Telework as a Means of Organizational Identity Change: Investigating Japanese Collectivist Culture in an ICT Company

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous companies have implemented telework to balance business continuity with employees’ safety. However, telework was not a widespread phenomenon in Japan until recently. Why is a geographically decentralized workstyle not as widespread in Japan as in other nations? In a previous study, based on collected samples from 529 Japanese companies, we used statistical analyses and clarified that the communication style aligned with Japanese collectivism seriously hinders telework. The present study used qualitative analysis to investigate how the communication style associated with Japanese collectivist culture hinders the introduction of telework. Finally, we concluded that if a non-Western cultural company introduces telework, it should remove the negative aspects of the communication style associated with collectivist culture to bring about organizational change that leads to a new organizational identity.