Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 23, No.1, June 1985

Japanese Management in Southeast Asia *Japanese Management in Indonesia
Shinichi ICHIMURA **to many Japanese non-businessmen, because

I

Difficulties of Japanese Business
Management in Indonesia

on the personal level many Japanese who havebeen to Indonesia talk yearningly about

The management of Japanese joint-ventures

their stay there and their contact with Indo-in Indonesia has not been found easy.

Ofnesian people.

But those who have had any

the eight Asian countries covered by ourserious working relations with Indonesiansurvey; namely, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong,

businesses or government offices usually havethe Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore

a different view.

and Indonesia, only Korea and perhaps
tointerviewed reported a variety of serious

This may be surprisingproblems with employees; for instance, theyThailand presented greater difficulties
Japanese managers.

• The following two articles a~d two commentaries are the continuation of the lastissue featuring Japanese management inSoutheast Asia (Vol. 22, No.4).
•• mM;ti!;-, The Center for Southeast AsianStudies, Kyoto University.
I wish to express my hearty gratitude to Mr.
Kiyoshi Onozawa (then with Japan Overseas Enterprise Association in Jakarta andnow associate professor of Tokyo Universityof Foreign Studies) and Mr. Masayasu Ichiki(Japan Indonesia Businessmen Association)
for their kind help in conducting this survey
work, and Mr. Junker Tamba (Chief, Information and Computation Bureau, BAPPENAS) for his help in translating thequestionnaire into Indonesian. The translation was not easy because some technicalwords had to be translated for the first time.
Without the cooperation of these persons
this survey would not have been conductedwithin such a short time and with such limited resources.
82

Almost all the Japanese top managers

often had to give elementary industrial
training to newly employed workers.

Somemanagers with experience in other ASEAN
countries had no hesitation in saying thatdifficulties were more serious in Indonesia
than elsewhere.

This hasseveral impli-

cations.
1.

Most workers have little experience ofworking in modern industrial factories where
standard discipline is taken for granted.
2.

Japanese joint-ventures in Indonesia often

build factories and plants for new manufacturing industries, so that novice workers
have to learn the new types of production
processes even if they have come from othermodern establishments.
Although per capita GDP has risen considerably in Indonesia, this is largely due tothe contribution of the oil sector.

The

manufacturing industries are still under-

S.ICHIMURA:

Japanese Management in Indonesia

One question in our question-ous (figures in parentheses), with partners onnaire shows that Indonesia has the lowest

management policies exceeded 20 % in thesepercentage of locally procured parts amongfour countries: Taiwan, 27.0 (4.8); Korea,

eight countries, and that the Japanese top

25.9 (3.4); Indonesia, 24.0 (3.1); Thailand,

managers are very dissatisfied with this low

21.5 (2.9).

percentage situation as Table 1 shows.

Indonesia is foremost in this respect.

developed.!)Table 1 Percentage of Local ProcurementofPercentage of Percentage
Dissatisfied
Local Parts
Managers
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
ThailandHong Kong
Korea
Taiwan

39.3
47.2
39.7
46.7
50.4
43.5
48.0
50.0

70.0
57.7
64.7
72.1
51.2
16.7
69.4
55.8

Among the ASEAN countries
The

partners of Japanese joint-ventures in Indonesia

aretypically

ChineseIndonesianbusinessmen or government offices, because
most of the "puri bumi" (indigenous Indonesian) businessmen lack the capital to match
Japanese investment and cover the 51 % of
the total paid-up capital.
The types of trouble in partnership seem toreveal underlying tensions between Japanesemanagement and their counterparts. Table 2
shows the breakdowns for the four countries.
It may be instructive to observe the major

For this reason new management has not
only to run its own establishment but also tosources of trouble in these four countries.
The reasons for the contentious nature ofbuild up external conditions in which its
business can be run.

In other words, italso has to prepare the infrastructure for its

Table 2Main Causes
Partners

business. This present lack of infrastructure
for business in the Indonesian economy
characterizes the difficulty of Japanese management in Indonesia.
Japanese management in Indonesia also
experienced difficulties in the form of conflicts
with partners and labor relations.

Conflicts

with partners seemed particularly serious infour of the Asian countries: Taiwan, Korea,
Indonesia and Thailand.

This can be seenfrom the replies to Question 17 in our questionnaire survey to top managers.

