Japanese Style in Decision-making

Japanese Style in Decision-making

Yoshio Terasawa

To talk about problem-solving or decision-making within a national environment means examining many complex cultural forces. It means trying to measure the impact of these forces on contemporary life, and also coming to grips with changes now taking place.

It also means using dangerous comparisons － and the need to translate certain fundamental concepts which resist translation and comparisons.

For example, the concept of vocational or professional identity differs markedly between the United States and Japan.

In the west, the emphasis is on what a man, or woman does for a living. Here in the U.S., if you ask children what their father do, they will say “My daddy drives a truck” or “My daddy is a stock broker” or “My daddy is an engineer.”

But in Japan, the child will tell you “My daddy works for Mitsubishi” or “My daddy works for Nomura Securities” or for “Hitachi.” But you will have no idea whether the father is president of Hitachi or a chauffeur at Hitachi.

In Japan, the most important thing is what organization you work for. This becomes very significant when you try to analyze the direction-taking or

decision-making process. At the least, it explains the greater job stability in Japan, in contrast to the great job mobility in America.

While we differ in many ways, such differences are neither superior nor inferior to each other. A particular pattern of management behavior develops from a complexity of unique cultural factors －and will only work within a given culture.

Let me try to describe three or four characteristics of Japanese environment that in some way affect decision-making or direction-taking and problem-solving. These characteristics are interrelated.

First, in any approach to a problem and in any negotiations in Japan, there is the “you to you” approach, as distinguished from the Western “I to you” approach.

The difference is this: in “I to you,” both sides present their arguments forthrightly from their own point of view －they state what they want and what they expect to get. Thus, a confrontation situation is set up, and Westerners are very adroit in dealing with this.

The “you to you” approach practiced in Japan is based on each side －automatically and often unconsciously －trying to understand the other person’s point of view, and for the purpose of all the discussion actually declaring this understanding. Thus, the direction of the meeting is a mutual attempt at minimizing confrontation and achieving harmony.

A second characteristic is based on “consensus opinion” and “bottom-up direction.” In Japan great consideration is given to and reliance placed on the thoughts and opinions of everyone at all levels. This is true of corporate enterprises and government agencies.

To understand this, it is important to realize that Japan is a very densely populated homogeneous country. Moreover, the people are aware and are articulate. Literacy is almost 100 per cent. Problems are shared. In Japan there is a drive for the group － whether it is family, company, or Government － to act as a unit.

Tremendous weight is given to the achievement of solidarity and unanimity. Unilateral decision-making or direction-taking is generally avoided, or where it does occur for very practical urgent reasons, it usually happens along with a sounding out of all concerned.

This brings us to the second part of this characteristic. When I use the term “bottom-up,” I am referring to a style of management － perhaps what you would call keeping your finger on the pulse of the public, or the labor force, or other audiences.

The difference is that in Japan we record the pulse and it has real meaning, and it influences the direction finally taken at the top regarding a specific important issue. In other words, Western style decision-making proceeds predominantly from top management and often does not consult middle management or the

worker while in Japan, direction can be formulated at the lowest levels, travel upward through an organization and have an impact on the eventual decision. This is “bottom up.”

There is also a characteristic style of communications in Japan that is different from the Western way.

The Japanese business person works to achieve harmony, even if the deal falls through, and will spend whatever time is necessary to determine a “ you to you “ approach, communicating personal views only indirectly and with great sensitivity.

This places time in a different perspective. In Japan the Western deadline approach is secondary to a thorough job. Japanese are thorough in their meetings as well as in their production. Thus Americans are often exasperated by the seemingly endless sequences of meetings in many Japanese businesses.

But where the Americans is pressing for a specific decision, the Japanese is trying to formulate a rather broad direction.

On the other hand, once agreement is established, it is the Japanese who sometimes wonder at the leisurely pace of execution of Westerners. The Japanese are eager for execution and Westerners, perhaps, like to take the time for in-depth planning.

Now, while Japan’s industry and technology are highly developed, they have not replaced the fundamental force of human energy and motivation. By that I mean that the Japanese take great pride in doing a job well and getting it done no matter how much time is required.

