In this week's Cultural Conundrums in The Daily Yomiuri Kate Elwood looks at the Japanese concept of leadership vesus the American concept of leadership:
A few years ago, I was in charge of a seminar for non-Japanese employees at a major Japanese electronics manufacturer. Because the trainees were already in the thick of it in terms of dealing with cultural difference, they had lots of questions and seemed relieved to find that their non-Japanese colleagues were frequently encountering similar mystifying or frustrating practices or incidents. The spirit of the session was good-natured until the topic of decision-making styles came up, and in particular, the role of a leader in a Japanese company.Most of the participants were familiar with the notion that some aspects of Japanese decision-making involve a bottom-up approach in which subordinates are expected to come up with proposals that are then approved or not approved by higher-level management. However, when I suggested that a leader in Japan often plays a role of synthesizing the ideas of the group rather than laying down a strong policy right from the start, one American man, whom I'll call Fred, became quite agitated.
Fred did not disagree with the content of what I had said, which was in line with his own experience, but he objected vigorously to one piece of terminology. In short, he asserted that the person I had described as a "leader" could not be so labeled without, as he put it, taking down all the dictionaries in homes, libraries and bookstores throughout the world and drastically rewriting the definition of the word "leader."
Fred continued, telling me, "Here's what a leader does. He says, 'OK, team, here's where we're going. Follow me!'" With this, Fred made a huge circling "come on!" type of motion with his arm, then sat back, crossed his arms and looked at me defiantly.
Leaders in Japan don't fit Fred's characterization in many cases. Often they sit quietly, noncommittal, as various team members wrestle and wrangle with ideas. At times it seems they might even be dozing. And yet, as the end of the meeting draws near, they will speak up, summarizing the points made and fitting everything into a neat package that might be titled "the direction it appears best to take based on what everyone has said." Fred might find it hard to recognize this style of leadership, but it is an approach that most Japanese understand and appreciate. After all, no one desires rudderless confusion.
Business researcher Rosalind Forrester interviewed Britons who were part of innovation teams in the auto industry, working for either a Japanese manufacturer or an American manufacturer in Britain. Forrester found many interesting differences in the ways these teams operated, but one of the biggest was in the generation of ideas. While the Japanese company saw innovation as the role of all employees, the U.S. company viewed it as the responsibility of a much smaller group, who then got the rest of the employees involved in implementing the ideas. This U.S. model corresponded to Fred's vision of leadership: The ideas are already in place, and it is their execution that is the domain of subordinates.
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