Respon-dents who had troubles, both minor and seri1) Recent Indonesian economic development issurveyed by two excellent works: [2] and [6].

[6] is available only in Japanese.

Personnel
Sales
Purchase
Pricing
Investment
Tech. Transfer
Dividend
Wage & Salary
Bonusof Trouble with

Taiwan Korea Indonesia

Thailand19(12)
17(11)
14( 7)
12( 8)
17(11)
11( 8)
9( 6)
15(10)
10( 7)

12(10)
11( 9)
11( 9)
12(10)
12(10)
11( 9)
15(13)6( 5)
4( 3)

21(13)
22(14)
12( 8)
19(12)
13( 8)
14( 9)
11( 7)
16(10)

15(10)
12( 8)
14(10)
13( 9)
14(10)
18(13)
12( 8)
11( 8)
B( 8) 9( 6)(Note) The figures in parentheses are thepercentages of the companies which
experienced trouble with partners;
the total number of reported troubles
in each country is: Taiwan 158,
Korea 146, Indonesia 153 andThailand 118.
83

Table 3

Main Sources of Trouble

next to Thailand by a small margin in having
troubles with labor unions.

Besides these two

Taiwan

Korea

Indonesia

Thailandcountries Korea and Malaysia seem to be the

No.1.

Sales

Tech. Tr. Perso.

Divid.

places where Japanese managers frequently

No.2.

Perss.

Perso.

Sales

face the labor troubles.

No.3.

Price

Purch.
II
Wages Invest.

Purch.

Perss.
II
Price/I

reported whether they had troubles with

Invest.

Invest.

unions or not is as follows: Thailand 26/40(65 %), Korea 29/45 (64 %), Indonesia 32/53

/I

No.4.

(Note) Those linked with II are of the sameranking; e.g. in Indonesia sales policy
and investment policy were sourcesof trouble at the same number ofcompanies.

The percentage ofcompanies with troubles among those which(60%), Malaysia 17/30 (57%), the Philippines
8/19 (42 %), Singapore 12/31 (39 %), Taiwan
19/52 (37 %), and Hong Kong 3/12 (25 %).
Managers in Indonesia find it hard to deal

personnel matters and sales-purchase policies
in Indonesia seem to be related to the kinds

with labor unions.

of partnership prevailing there.

Government

panies with labor unions is highest in Indo-

offices often take advantage of a partnershipnesia: 75 %, which is followed by Taiwan

by demanding high positions in the company
for their old staff. Japanese managers do

only with 54 %, as Question 33 shows. A
number of the managers interviewed reported

not necessarily appreciate the abilities ofthat they faced unreasonable - - from their

these personnel, although ,they sometimes
play crucial roles through their contact
with government offices.

of the general reader the percentage of com-

Table 4 Main Causes of Trouble with
Labor Unions

Government offices

may demand to expand the dealings with"puri bumi" businesses, but many Japanesemanagers are often compelled by the reality

Thai- Korea Indo- Malayland
nesia
sia
Wages
Welfareof business conditions in Indonesia to purchase materials primarily from native Chinesecompanies and to sell mainly to ChineseIndonesian merchants. If the partners are
Chinese Indonesians, then conflicts may arise
over the disparity between the government's
demands - - or the Japanese managers attempt to comply with such demands-and the Chinese partner's view of reality.
Troubles with workers or labor unions arealso significant in Indonesia among Asian
countries. Of five ASEAN countries, Japanese managers report that Indonesia is only84

Perhaps to the surprise

Personnel
PromotionWork Hour
Holidays
Others

19
(73)
11

(42)
5
(19)
4
(15)
5

(19)
3
(12)
3
(12)

20
(69)
9
(31)
5
(17)
5

(17)
1
( 3)
2
( 7)
6

(21)

23

8

4
(13)
10

(47)
9
(31)
6

(31)

(35)

(72)

0

1
( 6)

1
( 3)
4
(13)
10

(31)

2
(12)
3
(18)
4
(24)

(Note) The figures in parentheses are thepercentages of the causes for trouble
in the total number of companies withtrouble. Since most companies
marked two causes, the sum of thepercentages does not add up to 100.

S.ICHIMURA: Japanese Management in Indonesia

point of view - - demands from labor union

schedules for top managers in Japaneseleaders.

