by Joseph Wardy

Created on: January 20, 2010   Last Updated: January 21, 2010

Prior to my retirement, I worked for three major corporations, a consulting firm, four secondary schools, one middle school as a teacher and two colleges. I can safely say that one of these experiences offered an ideal workplace. They are comprised of three ways focused with a theme for respect:

1) Respect for the organization's purpose. The purpose of an organization is expressed through its Mission Statement., Unlike annual goals or business objectives, the Mission serves as a guiding point or conscience on how business is to be conducted. In most cases, it represents a formal manner that conflicts with the informal way business is actually conducted. A funny thing called profit seems to cloud the intent of the mission. The Mission was practiced to some extent at a Catholic college where I taught and at Panasonic Corporation, a subsidiary of the Japanese giant corporation known as Matsushita Electric. The Mission was taken seriously as founder Konosuke Matsushita philosophy was that profit was in proportion to how society was served . This is quite a departure from the Western idea of the economic model. In addition, Matsushita founded the company on Seven Principles which were hammered into the heads of Americans every day by their Japanese counterparts.

2) Respect for all employees regardless of level or degree of authority. I feel the only difference between the cafeteria cashier and the Chief Executive Officer is their title. My opinion in the Western world is a minority. Power, authority and salary play a huge role in how people are treated. In the experience again in a Japanese company let me cite two example. Example: I was working as a Training Manager reporting to a high level Japanese Manager and one day I had a meeting scheduled with him at three o'clock. He was delayed from his previous meeting so our meeting was delayed fifteen minutes. When I entered his office, he said, " Please Joe accept my heartfelt apology for being late". Although it was not his fault, he expressed his remorse. On many occasion, II have observed many an American manager late for a meeting and never was an apology muttered. Several months later, my mother passed away and this manager attended the funeral to pay his respects. My uncle approached him and said, " Does Joe work for you"? His response..." No , I work with Joe". This is an example of the humility of deferring self importance.

Yes, Panasonic Corporation is as you can see demonstrated an ideal workplace because it demanded its employees to practice respect!

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