Journal of Managerial Psychology

Basic Human Nature and Management in Japan

Arunoday Saha
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 BASIC HUMAN NATURE AND MANAGEME

C onfucian ideology informs many Japanese

management practices.
conditioning his behaviour (Kluckhohn, 1951; Hofstede,
1980). The implications of assumptions about the
fundamental character of humanity are felt in every form
of group where people interact with one another, from
the political state to the business enterprise. They not
only affect the quality of human relations existing in any
organisation but also exercise a critical influence on the

Basic Human
theories and practices of social control.

Table I provides an abbreviated outline of a number of

values of relevance in the organisational setting. Each value

Nature and dimension is presented as a continuum varying in intensity

from negative to positive and having a neutral point labelled
0. The first item, namely human nature as basically good
versus human nature as basically bad, may be regarded

Management as the core value and the other values as being derived
from it. Japanese management practices, conforming to
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the assumption of the fundamental virtuousness of man,

inherent in indigenous culture, tend to lie on the right-

in Japan hand side of the figure as contrasted to West European

and American organisational tenets, oriented somewhat
towards the left-hand side.

Arunoday Saha Man in Western Culture

Since managers must deal with people, ideas regarding
the basic nature of the individual naturally assume
importance in management. These conceptions — ranging
from pessimism to optimism, from notions that evil,
predatory competition and aggression, on the one hand,
to goodness, co-operation and virtue on the other,
characterise the central disposition of mankind — derive
largely from culture, moulding the individual's values, and
In a Harvard Business Review article, published in 1967,
Knowles and Saxberg have shown the great diversity of
opinions existing in the Western intellectual tradition about
the basic nature of man, and the likely impact of these
ideas on organisational practices.
Thomas Hobbes was perhaps the first philosopher in
modern times to adopt a negative view of human character.
According to Hobbes, man is completely egocentric,
aggressively violent and motivated by price, avarice,
ambition and fear of death. Hence, in a natural state man's
life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". Other