(Questionnaire I) were sent to Japanese rep-

The causes for trouble with labor unions inIndonesia show certain clear characteristics

resentatives in the respective companies,
whereas the questionnaire schedules for middle(see Table 4).

managers (Questionnaire II) were prepared in

1.

The dominant cause is wages and salaries.

Indonesian and mailed to each company withThis is common to Thailand and Korea; but

the request that they be given to averagein Indonesia there is less concern with welfare

middle managers.

programs, which are the second main causes

the summary of responses were appended toin Thailand and Korea.

the previous special issue of Southeast Asian

2.

Studies.

The second main cause is personnel

matters.

This is very different from Thailand

These questionnaires andReplies came back from 80 companies.

and Korea but common to Malaysia.

Sixty-seven top managers replied and 130

3.

local middle managers gave responses.

The third cause is holidays.

This is notThis

so important in Thailand and Korea but

is an unusually high percentage of returns for

similar to Malaysia.

this kind of questionnaire survey in Indonesia.

4.

Working hours and promotion seldom

The survey did not include the trading com-become issues in Indonesia, but as Table 4

panies or bank branches which are notshows, they are rather important in Thailand

engaged in productive activities, because theand Korea.
All these observations indicate that Indo-

purpose of our study was primarily to examine
the applicability of the Japanese style ofnesia is rather unique in ASEAN five countries
from the view-point of management. In factmanagement in manufacturing activities. Respondents may be biased toward the larger

similar findings are confirmed by other stud-

enterprises in Indonesia, because the average
number of employees in each company, 435,

ies given in References at the end.

seems to be larger than the mean size of all
the Japanese joint-ventures in Indonesia.

IT Some Characteristics of JapaneseManagement in Indonesia
The questionnaire survey on which thisThis does not seem to affect, however, thefindings of our survey on Japanese management in Indonesia.

article is based was conducted in 1983 and

The first characteristic of Japanese man-processed in the same year. There must havebeen slightly over 200 Japanese joint-venturesagement in Indonesia is that workers stay within Indonesia then.

countries.

Questionnaires were sent

the companies longer than they do in other
Despite the relatively short period

to all the companies known to the Jakarta

since

Office of the Japan Overseas Enterprise As-

stayed almost five years with the companies.

sociation or Himpunan Usahawan Indonesia

Job-hopping is almost non-existent.

Jepang (Japan Indonesia Businessmen Association) in Jakarta.

The questionnaireestablishment,

mostworkers

haveThis is, first of all, a consequence of theshortage of employment opportunities as85

well as the Japanese style of management.
The interviews with workers reported in [5]emphasis than in any other country (seeQuestion 16 in Questionnaire I).

revealed that most Indonesian workers view

Needless to say, the shortages of skilled andemployment by foreign joint-ventures as asemi-skilled workers coexist with an abun-

priviledge and that they would never think ofdance of unskilled workers in Indonesia asleaving their companies, except in the unlike!yevent that they were offered a substantiallyin any other underdeveloped country. Particularly in Indonesia among the ASEAN

better chance.

Even then, however, theircountries this is so serious that internal

wages or salaries are often not high enough fortraining and internal promotion must be morethem to support their families and otherwidely practiced, and such practices as job-

dependents.

rotation cannot yet be put into effective use

They gladly work over-time

whenever the chance is offered.

for training.

Indeed, 64 % of the companies

Secondly, there are government regulations

emphasize c;:ontinuous training and goodon dismissal in Indonesia which require thehuman relations between workers and man-negotiations with and the consent of labor

agers, but only 22 % practice job-rotation, andunions and local and central labor committees.
This may have made it more difficult for

29 % QC circles, for which the figures are
more than 46 % in other countries.

Japanese joint-ventures to dismiss the Indo-

The third characteristic is that the reward

nesian employees when they wish to dismiss

system and promotion in Indonesia put more

despite their normal style of life-time employ-emphasis on the evaluation of individual
merit than in other Asian countries. This canment.
Thirdly, however, it should not be missed

be seen in the replies to Question 24, on dif-that the practice of Japanese management inferentiation in the wages of workers in theIndonesia puts greater emphasis on stablesame post owing to job evaluation, Question

This can be seen in the high30, on promotion, and Questions 31 and 32,

percentage of the companies emphasizing
stable employment and seniority-based wages

on training. On-the-job training is verymuch emphasized, and despite the distanceand promotion (see Questions 18 and 19 in
Questionnaire I). It may be interesting totraining in Japan is offered to the same extent
as in Taiwan or Korea. This may be a device,learn that as a measure of employment
stabilization, 25 % of Japanese joint-ventures

matching to a greater variation in workers'
abilities to bring up their capacities to thehave adopted schemes to assist workers tobuy houses, which is much higher than in any

required level in shorter time.

employment.

