Filed under: Blog Post | Tags: America, corporation, Culture, society, workforce
Japan has a collectivist society that impacts every aspect for their daily lives. In this society framework is very important, meaning that membership in an organization is very important. It is more important to say that you work for a company then what you actually do for the company. This is very different from our individualistic society, where your individual attributes such as occupation, education or degree, are more important. There are aspects of collectivism in our society, such as “Its not what you know, its who you know,” meaning what connections in corporations or family can open doors for you that will not be for others. Corporations in America do not adhere to collectivist ideals of lifetime employment or taking care of many aspects of life, but they do strive to have their employees feel emotionally involved with the company. Many American employees feel connected to their company and that working for a good company makes them a better individual, but do not feel so connected to their corporation that they would not leave for a better opportunity. This is something that would not happen in Japanese society, there is a much stronger bond to the company that takes care of you and your family. This strong emotional connection between the organization and its members does cause problems; once a person is a member you are unable to fire them in a traditional Japanese company. Due to this modern Japanese companies, especially in the technology industry, have began breaking away from collectivist corporate structure.
