Quote:
Originally Posted by willx
As for "sticking out" .. it's incredibly important here. You don't stick out (at least in positive ways) and you don't get promoted and you don't make the six figure salary. It's the only way you get ahead. I speak my mind to my boss and if something is dumb or pointless? I say so. If I notice something I feel is important? I say so. I have been told outright personality is important. Have a view. Be able to back the view up, but have a view and don't vacillate. It's the only way to climb the socio-economic ladder..
I'm used to working crazy hours and don't mind that .. but I don't deal well with not speaking my mind -- I'd probably get fired working in most companies in Japan eh, Sumeragi?  |
I think you misunderstand the thrust of Japanese corporate culture, and why it has been so successful in the past. Japanese companies are not against people speaking their minds (though you do get issues surrounding "face"), after all that's what they're employed to do, they're not employed to be mindless yesmen.
However, they are against ideas of personal aggrandisement. It's not about
your greatness. It's about company, and your team's greatness. They want to see you to work first and foremost for the benefit of the company as a whole. The motivation is to see the company (and also your team) be the best it can be, to give the best service it can to it's customers.
In return for your hard work and loyalty, the company will repay you for your hard work and initiative with a good salary and job security.
You are the most important resource of the company, and are just as much a part of it as your foreman, or even the CEO. You are not a part to be thrown away as needed.
If the company culture is focused on individual advancement, on not the advancement of the company as a whole, you very easily get the situation where employees have no real loyalty to the company in question, and will do everything they can to improve their position, even if that is to the detriment of the company or their fellow employees.
Japanese companies frown on people going out of their way to stick out because they see it as hot air, and also that it damages the cohesiveness of the group as a whole. It's about substance over style. Japanese employees speak through the quality of their products and services they help deliver, not their own personal style and panache. I think it's about being effective, even if it means you're a little boring.
Their are downsides to this approach, it can result in group-think and other problematic behaviours. I think the flipside of what you're talking about results in some of the excesses you see on wallstreet, with employees primarily motivated towards ever higher personal salaries and bonuses, rather then stepping back and thinking about your organisation as a whole.