On the other

hand, welfare programs are much more gen-other Asian country. This may be a policy
reflecting and adapted to the poor living con-countries.

ditions of Indonesian workers.
The second characteristic is that the internal

pensate the lack of social welfare and business
infrastructure mentioned above.

training of workers or staff rather than
recruitment from outside is given much more86

erous in Indonesia than in other AsianThis may be necessary to com-

S.ICHIMURA:

Japanese Management in Indonesia

Table 6ITI

Labor Relations in JapaneseJapanese Managers' Attitudes
toward Labor Unions

Joint-ventures
Favor.

Unfav.

Neutr. Don't
Know

51.9
20.9
23.2
63.9
14.8
21.9
12.5
18.6

9.6
2.3
44.7
13.9
63.0
4.9
23.2
18.6

26.9
74.4
32.1
22.2
20.4
56.1
10.7
53.5

Labor relations in Indonesia seem to berather unique among those in Asian countries.
This observation coincides with another study
conducted by the Institute of Social Problems
which was established by moderate Japaneselabor unions (see [1]).

Table 5 shows thereplies to the question: to which country's
labor relations are your country's labor

To Which Country's Labor Relations Are Your Country's Labor
Relations Similar?

Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
ThailandHong Kong
Korea
TaiwanJapan

US-EC Asian Unique

1.9
9.3
11.5
26.3
1.9
0
10.7
16.3

25.0
46.6
42.5
18.4
40.7
29.3
3.6
11.6

0
18.6
36.1
10.5
25.9
17.1
32.1
11.6

59.6
7.0
3.3
36.9
25.9
53.6
26.8
44.2

(Note) The remaining percentages areaccounted for by "no answer" or"don't know."

well as in Thailand.

the different attitudes of Japanese managers
toward labor unions in different countries.
The difference between

toward labor unions is very

ever, labor relations in Indonesia are still in
the formative stage, they may undergo changes
in the future as manufacturing industries
develop and the supply of semi-skilled andskilled workers increases.

In what direction

they change has not been indicated by any
At any rate, labor

disputes are very frequent in Indonesia as

significant.

Thai union leaders are much more critical ofmanagement.
question

But the replies to the next

askingthereasonswhy

thecompany's attitude toward unions is unfaTable 7

Why Company
toward Unions
AgainstCompany's
Policies

Indonesia as very unique rather than similar
Since, how-Indonesia andThailand in the Japanese managers' attitudes

themselves recognize the labor relations in
to any other countries' unions.

Another finding of

the same study [1] is instructive in revealing

It is clear from this table that union leadersmanagers interviewed.

9.6
2.3
0
0
0
17.1
33.9
9.3

(Note) The remaining percentages represent
the "no answer" group.

relations similar?
Table 5Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
ThailandHong Kong
Korea
TaiwanIndonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
ThailandHong Kong
Korea
Taiwan

15.4
60.5
16.4
13.9
29.1
17.1
23.2
34.9

Is

Unfavorable

Local
Partners' TroubleLack of making
Understanding
50.0
30.2
36.1
50.0
54.6
4.9
55.4
30.2

25.0
4.7
24.6
25.5
14.5
36.6
1.8
14.0

(Note) The remaining percentages represent
the "no answer" group.
87that Malaysian workers seem to show thevorable reveal a surprising fact.
It is surprising that the company's unfa-

same tendency compared with Singaporeanvorable attitude is primarily attributed to the
local partners' lack of understanding aboutor Philippino workers.
The motivations for leaving previous em-

the activities of labor unions rather thanployers and moving to Japanese joint-ventures

Japanese managers themselves or Japanesein Indonesia seem to be the same as those in

In this point. Indo-other Asian countries: the first is the better

enterprises' policies.

Thus itprospect for advancement; the second is themust be recognized that the role of partners

better chance of learning new technologies.

is so important.

This is a strong characteristic of Japanese

nesian and Thai views coincide.

Perhaps the shortage ofappropriate partners lies at the core of thesejoint-ventures.

troubles.

