258 Different Business Cultures
258 不同的企业文化
In 1985 when a Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet crashed, its president, Yasumoto Takagi, called each victim ' s family to apologize, and then promptly resigned. And in 1987, when a subsidiary of Toshiba sold sensitive military technology to the former Soviet Union , the chairman of Toshiba gave up his post.
1985年，当日本航空公司的一架喷气式飞机坠落时，这家公司的总裁安元高木向所有受难者的家庭致电道歉，接着很快就辞职了。1987年，当东芝公司的一个子公司将感官军事技术买给前苏联时，东芝公司的主席也辞去了他的职务。
These executive actions, which Toshiba calls “ the highest form of apology, ” may seem bizarre to US managers. No one at Boeing resigned after the JAL crash, which may have been caused by a faulty Boeing repair.
东芝公司将这些高层领导人的行为看作是“致歉的最高形式”，但美国的管理人士可能会觉得这种行为很不可思议。在日本航空公司坠机事件发生后，美国波音公司中没有一个人辞职，而这次坠机事件可能就是因为波音公司修理不当而造成的。
The difference between the two business cultures centers around different definitions of delegation. While US executives give both responsibility and authority to their employees, Japanese executives delegate only authority — the responsibility is still theirs. Although the subsidiary that sold the sensitive technology to the Soviets had its own management, the Toshiba top executives said they “ must take personal responsibility for not creating an atmosphere throughout the Toshiba group that would make such activity unthinkable, even in an independently run subsidiary. ”
这两种企业文化之间的差别主要是因为他们对职责的定义不同。美国的管理人员把责任和权力都下放给了职员，而日本的管理人员只委派一位负责人——责任仍然在他们自己身上。虽然出售感光技术给前苏联的子公司也有它自己的管理人，但东芝公司的最高行政人员说他们“必须承担起个人责任，因为他们没有在整个东芝集团营造出一种良好的会把这类行为看成是不可思议的氛围，即使只是一个独立的子公司”。
Such acceptance of community responsibility is not unique to businesses in Japan . School principals in Japan have resigned when their students committed major crimes after school hours. Even if they do not quit, Japanese executives will often accept primary responsibility in other ways, such as taking the first pay cut when a company gets into financial trouble. Such personal sacrifices, even if they are largely symbolic, help to create the sense of community and employee loyalty that is crucial to the Japanese way of doing business.
这种承担团体责任的形式不仅存在于日本的企业中，当学生在课后犯下重大错误时，日本学校的校长也要辞职。即使他们不辞职，日本企业界负责人也会以其他方式承担主要责任，如当公司陷入财政困境时，他们会让自己成为减薪的第一个人。这种个人的牺牲．即使它们大多是象征性的，也能帮助建立团队意识和员工对公司的忠诚，这对日本经商方式来讲是至关重要的。
Harvard Business School professor George Lodge calls the ritual acceptance of blame “ almost a feudal way of purging the community of dishonor, ” and to some in the United States, such resignations look cowardly. However, in an era in which both business and governmental leaders seem particularly good at evading responsibility, many US managers would probably welcome an infusion of the Japanese sense of responsibility. If, for instance, US automobile company executives offered to reduce their own salaries before they asked their workers to take pay cuts, negotiations would probably take on a very different character.
哈佛大学商学院教授乔治·洛奇把这种老式的引咎方式称作“清除社团耻辱的封建方式。”而对于一些美国人来说，这些辞职行为是懦弱的表现。但是，在这个时代，在企业和政府领导人看起来似乎都很善于推卸责任的情况下，很多的美国经理可能会赞同灌输这种日本式的责任感。举例来说，如果美国汽车公司总裁在要求他们的员工减薪之前，先提出要减少自己的薪酬，那么谈判就会采取截然不同的形式。