Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs

・ The lack of sense of ownership among the Japanese people could be rooted in Japan’s education system which has had tendency to emphasize on sempai/kohai hierarchy, group mentality, importance of accuracy and obedience etc. Most Japanese people graduate from school without any chance to think about and/or demonstrate ownership.

・ Foreign leaders tend to have a better sense of ownership than the Japanese. Both at school and at work they often learn the importance of having the sense of purpose, taking initiatives and the culture of empowerment etc. They also tend to have clearer scope of roles and responsibilities which makes it easier for them to take ownership of their clearly defined jobs.

・ In Japan the scope of empowerment is unclear. As a result, people don’t know to what degree they are allowed to make their own decisions. To be safe, most people rather wait and see until they are told to do certain things by others.

・ Ownership exists among the Japanese people as well. However, the type of ownership is different. At school, Japanese children demonstrate a pretty good sense of ownership to clean up the floor after lunch as it is a mandatory school activity. Western schools also give children to own some activity, but it’s not about cleaning the floor. It’s about managing the entire school canteen. Because the scope of creativity, autonomy and initiatives is much bigger than just cleaning up the floor, it is no wonder that Western people have a stronger sense of ownership when they grow up and join companies.

・ Although many Japanese have a sense for ownership, it is also often suppressed during education and business life. If someone is taking ownership it might have the consequence that their Senpai in school or the manager looks bad because ownership is regarded as superior's task. Therefore, the superiors often try to take down many kinds of ownership in order to keep their own status. Then people start believing that life is easier without showing ownership.

・ Another big difference of the Japanese type of ownership and the Western type of ownership is that the Japanese sense of ownership is about the past and the present while the Western sense of ownership includes the future. Japanese leaders try to maintain the present with possible improvement by avoiding risks and protecting the current market share. But Western leaders try to create new values for the future so that they could enlarge the market itself with new ideas rather than just competing over the existing size of the market. They try to enlarge the size of the pie itself rather than trying to get a bigger slice out of the same pie.

・ Ownership is probably better demonstrated in a smaller sized company as there are not so many people to rely on. So they have to own the issues and drive the company. In a big company, however, people can count on others and they can hide and wait until someone else will do the heavy lifting job for them.

・ One of the major reasons why the Japanese do not demonstrate a strong of sense of ownership is the lake of psychological safety they feel about expressing different opinions and making mistakes. In many Japanese companies, they are not managed out even if they do not make visible contribution. So they rather want to play safe by staying passive and quiet.

・ Another reason for stronger ownership in Western cultures compared to Japan is that the Western environment is greedier. In business, ownership is also used for personal benefit, even if the actions are not necessarily in favor for the company’s goals and values.

・ In the Western companies, it is the opposite. They have more psychological safety in terms of expressing different opinions and making mistakes. However, if they do not make visible contribution, they may be fired. So they would rather take ownership and drive the company.

・ Another major reasons for the lack of ownership among the Japanese is the fact that the Japanese compensation system is pretty flat with little differentiation between leaders and employees. If you know that you are paid 10 times more than normal employees and that you are in return 10 times more likely to be fired in case of unsatisfactory results, you will take ownership and try to drive the company for good results. That’s how Western company executives are treated. They get a carrot and a whip in a very clear manner. The Japanese leaders neither get a carrot nor a whip. As a result, they do not run forward.

・ The compensation system of Japanese companies should be renewed and it should differentiate people much more based on the scope of responsibility and performance. When the Japanese leaders get a much higher wage in case of good performance and also a much harsher whipping in case of bad performance, they will probably demonstrate a stronger sense of ownership and start driving their company.