This amounts to a shortage oftransfer of technology in Japanese joint-

entrepreneurship in the developing countries.

ventures, their effort to provide the middle
level managers or engineers with good learning

IV Responses of Local Middle Managers
to Japanese Management

Despite criticism of the slow

opportunities is recognized by their own
employees. 3 )Information about companies is obtained

The local middle managers who replied toby word of mouth in Indonesia rather than

the questionnaire had in the past changed

through newspapers, which is more importantthe jobs on average 2.2 times.

in other countries (Question 11).

While this is

A certain

true of the middle managers in other Asian

degree of nepotism is observed in Indonesia

countries, those in Indonesia stayed with theand seems the strongest in Asia.

Japanese joint-ventures two to three years
longer than their counterparts in otherIndonesian middle managers are. however,less proud of working for their companies

ASEAN countries - - see Questions 5,6 andthan those in other ASEAN countries.
Table 8 shows may be surprising.

7 in Questionnaire 11 - - and come closer tothe period of stay in Northeast Asian countries.

This is undoubtedly related to theWhat

The proportion of middle managers who
were proud of working for their companies or

shortage of employment opportunity discussed
in section II and may also be related to thecharacter of their group-consciousness inIndonesia. which we observed in our village
survey before. 2)

It is interesting to note

2) The survey [4] included a study of group-

consciousness by collecting the proverbs
remembered by farmers in the villages surveyed. The one remembered by most
farmers was: Unity is strength, so you haveto help each other.
883) In the questionnaire survey [3] concerningtechnology transfer in Indonesia the influenceof government policies is much stronger thanin other Asian countries, so that initiatives
come less from the private sector. Anotherimportant aspect of management related totechnology transfer is the number of levels
between the top and the workers. In Indonesia a typical style is four levels. whereas in
the Philippines a typical style is five levels.
This proves that managing workers is moredifficult in Indonesia than in the Philippines.
See [3: 71-77].

S. ICHIMURA:

Japanese Management in Indonesia

Table 8 Pride and Commitment

Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
ThailandHong Kong
Korea
TaiwanTable 9 Opinions on Job-hopping

Proud

Committed

61.3
75.0
82.0
68.6
82.0
27.8
41.0
30.8

51.2
75.3
73.3
60.1
68.2
61.1
72.3
73.4

Singapore Indonesia
Perfectly All Right
Justifiable
Too Much Is No GoodNo Good

5.8
40.7
27.1
22.5

7.0
48.1
27.1
17.8

observe that the percentage of middle managers who regard the type of management as"authoritarian" (top-down) rather than "par-definitely committed to their companies wereticipatory" (bottom-up) is highest in Indonesia

lowest in Indonesia of five ASEAN countries,

and Malaysia among all Asian countries:

and commitment was even less than in the

Malaysia 62.8, Indonesia 61.2, Singapore

three Northeast Asian countries (Questions

54.4, Taiwan 53.6, Hong Kong 48.6, the15 and 16).

Philippines 32.4, Korea 30.9 and Thailand

One surprising finding (Question23), shown in Table 9, may explain this fact.

20.8.

The question on job-hopping revealed thatJapanese style of participatory management

Indonesian middle managers find nothingis practiced less in Indonesia or is so perceived

objectionable in this practice.

by Indonesian middle managers.

ComparedThis seems to show that the standard

This seems

with their counterparts in Singapore, whereto imply that in Indonesia the initiatives do

job-hopping is notorious, Indonesian middle

not come from middle managers; indeed,

managers fundamentally accept job-hopping

Japanese top managers reported in interview

eventhat they were not necessarily satisfied withmore

positively.

If,

therefore,thechance arises, they will think nothing ofleaving their companies.

this aspect of middle management.

This may seem to be

Nevertheless, the communication barriers

contradictory with the group-consciousness

between Japanese and local staff seem to bementioned above in connection with village

less severe in Indonesia than in other countries

life. It merely shows, however, that thesense of community among the Japanese(Questions 19 and 20).

country where more respondents denied rather

joint-ventures' employees in Java is still weak,although group-consciousness is stronger than

than affirmed the existence of serious barriers.
This is consistent with the general impressionin other ASEAN countries.

Such a strongof many Japanese that they can get along wellsense of identity with the companies as thewith most Indonesians in the personal sphere.

one among Japanese employees in Japanese

Even in working relations inside the enter-

enterprises has not been fostered yet inprises the cummunication between JapaneseJapanese joint-ventures anywhere in Asia.

and Indonesian staff is good.

