Individualism In The Workplace

Kimiko Manes looks at the differences in office/customer service behavior in the latest U.S. Culture-Lesson from the Classroom column in The Daily Yomiuri:

In the United States, the whole society is founded on the premise that individuals are given rights and responsibilities (although sometimes I think the "responsibilities" part has fallen by the wayside these days). If some work is given to an individual, he or she is responsible for completing it, and that responsibility must be respected: meddling with their work is a professional violation. Therefore, even if you work with someone in the same office, unless you are specifically asked for help, or directed by a supervisor to help, that individual is solely responsible for that work.

Of course, if there is a mistake, it is that individual's responsibility, and if the errors are too numerous or grave, one can get fired. Not helping coworkers, then, can be an act of respect for their work, and it is also a way to deflect responsibility in case their work turns out to be shoddy. This is the line between oneself and someone else's responsibility; anything that is out of an individual's jurisdiction, then, becomes "none of my business." This seems to be how an individualistic society works.

However, if you are given a task or agree to do a specific job, you are free to finish your work however you see fit. For example, a businessperson might be given a limit, say, "up to 1 million dollars" to complete a deal. If it is within that area, that person has the power to make decisions. How favorable the negotiated deal is might help that businessperson's career, but unlike Japan, he or she will not have to talk with the main office or "honsha."

I agree that this happens to an extent, but I think that if something needs to be taken care of-it often is. Whereas their Japnese counterparts are paralyzed if something is out of order-there are no exceptions and rules must be followed to the letter:

On the other hand, according to one American who resided in Japan for a long time, "When a foreigner goes to city hall or a bank in Japan, workers at the windows are extremely polite but they have to consult with other coworkers or supervisors before they can process the paperwork or transaction. Because the individual isn't given any sort of responsibility, they have to consult each other to make decisions."

He's absolutely correct. Unless it pertains to something very specific, individuals cannot make decisions easily in the Japanese workplace. Work tends to be done by groups in Japan, and everyone can do each other's work. To facilitate this, routines are set up. To oblige the foreigner who visits the city office, city workers might have to ask their coworkers and their supervisors if the routine set up for Japanese people will be appropriate for the foreigner.

Unlike the United States, most people in an office can help that person, but the placement of responsibility is unclear. Therefore, the Japanese tend not to favor changing routines, and sometimes even think that the routines cannot be changed.

People unconsciously form a paradigm to view the world around them, and they tend to prefer the system with which they are most familiar. It has taken me a long time to understand American society, and I think that there are many Japanese in the United States who never seem to understand how things "work." Similarly, I assume that some foreigners in Japan also take time to understand and accept how things are carried out in Japan.

Beauracracy here is in a class by itself. I need to get a $5 money order fro my correspondance course. I had to fill out a form in triplicate and had to write my address three times, the address of the receiver twice and disclose what it was for whcih I wrote "school fees" in English since I didn't have my Japanse dictionary with me. They called me no less than three times to find out what the $5 was for-WTF?

Another time I needed to renew my VISA two week before returning to the U.S. when it would expire while I was gone, and I told the clerk Ihad a special case and neede to get this done quickly-he claimed that had had no power and that it was up to the main branch in Otemachi. I got it but with no help from the clerk, I find people reluctant to take responsibililty for promises here in order to save their butts in many cases.

I guess I've accepted the Japanese system-it's not goingto change anytime soon, and I realize neither is perfect.

Comments

[Arie]

This is interesting, because Yuki is having similar frustrations in the US. I've tried to convince her that if she thinks she is getting unclear advice, she needs to double check with others in the office. Most recently she has been applying to a UW program in Korea and a counselor assumed she is an international student even after Yuki informed her she was a Washington resident. (She should have said "US citizen" since she is one now.) This has resulted in repeat trips to the office and a two week delay.

Now I know that incompetence is just as common in Japan, but in the group scenarios Kimiko describes Yuki would have been better served. She is having a hard time learning to challenge counsellors, teachers, clerks, etc. Another example: She was told at the post office that she couldn't pick up our neigbhor's mail, even though the proper arrangements had been made and she had her ID ready. On a return trip another clerk handed over the mail without even checking her ID. Go figure...

BTW, normally I find Kimiko to over generalize and some of her insights lack scrutiny, but here I feel she has a point.

[MC]

I agree that she is more accurate with this column than some of her past discusssions, but I think she lets the Japanese off easy here.
Here's another example of ineffeiciency that I often run into: if you make a mistake on paperwork you often have to start the process over instead of crossing it out, which I think is a huge waste of time-another example of not being able to work outside the "process."

[Edward]

When I went to England I felt that the English were more system orientated than Australians. By way of example, the relatively simple task of receiving and checking Jeleesan's nursing qualifications and experience took about 11 months because the system kept breaking down. Records were never filed, forms never sent, and there was never a single person who was able to take charge and fix the problems. You couldn't even talk to a manager. If the system had been good then I suspect the whole prcoess would have seemed painless, but the system was bad, and nobody seemed capable of working around it - much like Japan I expect (at least their systems are generally well made). I imagined that beaurocracy could not get any worse than this, but Bill Bryson (the ex-pat American writer) said that after he went back to America he found that the American beaurocracy was worse than in England. I think the moral is that beaurocracy sucks the whole world over, and seems to bring out the worse in each county's collective personality.