Values Concerning Individuals in the Organisational Setting

High Neutral High

-2 -1 0 1 2

Human nature as basically bad Human nature as basically good

Individuals as employees Individuals as whole persons
Closed to feelings Open to feelings
Distrusting Trusting
Motivated by external factors Self-motivated
Competitive Collaborative
Individuals as fixed Individuals are capable of change and development
Control through centralised authority and Control through diffused authority and responsibility
responsibility
 4 JOURNAL OF MANAGERIAL PSYCHOLOGY 5
Western thinkers with views similar to those of Hobbes
include Machiavelli, La Rochefoucauld, De Maistre and
Sigmund Freud. Freud considered the core of human
personality — (the Id) to be the repository of primitive
anti-social impulses repressed by culturally induced
prohibitions. That the individual, unrestrained by coercive
laws, cannot be relied upon to act in a socially desirable
manner is also the assumption behind the Occidental legal
tradition. In religion, too, one finds echoes of similar
sentiments. The idea, introduced by St Augustine, that
the earthly human condition results from an "original sin"
still remains a central tenet of the Church.
The opposite view of human nature as basically good, co-
operative and rational has been suggested by Locke, Kant
and Rousseau, among others. But even these philosophers
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conceived of man's goodness as a quality secondary to
his innate rationality.
In the 20th century, the neo-Freudian psychoanalysts,
Erich Fromm and Karen Horney, have adopted a middle
position, theorising that a person's inclinations are not
fixed or biologically determined, as Freud thought. The
individual comes into the world with a set of instincts, but
he becomes good or bad depending predominantly on the
social process, on the quality of his relationship with
others.
Intellectual tradition in the West thus presents a wide range
of viewpoints regarding the individual's instrinsic worth.
Yet, depsite the diversity, opinion, on the whole, remains
weighted in favour of the pessimistic assumption.
As might be expected, management literature reflects the
variability encountered in the cultural environment. The
unfavourable estimate finds expression in Max Weber's
classical rules of bureaucracy, Frederick Taylor's scientific
management and Douglas McGregor's Theory X,
whereas the optimistic presumption corresponds to the
recommendations of the behavioural school founded by
Elton Mayo, McGregor's Theory Y and Herzberg's
"motivating factors". Perhaps conforming to the overall
cultural bias, business management practice in the United
States and Europe has, by and large, been faithful to the
Weber-Taylorian model with concessions having been
made, in relatively recent times, to the standpoint of the
human relations school.
Human Nature in Japanese Culture
The basic nature of man is a matter of considerably less
controversy in Japanese tradition. Of the three cultural
influences that the Japanese have been subject to —
namely Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism — both Shinto
and Confucianism maintain the fundamental worth of
human character.
Shinto
Japan's indigenous religion, Shinto conceives of an
undifferentiated cosmos wherein the gods, Japan and all
its inhabitants are descended from the same divine
parents. In contrast to the essential separation of man and
God in Christianity, ordinary mortals in the Shinto tradition
bear an affinial relationship to the gods. Possessing the
divine spirit or Kami, man can therefore only be good,
and evil, when encountered, originates not internally but
from some external influence requiring removal through
purifacatory rites (Ross, 1965).
Buddhism
Even Buddhism shed much of its intense, other-worldly
pessimism after establishment on the islands. In contrast
to the religion's original dark theology as formulated in
India, the mood of Japanese Buddhism is relatively
optimistic. For example, the orthodox viewpoint that life
being full of misery, the individual should strive to attain
salvation, or release from terrestrial existence, found little
support among the Japanese. According to Hajime
Nakamura the pessimistic world-view "never took a
precise form in Japan" (Nakamura, 1964).
Confucianism
In the context of business, Confucianism deserves by far
the greatest attention. Not only does Confucianism deal
more with human affairs and less with the divine but, as
will be seen later, its precepts have been consciously
incorporated into Japanese business management
philosophy, with far-reaching consequences for produc-
tivity and economic growth.
Tracing its origin to a single Chinese sage, Confucius
(551-479 BC), a vast corpus of beliefs, rituals and codes
of conduct are subsumed under the broad title
Confucianism. That human nature is basically virtuous was
the original contribution of Confucianism's second most
important figure Mencius (372-289 BC). Confucius himself
had avoided consideration of man's fundamental character,
saying that a person's inclinations depended upon his
upbringing. Mencius was entirely convinced that this could
not be, and stubbornly maintained that "Human nature is
naturally good, just as water naturally seeks low ground".
Since water can be forced uphill by damming and leading,
so too, argued Mencius, man can be made to do evil against
his innate nature by external circumstances. A related
postulate was that a person may be motivated most lastingly
and most surely by appeals directed to his innate goodness
of character (Oliver, 1960).
The views of Mencius did not go unchallenged. Hsun Tzu
(320-235 BC), an orthodox defender of Confucianism,
flatly contradicated Mencius by declaring human character
to be naturally corrupt. "The nature of man is evil", he
firmly asserted, "his goodness is only acquired through