It remains to be seen if such solidarity inhave little relations to the ease of learningbusiness enterprises can grow outside Japan.

Indonesian, because the same situation does

In this connection it may be instructive tonot obtain in Malaysia where the language isIndonesia is the onlyThis seems to89

the same; moreover, the language is cited as
the primary barrier to communication by
those who affirmed such barriers in Indonesia.

Table 10

Communication Barriers between
Japanese and Local Staff

In the opinions of the top managers interviewed, admission of less communication
barriers between Japanese and Indonesian ismainly due to gentle nature of most Indonesians.

One revealing finding on this matter

may be the data shown in Table 6.

Althoughthe attitude of Japanese top managers must
be more or less the same in all the ASEAN

countries, Table 6 demonstrates that thereaction of labor union leaders to Japanesemanagers differs very much.

Indonesians

make a remarkable contrast with Thais in
regarding the attitudes of Japanese managers
as favorable for labor unions.

This difference

may be at least partly a reflection of thegeneral public opinions toward Japan in thesecountries, which may in turn be influenced by
the political climate.

The political stance ofthe public opinions toward Japan in Indonesia is certainly better than in Thailand. It
seems to require further studies how thesepublic relations are reflected in the intra-firm
relations.
The factors responsible for cummunication

Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
ThailandHong Kong
Korea
TaiwanLanguage· CompaVa Iue So~~any's
Diff. blhty Policies

45(28)
31(25)
65(25)
85(27)
36(23)
18(26)
29(21)
76(31)

36(23)
33(26)
94(36)
70(22)
44(28)
18(26)
58(43)
70(28)

38(24)
34(27)
42(16)
92(29)
38(24)
18(26)
13(10)
40(16)

41(26)
28(22)
60(23)
69(22)
34(22)
15(22)
36(27)
63(25)(Note) "Value differences" includes: difference in customs, value differences andreligious differences; "sociability"
includes: a lack of personal relations
outside the workplace between
Japanese and local staff and a tendency of Japanese staff to form aclosed and exclusive circle; "company's policies" includes: the shortduration of stay by Japanese staff
in Southeast Asia, and the gearingof Japanese management too muchto the head office in Japan.
The figures in parentheses are thepercentages of the factors in the
total number of factors given in thereplies. Each respondent was asked
to point out three factors.
other countries the relative weights of thebarriers between Japanese and other Asian

different factors vary greatly.

staff in each country (Question 20) are sum-values seem to be the most important factor

marized by Table 10.

in Korea, the Philippines and to a lesser ex-

In every country except for Korea, language

tent Thailand.

Differences in

Sociability is not importantis the most important single factor cited asa barrier to communication. However, if

in Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. The
second most important factor after language

similar factors are grouped together as in thein Indonesia is the perception that "Japanesetable, then the relative weight of language

management is geared too much to the headIndonesia

office in Japan.". This factor was also pointed

language is still the most important factor, andout even by some Japanese top managers.

the other three main categories of factors

Various issues unique to Indonesia may nothave more or less the same weight.

be understood at the head offices in Tokyo

differs

90

in

each

country.

In

But inS. ICHIMURA:

Japanese Management in Indonesia

or Osaka so that Japanese and local staff

According to our survey (Questions 26, 27 andshare common grievances against the head28), human relations are very good and better
than in other Asian countries. This must

offices.
In general, dissatisfaction with wages andsalaries in Southeast Asia is naturally verystrong.

Indonesian middle managers do nothave contributed to high morale in Japanese
joint-ventures in Indonesia.
Groupism seems to be well accepted byexpress exceptionally high dissatisfaction, but

Indonesian middle managers.

neither are they satisfied.

ticipate actively in group meetings and express

They are fairly

They

par-

satisfied with their job responsibility, in which

their opinions.

respect Korean, Taiwanese and Thai middle

with their subordinates regularly or irregu-

managers

dissatisfaction.

larly, on average about 1.2 times a month

The top managers interviewed were fairly, but(Question 32), which is slightly less frequent

not very, satisfied with the performance ofthan in other Asian countries.

middle managers in their companies.

are held mainly to solve problems and set

expressed

more

They

They hold group meetings

Such meetings

Many of them (39 %)report a constant struggle to maintain morale

goals (Question 33).

in their companies.

think that such meetings should be held within

This remark may cor-

respond to the findings (Question 37) aboutnormal working hours (Question 34).

the incentives needed to motivate the local

percentage is considerably higher than in otherworkers.

countries.