There is a dedication and sense of responsibility which have not been replaced by the machine age. Perhaps we are not so sophisticated yet.

In my field －finance and securities －I am often asked by Westerners how Nomura Securities has managed to escape the paper logjam that American brokerage firm have faced. We, too, have had that problem.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange often has a turnover of between 200 and 300 million shares a day. This volume is many times more than of the New York Stock Exchange. How can we possibly handle this load?

First, we have very advanced computerization. Second, and most important, the personnel responsible for processing all these transactions stay and stay till all hours until the job is done. And their families understand that this is something that they must do, for the survival and progress of the company and for their own mutual security as well.

Perhaps in 20 years －or sooner－they will be more Westernized and insist on going home at five o’clock. But today, still, most insist on staying until the job is done. There is concern for quality.

This willingness to pitch in is an important aspect of Japanese problem-solving, and you find it at every level.

Some years ago, the Matsushita company was having a very bed time. Among the many measures taken, Mr. Matsushita, the founder and then chairman, became the manager of the sales department.

Also, when we at Nomura converted to computers about five years ago, the new system eliminated the jobs of 700 bookkeepers and accountants who were using abacuses. We got rid of the abacuses but we did not get rid of the people. We converted our bookkeepers and accountants to securities sales people and some of these today are our leading sales people.

Where there is willingness and intelligence, there is a place within the company to try and to succeed. In Japan, a person’s capabilities are not forced into an inflexible specialty. And we feel the company owes a worker something for loyalty and commitment.

II. Vocabulary

A. Choose the word that best keeps the meaning of the sentence if it is substituted for the underlined word.

1. One of the effective measures to minimize the dangers of driving is to teach people to obey all the rules of the road.

A. stabilize B. reduce C. publicize D. finalize

2. At American airports, the threat of terrorist activities has led to elaborate security

procedures

and

increasingly

sophisticated

baggage-inspection

equipment to protect passenger safety.

A. essential B. secure C. voluntary D. complicated

3. A cross-cultural perspective allows anthropologists to step back and view human cultural and biological development with relative detachment.

A. situation B. attitude C. position D. outlook

4. Animals reproduce at markedly different rates, but all have the potential to increase their numbers if resources allow it.

A. noticeably B. moderately C. reasonably D. regularly

5. Americans are often exasperated by the seemingly endless sequences of meetings in many Japanese businesses.

A. puzzled B, warned C. irritated D. cautioned

6. Because of the wide diversity in human beings, instructional settings, and fields of study, no general theory has been formulated that is applicable to all educational psychology.

A. motivated B. developed C. suggested D. forwarded

7. A subsidy plan has been worked out to pay farmers for converting part of their cropland to soil-conserving uses.

A. changing B. replacing C. locating D. forming

8. He is handsome, confident and articulate, like many of the students at this college.

A. expressive B. diligent C. energetic D. ambitious

9. Emperors strove for religious unanimity, in part to cultivate favor from church officials, but also because they believed that the survival and welfare of the empire depended on divine favor.

A. satisfaction B. stability C. devotion D. agreement

10. During the 1990s Greenpeace was troubled by internal disagreement. Some members want to persist with a militant approach, emphasizing civil disobedience and physical confrontation. A. conflict B. offense C. debate D. terror

B. Fill in each blank with a suitable word from each group given below. Change the form where necessary.

Group I: agency analyze consensus consult distinguish harmony logjam measure resist turnover

1. A rough has been reached on the total cost of World War II. In terms of money spent, it has been put at more than $1 trillion.

2. In the 18th century in the West, a more sophisticated public began to between art that was purely aesthetic and art that was also practical.

3. Britain’s main channels for spreading the English language are the British Broadcasting Corporation and a quasi-governmental , the British Council.

4. Confucius taught that each human being must cultivate such personal virtues as honesty and love, which would bring to the family, society, and state.

5. Individuals over the age of 40 should first a physician for recommendations about the best exercise program to adopt.

6. The largest stock exchange in Brazil is that of Sao Paulo, with an average daily of $380 million, more than double that of Rio de Janeiro.