training...Man originally is envious and naturally hates
others". Hsun Tzu's position, however, was not as deeply
 BASIC HUMAN NATURE AND MANAGEMENT IN
pessimistic as these statements might convey. The
individual, according to him, possesses a free will through
which he can choose to improve himself and thereby
counter the natural corruption of his original character.
Self-control, laws, etiquette are the means of infinite
improvement of a person's innate nature, he believed (De
Bary et al., 1960). In Japan, Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) upheld
Hsun Tzu's view of man.
The controversy between Mencius and Hsun Tzu was
finally settled in the former's favour by the Song dynasty
neo-Confucian philosopher, Chu Hsi, during the 12th
century, and the position of Mencius became, from that
time onwards, the orthodox Confucian viewpoint.
According to Chu Hsi, man possesses two qualities,
namely the "disembodied spirit" or "pure principle", li,
and "matter" or "material force", chi. What is commonly
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referred to as human nature is simply the li of humanity,
inherent in each individual. Whereas the li of humanity
can be nothing but good, the quality of "material force"
makes a person liable to evil. Like Hsun Tzu, Chu Hsi
believed in the capacity of the individual to transform his
nature (Ching, 1977).
Song neo-Confucianism struck firm roots in Japanese soil
during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868). Emphasising as it
did social order, harmony and loyalty, Confuciansim was
patronised by the early Tokugawa shoguns as the ideology
best suited for administration in an era of peace which
followed centuries of feudal warfare. The upsurge of neo-
Confucianism in the 17th century, as Whitney Hall has point-
ed out, "depended in almost no way on missionary effort
from the mainland. It was an indigenous movement stimulat-
ed by indigenous conditions", (Hall, 1959). The Tokugawa
borrowing served as a precedent for Japanese leaders of
later times, in the government as well as in business.
Confucianism in Business Management
After the overthrow of Tokugawa rule in 1868, the new
Meiji rulers launched upon a programme of rapid
industrialisation borrowing, in the initial years, both
technology and management from the West. Massive
expansion of heavy industries in the wake of victorious
wars with China (1894-95) and Russia (1904-5) led to the
familiar ills of the industrial revolution, which liberal-minded
intellectuals and journalists sought to remove through
legislation. Opposed to labour laws were the captains of
industry. Arguing that conditions in Japan differed from
those in the West and therefore demanded different
solutions, they precipitated a nationwide debate, which
continued for a few years (Marshall, 1967). Finally, the
government decided in favour of legislation and
promulgated the Factory Act in 1911.
Industrial leaders protested against the passing of the Act.
When their efforts proved fruitless, they examined their
prevailing prerogatives and practices. And, in the resultant
soul-searching, a managerial ideology, incorporating
Confucian principles of benevolence, harmony and
reciprocity, was born. Large companies started recruiting
workers directly from schools and providing in-house
training, instead of hiring them from labour contractors
known as the Oyakata. Many of the features characterising
modern Japanese management began to emerge.
The real test of Confucianism came after World War I.
Economic uncertainties, arising from stoppage of war-time
orders following the establishment of peace, and the
increase of Communist influence consequent to the
Bolshevik victory in Russia, caused intense unrest among
the labour force. A spate of strikes and violent incidents
took place.
Japanese leaders once again turned to Confucianism to
diffuse the situation. Emphasising family spirit and the
need to resolve conflicts in the spirit of harmony,
Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931) took the lead in forming the
Kyochokai or Conciliation Society between labour and
management, and helped avert many potential conflicts.
Though he accepted labour legislation as inevitable,
Shibusawa argued against its enforcement which might
"serve to emphasise the notion of rights and obligations
between Capital and Labour, tending to lead both parties
to a cold and perfunctory relationship". Instead of the law,
Shibusawa wanted labour relations to be governed by wang
tao, a Confucian expression meaning influence through the
example of virtue and benevolence. "If Capital deals with
Labour according to wang tao, and vice versa, believing that
their interests are common to each other, there will be no
strife. True harmony between them can be fully established",
he asserted in a speech in 1920 (Smith, 1973).
Primarily an entrepreneur and not a manager in the literal
sense, Shibusawa shaped the ideology which was to guide
Japanese management for decades. His favourite slogan
was "The Analects and the Abacus" by which he meant
that a businessman should be versed in commercial
knowledge as well as Confucian ethics. Business and
morality, according to him, went hand in hand
(Hirschmeier, 1968). And, in a radical departure from
orthodoxy, Shibusawa preached that productiveness was
a way of practising virtue. The main features of what is
known as Japanese management were formed.
Not all those strains of thought that went to make up
managerial ideology in pre-war Japan, however, derived
from Confucianism. The writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi
(1835-1905), founder of the Keieo Business School, which
has produced many competent Japanese managers,
advocated a consciously anti-Confucian approach, based
on English liberal ideals.
Post-war Developments
After Japan's defeat in the Pacific war, there followed a