The middle managers themselves

This

On the whole Indonesian middle

reply that the following incentives are im-

managers lack the initiative to "motivate"

portant in this order (the figures show the

workers to greater efficiency, in comparison

number of respondents' marks):

with

1.

countries.

excellent leadership that encourages

their counterparts

in

other

Asian

This may be another reason why

teamwork81

the working of the Japanese style of manage-

good human relations

61

ment is difficult in Indonesia and why an

3. job-enrichment, or interesting work
4. monetary incentive

54
53

adaptation to local conditions is necessary.
Mensualization, or egalitarian principles,

5.
6.

22
11

in management seems to encounter subtle

The emphasis placed on non-pecuniary
incentives is more conspicuous in Indonesia

acceptable than in other Asian countries(Questions 41 to 45). Indonesians seem tothan in other countries.

The main reason

have their own social class-consciousness.

seems to be that careful and kind guidance andwatchful attention given to workers, rather

For instance, 82 % of them accept that there
should be "no private offices for managers,"

than pecuniary motivation to them, arebut do not necessarily wish to participate inessential in maintaining a constant, smooth
flow of work in the factories. The samethe dinner parties or club activities sponsoredby the companies. The percentage of middle

thing can be said about the effort required tokeep up the morale of middle managers.

managers who prefer not to have lunch withworkers in the company canteen is consider-2.

promotion
self-managing work group

resistance in Indonesia, where it is less easily

91

ably higher in Indonesia than in other Asian

about 20 % of respondents made no criticisms

countries: Indonesia 38 %, Thailand 18 %,at all.

Singapore 16 %, Korea 7 %.

Indonesians

Indonesians' strong desire to explore poten-

seem to be much more position-conscious

tials behind their gentle or only outwardly

and class-conscious than other Asian nation-

effeminate behavior and remarks.

alities.

It remains forThen, it may be that we must perceive

future studies toascertain whether this is attributable toReferences

Javanese society, or there are significant
ethnic differences in this respect.
General Impression on Japanese management are rather favorable (Questions 47[ 1] Ajia Shakai Mondai Kenkyusho [Institutefor the Study of Social Problems in Asia].
1984. Ajia no Rodosha wa Nan; 0 Kangaete
Iru ka [What are Asian Workers Thinking

preciate team spirit, good human relationsof?]. February.
[2] Booth, Anne; and McCawley, Peter, eds.

with Japanese staff, good chance to learn

1981. The Indonesian Economy during theSoeharto Era. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford

to 52).

Indonesian middle managers ap-

technology and know-how, and the concensus
approach, but as we just discussed, less somensualization.
agers

acceptIndonesian middle manone

standard

practiceofJapanese management, job-rotation, morethan their counterparts in other Asian
countries but some object to applying it toworkers.

It is not clear yet whether this is

another aspect of Javanese class-consciousness
or it reflects their realistic recognition of thegreat variation in workers abilities.
Indonesian criticisms on Japanese management differ little from those in other COuntries.

Surprisingly most managers (47 %)criticize poor training opportunities.

This

may be an expression of a strong desire tolearn more technology or management knowhow.

92

But it should be remembered that

[ 3]

University Press.
Ichi.mura, Shinichi. 1983.

Institutional
Factors and Government Policies for
Appropriate Technologies: Survey Findingsin Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

ILO Working Papers, WEP 2-22jWP. 110.
January.
[ 4 ] Ichimura, Shinichi; and Mizuno, Koichi
et al. 1974.
The Socio-Economic Behavior of Peasants in Central Java andCentral Thailand - - A Summary Report.
Southeast Asian Studies 12(3): 322-343.

[5] Japan Overseas Enterprise Association(Koizumi; Nobuo: Research Coordinator).
1981. Indonesia no Toshi Rodosha [Urban
Workers in Indonesia]. Nihon Rodo
Kyokai [Japan Labor Association] Research Document No. 98. March.
[ 6 ] Thee Kian Wie, ed. 1984. Antolog; Ekonomi Indonesia [Indonesia no Keizai).
Translated by Hiroshi Kanoh, Kosuke
Mizuno and Yoshinori MuraL Tokyo:
Mekonsha.