The Japanese system of management has had a profound impact on American industry. It is being adopted (after being modified somewhat to suit deep-seated American values) by companies across the United States. The continuation, as well as the growing acceptance of this, is as inevitable as the 1988 drought, or any other natural phenomenon over which we have little or no control. We can, however, use the Japanese "invasion" to our advantage. We can accept and understand the reality it represents, and include our understanding of it in what we offer to prospective employers.
In 1983, things were going poorly for Delta Airlines. The executives and board members took a pay cut. So did the rank-and-file employees. Not only that, the employees donated money to the company to buy a new $30 million jet aircraft. Whether members of management at Delta had studied the Japanese system of management or not, the result was an approach that represented a classic Japanese management answer to a problem. Delta's top management actually received a call from leading Japanese business leaders to ascertain where in Japan they'd studied their management techniques. Today, Delta is considered one of our most successful and best-manage airlines.
Because of the 1988 drought, farmers must find new ways to irrigate, and drought insurance (sometime called rain insurance) will be part of more farmers' planning in the years ahead.
For the job seeker, the change in the way we do business in America means that we must change our thinking as well as some of our approaches to finding better employment. The first thing anyone seeking a better job must do is understand how things have changed and, to the best of his or her ability, predict where things will go in the future.
One aspect of the Japanese management style is the concept of lifetime employment. Those concepts used to apply to millions of Americans a few decades ago, but have been killed off of late, in part by our takeover and merge manias. Headlines say it all: a communications company cuts twenty-seven thousand from its payroll; a computer company lets ten thousand go; a car manufacturer chops twenty-nine thousand. Hardly conducive to fostering employee commitment to staying a lifetime at any one company. We've become a paranoid work force, and for good reason. We've become a nation of job hoppers largely because of the unstable business climate that has been created.
Yet there are still many companies in which loyal employees do stay a lifetime and are rewarded for it. I predict we'll see more of this as the Japanese management style takes further hold on the way we manage our own businesses and, of course, as more Japanese industries are set up here in the United States.
Consequently, I suggest that, before assuming that the only way to find a better job is to look outside your present employment, you first realistically evaluate the potential available to you where you're presently employed. The grass isn't always greener somewhere else. In fact, considering the instability of many companies, the grass may not even be growing someplace else.
Before deciding to look for a better job outside your present company, take a look inside. View your current employer the same way you would view a prospective new employer. In other words, spend some time seeking a new and better job without jumping into the unknown. Apply the same principles of looking for a new job right where you are: establishing high visibility, networking, sharpening skills that will make you more useful, and selling yourself and your experience, skills, and accomplishments.
- Make yourself visible within your company, so that other managers in search of new staff members might consider you, rather than looking outside for a new person.
- Establish and maintain contacts with people in other divisions. See if there are other areas to which you could contribute, without taking away from your present responsibilities.
- Sharpen your writing skills and submit materials to trade magazines in your industry or profession.
- Become active in community organizations, as well as professional ones.
- Start dressing better, as though every day on the job represented a job interview. It is always advisable to be dressed slightly well than your colleagues.
- Make it known that you are interested in finding greater responsibilities and advancement within the company. Discuss this with your superiors-not in complaining way, but indicating your sincere desire for success where you are.
- When the grass looks greener in a neighbor's yard, it might be because you haven't taken good enough care of your own. Instead of hopping the fence, apply some extra water and fertilizer and see what happens. Your grass might end up a lot greener than next door. The same thing can be true when deciding where a better job can be found.
- Look for a better job where you are now. Don' assume that all the better jobs are somewhere else.
- View every day on your present job as though you are being interviewed for a new one.
- Become visible within your company.
- Broaden your contacts throughout the company.
- Become active in community and professional organizations.
- Always dress slightly better than your colleagues.
- Learn more about your company and industry.
- Learn job skills that are related to yours within your company.