brief period of revulsion against the Shinto and Confucian
traditions held responsible for the nation's slide into
 6 JOURNAL OF MANAGERIAL PSYCHOLOGY 5,3
militarism and disaster, and Japanese managers became
avid students of US business practices. But the initial
enthusiasm soon turned into disappointment as American
management methods failed to produce the desired
results. Many companies, therefore, reverted in part to
their familiar Nihonteki Keiei (Japanese way of
management) (Moriaki, 1983).
The post-war setting, of course, differed significantly from
that of earlier decades. As a result of wide-ranging liberal
reforms introduced by the US Occupation, the former
management style, characterised by paternalistic
authoritarianism, made way for more democratic
functioning. Workers enjoyed greater freedom with respect
to managing their own affairs and those of production. The
policy of not dismissing employees became entrenched
as the life-time employment system (Hazama, 1976). As
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such, the spirit of Confucianism survived in business
administration, the conception of man's innate goodness
providing the pivot around which reforms necessitated by
changing circumstances took shape.
Primacy of Human Relationships
The teachings of Confucius, as found in the Analects and
other major texts, are in the form of easy-to-understand
conversations between the Master and his disciples. The
topics deal almost exclusively with proper social conduct,
seeking to regulate human relationships both within the
family and outside it, including the relationship between
ruler and subject. The concern throughout is for the
welfare of society at large rather than for the individual.
Conspicuously absent in the teachings of Confucius is the
appeal to reason; the world of the spirit and after-life is
also repudiated. In short, the individual's links with his
fellow beings constitute virtually the sole focus of
Confucianism.
These general characteristics, in all likelihood, provide the
theoretical underpinning to the widely-held observation
that the Japanese place enormous emphasis on personal
relationships in business. Often, in international
negotiations where cultural differences readily come to
surface, Japanese negotiators have been known to display,
at the initial stages, marked reluctance to enter into
concrete details, causing the other side to become
concerned about wasting time. To the Japanese, such
discussions are worthwhile because they help establish
a framework of personal ties within which all future activity
is destined to take place.
Even on their study trips to foreign countries Japanese
executives have become known for their keen interest in
establishing contacts. A Business Week article reported:
They (junior Japanese company officials) are no longer
interested in learning new techniques that can be applied
to their companies' operations when they return. Instead,
they are here for quasi-social reasons. They want to meet
promising US management students in the hope of
establishing relations with future top executives... Of course,
Japanese companies do use many techniques that are taught
in American schools. But they have long since been
incorporated into the corporate management practices.
The Japanese students, moreover, were "mystified by the
emphasis American managers put on numbers". Instead
of quantitative techniques, decisions based on "personal
relationships and human considerations", they felt, were
more realistic (Business Week, 1981).
Contracts
Whereas the Western businessman or manager considers
sentiments and oral statements to be of little value,
preferring to record everything in unambiguous detail, to
the Japanese businessman, social ties tend to be more
important, the spirit with which an agreement is finalised
having greater substance than what appears in the written
contract. To quote Robert March (1987):
The fundamental Japanese approach to contracts is to
emphasise the relationship being created, instead of the
document. The traditional attitude toward the contractual
document has been that it is little more than a tangible
acknowledgement of the existence of a relationship between
two or more parties, rather than a precise instrument that
establishes and defines the relationship. In modern domestic
business relationships written agreements are not used. The
Japanese mistrust too much attention to the details of a
contract. Even when contracts are drafted, their contents
are generally vague, with few clauses and in many cases
include only the most important elements of an agreement.
Most Japanese assume that rights and duties written into
a contract are provisional and tentative rather than absolute.
Instead of trying to spell out all the possible contingencies
and provisions, for enforcement in inflexible terms, Japanese
companies prefer to handle problems as they arise, often
recognising the doctrine of jiko hanko (changed circum-
stances).
The Japanese version of a contract typically includes a
"sincere negotiation clause" or "harmonious settlement
clause". These clauses state that in case of dispute the
two parties shall come together face to face and settle
it in an atmosphere of harmony and sincere co-operation.
Functioning in an overall framework of law based on
Western models, the Japanese nevertheless consistently
attempt to downplay the legal aspects of things. The
origins of this deep-seated reluctance to litigate —
prevailing in business circles as well as in society at large
— may be traced to the Confucian notion of quarrel as
an expression of social disharmony, which should be
settled amicably by the parties themselves. The
community, according to Confucius, should be in such good
order with each member behaving in the prescribed,
correct manner that recourse to the courts becomes
unnecessary.
 BASIC HUMAN NATURE AND MANAGEMENT IN JAPAN
