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Vol.50
Institutional Fatigue |
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March 13,2019 |
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About 3.1
million Japanese people, mostly
young ones, are said to have
died in World War II.
Surprisingly,
postwar reconstruction was so
quick that Japan became the
world's second-largest economy
in 1968, 23 years after the end
of the war, and had remained in
the No. 2 spot for the next 42
years. This is undoubtedly due
to Japanese diligence and
technical skills.
However,
quality control scandals,
including food fraud, exhaust
emissions fraud, and seismic
fraud, have recently been
revealed, as well as sexual and
power harassment and municipal
governments' falsification of
employment rates for disabled
people.
Such
wrongdoings were probably
brought to light by an inside
informant or whistleblower.
Unfortunately, these are just
tip of icebergs, and almost
every company or organization
must have a similar problem
whether it is serious or not. I
think that a company or
organization not seeing such a
problem does not mean it has no
problem but only has not been
accused yet.
To our
sorrow, there can be no perfect
organization or human being, and
most companies and societies run
at 80 to 90 percent of
perfection at best. So, trying
to find fault with everything
may end up in dysfunctional
societies.
If
sexual harassment that occurred
several years ago, as far back
as the school days, is seen as a
scandal like in the United
States, Japan may face the "And
Then There Were None" situation.
I regret to say that
institutional fatigue lies in
private and public organizations
in Japan, which has been
peaceful for the past 73 years,
because the consequences of its
culture - practices-first,
unclear responsibilities, and
figure-based evaluation rather
than skill-based - are reflected
in the above fraud scandals.
Now, I have a
suggestion. I understand that
someone needs to be blamed for
whistleblowing to get rid of
institutional fatigue, but what
don't you let accusations that
happened 2 to 10 years ago slide
if circumstances permit? This
saves companies from bankruptcy
and people from being accused of
youthful follies.
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