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Comment by ni-hil | Hacker News Reader

Can you elaborate? What social and/or cultural aspects do you see as roadblocks? And in which countries?

Japanese people actually practice integrity. If they find a wallet on the street, they will make every effort to return it to its owner - with the cash still inside. If you let small groups of employees "do their own thing" it might actually result in increased productivity and improved moral rather than disintegration and widespread corruption. Japanese culturally enforce and reward conformity to this modality.

> And in which countries?

Well I'm not sure there are many countries that can compare to Japan's homogeneous cultural ethic, it really is unique in many ways.

Generalizations are risky as always. I don't think it's clear that splitting employees into small, self-sufficient groups correlates to a dip in productivity regardless of whether any/all of the employees have "integrity" or not (if I understood you correctly, you're stating that splitting into small groups may not work if "integrity" is not present).

I put integrity in quotes because the very concept is pretty nebulous, especially when crossing country boundaries. But, I can concede there's at least a general understanding of the word, and I can't say that's what motivates people to do good work/be productive.

At the very least, it's not the only carrot, and you're completely forgetting the stick (which of course, is discouraged these days, but it definitely has it's uses).

But is that ethic and morality something that is impossible for other cultures to emulate or adopt? If so, why? I think "culture" is a dynamic thing, it's changeable. I think the evidence of this is abundant & widespread (See: most countries adopting western/hollywood culture since the 1920s).

I often see a similar argument from gun nuts. You show them that Japan has a ban on guns and that they have zero hand-gun related deaths annually, show them that they have among the lowest crime rate in the world, and they use the excuse of "Oh, it's a different culture. It's not comparable". That's nonsense logic to me. All it means is we also need to change our culture too, then. Sure, it's another factor to consider, but that's all. It's not a roadblock.

Let's take USA.

Here's a nice quote from Akio Morita (Sony co-founder):

"In my view, profit doesn’t have to be so high, because in Japanese companies our shareholders do not clamor for immediate returns; rather they prefer long-term growth and appreciation. Of course we have to make a profit, but we have to make a profit over the long haul, not just the short term, and that means we must keep investing in research and development."

Can't say the same thing for USA.

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