U.S. Workers Can Compete With Japanese

So much has been written about the loyalty, dedication and other virtues of the Japanese worker that it’s almost axiomatic that the United States and its less motivated work force simply can’t compete.

It’s a false notion and a bad excuse for America’s industrial problems.

Start with the bottom line, which is that American output per hour worked still exceeds that of the Japanese. That’s not true in all industries and it sometimes reflects a lot more spending here on equipment for the workers to use.

Even in the manufacturing sector alone, the productivity of U.S. workers runs a dead heat with Japan, with 70% to 90% leads in such areas as food and apparel manufacturing offsetting Japan’s big lead in steel and some other heavy industries, according to research by the Japan Productivity Center. The center figures productivity in the auto industry is about the same in both countries. U.S. service industries outdistance Japan by some 50%.

Loss of Position

What is worrisome, of course, is that U.S. manufacturing efficiency used to be far better than Japan’s. This relative loss of competitive position, however, can’t be laid mainly at the feet of the work force, despite its propensity for stealing long weekends, its occasional lack of enthusiasm on the job and its frequent mistrust of management.

The fact is that many American employers get exactly what they deserve from their employees. Still organized along rigid authoritarian lines, many companies have created the very gap between manager and managed that they now decry.

Because it doesn’t identify closely enough with the labor force, management finds it easy to meet short-term swings in business activity by furloughing people rather than considering other cost-saving measures. The practice destroys any chance of real loyalty and breeds unrest and misuse of labor’s ultimate weapon, the strike. Strikes are often nothing less than an admission of the inability of the two sides to communicate and achieve a measure of trust.

Management is at least as responsible as labor for America’s product-quality difficulties. The Japanese workers’ demonstrated concern for quality reflects a get-it-right-at-any-cost religion from the highest level that contrasts dramatically with a common U.S. front-office attitude that some level of defect must be accepted as too expensive to avoid.

There is no question the work ethic of the Japanese--indeed, of labor throughout the emerging economies of the Pacific Rim--is a major challenge to the well-being of America and even a threat to worker living standards in the United States. U.S. workers, by force or choice, are responding by accepting lower wages in many industries.

Cultural Willingness

It’s important, however, to look more closely at the competition that Americans face. In South Korea, for instance, the work ethic reflects in part a submissiveness to authority and memories of far harsher times. In Japan, where the harsher memories are far older, loyalty stems as much from a cultural willingness to submerge the self for the good of the group as it does from special management motivation.

Moreover, some of the stories of dedication smack of worker exploitation. Over dinner, for example, a Japanese executive tells of his staff’s willingness to work overtime even in violation of the country’s labor laws. Not only that, they work for free, punching the time clock to record, for official purposes, their departure and then returning to their desks.

It is easy to achieve massive productivity in such a climate, but it is not a climate that’s likely to stand the test of time. It’s certainly not one that requires copying in this country. U.S. workers needn’t give up hard-won rights. What is necessary is for labor and management to recognize their common interests.

In some cases, this is happening, as when General Motors and the United Auto Workers move toward new forms of cooperation in the company’s important new Saturn car venture. In such cases, union concessions are matched with new management concern toward the well-being of the employee. The approach holds major competitive promise for this country.