7. In the early days of broadcasting and out door advertising, the advertising industry lacked a reliable of the audience of these media.

8. In the late 19th century, coeducation was strongly at the college level, the opposition coming mainly from the beliefs of a society unsure of the emerging role of women.

Group II: articulate aware densely eventually homogeneous inferior leisurely predominantly superior unilateral

1. The Biological Weapons Convention was established three years after a decision in 1969 by the United States to eliminate its own biological arsenal.

2. Surfing involves moving from one document to another by using the links in the documents, typically in a fashion without a specific goal in mind.

3. The most settled area of the continent are those along the northern and western coasts.

4. Preadolescent groups are , that is, members are usually of the same sex and come from the same neighborhood.

5. The African population remains rural, with only about a third of the population living in towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants.

6. Members of a society who share culture often also share some feelings of

ethnocentrism, the notion that one’s culture is more sensible than or to that of other societies.

7. The campers should be of local fishing regulations and be familiar with wild plants and their fruits, as many of them can cause illness.

8. Curiosity of ancient peoples concerning day and night and the sun, and stars led to the observation that the heavenly bodies appear to move in a regular manner.

C. Complete each of the following sentences with the correct form of the word given at the end of the sentence.

1. Attempts were first made in the 1930s to coordinate international trade policy. At first countries negotiated treaties. (lateral)

2. By preying on each other, animals also help keep their own numbers in check. This prevents abrupt population peaks and helps give living systems a built-in . (stable) 3. Engineers usually require a basic knowledge of the other engineering fields, because most engineering problems are complex and . (relate)

4. The living conditions of child labor are usually crude and their chances for education . The meager income they bring in, however, is necessary for the survival of their families. (minimize)

5. While primary school enrollment for girls now roughly equals that of boys,

women constitute about two-thirds of the world’s on billion adults. (literate)

6. Mind, the mental activities and memory of a person, includes both conscious thoughts and

Activity such as dreaming. (conscious)

7. Although the Japanese language allows a variety of word orders, the position of the verb is

: It must appear at the end of the sentence. (flexible)

8. In Qing Dynasty, commanders relied on their own social networks to recruit soldiers, so that bonds of personal would be formed within the army. (loyal)

Passage One

Researchers in the field of psychology have found that one of the best ways to make an important decision, such as choosing a university to attend or a business to invest in, involves the utilization of a decision worksheet. Psychologist who study optimization compare the actual decisions made by people to theoretical ideal decisions to see how similar they are. Proponents of the worksheet procedure believe that it will yield optimal, that is, the best decisions. Although

there are several variations on the exact format that worksheets can take, they are all similar in their essential aspects. Worksheets require defining the problem in a clear and concise way and then listing all possible solutions to the problem. Next, the pertinent considerations that will be affected by each decision are listed, and the relative importance of each consideration or consequence is determined. Each consideration is assigned a numerical value to reflect its relative importance. A decision is mathematically calculated by adding these values together. The alternative with the highest number of points emerges as the best decision.

Since most important problems are multifaceted, there are several alternatives to choose from, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. One of the benefits of a pencil and paper decision-making procedure is that it permits people to deal with more variables than their minds can generally comprehend and remember. On the average, people can keep about seven ideas in their minds at once. A worksheet can be especially useful when the decision involves a large number of variables with complex relationships. A realistic example for many college students is the question “what will I do after graduation?” A graduate might seek a position that offers specialized training, pursue an advanced degree, or travel abroad for a year.

A decision-making worksheet begins with a succinct statement of the problem that will also help to narrow it. It is important to be clear about the distinction between long-range and immediate goals because long-range goals often involve a different decision than short-range ones. Focusing on long-range goals, a graduating student might revise the question above to “What will I do after

graduation that will lead to successful career?”

Passage Two

In general, our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic management in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and “human-relations” experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.

The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a job; they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings.

Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the tight mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again

and again — by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, for who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one’s fellow competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness.

Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production or to nineteenth-century “free enterprise” capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities — those of love and of reason — are the aims of all social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.