“Peer pressure is much more powerful than a concept of a boss. Many, many times more powerful.”
Jim Buckley, long-time employee of GORE
Just as Japanese parents punish their children in ways unimaginable to Westerners, so it goes in the Japanese workplace.
In the previous post we looked at how values affect the way we punish our children. Remember the image of young Kurumi pounding on the door to get back in the house while her mother ignored her cries? She just wanted to belong. (Meanwhile naughty Tim was stuck at home, grounded and lonely.)
Today we’ll look at corporate Japan’s version of “locking-out the naughty child”. But to put things in perspective, let’s first consider what Japanese businessmen find strange in the U.S. workplace.
Things that Freak Out Japanese Expatriates in the U.S. Workplace
Here’s a piece of information that might surprise you: Japanese expatriates assigned to U.S. subsidiaries are overwhelmed when they learn about all the policies, rules and regulations they have to follow to stay out of trouble.
It helps to know that Japan is largely a homogenous society–about 98% of the population is Japanese. Since Japan doesn’t have near the level of diversity as the U.S., it means Japanese companies have no EEOC to deal with, no overt discrimination, etc. (Covert discrimination is another story–a topic for another day.) No surprise that HR systems in the Japanese workplace are much simpler than in America–and for good reason.
Sure wish Japanese culture were so simple.
From a World Without Individual Job Descriptions…
To the chagrin of many American HR professionals, Japanese expats come to the American workplace with no individual job descriptions, which means it’s never clear what the Japanese employee’s specific job responsibilities are. (They don’t have job descriptions in Japan either.) No surprise then that individual responsibilities are fuzzy at best on a Japanese team. Just imagine the sheer inefficiency caused by duplicated efforts.
And here’s the rub: the whole teamwork concept in Japanese companies is predicated on the assumption that each employee will take initiative, because not only does the Japanese employee not have a job description, the Japanese boss provides neither explicit instructions nor meaningful feedback.
So as an employee you’re expected to figure out for yourself what to do. The most successful employees in Japan’s best companies take initiative and “think for themselves”. And while pride and commitment to quality are great motivators in Japanese culture, individual performance is driven, at least in part, by an underlying fear of performing below expectation.
So what’s a feedback-starved, self-motivated employee to do? Ere on the side of caution of course: Assume your efforts are never quite good enough; keep going the extra yard, just in case. Successful employees in Japanese companies battle this implicit fear of “not being good enough” by taking initiative with the intent of exceeding expectations. It keeps many Japanese employees scrambling their entire careers.
Fear of This, Fear of That
As strict as Japanese society can be at times it’s a bit ironic that Japanese factory managers are so shocked at America’s punitive approach to dealing with factory employees’ mistakes. A good example is the write-up system common in American factories, a technique usually tied to a “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” kind of policy. (Sometimes you get more strikes, sometimes less, but the sword always looms near the poor production operator’s neck.)
It might surprise you to know that Japanese believe these kinds of punitive systems are insane, because it encourages employees to hide mistakes, a condition that makes it impossible to improve. In the Japanese mind, such a punitive approach creates conditions counter to continuous improvement, a core management philosophy embraced by Japan’s elite companies.
Don’t misconstrue this to mean that Japanese employees don’t feel fear in the workplace. They feel it all right. But it’s not fear of losing their jobs. They feel the fear of that little girl pounding on the door to get back into the house: fear of rejection.
This is why Japanese companies don’t need all those fancy schmancy HR rules to get employees to toe the line, although my sources tell me the younger generation in Japan isn’t toeing the line so well these days. (It’s the same old tune folks were singing thirty years ago. 
).
But when it comes to regulating employee behavior, American style three-strike policies can’t hold a candle to the power of Japanese-style ostracism.
