Persisting values in the Japanese workplace: managerial attitudes towards work skills

There is an ongoing debate over whether traditional Japanese business practices are converging towards those of Anglo-American societies. One aspect of business practice is the attitude toward the skills demanded of newly graduated recruits. Traditionally, Japanese managers were said to value communitarian attributes, such as cooperativeness and flexibility, to encourage socialisation into the firm's culture; however, in the last two decades business groups have been emphasising a new set of qualities, including creativity and problem solving, expressing these in a discourse of personal independence and autonomy. This study reports interviews conducted with Japanese managers concerning the attributes and skills they seek in new employees. It finds that, within the firms canvassed, managers still stressed the importance of communitarian values, often articulating attributes and skills in terms of their contribution to the overall harmony of the firm. The findings have potential implications for how we understand cultural change and continuity within Japan.