日本型ものづくり- 2 日本人の労働観を支えるもの

This is the next part of my assignment.

As a worker, Japanese people rarely have the desire to switch jobs. In Japan, it is known the concept of 终身 雇用, which means the ‘lifetime employment system’. Nature of loyalty that is owned by the Japanese workers does not just happen but formed by a system created by every part of the society of Japan that includes government, companies, even workers themselves.

From the legal standpoint, the Japanese government creates such laws, making it difficult for companies to fire employees. Therefore, if there is a worker whose performance is not good, then the company will not fire him, but would asked him to leave of the company, or put this worker into a new job or new condition which is less well for his position, so that over time these worker will feel isolated and wasted and will ask to leave the company.

From the workers’ point of view, the Japanese people were told that moving jobs is not a good thing. Thus, when they face an uncomfortable situation in their companies, they will try to be patient until things got better again. People who switch jobs too often will be treated as people who do not have competencies, and companies where these kinds of people apply for jobs would be reluctant to hire them. Japanese people also like a comfortable situation in their working environment. The point of comfortable here is to have colleagues that they have known very well and can work together, also to avoid moving to a new environment which they do not know yet. Therefore, Japanese people avoid switching jobs.

The Companies also consider much about the importance of their employee’s loyalty. This is because they see their employees as an investment, namely through education and a variety of trainings. If their employees move to other company, it will be considered as large losses by companies because of the investments they already made become futile. Or even further, the companies afraid their ex employees will give away their secret of business to their competitors. Therefore, the company also creates a system to maintain the loyalty of his employees.

This system can be seen from the provision of salaries and retirement benefits. The provision of salaries and other benefits in Japanese companies is not based on the competencies possessed by the workers, but is calculated from how long they had served the company. The new employees will be entered in the bottom position in the company management system and will receive a salary that is not too high and the amount of the salary among them who are in similar positions will be the same. However, if they have worked long enough for the company, their salaries will increase drastically, and they will be given an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to earn extra income.

This system can result many benefits. From employees’ point of view, although they must be satisfied with a salary that is not too high in their early period of work, but they will feel comfortable while working, because this system creates a harmonious relationship between superiors and subordinates, as well as senior and junior. In addition, over time, they will earn a much higher salary, so they can make financial plans for themselves, or their family. It also makes workers want to work hard during their youth, so when they have reached old age, they will already have a comfortable life and do not have to work too hard.

From the companies’ point of view, with the existence of this system, they will not have to pay more for workers in their early period of working. In addition, because of natural selection, as these workers reach working age that deserves to be paid more, in aggregate, the companies do not need to spend too much money, because the total amount of employees in that position has been reduced by natural selection. The other benefit for these companies is this system makes the workers of these companies work hard to reach the better status and higher earnings at their companies, so that in overall, the companies’ performance will also be increased.

In terms of team work, Japanese people have been educated since childhood to be able to work in a team. This is shown by the Japanese education, that is for example in primary schools, the students will be divided into groups and these groups are required to do various tasks, so that over time those students will be able to work in a team, even in the future, when they start working for companies.

The people of Japan also see a relation between themselves and others as very important thing. They do their best to keep their behavior so that they will not be hated or ignored by others. This comes from a combination of Buddhist culture and Confucianism that tells people to be good to others, because there will come days when they will need help from others.