Lawyers, consequently, do not find favour with Japanese
businessmen. Firms, even large ones, rarely have an in-
house legal counsel. Until they find themselves facing
litigation, most companies do not think of calling in any
legal professional, and neither is it the practice to have
lawyers sit in business meetings. If a party brings a legal
expert to such a meeting his intention would be interpreted
as adversarial, and hence inimical to the establishment
of harmonious relationships (Gibney, 1987).
Marketing
The emphasis on personal ties enables one to understand
why foreign companies find it so hard to penetrate the
Japanese market. That government officials hinder the
entry of foreign goods into the country on patriotic grounds
is only part of the explanation. The real barrier consists
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of the highly intricate Japanese distribution network, with
its multi-layered structure of suppliers, wholesalers and
innumerable small distributors, governed by long-standing
personal ties and group loyalities, as well as by the virtual
absence of standards of functional criteria. All this makes
it extremely difficult for foreign marketers to succeed
unless they spend an inconveniently long period of time
building up proper relationships (Ross, 1983). Conse-
quently, as the Japanese see it, the solution to the problem
of massive international trade surplus in their favour lies
not so much in increase of imports as in greater investment
abroad (Ozawa, 1979).
Implications of Trust
Perhaps the most important outcome of the assumption
of the basic goodness of man is trust. Trust implies
recognition of the human performer as an essentially
virtuous individual. A bureaucratic work environment,
governed predominantly by impersonal rules and
regulations, makes no such assumption. It ignores,
thereby, the human element in jobs.
Chief among the numerous implications of trust in business
are greater group effectiveness and improved perfor-
mance. Where mutual confidence is present personal
relations become smoother, and employees can be
expected to exert themselves more fully once they know
management relies upon their honesty of purpose and
conduct. McGuire writes (1984):
The trust that develops between workers and management
(in Japanese companies) serves to develop morale among
employees and eliminates concern about a change in manage-
ment directives. There is a general trust that management
would never exert detrimental, arbitrary or capricious actions
on the work force. This trust is built into everyday actions of
the company, not in slogans occasionally put on the walls in
posters. The trust is present and real to all because it involves
them in addressing their own familiar problems.
Acting upon the belief that employees would conduct
themselves honourably if left unsupervised, an organ-
isation may eliminate the processes and positions designed
to check upon their honesty. For example, workers in
many Japanese factories perform the function of time-
keeping. In the absence of time clocks, employees, formed
in crews, record and control attendance.
A Japanese company also maintains a relationship of trust
with the union. The system of enterprise unions,
sometimes called "home unions", makes the task easier.
Though not represented on the Board of Directors,
employees' unions in Japan actively participate in the
running of their companies through Joint Consultative
Councils, where all important issues are discussed. Labour
thus knows exactly what management intends to do, and
management takes into account labour's reaction to its
plans. The interactions are characterised essentially by
openness, mutual trust and co-operation. As Hirotaka
Takeuchi puts it (1981):
Most Japanese companies consider their unions as friends,
not as adversaries. Company managers involve union leaders
in key decisions, socialise with them, and regard "bringing
up good union leaders" as part of their responsibility. Such
practices are unheard of, if not illegal, in the US.
Accountancy
A managerial function where prevention of dishonesty
plays an important role is accountancy. It is not surprising,
therefore, that accounting requirements in Japan remain
comparatively relaxed. In addition to lawyers, accountants
are a category of professionals for whom the Japanese have
limited use. The country gets by with one lawyer and three
accountants per 10,000 people, whereas the United States
employs 20 lawyers and 40 accountants for the same
number.
Qualified accountants in Japanese companies seldom
interfere with the preparation of departmental accounts.
Each section administers its accounting system in its own
way based on principles close to management accounting.
Household book-keeping, preparation of budgets,
comparing actual performance against past performance,
are all usually done by the units concerned. The accounting
department simply offers overall training, makes
comments or suggestions and consolidates the work for
presentation to the chief executive.
Except in the case of large companies, the law does not
demand an organisation's accounts to be reviewed by
external auditors. Further, the requirement of fidelity
bonding for accounting personnel does not exist in Japan.
And many Japanese organisations follow the practice of
using a seal rather than a signature to execute a cheque
or a promissory note (Ballon et al., 1976).
Trading Companies
Trust, as noted earlier, improves group effectiveness. The
working of Japanese trading companies provides an
 8 JOURNAL OF MANAGERIAL PSYCHOLOGY 5,3
excellent illustration of this. The global operations of these
firms involve the buying and selling of an immense range
of commodities in many countries. A major trading
company has offices in different parts of the world which
work in an atmosphere of great uncertainty. On an average
