An article drawing on Ota Hajime (太田 肇), Professor Emeritus of Doshisha University, to explain conformity pressure in Japanese organizations and the “structure that dulls the edge of younger employees.” Ota Hajime (太田 肇) is a leading scholar of organizational studies who examines the structure of waste in Japanese-style organizations.
This article analyzes the operation of Japanese companies to explain how new graduates regarded as highly capable can see the quality of decision-making decline under conformity pressure within the organization and become mediocre employees. It points to the structure through which conformity pressure diminishes younger employees’ ability to speak up and distorts organizational decision-making.
Through an excerpt from the new book by Ota Hajime (太田 肇), Professor Emeritus of Doshisha University, Why Do “Smart People” Gather Yet Make Such Pointless Decisions? The “Structure of Waste” in Japanese-Style Organizations, Seen Through Everyday Questions, the article organizes the background to and key issues surrounding this phenomenon.