Abstract
A series of research performed by Schaufeli et al. has shown that average score of work engagement in Japanese firms is significantly lower than in other countries. While these data can partly be explained by the well-known cultural bias of Japanese people answering “no” to any survey, existing researches have not ruled out other factors that may be at work. In this paper we investigate the hypothesis that poor managerial skill contributes to low work engagement in Japanese firms. First, managers of Japanese firms are selected not necessarily based on their managerial skills (Yashiro 2011). Second, using the survey data of Master’s students at a Japanese business school, we show that the managers of Japanese firms are ill-equipped with the skills of understanding work motivation of their subordinates, as well as of giving appropriate feedback for jobs done by them, both of which are important drivers of their juniors’ work engagement. Third, comparative research of US and Japanese multinational firms in Thailand by Colignon et al. (2007) show that Japanese managers are considered more aloof from employees than US managers, and that they assign more standardized operating procedures and less varied jobs, and encourage less job participation. These evidences support our hypothesis.
