Breton and Wintrobe (1982, 140–46) present an analysis of the organization of the Japanese large firm that suggests the sophisticated use of barriers to the “wrong” kinds of trust, wrong in the sense that they are dysfunctional for the firm. … In such a system, individual opportunity does not depend on group success so much as on individual differentiation from the group. Hence ties within the group of workers on the line are overlaid by ties with those above that must often be more compelling to many workers than are ties with other workers in general. Indeed, many workers must develop relationships of trust with their superiors, with whom they have reciprocal relationships, while their relationships with nominal peers are competitive and perhaps even distrusting. Weakening ties among peers works against their succeeding in group action against their employers.

QUESTION: This challenges the familiar picture of Japanese firms as harmony-driven collectives; worth exploring whether this vertical-trust model generalizes or is an outlier.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 499