Fujiko Suda: Worklife

The way Japanese executives think about company responsibility

Mar 22, 2009 20:36 pm / 2 comments

I don’t know what per­cent­age of Japan­ese exec­u­tives feel this way, but last week, I’ve heard it directly from the direc­tor of major Japan­ese com­pa­nies, like I did from many Japan­ese exec­u­tives before.

We are respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing liveli­hood for the citizens.  We have to think of ways to offer mean­ing­ful jobs for as many peo­ple as possible.

He also said, at a time like now when busi­nesses can not func­tion fully in such way,  the gov­ern­ment should pro­vide for the citizens.

I remem­ber clearly of what the exec­u­tive I truly admire said to me 5 years ago when I left Steel­case and became an inde­pen­dent contractor.  He was an excel­lent elec­tron­ics engi­neer, respected sci­en­tist, but at that time, he was respon­si­ble for a man­u­fac­tur­ing divi­sion of a giant Japan­ese national global com­pany.   He rep­ri­manded me for just going inde­pen­dent and not cre­at­ing an orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vided jobs to people.  He said, I too would rather just do the things I enjoy, work just with inter­est­ing and smart people.  But you and I have the respon­si­bil­ity to pro­vide for those who do not have such capability.  A short time later, another well known Japan­ese national global company’s exec­u­tive said sim­i­lar thing to me.

I’ve grap­pled with this idea for a long time.  Grow­ing up in the US, I was taught that you are respon­si­ble for your own life.  This is just one of the cul­tural differences.  Do not do any­thing to dis­turb other peo­ple, tol­er­ance to each other’s behav­ior because we all do fool­ish thing sometimes.  I live in Japan, I have kids liv­ing and grow­ing in Japan.  But Japan is a part of this world.

Being cour­te­ous to each other make the days easier.  Work­ing for both the Japan­ese and non-Japanese clients, try­ing to pro­vide the best solu­tion to what they seek is not easy.

Possibly Related

• Social responsibility of creating a company
• Goals of worklife
• Why people work late/why people don’t work out of home
• Sociological and psychological aspects of working independently in Japan
• Business Organization Life Cycle
• What does productivity mean?
• Why Japanese loves Louis Vuitton and ignore major foreign IT companies

More

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