For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
JAPANESE MANAGEMENT.
Term Paper ID:26692
Essay Subject:
Review of literature on theory & practices, labor, Confucianism, culture, groupism, impact on Amer. business, consumer relations, training.... More...
10 Pages / 2250 Words
16 sources, 20 Citations,
MLA Format
$40.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Review of literature on theory & practices, labor, Confucianism, culture, groupism, impact on Amer. business, consumer relations, training.
Paper Introduction:
CURRENT JAPANESE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES -- A LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
In recent years, Japanese management techniques have been considered one of the key factors accounting for the success of business. This has led to a great deal of comment and analysis in the academic literature, much of it devoted to what Western nations can learn from the Japanese.
There have been a number of major contributions, each good and competent at its own level of analysis, and each attempting to pull together much of the significant work in the field, to produce an overall concept. The conclusion to be drawn from studying and analyzing the literature is that there can be adaptive strategies arising from a series of historical events to produce a variant of managerial capitalism in which management is, i
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
(1985). After a lengthy review of the components of Japanese organizationswhich developed from societal values and cultures, the article concludes"Because of the differences in American and Japanese values, reproductionof organizational components to American systems is impossible. This valuable report,again on the exportability of the Japanese model of labor relationsconsisting of lifetime employment, length-of-service wage and promotion,and enterprise unionism, which together are sometimes called three divinetreasures. "Lots of U.S.companies have tried to import quality and productivity magic from acrossthe Pacific. (199 ,Summer), The influence of Confucianism and Zen onthe Japanese organization, Akron Business and Economic Review, 31-45. Asian Survey, 237-25 . Kagono, T., Nonaka, I., Sakakibara, K. Haitani (199 ) saw more danger than most observers in the Japaneseconcept of groupism. Of more interest and value for the issue of transportability is foundin an anonymous work in the Fuji Economic Review (1991) that set aboutexamining the work ethic and workplace loyalty of white-collar workers byage group. Hayashi, S, (1988), Culture and management in Japan, Tokyo: Universityof Tokyo Press. Bolwijn, P. Dollinger (1988), writing about the terribly broad topic of Confucianethics and Japanese management practices, challenged much managementthinking when he proposed "an important method for understanding the ethicsof Japanese management is the systematic study of its Confucian traditionsand the writings of Confucius. A quick examination of the model's applicability in Japan itselfreveals that it is a myth rather than a reality. (1988), Japanese-style management transferred: theexperience of East Asia, New York: Routledge Haitani, K. This [isbecause of the essentially Japanese concepts] of group orientation andidentity, deferment of profits for long-term gain, and commitment toquality at every organizational level" ("Exploring values 1992). Say the authors, "A striking characteristic of Japanese factories isthe extent of process control: from both the technical and the socialviewpoint the labor and production system is controlled down to the verylast detail. The basis of Japanese-style management is not people, butcorporations, and Japanese employees are hard-working because of theemphasis on corporate centrism." Hiroshi's observations about corporatecapitalism being the guiding managerial principle of Japanese companies" isstill widely-quoted today. Levine, S.B. Main (1984) provides a good conclusion for this review. In the same year (1992) Arthur M. The misconception was considering Japan aConfucian nation. Strategicversus evolutionary management: A US-Japan comparison of strategy andorganization, Amsterdam: North Holland Press. (1988, Aug.), Confucian ethics and Japanese managementpractices, Journal of Business Ethics, 575-584. The conclusion to be drawn from studying and analyzing theliterature is that there can be adaptive strategies arising from a seriesof historical events to produce a variant of managerial capitalism in whichmanagement is, in effect, freed of all the major constraints to its actions--shareholders, trade unions, domestic speculators and others. Perhaps Aikawa should re-read Levine & Ohtsu's 1991 articleaddressing the reality of the lifetime jobs market. The authors then discuss relevant Japanese cultural aspects, such asZen, the striving for perfection, the necessary emotional discipline, andso on. This hasled to a great deal of comment and analysis in the academic literature,much of it devoted to what Western nations can learn from the Japanese. There have been a number of major contributions, each good andcompetent at its own level of analysis, and each attempting to pulltogether much of the significant work in the field, to produce an overallconcept. Long range planning, 2 , 25-34. It is not. "A survey of literatureon the practices of Japanese-owned companies in Southwest Asia and NorthAmerica indicates that there is a wide variation of employment practicesand that the divine-treasures model is seldom followed in its entirety"(Levine & Ohtsu, 1991). Imai, M. This type of worker is more important for high