The Japan-America Student Conference (JASC) is held every summer in Japan and the U.S. alternately. The conference facilitates research and discussion between the participants, approximately 60 college students, who travel together to three conference sites throughout its monthlong duration. In the year preceding the conference, the Executive Committee (EC) of JASC decides the theme, chooses applicants, raises funds from corporate donors, and organizes the logistics. Furthermore, the EC is comprised entirely of students who participated in the previous year's conference.
In recent years, e-mail has become the primary medium for communication between the US and Japanese members of the EC. Between September 1997 and July 1998, the author became a "silent observer" of the EC and collected e-mail from the discussion between all the EC members, as well as e-mail among the American members (AEC, American Executive Committee) and the Japanese members (JEC, Japanese Executive Committee). From the end of the previous year's conference until the beginning of the next conference, these two halves of the EC did not convene a face-to-face meeting of all members except for one video teleconference.
In her master's thesis, the author first focused on two major disagreements that occurred between the AEC and JEC, tracing each conflict from its origins to its resolution using excerpts from the actual e-mail. Secondly, the results of a questionnaire revealed qualitative differences between the AEC and JEC in their usage of e-mail for collaboration and discussion. Furthermore, the JEC members were perceived by the AEC as more "direct" via e-mail than face-to-face, although the JEC did not evaluate themselves as such. Finally, group interviews with the EC members indicated that JEC were more direct when writing e-mail in English than Japanese, which contributed to the friction during the conflicts. The interviewees also stressed the importance of face-to-face meetings for group cohesion.
In her analysis, the author noted various intercultural factors as well as the structure of communication channels between the two groups. For example, the role distribution in the JEC reflected the high level of interpersonal involvement and overlapping responsibilities in a typical Japanese-style organization, and therefore the JEC preferred meetings and telephone for matters which required (in their view) consensus. By contrast, the AEC role distribution was clearly delimited and decentralized, allowing the members to fulfill their duties independently, with a handful of key decisions decided through either consensus or majority vote. Thus, the JEC relied heavily on face-to-face meetings to develop their responses, while the AEC chair took on a spokesperson role (seeking opinions from other AEC members via e-mail and sending a summary of their discussion the JEC). In this manner the EC became polarized in their positions and reinforced their respective group identities, rather than taking advantage of the group forum (mailing list) available for open EC discussion.
1) Background
Both Japan and the US have seen dramatic increases in Internet network infrastructure and number of users. In particular, e-mail has become indispensable in business and personal life.
Some scholars assert that new communication patterns are being formed on computer networks regardless of cultural background, but the author shows evidence that at least at the level of internet "manners" (also known as "netiquette") there are significant differences between Japanese-only and English-only networks.
2) Case Study
This research project explores, at a deeper level, evidence of how cultural values can influence network communication between users of different cultural backgrounds within the collaborative setting of the "virtual team."
¥ The author observed e-mails for one year among the 16 members of the Executive Committee (EC) of the Japan-America Student Conference (JASC).
(note: AEC=American Executive Committee, JEC= Japanese Executive Committee)
¥ At the end of the year before the Conference was held, the author contacted all EC members via e-mail and requested completion of a preliminary survey about their e-mail usage.
¥ During the conference, the author conducted a face-to-face interview of the EC .
1) Intercultural communication theories
¥ Edward Hall, fundamental concepts from Beyond Culture(1976)
¥ Kichiro Hayashi, building on Hall's concepts, Digital/Analog perception and O/M organizations
2) Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) research
¥ Joseph Walther: 3 characteristics of CMC(1996); UK-US student e-mail collaboration case study(1997)
¥ Wakabayashi (1993): Japanese corporations and computer network communication
¥ Ringo Ma (1996): Asian and North American college students via network chat
¥ Other (1997: Bordia, Kettinger)
1) E-mail Discourse
¥ method of collection
¥ Evidence of Japanese and American EC organizational differences (O/M types)
¥ Focus: Two examples of AEC-JEC conflicts
a) AEC objection to Japanese translation of 50th JASC theme (inserted "world")
b) JEC suggestion to replace optional Mexico trip with special event to help participants grasp the "flow" of JASC and US-Japan relations
¥ e-mail usage vs. other communciation methods
¥ common uses of e-mail within AEC and JEC
¥ comparison of e-mail and face-to-face: directness
3) Interview results
1) Discourse analysis - how intercultural and CMC factors contributed to the polarization between AEC and JEC during disagreements.
2) Discussion on survey and interview results
Directness and indirectness on e-mail: cultural perception gap?
In light of the findings from survey and interview, some examples from case study are examined.