Job Discussion Forums

[Sherri]

Shmooj and all--I could write a book on this topic. I did a masters in organisational behaviour and at that time, in the mid 80s, everything Japanese was great. Now that I have been here for some time, I know that that isn't true.

I worked as a DOS for many years for a Japanese company that specialised in conference services so I saw many aspects of management that are not necessarily those of "just" a language school. I also worked for a similar company setting up a language school from scratch and was the only non-Japanese employee for almost a year. The main thing that struck me was the extreme lengths the way the structure of the company went to spread out responsibility. No one wants to be the one who decides (and therefore take responsibility) so they make sure that lots of people are in on decision-making so that later if there are any problems, no one can point the finger. I have seen enormous c ock-ups, and I mean big and expensive ones, that have gone completely unpunished even when everyone knows who made the mistake. The fault is jointly taken by everyone. All employees are protected to some degree but the top level management all cover for each other even if they personally hate each other or are rivals in the company.

It is all about being in the inner circle and being accepted, the so-called group mentality is just extended from school life to work life. I was once roundly yelled at by the president for the way I handled a work situation. I was upset afterwards but was told kindly by a senior executive that I should be happy because being yelled at like that meant I was now considered in the circle, that there was no more facade of behaviour towards me.

Another thing that strikes me is the way that people are rotated in the company without a care about what their speciality is. In my husband's company people with PhDs in the sciences are routinely transfered from the lab to work in marketing or sales for example. Why? No reason, they just want to mix people up every once in a while. Imagine the frustration and anger that causes, not to mention decline in motivation. In any case, why be motivated since your salary is not determined by your ability but by how old you are. So you get completely useless "managers" in their 40s or 50s who earn a fortune just because of their age.

Well that is enough for now. I am not saying this is true for all Japanese companies, and I can't even say if these things don't go on in western countries. It is just based on my own limited experience here in Tokyo.
S

[Vince]

This is a tough question. On one hand, we don't want the culturally insensitive Westerner label put on us; on the other hand, we don't want to be abused. Knowing where you stand between these polls usually isn't easy. Some people think it's best to suck up the abuse when in doubt; others insist on asking a lot of questions and getting someone's word.

My impression is that the bulk of everyday management, as opposed to management theory, is abusive. I don't know anybody who likes service overtime, and most of them hate their bosses. It's no coincidence that the majority of Japanese drama involves conflict in the workplace. Work is clearly expected to be a grind here (the intensity of the grind is often maintained simply for the sake of having that intensity), and it's up to the employees to choke it down. Most Westerners simply aren't going to fit in that kind of situation.

[cafebleu]

I agree with Vince`s viewpoint - as a foreigner working in Japan you have to find a balance.

Some foreigners suffer from the `suck it up and suck up` syndrome - their time in Japan makes them put up with some shocking or exploitative behaviour that they wouldn`t think twice about oppposing in their home countries. They even justify it themselves and try to become more Japanese than the Japanese.

Other foreigners undergo the same experiences but recognise the injustice of these experiences and are not willing to cheerfully explain them away as the `Japanese culture`. Yet how to deal with such bad situations is another thing altogether.

I have been lucky - I have been exploited to a point at an eikaiwa here but never in the way that made me feel helpless, depressed or really angry. The manager was incompetent, lazy and enjoyed having power over a foreigner. Yet it was not so bad because it was a small eikaiwa and you didn`t have what I call the Ijime Syndrome found in the culture here. That is, the person above you pushes you and so you do it to the person next in line below you and so forth down to the least senior. The Ijime Sndrome is part of bigger workplaces.

Regarding the general management culture of Japan - I have seen enough of the way things are done here to be able to make some general points. The Japanese can sometimes attack foreigners for being `lazy` because they don`t tend to put in unpaid overtime but my answer to them is: `But are all the Japanese who wait around until the boss or other management go home really working so hard?`

I will tell them that in my country, yes people leave the office earlier but they also tend to finish tasks more quickly and meetings are for getting things done. It is not stereotyping to say that meetings in Japan, whether at companies, schools, PTA, etc, usually if not always waste too much time. That is a big cultural difference between Japanese and western ways of doing things. Every work meeting I attended in home country got to the point, had agendas that were clearly defined, and did not allow management to waste time listening to the sound of their own voices.

On the other hand, the Japanese have made the pointless meeting into a feature of their culture. It won`t change until Japanese attitudes to authority change and I think that is unlikely. From the day they are born the Japanese are fed the notion that somebody is above them, even if it`s only a kid of two years old being above a one year old. I always told kids in my classes that there was no senior and no junior - it was an English environment and we treated them all equally. The Japanese workplace merely reinforces the dynamics of inferiority and superiority at work in Japanese society.

Let`s be realistic and say it will never change. Change has to come from within the Japanese people themselves and it is especially noticeable if you live here for some time just how afraid they are of change. They like things to be defined for them and if it means not taking responsibility for themselves but having authority figures and senpai to do it for them or tell them what to do, they feel safe.

Dependency is an important concept here - it explains any number of things from childish men who live at home and have everything done for them when they are in their 30s, to the way in which the Japanese make any number of situations so hard and uncomfortable because to change would mean questioning some authority figure. Even if the matter is a small one that could easily be changed and would be a more comfortable alternative, 99 percent of the time this change won`t be made.

As I see it (and any number of sociologists see it), the Japanese are comfortable with ignorance. This explains why, on a different topic than management and other working practices, I and other foreigners have heard some downright pathetic criticisms made of foreign countries when Japanese people visit them. Those Japanese discovered some big advantages in foreign countries but could not accept the fact - they feel threatened by the notion that not everything good is in Japan. Call it brainwashing or whatever - it runs very deep here and resists any change whether in the workplace, government, schools or anywhere else.

[Glenski]

[shmooj]

Hmmmm. I've heard some interesting comments here and one feeling is that there needs to be change in Japan but, "disappointingly" this will never come. THis is not only from this thread but is a widely held viewpoint that I've heard.

So, why should they change and not us?

[ruggedtoast]

Everyone has different experiences. If you work at a language school then the Japanese staffs job there is to make as many sales as possible.

Things like refusing to teach a class at short notice because you dont feel that you have time to prepare for it as well as you might like would be perceived as pretty unhelpful and wont win you many favours in the future.

As an ESL teacher your path through life with your company is going to be a lot easier than your Japanese co workers - less is expected of you and the terms of your employment are fairly clear.

You do have to put up with some unreasonable stuff from time to time, but the fact that you have is usually noted and its unusual for it to go unrewarded later.

I agree about some small eikaiwas though, I worked at one before and my boss was a nice guy but he was on a different planet!