value-added manufacturing and advanced services than either skilled or unskilledlabor. (1995), Toward an analysis of Japanese-style management: Apsycho-cultural and socio-historical approach, Management InternationalReview, 57. It is a Buddhist nation and the differencesbetween Buddhism and Confucianism are important enough to be considered.For instance, to a Buddhist, the idea of making a profit is essential, eventhough it is not spoken. A key to the success of Japanese managerial methods in the U.S. . Japanese business: cultural perspectives, (1993), edited by SubhashDurlabhji and Norton E. New York: Routledge. Hiroshi (1992), brought a new and revealing focus to the question ofJapanese management by introducing a term, "Japanese corporate capitalism,"which refers to "the product of a society that values the corporation asits nucleus. (1986), Kaizen , the key to Japan's competitive success. It examines theJapanese practice of 'lifetime employment' and the degree to which Japanese-style management reflects Japanese culture. He presents a study inwhich an attempt is made to develop a concept that enables the essence ofJapan's cultural features as they affect and influence its economicdevelopment and management system. "Japan's Quiet Corporate Revolution" (1998, March 3 ), Fortune, 17. Plus, the fact that it was published in anon-peer reviewed journal has made it not as widely quoted as it should be. The contrasting view is provided by Robert Ozaki in his 1992 book,Human Capitalism: the Japanese Enterprise System as a World Model, whotakes the stand that the excellence of Japanese management has less to dowith traditional Japanese culture than with the care and intelligence thatmanagers use in handling their employees. (1987, Feb.), Japanese manufacturing:strategy and practice. Dollinger, M.J. J. "Exploring values of Japanese & American management systems," anunattributed paper in Education (1992), deals with this same theme oftransportability, because unless the Japanese management techniques can beused in any business in any country, their efficacy is minimized. It is not possible tocome to an understanding of the Japanese management system withoutknowledge of this connection.This is the same point of view Hayashi took seven years earlier when heexamined how culture affects the organizational activity of Japanesecorporations and military and educational institutions, and explores therelationship between Japan's culture and its style of management. Dollinger's work is vital in two areas: First, because of a seriousmisconception that plagued subsequent theorists for some years, and,second, because of the wisdom of the particular approach of using religionto help understand management. Marks, Albany: State University of New York Press. isthat they make it economically feasible to train and retain the internal-promotion-type worker. Such a view is too simplistic...Japan, too, has problems withemployment, productivity, and profit" (Main, 1984, 5 ). Inconsistencies and dysfunction in Japaneseethical and managerial behavior can be attributed to contradictions inConfucius' writings and inconsistencies between the Confucian code andmodern realities" (Dollinger, 1988, 576). Other instructive chapters in this book are "Work rules in Japan, byToshiaki Ohta, and "A guide to Japanese business practices, by MayumiOtsubo. A thoroughly documented work(sometimes too much so) Whitehill's work, also looks at the impact ofculture and identifies the most critical values that influence managementstructure, process, and behavior. Instead, he sees danger in three areas: "(1) theclosed nature of the Japanese market; (2) the difficulty of taking reallyeffective measures for reducing the frictions; and (3) the emerging problemof Japanese firms' inability to integrate foreign managerial employees intotheir corporate hierarchies" (Haitani, 199 , 24 ).He concludes with this unique observation. ), Transplanting Japanese laborrelations, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,1 2-116. Whitehill, A.M. Given the steady drumbeat of bad news coming out of Japan these days, you might expect to hear a lot of voices crying for radical change. Canada and Southeast Asia)where Japanese management practices have been compatible with localcultures and where they have not. (1992, Jan.), Japanese management: tradition andtransition. Apartfrom a good number of contributory influences, one crucial factor isJapanese culture, in particular the inclination of Japanese to actcollectively. (1984, Apr. In a mid- January interview he told Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, an industrial daily, that "we'll be in trouble if the theories of Harvard Business School are brought to Japan. Main, J. However, what is still needed is a conceptual framework thatdescribes the features shaping Japan's culture. A theme, however, that ran though all of the responses, regardless ofage group, was a vague feeling of discontent due to the stress of the job. Jan. With research ranging from real estate prices and the size of anaverage Japanese apartment to the extent of the working day, Whitehill seesmuch of what is called "Japanese Management" as not essentiallytransmittable to other countries. 