Many Europeans or Americans will scrimp and save in order to afford flashy cars and nice clothes. In the West we say that clothes make the man. In Asia, the outward appearance of a person can indicate education, status and class. However, we find another application of this concept in Indonesian business. Situations arise where maintaining the appearance that all is well in a business setting takes precedence over solving a problem.
Javanese culture separates the inner and outer beings of a person.
While the inner, private self may hold a certain opinion or emotion, the outer self is expected to conform to the customs and norms of the group. This often leads to situations where you do not know what a person is really thinking. This problem is faced by Indonesian and foreign managers alike. Maintaining the harmony of the office by giving the outward appearance that there is nothing wrong is a fairly common situation in traditional Indonesian offices. Bad news may not be communicated to the boss and situations that seem insurmountable to an employee may simply be ignored.