Can Japanese Corporate Norms be Reformed to Increase Productivity?
Right next to the apartment where my girlfriend lives is a construction site where a new partment building is built from scratch. Aside from the half-a-dozen construction workers who are putting together the building itself, there are another half-a-dozen workers who are doing nothing but manning the different roads leading into the construction site. Holding LED-lighted guiding sticks, they direct the trucks transporting materials to the site, and apologize to each pedestrian who happen to walk by the construction.
By certain measure, the presence of all the people not doing construction can be considered unnecessary. The construction site is, of course, not something that the transport trucks would not know about. They have been transporting materials to the same site for days and weeks, and would thus be very clear about where to go even without anyone directing. And as for people who walk by the construction site, they have been quite aware, visually, of the construction's progress and extent, so daily apologies would be rather intrusive of their daily routines.
In other words, the workers not doing construction is probably not absolutely necessary to get the construction work done. But of course, given that it is Japan, the concept of omotenashi plays a major role in how firms interact with customers, both current and potential. The thinking is that if the construction company does not apologize enough to the people around the construction site, its reputational damage from perceived rudeness is likely to spread to the point that it will lose valuable future constracts to competitors.
The question here is whether such a perception of future reputational damage is worth having to double the number of labor employed, reducing average productivity of staff, and double the labor costs involved in the construction. Without a doubt, the high labor cost involved in construction is mostly passed on to the customer who ordered the construction. By toning down the omotenashi, the construction firm can reduce the cost of construction, without even at all affecting the quality of the final product at all, because the builders are still the same.
So, as far as the customer who ordered the construction project is concerned, does the omotenashi really matter? After all, in most cases, the customer does not live next to the construction site, and is not affected by all the noise and congestion associated with the construction. The customer, hence, does not enjoy any benefit at all from more omotenashi by the construction firm, despite having to pay up all the labor costs associated with executing the omotenashi. It ought to be the interest of the customer to minimize costs, even if the omotenashi is curtailed.
Sure, one can argue that the omotenashi could be beneficial for the customer by setting up good future relationships with new neighbors. By would neighbors really remember being irritated by construction few months or years after construction is completed. And honestly, even if they do, will they really go trhough the trouble of complaining to anyone, whether the owner of the new building or the local authorities, unless some sort of major accident occur to damage their own properties in the vicinity?
At the end, the fact that construction firms hire so many people just to stand guard around the construction site feels like another bout of corporate norms in Japan, an expression of people thinking that in Japan, things need to be done in a particular way that always been done. The rigid adherence to unwritten social norms associated with doing business prevents people from being flexible enough to become more efficient, save more money, and create more value for money spent, in exchange for making small sacrifices, that in the long-term, does not really affect anyone in particular.
Indeed, the simply untrue impression of Japanese norms as always been a constant one, designed to minimize inconveniences for all parties involved, will face a grim reckoning in the future as there simply is not enough laborers to do the omotenashi with the same attitude. Neither robots or foreigners are likely going to follow through the same cultural concept as heartily as the Japanese guards standing around. Perhaps instead of waiting for those days to come, Japanese norms can be reformed preemptively to change the expectations of customers, constructors, and those simply walked around the general area.
By certain measure, the presence of all the people not doing construction can be considered unnecessary. The construction site is, of course, not something that the transport trucks would not know about. They have been transporting materials to the same site for days and weeks, and would thus be very clear about where to go even without anyone directing. And as for people who walk by the construction site, they have been quite aware, visually, of the construction's progress and extent, so daily apologies would be rather intrusive of their daily routines.
In other words, the workers not doing construction is probably not absolutely necessary to get the construction work done. But of course, given that it is Japan, the concept of omotenashi plays a major role in how firms interact with customers, both current and potential. The thinking is that if the construction company does not apologize enough to the people around the construction site, its reputational damage from perceived rudeness is likely to spread to the point that it will lose valuable future constracts to competitors.
The question here is whether such a perception of future reputational damage is worth having to double the number of labor employed, reducing average productivity of staff, and double the labor costs involved in the construction. Without a doubt, the high labor cost involved in construction is mostly passed on to the customer who ordered the construction. By toning down the omotenashi, the construction firm can reduce the cost of construction, without even at all affecting the quality of the final product at all, because the builders are still the same.
So, as far as the customer who ordered the construction project is concerned, does the omotenashi really matter? After all, in most cases, the customer does not live next to the construction site, and is not affected by all the noise and congestion associated with the construction. The customer, hence, does not enjoy any benefit at all from more omotenashi by the construction firm, despite having to pay up all the labor costs associated with executing the omotenashi. It ought to be the interest of the customer to minimize costs, even if the omotenashi is curtailed.
Sure, one can argue that the omotenashi could be beneficial for the customer by setting up good future relationships with new neighbors. By would neighbors really remember being irritated by construction few months or years after construction is completed. And honestly, even if they do, will they really go trhough the trouble of complaining to anyone, whether the owner of the new building or the local authorities, unless some sort of major accident occur to damage their own properties in the vicinity?
At the end, the fact that construction firms hire so many people just to stand guard around the construction site feels like another bout of corporate norms in Japan, an expression of people thinking that in Japan, things need to be done in a particular way that always been done. The rigid adherence to unwritten social norms associated with doing business prevents people from being flexible enough to become more efficient, save more money, and create more value for money spent, in exchange for making small sacrifices, that in the long-term, does not really affect anyone in particular.
Indeed, the simply untrue impression of Japanese norms as always been a constant one, designed to minimize inconveniences for all parties involved, will face a grim reckoning in the future as there simply is not enough laborers to do the omotenashi with the same attitude. Neither robots or foreigners are likely going to follow through the same cultural concept as heartily as the Japanese guards standing around. Perhaps instead of waiting for those days to come, Japanese norms can be reformed preemptively to change the expectations of customers, constructors, and those simply walked around the general area.
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