Plapot Bongkojamali, 36, Manager of Painting Processing at Auto Alliance Thailand (AAT), performs gymnastic exercises to a radio broadcast calisthenics program along with his Japanese colleagues. In addition to his knowledge of Thai and English, Mr. Plapot can carry out everyday conversation in Japanese. Mr. Plapot and other Thais in managerial positions who speak Japanese are serving as a bridge between the Thai employees and the Japanese employees from Mazda.
After finishing the routine exercises, he gathers five Thai foremen who report to him for a morning office meeting. "We would like you to work as if we were already in mass production," he translated into Thai the words of his Japanese boss. After he entered AAT, Mr. Plapot received eight months of training at Mazda beginning in November 1996.
The 1,200 employees at AAT speak three different languages: Japanese, English, and Thai. Thais account for more than 80% of the workforce, with some 1,000 workers. The second largest group is Japanese, with a total of 180 workers, and the rest are from the United States or Europe. The official language in the company is English, but the reality is somewhat different. While English is spoken in the management sector controlled by Ford, Japanese is used in the manufacturing sector, and Thai in the workshop. Different languages are used in different places.
"Since the largest number of employees speak Thai, why isn't Thai made the official language?" Punlat Plomputtachat, 43, Manager of Body Processing, sometimes hears this question from his Thai subordinates who look unhappy about this fact. He answers, "Now we are learning from Mazda and Ford." At the same time, he hopes the day will come when Thai employees become so capable that all work is conducted in Thai.
Mr. Punlat, who speaks both Japanese and English, is the oldest among eight Thai managers in the manufacturing sector. His colleagues and subordinates often air their grievances and worries to him.
"When trouble crops up, the first thing Japanese people do is talk only among themselves."
"Information is communicated to Thais too slowly."
"Why do only Ford people not wear uniforms?"
The barriers of language and culture are still looming heavy and high.
An attempt to listen to the Thai employees' grievances and demands has begun. It has come in the form of a Joint Consultation Committee consisting of seven representatives respectively from the management and Thai workers. This is a forum to exchange opinions between the labor and management at AAT, which doesn't have a labor union. During the first meeting held on April 8, it was agreed that the basis for the operation of the company should be not only the orders from the management but also the opinions from the workers.
"Since this is a group of people encumbered with language barriers, each party has frustrations of its own. Now we are trying to find out how harmony can be achieved," Mr. Punlat, who is a member of the Consultation Committee, talks openly about the current status of AAT. He understands it as an unavoidable course of development when different cultures come into contact with each other.
Many of the Thai managers are from different Japanese companies operating in Thailand. Mr. Plapot, who left his job at another automaker to join AAT, says, "It was the freshness of a joint venture between a Japanese company and an American company that attracted me." Chittameit Pandusoponsawasdi, 35, Manager of Assembly Processing, came from an electronics maker. In the company he used to work for, all managers were Japanese. "Here, the bosses are willing to accept suggestions from us and we can be promoted if we are capable enough." It is the fact that this company is run jointly by a Japanese and an American company that led him to bet his future on it.
Toshihide Saeki, 55, President of AAT, tells the company's cadre of executive vice-presidents and vice-presidents, "I would like to establish a new style which is neither Mazda's nor Ford's." AAT is now on its way toward the creation of a new type of international business, embracing three different languages and cultures.