The Power of Peer Pressure
The Japanese don’t have a monopoly on ostracism, of course. Anyone who has ever played team sports has seen or felt it. No one on the team wants to be the guy doggin’ it. Fear of letting down teammates keeps most team members motivated enough to contribute. And yet there’s always the bench-warmer, that guy sitting alone, quietly pulling out the splinters…
Some American companies also use the “peer-pressure-team concept” to regulate employee behavior. Some Japanese automakers have employed it with great success in their U.S. subsidiaries. Even Gore (maker of Gore-Tex™) organizes its employees into small teams for this reason. Gore’s leaders say that peer pressure is a much more powerful motivator than any punishment a middle manager could ever mete out. Guided by this organizational philosophy, the Gore organization functions effectively and efficiently with a minimal headcount of middle managers.
Peer pressure notwithstanding, it takes some major-league screw-ups and seriously disruptive behavior–not to mention a total lack of effort–before Japanese will give up on a teammate. The good news is that Japanese managers will move heaven and earth to salvage a non-performing subordinate–even move the subordinate into lateral positions to match his or her talents to the needs of the organization.
The bad news is that once the Japanese finally give up, the errant teammate soon finds himself with a newspaper–compliments of the team–and a seat near the window. Whether he realizes it or not, he is now officially at the end of the bench, a member of the infamous madogiwa-zoku or “window tribe”. This is the Japanese non-verbal way of saying, “we’ve given up on you, you’re useless, stay out of our way.”
Madogiwa-zoku in the U.S. Workplace?
Imagine employing the “window-tribe” tactic with an American. He’d likely misconstrue the gesture and think he’d gotten a promotion. (Welcome to the Intercultural Twilight Zone. 
)
If you think about the madogiwa-zoku phenomenon it’s really just the corporate version of Kurumi being locked out of her house. The glaring difference is that the party being punished is no longer dealing with an indulgent mom. Once you get that window seat in the workplace, the door is locked forever. Your only choices then are to live near the window in shame (or blissfully ignorant if you’re a happy idiot), leave the organization on your own accord, or jump out the window.
Indeed Japanese teammates can be a tough crowd to please. As cultures go, Japan is the mother of all pressure cookers, as it forces conformity based on the uncompromising assumption that each individual will sacrifice personal desires for the greater good. The “payoff” is acceptance by the group.
Most Americans would not consider acceptance in a group with such strict demands and commitments a “good deal”. That’s because belonging isn’t a big motivator for Americans–although there certainly are subcultures in America that yearn to belong somewhere, anywhere. But it’s safe to say that for most Americans, the value on belonging ranks well below individualism, freedom and the pursuit of individual happiness.
Most of the Japanese folks that I know–certainly the over-fifty generation–never considered the notion that they had a right to be happy. They were too busy fulfilling commitments, maintaining harmony, and trying to please the right people so they could survive. In their world the closest thing to happiness was toeing the line so they could continue to enjoy acceptance and approval by family, neighbors and coworkers.
Life in a Pressure-Cooker
No doubt peer pressure controls a lot of problems in society, or at least sweeps them under the rug. But Japanese-style peer pressure is wrought with painful ambiguity that few Americans are comfortable dealing with. You never really know where you stand with the Japanese, so you’re stuck guessing.
But when you step into the Intercultural Twilight Zone you can at least see how exquisitely simple American culture is. We don’t pussyfoot around. Just tell us what you want and we’ll do it. In return we’ll tell you what we think, and if it means decisively firing someone who doesn’t pull his load then so be it. The non-performer in America will be hard-pressed to find someone willing to put in the time and effort to “salvage” him. The truth is the American misfit has a better shot at redemption in a Japanese company.
My guess is that the days of the madogiwa-zoku “window tribe” are numbered in Japan. After all, who can afford the luxury now? But I don’t see ostracism going away anytime soon; it’s just too ingrained in Japan’s collectivist culture . As long as Japanese people continue to value belonging, ostracism will rear its ugly head at home, at school and in the workplace.
For what it’s worth, after living and working with the Japanese for over thirty years here’s my totally biased conclusion: it is really tough to be Japanese. This awareness of the pressure-cooker nature of Japanese society–the burden on Japanese people to conform and selflessly please everyone but themselves–inspires tremendous respect and compassion for my Japanese friends, family and clients. And it makes me appreciate even more, my good fortune to live in an open, free society.
Copyright © Tim Sullivan 2009
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