ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the clique may take over the organizational career completely in the Japanese firm, presenting great barriers to advancement to those not in the clique. This discussion of the relationships between the formal organization and the career of the employee is not meant to imply that informal factors play no part in careers or career opportunity. The elaborate methods used in American firms to train employees at all levels for their jobs are in little evidence in the Japanese company. Training is largely a matter of on-the-job training, learning from seniors and superiors. The absence of formal training operations in the Japanese firm adds to the close relations between worker and superior and increases the ties that knit the worker to the company in an essentially paternalistic relationship. The interpenetration of job with other social activities that is so striking in the small factory may be seen also in the largest Japanese factories.
