Western companies try to be efficient and “treat people as equal without treating them as the same” – leading them to become bland.
A more human approach is needed – Japanese employees recognize the personal touch of their organizations more than U.S. employees do.
The Japanese make a distinction between the Western ‘organization’ and the Japanese ‘company’……
……an organization is a system, a company may achieve the same goals as the system but it is dedicated to a more substantial end – a community and way of life.
Example: From a large survey of manager attitudes in high performance Japanese companies.
Source: Pascale, R.T. (1978). Communication and decision making across cultures: Japanese and American comparisons. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 91-110.