2025 Williams Blog

Hello guys welcome back. Today I will be sharing my thought about Hofstede's theory about individualism vs collectivism. The theory comes from different nations view on how people work in groups. A countries population can be viewed as individualistic which correlates to individuals being more dependent on themselves. It can also be collectivism in which individuals work more as a group and have heavy dependency on eachother.  Now when it comes to which one is to prefer I would say it very much depend on where you are from. For example, me as a Swedish guy, have always favoured the individualistic society. As for big parts of Europe, the individualism has a big hold of peoples way of thinking. I feel that Japan is a more collectivism society. Especially with the phenomenon called "amae" which describes japanese peoples dependency on eachother. With this said, I feel like it can be difficult for people from different cultures to move and live in another one. For example, a...

 Hello guys, Welcome back to yet another blog post by myself, William Ludwigs. Today I will talk about education in Japan and compare it to rest of the world. During class we discussed a lot about japanese educational system and mayor differences it has with other countries. What was most surprising to me was the cram schools and the big numbers of students that goes to cram schools. This phenomenon is something Ive never heard about and something that doesnt exist in Sweden. For me the concept is wierd since because of the big amount of students taking it, you kinda have to take it or else your results will be worse then the rest. Even if you are of normal intelligence you have to study extra after school. I would probably hate going to cram schools since im not a big fan of studying all day... Furthermore I feel like the Japanese school system put a lot of pressure on kids and isnt suitable for everyone. On the other side, I feel Japanese people as a group is a highly educated on...

 Hello guys, In todays class we discussed about Hofstedes power distance theory which basically discusses how the boss compares to the employes in a hierarchy kinda way. In Japan the power distance is quite big as the boss is seen as the main guy. I feel this way of working can be stressfull for the employees. In Sweden, the different workplaces i have worked at have all had a low power distance. The boss has always been supportive of my work and also lets me express my opinion about what I seem could improve and so on.  To decide what is the best power distance I dont think you could say one is better then the other. For example could some lines of work be more benificial with bigger power distance. Examples of this line of work could be in the military where discipline and the commanders orders are of highest importance. With lower power distance I feel employess could express themselves more which could be benificial in a lot of different works.  For me, in the work pl...

 Hello! Welcome to another blog post by myself, William Ludwigs. Today I will discussing the differences in work culture in Japan compared to my home country, Sweden.  Work culture in Japan is well known around the world. With the Japanese people working so hard its not uncommon to see people sleeping in trains and in public. Compared to Sweden, the event of people sleeping in public is unheard of. Furthermore I sense the harsh working environment for the Japanese people come from decades of traditions that highly values the sense of worshiping people with power. In regards to work it would be the boss and the company. Ive come to understand that the boss has the final word in the decision making and working long hours because of the bosses wishes is common practice. In Sweden, the bosses position in the group is more of a guidance roll. The boss cant force a worker to stay overtime unpaid. In Sweden we also value free time highly and for the boss to dont take that in consider...