nese employee is not in sight of his group, his allegiance to the group diminishes, as does that of the group to him. This is why Japanese managers do not like being assigned to joint ventures or ad hoc intra-company projects. The reason is not that they feel anxiety over being loyal to two different groups. Rather, they worry that they will not be welcome back to their old group if they are away for a long time. Since a group-less manager in a Japanese company lacks protection, chances for career advancement also are dimmed.
A theme picked up by some Japanese corporations is the idea that individualism is a threat to society and that Japan is unique in being a nation where identity is a function of group and corporate membership (Sullivan, 1992, pp. 66-87). The concept of kokutai (the national essence which always remains unchanged and which eventually brings Japanese back to their true path) is useful in providing a sense of unity to the nation.
Japanese are seen as a "tribe" in nihonjinron ideology. A corporation is a household within the tribe (Sullivan, 1992, pp. 66-87). A salaryman has allegiance to household vertical relations, expressed as submission from below and benevolence from above, and to tribal values as articulated by nihonjinron writers. Households in the tribe do not compete like gaijin do. Rather they negotiate and allocate. Power in the tribe or the household emerges from the kokutai, the nature of Japanese things, rather than from command of resources, charisma, or some other Western notion such as mutual exchange.
In a series of studies on why employees are willing to work hard, American workers at both Japanese-owned companies and American-owned firms agreed with the statement: "It is my responsibility to do whatever work is assigned to me" (Sullivan, 1992, pp. 66-87). The Americans viewed work as driven by the economic transaction. In return for promised compensation, they willingly p...