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Japanese Management Practices
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Argues that in order to achieve some degree of Japan's success, & due to the extent of Japanese investment in America, US managers are attempting to emulate Japanese management styles to he greatest possible degree.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Argues that in order to achieve some degree of Japan's success, & due to the extent of Japanese investment in America, US managers are attempting to emulate Japanese management styles to he greatest possible degree.
Paper Introduction:
INTRODUCTION
The Japanese industrial expansion since World War II has been considerable and has been noted by other industrialized nations around the world. Japan began from a position far behind the West, with her infrastructure devastated, and since has achieved a position of economic preeminence, challenging the United States and other industrialized nations for world leadership in innovation and industrial production, especially in high-tech industries of great import on the international scene today and into the future. The U.S. has recently started giving Japan greater attention in order to discern the management styles used in Japan and to emulate them to the greatest degree possible, and
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45).The organization of the future will thus be information-based. Directors & Boards, pp. 2)Typical Japanese managers cannot evaluate themselves critically. As Japanese managers gradually redesign theemployment and reward systems in their firms, they are trying to maintainthe advantages of group harmony, employee loyalty, and cooperation whileeliminating the burdens of employment stagnation and enhancing theflexibility by shifting more of the risk to a greater proportion of theworkers (39-53). 7-9). The postwar economic growth ofJapan has been considerable and has been described as a miracle. & Davies, A. Adopting Japanese-type manufacturing methods: A tale of two (UK) factories. 17-19.Sullivan, J. INTRODUCTION The Japanese industrial expansion since World War II has beenconsiderable and has been noted by other industrialized nations around theworld. Continuity and change in Japanese management. 575-584.Drucker, P. Johnson (1988), on the other hand, notesexperts who believe that the Japanese system cannot be importedsuccessfully because it depends upon Japanese culture (pp. The Japanese seem to have movedahead in this area as well (Prestowitz, 1988, pp. Trading places. THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE Japan was opened to the West in 1853 when Admiral Perry sailed intoTokyo Bay and found a country still in a feudal stage of development. The Japanese use failure as a learningdevice and so are able to tackle positive things rather than concerningthemselves with avoiding the negative (pp. There aremany who believe that the American system is shifting in response tochanges in the business environment, changes leading to a more information-based approach that will of necessity be a more cooperative approach aswell. 66-87.Yamashita, Y. While the United States has encouraged and written into law adversarial relationships between business and government and labor and management, Japan has striven to achieve cooperation. The system of personnel managementdeveloped in the 196 s that has served Japan so well is currentlyundergoing a transformation, for example, and the new system encroaches onthe traditional practices of lifetime employment and seniority-based wages. 13) The ethics of the Japanese system, notes Dollinger (1988), is to befound in Confucianism. Subsequent history furtheringrained the idea that America was special, and World War II brought theAmerican self-image and achievements to their penultimate position. Japanonce more started searching the world for technology and rededicated herenergy to making up for lost time (Prestowitz, 1988, p. American samurai: A warrior for the coming dark ages Of American business. All such efforts were at the behest and under theguidance of the government authorities, and this was a key element in theway Japanese business culture developed. F. As Oliver and Davies (199 ) note: "Empirical evidence demonstratesa profoundly political dimension to these innovations, requiring asignificant rewriting of organizations' political and cultural maps" (p.555). After World War II, the problems of Americanindustry increased and in a sense became institutionalized. The American system is hierarchical, conflictual, reactive, and hascome more and more to rely on short-term planning and thinking. 3) The Japanese executive has trouble thinking strategically. 66-87). Some critics find these firms as marginal, and even wheneffective, their system is not easily translatable to American enterprises. What Japanese management techniques can (or should) be applied by American managers? The change from the traditional managementstructure to the team concept in these Japanese-owned American firmsinvolves more than cosmetic changes and more than simply imposing a newsystem. Clinton, New Jersey: New Win Publications.Mroczkowski, T.,& Hanaoka, M. Journal of Management Studies, pp.555-57 .Prestowitz, C. Sheldon and Kleiner (199 ) note thatsome believe such an adoption of methods would benefit American companies,and they agree that the adoption of long-term thinking would benefit theAmerican manager (pp. (199 , September). (1989, Winter). Foreigners could trade at one of twoplaces, the small port of Shimoda or the small fishing port of Hakodate innorthern Japan: This was the first of what would become known in later years as "market-opening packages." While thus attempting to limit the extent of foreign intrusion, Japan immediately launched an intensive and historic effort to catch up with the industry and technology of the west. The Japanese culturefound a way to satisfy the West while retaining its own style. 