2), The trouble with managing Japanese-style.Fortune, 5 -56. (199 , March), The paradox of Japan's groupism: threat tofuture competitiveness? Haitani does notcriticize those results. Fukuda, K. (1992, Jan.), Corporate capitalism: cracks in the system.Japan Quarterly, 54-61. "Japanese management isn't thepanacea for American management's ills. As part of his argument, Imai examines similarities and differencesbetween the traditional Japanese and North American employment andmanagement systems and pinpoints regions (e.g. Whitehill's, Japanese management:tradition and transition, took a broader view of the mystique of Japanesemanagement and provided an overview of the contemporary setting withinwhich Japanese managers live and work. His article looks at the negative side of Japan'sgroup-oriented value system that has also brought high labor productivity,product quality, and a long-term management outlook. No analysis of the literature on Japanese management practices wouldbe complete without reference to a 1998 editorial in Fortune, "Japan'sQuiet Corporate Revolution" which suggests that maybe the time is ripe forsome American management techniques being exported to Japan: This gridlocked economy is Asia's biggest problem. The reader interested in pursuing this theme can find greatenlightenment in Durlabhji's (199 ) work that points to the fact that "thesuccess of the Japanese work organization as a social system isattributable primarily to Eastern culture: to Confucianism's single-mindedsearch for was (harmony) and to Zen's more complex vision of human beings.Concepts of Eastern culture have remained somewhat inaccessible to theWest; hence, the discussion in this paper is placed in the context ofconcepts developed in the West. Kobayishi (1996) for instance cites Hiroshiseveral times. To a follower of Confucious, such a desire isbase and unworthy. Works Cited Axel, M. Instead what you all too often get are arguments for the status quo from people like Kentaro Aikawa, the chairman of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Okumura, H. Where Dollinger was correct was to state that Confucianism and itsprecepts of organization and social behavior are important in understandingthe Japanese. Some are finding that the unions don't like it, the workersand boss can't hack it, and the factory's the wrong shape and size in thewrong place...Because of Japan's astounding success in exporting goods toAmerican markets, many managers have taken the myth of Japanese superiorityin productivity and quality control as the answer to American industry'sills. CURRENT JAPANESE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES -- A LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction In recent years, Japanese management techniques have been consideredone of the key factors accounting for the success of business. I have always said that Mitsubishi management values jobs before profit. As early as 1988, Fukuda discussed the issue of transferability in hisbook Japanese-style Management Transferred: The Experience of East Asia.Fukoda's challenge that the strength of Japanese companies is attributed toan "organizational culture that avoids the cult of individualism, buildsgroup loyalty and mutual support systems, and provides an environment whichencourages employees to give their best to the organization" (Fukuda, 1988,31). That article reports a survey regarding work ethic andworkplace loyalty" as well as "the attitudes of white-collar workers intheir 2 s, 3 s, and 4 s who are employed by listed companies in the GreaterTokyo Region. Not surprising, there was greater loyalty found among the 3 and 4 -year olds who were content with their station. For instance, Kunio Odaka'schapter on "The source of Japanese management," defines what is meant byJapanese-style management and explores the degree to which it has beenimplemented in Japanese-operated factories in the U.S. NewYork: Random House Business Division, 1986. Lately, I've become surer than ever that this thinking is correct. The mostvalid section of this work is his comparison of the Japanese businesspractices with those of Europe, North America, South Korea, and Taiwan.Imai (1986) presents a much overlooked article (overlooked by everyone butPeter Drucker who utilized some of his arguments in writing about TotalQuality Management) that maintains that Japanese corporate success owes toa "kaizen" strategy in which "constant improvement" involves everyone,managers and workers alike. These features can in turn be traced back to thefamily system and child-rearing patterns in Japan. Ohtsu, M. Happily, some forward-looking companies are reshaping it in America's image. We don't give a hoot about things like return on equity (Japan's Quiet, 1998). Durlabhj I. But several of its aspects can andshould be adapted, along with other techniques that fit the unique U.S.environment, to help form a new American management style" (Haitani, 199 ,248). (1991. Axel (1995) in a long article in Management International Reviewargues that Japan's exceptional economic success and the shaping of theJapanese management system are yet to be conclusively explained. Sees "kaizen" as a customer driven strategysince a firm makes a profit only if it serves customer needs. The characteristics of management and organization thatunderlie this are closely interwoven with Japanese culture" Bolwijn &Brikman, 1987, 35). & Okumura, A. Examining the work ethic and workplace loyalty of white-collar workersby age group, (1991, Mar-April), Fuji Economic Review. Any survey of Japanese management techniques should include Bolwijn &Brikman's (1987) telling analysis of Japanese strategy and long rangeplanning practices. The Japanese management system is shaped essentially by the featuresof Japanese culture. 1993 saw an excellent book that has gone through five editions.Subash & Marks Japanese business: cultural perspectives, gathers the bestcommentators into a highly valuable work. T.; Brinkman, S. .
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject