U.S., Japanese Companies Study Ways to Increase Worker Loyalty

The Japanese concept of “ nin gen kan kei “ deals with the relationship of people in the workplace, specifically, a sensitivity toward the people you work with.

“There is the healthy realization that a company is made up of people, and that people as people have to be appreciated,” said David Kawakawi, marketing manager for the professional audio division of Sony Corp. of America.

But in the United States, where employment is not necessarily for a lifetime as it often is in Japan, the question of what workers and managers owe each other in a successful relationship--and ultimately a successful business--is a complex one.

Different levels of experience and education also come into play in determining how people see their work: as a lifetime commitment or a steppingstone to the next job.

Kawakawi has worked on both sides of the Pacific for Sony and said that even though it’s the same company, there is a difference. “In Japan, it’s very much unwritten, a kind of invisible security; they just assume you’ll always be there,” he said.

In Japan, since it is assumed that a worker will stay with a company for life, the question of an employee’s loyalty really isn’t a question at all. “And the process for entering is so elaborate and so long that it’s a pretty good filter for skill and personality problems,” he said.

That elaborate process, Kawakawi explained, involves young people contacting companies while in their last year of school and being given entrance exams, just like in school.

“This does a good basic cut of people, too,” he said. Then, after three or four interviews, everyone enters the company the same way, regardless of the job they want.

“The Japanese don’t really care what you did before or what you studied, but they’re not going to make an engineer a salesman,” he joked.

But since worker loyalty is pretty much a given, companies are able to concentrate more on guiding workers through their careers.

“Whenever I talked to personnel at Sony in Tokyo, I was always surprised they knew what I was doing, what I had done before and where I should go,” Kawakawi said.

“That kind of career guidance is missing here. Personnel departments are more caught up in the mechanics of moving people around and hiring and firing than tracking careers.”

Kawakawi admitted, though, that Japanese worker loyalty is not as intense as it’s portrayed “and it’s less formal at Sony than at a bank or Nippon Steel. People are reliable, and not erratic.”

“And they may be there until 7 or 8 at night, but they may be playing Japanese chess,” he said. “Some are just putting in their hours. But when they have something to work for, like a conference, you’ll see a burst of energy from a division.”

John Ambler, vice president of human resources for Texaco, has worked for the company for 33 years and said he’s never considered leaving. But in the United States, Ambler said, companies will have to do more to earn worker loyalty.

“I don’t think blind loyalty exists here or in many companies,” Ambler said. “You have to give people challenges, as well as salaries and benefits, a good working environment and training. We want to start job sharing and flexible working hours.”

In 1987 Texaco spent a year in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But the company, which has 38,000 workers worldwide, said the financial troubles brought on by its legal battle with Pennzoil Co. did not scare away workers.

“Our people have been supportive, and we owe them a debt,” Ambler said.

How does the company handle the sticky issues of dismissals, or employees who want to leave after a short period of time? Would Texaco make a special deal with a very desired employee who had a better offer?

“You can’t buy people,” Ambler said. “Building a relationship with an employee is a long-term process. We’d talk about what staying with this company could mean to their future, the training they could get and the benefits.

“And we’d never begrudge someone for trying to better themselves,” he said. “If the person did a good job, we’d just thank them for their time and wish them well.”

Ambler said Texaco “is not a firing company” and usually will ask for a resignation, but only as a last resort after trying to work on an employee’s problems.

He said he thinks that firings can create a problem among the workers left behind if those employees see the firing as a personality conflict in which the worker was not treated fairly.

As the 1980s wind down, who’s winning the battle for loyalty in the workplace? Perhaps the worker is.

“Four or five years ago, I don’t know if this was true,” said an operations manager for Nynex Corp., with 70,000 employees throughout the Northeast. “But now we have to listen to what the workers have to say.”