More robust in that it tolerates individualistic workers? Interesting.

More robust in that if everyone just does their jobs in accordance with process you potentially create process traps and settle into bad local maximums.

You need some number of people with ego to tell you what they really think, be resistant to things they see as bad, etc, etc. Otherwise you will waste untold sums in the time it takes to realize your mistakes they would have told you about a week after you rolled them out.

I dont know that they even need to get the same yield to get the benefits, even as low as 80% of the productivity would get you the benefits.

> Any situation where sublimation of the ego can provide better outcomes.

Cooperation has to serve the ego, individual and/or collective, or there will be no cooperation.

Think of it this way: some almost Fascists back in the day knew how that thing would end and/or play out and decided against cooperation.

Enough actual Fascists survived anyway and the narrative and their actions still serve the same conviction. Some are rich and influential and fascist as fuck while others live in delusions.

I spent some time in China working in manufacturing. I remember talking to some of the guys there. As it was explained to me, everything they had, their home, kids school, wife’s job was owned by the employer. Meaning if you lose your job you lose everything. I remember how incredibly difficult was to get things done there, no one wanted to make decisions. That was many years ago, maybe things have changed.

My region hosts a large Korean manufacturer and to me reality is actually simpler: rank-and-file employees are locals, management is Korean.

Those of my friends who worked for Korean companies generally agree that decision makers are not interested in the local culture beyond whether people belonging to it will accept certain rules.

It so happens that my country has a culture of overwork, so we're compatible enough.

Meh. A hundred years ago, TinkerNews commenters would have observed that Western cultures are obviously better at running manufacturing plants, because at the time the West were where manufacturing happened.