Linguistic and Cultural Competence in the Global Business Arena

197 Pages·2016·1.16 MB·English

by  Asami Segi

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Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School
12-2008
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Asami Segi
University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss
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Segi, Asami, "Linguistic and Cultural Competence in the Global Business Arena: A Study of a Japanese
Company in Tennessee. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2008.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/516
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To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Asami Segi entitled "Linguistic and Cultural
Competence in the Global Business Arena: A Study of a Japanese Company in Tennessee." I
have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and
recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy, with a major in Education.
Patricia Davis-Wiley, Major Professor
We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance:
Detelin Elenkov, Gary J. Skolits, Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon
Accepted for the Council:
Carolyn R. Hodges
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
To the Graduate Council:

I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Asami Segi entitled “Linguistic and Cultural
Competence in the Global Business Arena: A Study of a Japanese Company in Tennessee.” I have
examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that
it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
with a major in Education.

Patricia Davis-Wiley, Major Professor

We have read this dissertation
and recommend its acceptance:

Detelin Elenkov______

Gary J. Skolits_______

Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon

Accepted for the Council:

Carolyn R. Hodges_______
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School

(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ARENA:
A STUDY OF A JAPANESE COMPANY IN TENNESSEE

A Dissertation
Presented for the
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Asami Segi
December 2008
Copyright © 2008 by Asami Segi. All rights reserved.

Copies of this document may be printed from this website for
Personal use without permission.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It would be impossible to list everyone who has inspired me throughout my dissertation
and stimulated my interest in linguistic and cultural competence in the global business arena, but
I would like to thank those people who have helped make my dissertation become a reality. I am
especially grateful to my committee chairperson, Dr. Patricia Davis-Wiley, for her
extraordinarily valuable and unfaltering support and guidance. My 17 years of experience in the
U.S. started indirectly with Dr. Davis-Wiley’s influence since my first ESL professor at
Tennessee Wesleyan College was one of her former students. Fortunately, this influence has
been a crucial source of encouragement in my teaching career and in my entire stay in the U.S.
Enthusiasm toward teaching world languages is one of the many things she has taught me. I
believe that my responsibility is to keep this enthusiasm in my teaching and also to hand it over
to the next generation. I feel extremely lucky to be in this educational lineage. My mission now
is to inspire and encourage my students in my classes as Dr. Davis-Wiley has done for me over
the years, and to love and nurture them as she has done with me. The loving part was expressed
in part through the gourmet food she cooked for me countless times. That food was what kept
me moving forward with my dissertation. I am very grateful that I had a chance to meet Dr.
Davis-Wiley and her husband, Steve, who have both given me a tremendous amount of love,
caring, encouragement and many fine meals over the years.
I feel very thankful toward all my committee members for sharing their expertise with
me. I thank Dr. Detelin Elenkov for inviting me into the academic business field; his views of
international business have opened up many doors of opportunity for me. I could not have
finished Chapters 3 and 4 without Dr. Gary Skolits’ support. I sincerely appreciate very much
his answering my thousands of statistical questions; he always made time for me. I was able to
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find many interesting points in my study because of his help. I am very grateful that Dr. Barbara
Thayer-Bacon never gave up on me and trusted in me all of these years of my long dissertation
process. Her cheer has been my inspiration just as that from my family, thousands of miles away.
Her passion and enthusiasm toward education have been part of my motivation to continue with
my research.
I would also wish to thank Ms. Kazumi Nimura who introduced me to this world of
Japanese language education. I would not be doing what I love to do, which is teaching Japanese,
if she did not teach and guide me into this field. I feel very fortunate to have had her as my very
first teacher; she has shared enormous amounts of knowledge and skills in teaching the Japanese
language. Here, I would also like to thank my friend and tutor, Mr. Jason Ezell. His education
and background in composition and ESL helped me tremendously in writing my dissertation.
His encouragement was always something that I greatly valued and which kept me going. I
would like to thank Ms. Cary Springer, Statistics Consultant at The University of Tennessee, for
helping me with all the statistical materials in this dissertation. All of the interesting findings
were found because of her continued support and valued expertise which are greatly appreciated.
I would like to thank Dr. Noriko Horiguchi for spending enormous amounts of time with me,
studying at cafés and bookstores. I truly admire her knowledge and friendship. I do not think I
could have completed this dissertation without her working beside me so many hours. I surely
could not have completed my surveys at Company A without the help of my friend, Hiroko Shoji
(another former student of Dr. Davis-Wiley). I truly admire her work ethic and her commitment
to her work, but more than anything, I value our friendship over the years.
At last, I would like to thank all my friends who supported me all these years, especially
my best friend, Ms. Rumi Kozawa. Her encouragement and abiding trust in me were both very
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dear to my heart. I truly treasure our long-term friendship and look forward to having many
more years of such to come. Special thanks go to my grandmother, Ai Igata, who passed away
during the process of my dissertation and never understood why I graduated from schools so
many times. I hope she is proud of me now. Also, very special thanks go to my mother, Hiroko
Segi, and my brother, Kenichi Segi, who have both given me their endless love, support and
encouragement from thousands of miles away. My deepest gratitude goes to them. No words
can explain how much I appreciate both my mother and brother. I feel very fortunate to have
them as my family and as my loudest and strongest cheerleaders.
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ABSTRACT

According to a survey by the State of Tennessee Department of Economic and
Community Development Division of Research and Planning, the number one country in terms
of investment in Tennessee is Japan, which currently has 160 companies in Tennessee that
employ 40,450 people (Tennessee Total Foreign Direct Investment and Employment by Country
Current Through April 2008, p.1).
Whereby there are a number of research studies examining the importance of Japanese
language competence in American companies, there is a paucity of research that addresses
Americans with Japanese language competency who work in Japanese companies located in the
U.S. This study therefore addressed this deficiency and sought to answer the following research
questions:
1. What are the current expectations of managers, in terms of the level of Japanese
competency, of their non-Japanese employees at Japanese companies located in
Tennessee?
2. In addition to Japanese language proficiency, what other elements and knowledge are
desired by Japanese companies for their future employees?
3. What is the rationale underlying the expectations of managers regarding employees’
language and cultural expectations?
A modified Delphi study approach (e.g., multiple rounds of data collection) was
conducted to: a) assess instrument reliability and validity, and b) ascertain the importance of
Japanese language competence in business careers, as viewed by a panel of American and
Japanese experts at the second largest Japanese company in the state of Tennessee.
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An exploratory factor analysis (with principal components extraction and varimax
rotation) was used to determine how well the individual questions on two rounds of a modified
Delphi survey grouped into five factors of interest which were Business Skills, Communication
Skills, Cultural Awareness, Language Skills and Language Opportunities.
Results derived from the analysis of the opinions of the 43 American experts indicated
that for them, Business and Culture Skills were the most important, followed by Basic
Communication and Advanced Communication Skills. Deemed as non-important skills were
Language skills and having the Opportunity to use Japanese at work. In contrast, the 18
Japanese experts indicated that for them, Business and Culture, in addition to Advanced
Communication Skills, were considered to be the most important; Language, Basic
Communication and Opportunity were the least important.

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