day a branch office receives a large number of messages,
each with an offer to buy or sell. Though the interest of
a particular office lies in maximising its own business, often
if an office takes a loss, allowing some other unit to process
the order, the firm's overall profitability will be maximised.
The success of a trading company depends critically upon
the willingness of individual offices and employees to make
these sacrifices. That willingness, according to Ouchi
(1976), exists "because the Japanese trading firm uses
managerial practices that foster trust through the
knowledge that such sacrifices will be repaid in the future".
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Government and Industry
Somewhat analogous is the situation in the much bigger
context of interaction between government and industry.
In the West these relations have been traditionally beset
with suspicion. To quote Galbraith (1971):
Any union between public and private organisation is held
by liberal and conservative alike to be deviant sin. To the
liberal it means that public power has been captured for
private advantage and profit. To the conservative it means
that high private prerogative, the right to act without
government interference has been lost to the state.
Not so in Japan, where the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry (MITI) routinely offers "administrative
guidance" to industry. Such co-operation, sometimes
pejoratively prescribed as "Japan Incorporated", does not
seem to have weakened the free enterprise base of the
country's economy. In fact, as Chalmers Johnson points
out (1987), "...although Japan is an advanced capitalist
democracy, the institutions of capitalism that it has built
in the context of its particular experience with
industrialisation differ fundamentally from those
encountered in American capitalism". Though guidelines
provided by MITI do not possess the force of law, they
are usually not violated for a variety of reasons. First, MITI
arrives at its decisions after consultation with major firms
in the industry. The instructions issued are, therefore,
more in the nature of consensus decisions rather than
unilateral government directives. Second, all firms have
confidence in the ability and sincerity of MITI bureaucrats
to work for the good of Japan. Third, company managers
kno that when they request licenses, permits, choice
locations, tax breaks, MITI will respond more favourably
to co-operative enterprises (Johnson, 1982).
Employee as Complete Individual
The worker in classical Capitalism is a mere factor in the
production of goods and services, not really different from
a piece of equipment. Hired or retrenched in accordance
with the needs of the employing enterprise, only his ability
to contribute to organisational objectives concerns the
employer. In other words the wage earner, from the
employer's perspective, is hardly a total human being.
This dehumanisation of the work environment — arising
evidently from a rather low estimate of human nature itself
— causes the employee to become alienated from his job.
For the majority of Western wage and salary earners, work
has traditionally been a way — and a disagreeable and
meaningless way at that — for getting the pay cheque.
Japanese organisations
place great value on their
human resources
Japanese organisations, guided as they are by somewhat
different assumptions regarding man's intrinsic worth,
place considerably greater value on their human resources.
The idea of employment as a contract involving the
individual's time and abilities in return for money,
consequently receives little attention; instead, recruitment
is viewed more as the induction of the complete person
into the firm's social group. Some of the requirements
for employment such as good personal character and
general acceptability into the work group reflect this.
Workers are not hired for specific jobs, nor do they apply
for specific jobs; they are hired because of an expectation
that additional employees will be required in future, and
on the assumption that skills not provided by general
educational background will be imparted through company
training.
Life-time Employment
One manifestation of the recognition of the worker as a
complete individual is the famous life-time employment
system. Still the norm, in virtually all large and well-
established, medium-sized companies (Chalmers, 1989),
despite its having been subjected to severe strains, first
by the oil-shock and then, in more recent times, by the
yen revaluation, life-time employment envisages that the
young recruit stays in the firm till retirement, with pay and
ascent of the organisational hierarchy governed by length
of service — as well as by merit. Though bright young men
usually have opportunity to be assigned important tasks,
and are suitably rewarded, the principle of seniority-based
promotions is rarely violated, particularly in the lower ranks.
(In the smaller firms mobility is mostly involuntary on
account of the high rate of bankruptcy.)
 BASIC HUMAN NATUR
The policy of promotions based mainly on length of service
inhibits intra-group competition, fostering harmony and
co-operation within the organization. In Japan, as Edwards
Deming once put it, "You move up the ladder by
birthdays... You don't beat out a rival. There's no such
thing. He's doing his best, you're doing your best and
you're working together"(Quality, 1980).
Companies adopt an indulgent
attitude towards inefficient
employees
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As might be expected, Japanese employers consider their
responsibilities towards their employees as of foremost
importance. Next come the customers and, last, the
shareholders. The order in the case of Western companies
tend to the reverse, with shareholders receiving priority
over the other two categories. The idea of the enterprise
consisting primarily of people has been largely responsible
