by using symbolism and using the
success story of winning basketball which again gives a glimpse on the individualistic and
masculine aspect of their culture.

Long Term Orientation-Short Term Orientation

The US ranks low on the long term orientation aspect with a score of 26 which implies that it
does not believe much in maintaining links to the past but rather is a present day oriented
culture which draws its values and performances on a short-term scale or basis. Whereas on
the other hand, Japan is a very pragmatic culture with a score of 88 and is highly future
oriented and tends to measure values and performance on a long-term scale. This aspect can
be understood from the movie as Hunt, expects rapid and immediate action for the plant
workers whereas the Japanese are shown planning for the future, by following future-oriented
Japanese peoples trends.

High Indulgence-Low Indulgence(Restraint)

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On indulgence factor, Japan has a low score of 42 implying that they have a restraint culture
and dont give importance to the leisure time in their lives which makes them make work as
their only main priority. Whereas the US ranks higher than japan which a score of 68 which
implies their work hard but play hard too aspect of their society. In the movie we can see how
Oishi Kazihiros family shifts from the restraint culture to the more indulgence one. On the
first visit of Hunt to Oishis family, the house is very well organised without his family
indulging in American leisure fares but later on we can see that Oishis wife shifts to the more
indulgent culture and is seen serving sausage and punch for dinner and their children are seen
watching MTV and play around with action movie figures which is very different from their
earlier style of living.

Differences in various HRM practices that effected business between the two
cultures:

The movie also depicts the differences between the two nations in terms of their workflow and
process development. American workers and managers generally follow what is called as Best
practice and stick to it to obtain results whereas the Japanese mangers continuously tend to
work on improving the practices and innovating new ones. As we can see in the movie, among
the plant workers, everyone has a job which they stick to and do not believe in knowing what
the others are doing. There is also a scene where the Japanese manager asks the workers to be
trained in every task but the refuse to do so. This again links back to the High PDI and high
collectivist culture of the Japanese which makes them obey their superiors without questioning.

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Compensating and incentivising:

The methods of incentives and rewards differ in the two cultures as follows: American culture
is a merit based on where in fact advancement is followed to be the norm whereas in the
Japanese culture, dedication and long hours of services are seen to be rewarded. Americans
believe in rapid rewards which is seen in the scene when the workers are asked to fulfil a task
of 15000 cars and they question about what would happen if they dont do so and in turn
expect rewards for coming close to the target. This property in turn links to the short term
orientation of the Americans which makes them expect rewards for short term
accomplishments. Also being an individualist society, they give priority to themselves and
their family than the company unlike the Japanese workers.

Planning and Organising:

Coming to the process of planning, the Americans (high on individualism) take highly
individual profiting decisions whereas the Japanese counterparts take a lot of time in making
decision by doing it collectively. As we can see in the start of the movie when Hunt goes to
present his idea, he travels all by himself whereas when he reaches there he finds a group of
Japanese officers gathered so that they can take a decision collectively. This reflects the
individualism-collectivism dimension of Geert Hofstede and also the long term-short term
orientation of the two cultures/nations.
Coming to Organising, Japanese managers dont have a structure but mostly depend on the
collective decision making process which is more individualistic among the Americans. This
can be depicted in the scene when Hunt takes the blame and responsibility in the ending of
the film for misguiding the workers.

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Staffing and Leading:

Americans are in general more loyal to their work and profession but not to the company, they
are hired directly from schools or other companies and search for incentives in short term
results. Whereas among the Japanese, the workers are highly loyal to the company and
incentives and compensations are all based on the long-term results. Oishi, the Japanese
manager mentions in the movie how they dont get paid extra for working additional hours and
how work means more than anything to them unlike the Americans. On the other side the
American employees look for time-off and show little loyalty to the firm and are more
concerned with their personal rather than their professional lives. Coming to the leadership
aspect, American leaders are very clear and straight forward in their communication with
anyone in the rank or hierarchy. Whereas the Japanese leaders act like one of the members in
the group and have a rather indirect and ambiguous communication methods. As we could
see in the movie, Hunt was the American leader who was shown as an amazing spokesperson.
This difference occurs because Japan is more of a collectivist culture whereas America is based
on individualist culture.

Conclusion
From the analysis above, we can see that even small cultural differences can result in major
business and societal clashes. And even though it was depicted in a comical manner in the
movie, in real life it would lead to major offenses and drawbacks in business. This movie is a
classic example of how we all need to come out of our comfort zones and become more

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adaptive and learning towards different cultures when meeting or working with counter parts
from different parts of the world.

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