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always been Japanese who would leave a job and go somewhere else, but the professional move was always downward to a smaller and less prestigious firm. This is just beginning to change. A recent news release announced that a senior official from Toyota had been hired for a leading position in another major Japanese firm. The fact that this move made the headlines indicates how rare such changes are even today. However, mobility is on the rise. Increasingly, Japanese executives insist that Japanese firms need to promote on the basis of merit and encourage young talents if Japan is to be a viable competitive player in the future. Joint ventures with foreign firms and foreign buyouts also have contributed to employee turnover. When DaimlerChrysler bought a controlling share in Mitsubishi Motors, many Japanese workers were laid off.
Since one can assume in the Japanese context that people will be with the firm for a long time, it is worth training them in a wide variety of jobs. For example, several Japanese firms regularly send employees to the Thunderbird School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona. During their ...
... studies, the Japanese employees remain on the payroll of their firms and the firms pay the tuition. These firms have decided that the investment will pay many returns. The firms are not interested primarily in their employees getting a degree, although that is expected. They are willing to support the employees because they hope that the employees will learn how Americans think and are motivated. In addition, they hope that their employees will build relationships with people who will be in leading positions in the United States in the years to come. This kind of investment makes sense only if an employee will remain with the firm.
If employees will stay in the firm for the duration of their careers, it also makes sense to involve them in making decisions and sharing information. After all, they have a stake in the firm. The adversarial labor-management process in American firms is replaced with a more cooperative approach. The feeling is that we are in this together; we must work problems out, and we must cooperate for the benefit of all sides. As we discussed earlier in this book, the building of group cohesiveness frequently occurs after hours in bars. Japanese managers have been known to receive lavish expense accounts to entertain colleagues and partners. Even here changes are occurring. For example, Japan's biggest brokerage, Nomura Securities and Mitsui Company, halved its entertainment budget between 1992 and 1999. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, formed by a merger, spends less on entertainment now than either of the two banks did as separate businesses.
Although job mobility in Japan has increased, much of the old sentiment remains. The Japanese example of a business organization that is based on group belonging illustrates the connection of culture, organizational structures, and communication. Seniority matters in promotions, and therefore more people tend to reach positions with fairly high titles in the firm. Titles matter; they give face. The differentiation of people is apparent in the job duties rather than the job titles. As a result of cultural influences on promotions, the organizational chart tends to be broader at the top than it is in many American firms. Communication emphasizes the well-being of the firm and harmony between employees rather than individual achievement. Because of these long-cherished values, layoffs during the last few years have hit Japanese employees particularly hard. They believed in the company as their family; they were willing to work long hours in return for security. That dream has been shattered for many. It remains to be seen what the long-term effect will be on employee loyalty and dedication to the corporation.
Japanese firms going into low-context cultures initially were confused by the adversarial approach of employees and the separation of work time and private or family time. U. S. employees, and Europeans too for that matter, were not willing to sacrifice their evenings and weekends for the betterment of the firm. In Japan, in contrast, employees are expected to spend time with co-workers after business hours. Typically, Japanese expatriates take this practice with them. At a Japanese subsidiary in the Midwest in the United States, for example, the Japanese employees tend to stay at the office long after the American employees have left for the evening.