for the low incidence of company takeovers in Japan.
Rule of Benevolence
The Chinese character ren (its Japanese equivalent is
ninjo) has been variously translated as benevolence,
humaneness, magnanimity, considerateness, altruism.
Deriving directly from the Confucian notion of the basic
goodness of man's nature, it represents the element
supposedly common among humans. Ren, however, falls
short of Christian love, there being no direct command
for compassion as in the Bible.
According to Mencius, ren originates from a feeling of
distress one person experiences for another. Mencius
believed the sense of mercy to be present in all individuals,
just as the sense of right or wrong. Because altruistic
sentiments counteract evil, its widespread observance
would ensure an ordered and peaceful society, he thought.
As mentioned, benevolence as well as reciprocal obligation
have been prominent features of Japanese labour relations
at least since World War I. The well-known reluctance of
management to resort to retrenchment may be seen in
this light — as being aimed at alleviating the sufferings
of employees.
Japanese companies adopt a somewhat indulgent attitude
toward inefficient employees. If a worker makes an honest
mistake he can expect to be forgiven; such errors will be
treated as training expenses from which one must learn.
An inefficient person, instead of being asked to quit, is
more likely to be transferred to some less responsible
position where presumably his abilities can be better
utilised. The problem of inefficiency, however, rarely
becomes serious in large corporations since nearly all of
them conduct rigorous screening tests before admitting
applicants.
Superior-Subordinate Relationships
The relationship where altruistic sentiments are most
pronounced is perhaps that between the boss and his
junior. Here benevolence on the part of the superior and
a feeling of indebtedness on the part of the subordinate
creates mutuality and accounts, in large measure, for the
informal, affiliative pattern of behaviour so typical of
Japanese organisations.
As the Japanese see it, introduction into a company has
much in common with adoption into a family — an idea
in conformity with Confucian philosophy which considers
larger social units as modelled on the primary social unit,
the family. The fresh entrant may be assigned to an older
employee, usually the supervisor, who instructs, advises
and inspires him. The kacho (middle level manager)
typically spends a considerable portion of his time training
his subordinates (Suzuki, 1986a).
The particularistic relationships so formed are usually
referred to as oyabun-kobun (parent status — child status),
and represent the stereotype encountered in practically
every kind of collectivity — from the political party to the
industrial enterprise to criminal gangs known as yakuza.
The junior looks to his boss for guidance in all matters,
not necessarily related with work, and the superior on
his part loves to provide the support and protection his
subordinates look forward to. These "wet relationships"
serve to reduce the impersonally of the work environment,
and go a long way in forming effective work groups.
Japanese organistions
are characterised by the
need for minimum control
from above
In 1958 James Abegglen wrote that the statement, "A good
foreman looks at his workers as a father does his children",
evoked approving responses from the majority of factory
wage-earners. That sentiment is definitely dated. But the
substance of the relationship does not seem to have
undergone radical change. In more recent years, polls have
asked Japanese employees whether they would prefer to
work under a supervisor who sometimes demands extra
work but, on the other hand, helps in personal matters,
or under someone who never demands any unreasonable
 10 JOURNAL OF MANAGERIAL PSYCHOLOGY 5,3
work but at the same time never does anything for his
subordinates in matters unrelated with work. And the
replies have always favoured the former type of boss
(Smith, 1983).
Principle of Self-government
Assumptions about the essential character of humanity
influence the practices and theories of social control.
Control parameters, such as the degree of concentration
of power and reliance on coercion, are likely to be affected
by the notions of pessimism or optimism regarding human
nature itself prevalent in the society concerned.
Originating in the realm of state administration, cultural
ideas regarding the way people should be governed usually
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filter down to the management of individual enterprises
which, in essence, is government in a limited context. In
the case of Japan, of course, since industrial management
has consciously borrowed from tradition, the connection
is more evident.
The Confucian advocacy of government without the
application of force assumes significance in this context.
The people, theorised Confucius, would automatically
conduct themselves creditably in imitation of a morally
upright ruler. As the Analects say: "The relationship
between the superior and inferior is like that between the
wind and the grass. The grass must bend when the wind
blows across it". An associated idea is that of government
through inaction. Human affairs should be in such good
order that the need to govern is minimal. In such a state
of affairs all things operate by themselves.
The task of
controlling quality rests with
the workers
These conceptions seem to provide the theoretical
background to the fact that Japanese organisations are
characterised by the need for minimum control from above.
As a result, the need for supervision is much reduced.
Vogel (1979) quotes a visitor who, after touring automobile
assembly lines in both countries, remarked: "The
American factory seems almost like an armed camp.
Foremen stand guard to make sure workers do not slack
off. Workers grumble at foremen and foremen are cross
with workers. In a Japanese factory employees seem to
work even without the foreman watching".
The organisation structure of a typical Japanese company
tends to be flat; there are fewer layers between the most
senior executive and the blue-collar worker. Moreover,
responsibilities are diffuse and employees have almost free
access to any company official, whatever his rank.
The necessity for frequent vertical interactions does not
arise as responsibility for any function tends to be pushed
down to the level of its performance. The task of
controlling quality, for example, rests not with the foreman
or the quality control department but with the workers.
An operator on a Japanese automobile assembly line
checks his own work and also the work of others,
inspectors being present only at the final production
stages, their numbers far fewer than those found in
similarly sized facilities in the West (Schonberger, 1982).
QC circles — consisting of groups of five to ten individuals,
drawn from operating as well as supervisory staff who co-
operate in the solution of problems relating to production,
maintenance and quality — have played a central role in
ensuring defect-free production.
Responsibility is
collective
Similarly, the industrial engineering functions of time and
motion study are carried out by the workers themselves,
with qualified engineers providing training and help in
solving only the more difficult problems. Even maintenance
in some manufacturing firms is considered the
responsibility of those who run the machines (Suzuki,
1986b). As a result, one rarely comes across large staff
departments in Japan.
Derision Making
At the management level, there exists willingness to
recognise that responsibility is collective and that decision
making necessarily involves numbers of people. Many
organisations follow the traditional practice of ringi or a
modified version of it. In ringi an administrative plan or
decision, first drafted by a relatively junior official at the
suggestion of a superior or at his own initiative, circulates
among officials of concerned departments, who affix their
seals on the draft if they agree with the proposal. The
document works its way up to higher and higher officials
till it reaches the chief executive who normally puts his
seal of approval, since the matter has already been
examined by practically everybody, and therefore all
possible aspects are expected to have already been looked
into (Otsubo, 1986).
The strength of the system lies in the high level of
motivation it fosters among personnel for executing a
 BASIC HUMAN NATURE AND MANAGEMENT IN JAPAN
decision, since the project ahead is conceived of not as
an order from a superior but as the executing group's own
project.
Training
To perform their functions effectively, workmen and
managers undergo training in a wide variety of skills. A
welder, for example, trains not only in welding but in all
other jobs at a similar level within his shop, and attends
classes in theoretical subjects as well. He thus becomes
"multi-functional", capable of shifting swiftly from one job
to another wherever the need arises. A manager may work
for short periods in many different company departments
during his career (Saha, 1987). "An obsessive concern
for training is a distinctly Japanese ethos", observe Pascale
and Athos (1982).
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Training continues
throughout one's
career
To be sure, training continues throughout one's career;
it has been estimated that an average Japanese wage or
salary earner spends about eight hours per week in
activities related to learning, half of it in his own time
(Sullivan, 1986). The inordinate emphasis on education
and training — springing apparently from faith in the
individual's virtually unbounded capacity for development
— ensures that workmen will need minimum direction and
control from above, and will act responsibly in a variety
of situations.
Conclusion
The unique features of Japanese management practice can
be better understood when examined in the light of
prevalent attitudes regarding the basic nature of man
himself. Life-time employment, excessive concern for
personal relationships, trust, emphasis on training, may
all be traced to the notion of the fundamental goodness
of human character inherent in the indigenous culture,
particularly that component of indigenous culture known
as Confucianism.
Since the mid 1970s several Western companies, spurred
mainly by Japanese competition, have sought to adopt
features of the latter's management style in an effort to
improve quality and productivity. This approach, though
successful in a number of cases, does not seem to have
produced uniform results, and a certain measure of
disillusionment has set in. A few authors have even
contended that the West has nothing to learn from Japan
(Sethi et al., 1984). However, in the late 1980s, with foreign
subsidiaries of many Japanese corporations successfully
implementing elements of the parent companies'
organisational systems, opinion seems to have veered in
favour of the latter.
Japanese management
practices are grounded in
the culture
Much of the confusion regarding Japanese management
springs from inadequate efforts to understand its roots,
its relationship with factors not ordinarily perceived as lying
in the realm of management. Clearly, the transfer of
Japanese administrative techniques to other countries must
be accompanied by changes in value premises, so that
incompatibilities between existing values and imported
practices do not undermine the effectiveness of the latter.
And the idea regarding the basic goodness of human nature
remains the most important value parameter in this
respect, and perhaps the least appreciated.
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