1 -11). It is a culture based onindividualism and self-achievement and so has resisted governmentinterference and control to a much greater degree. 17-19). has recently started giving Japan greaterattention in order to discern the management styles used in Japan and toemulate them to the greatest degree possible, and the increase in Japaneseinvestment in the U.S., with the opening of a certain number of Japanesemanufacturing companies in the U.S., primarily to produce Japanese cars. (199 , May-June). Some American firms are trying to accomplish the same thingwithin the existing hierarchy. California Management Review, pp. 24-3 ). The coming of the new organization. Japan began from a position far behind the West, with herinfrastructure devastated, and since has achieved a position of economicpreeminence, challenging the United States and other industrialized nationsfor world leadership in innovation and industrial production, especially inhigh-tech industries of great import on the international scene today andinto the future. For all the admiration offered for the Japanese system, analysts arealso noting problems inherent in it. J. The problemsare not limited to the manufacturing industries. Journal of Business Ethics, pp. (1992, Fall). More recently, this perception has started to change, causing many toquestion the American economic system and its management structure,traditions, and theories. Whenthe war was over, most of the prewar industrial powers were in ruins, andthe only major economy left intact was that of the United States (pp. The U.S. New York: Basic Books.Sheldon, R., & Kleiner, B. (1989, August). V. (p. Japan also avoided foreign investment and sought thetechnology of the West not to be westernized but to maintain her autonomyand purity as a society. This would change the country forever, but itwould not be the type of change the West envisioned. 575-584). Yamashita says that the next generation of Japanese managerswill have to confront the consequences of their upbringing: 1) The typical Japanese senior manager does not instinctively precedeaction with reason. California Management Review, pp. The desire to shift Japanese approaches to the American system hasencountered a number of criticisms. (1988, January-February). Firms have been trying to reduce employment levels and have done so notonly through hiring freezes and the elimination of overtime but also butalso using job rotation and employment reassignments. THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE The American business experience has been in keeping with thedevelopment of American culture and history. Wage, salary, andbonus reductions are shared by all groups in the firm, and the positiontitle classification system used to form the basis of grading, promotion,wage, and bonus decisions is gradually changing to performance appraisaland merit rating systems. (1988). ReferencesDollinger, M. It will take time to see whether suchefforts will be successful or not, but the team concept has been graftedonto numerous American firms with some success in the short term. Peter Drucker in "The Coming of the New Organization" (1988) looksto the future of the business organization in American society, the form itwill take and the ways in which it will differ from the organization oftoday. Thisapproach would have some aspects of the Japanese system but would be basedin changes in American culture. DIFFERENCES IN MANAGEMENT STYLE Prestowitz (1988) points out that management is not an isolatedphenomenon but rather operates in the context of a particular nation. Japanesemanagers see a work team as an environment in which information is sharedin pursuit of improved performance, while Americans use groups to shareresponsibilities and reduce risks. 8) Foreign experts were hired to come to Japan and transfer thetechnology and skills they had developed. While the United States embraces Adam Smith, the seventeenth-century prophet of free trade, and has concentrated on consumption as the main economic engine, Japan has focused on production and dominance of key industries that will enhance its strategic position. 39-53.Oliver, N. Part of this shift involves a change in communication styles andpatterns in keeping with the new relationship between management and thelabor force. Thiswas a country that had isolated itself rigorously from the rest of theworld, but Perry issued an order that Japan would have to open her marketsor face the consequences. Yamashita (1992) finds that many Japanese practices are becomingproblems rather than advantages, and Japanese management needs to find anew model. 34-36). TheJapanese announced that they would open their market, but they also said itcould not be done all at once. Many observableJapanese managerial practices can be reduced to three underlying factors: 1) a long-run planning horizon; 2) a commitment to lifetime employment; and 3) the Japanese sense of collective responsibility.These factors are based on Confucian thought (pp. (1991). Such firms areprimarily producing automobiles and electronics, and they have beensuccessful in creating a different conception of the work environment to agreat extent. FIRMS Japanese firms in the United States have introduced the team conceptand work teams similar to what are found in Japan. Japan negotiated trade treatiesso that foreigners were prevented from doing business in the interior ofthe country. 45-53.Lareau, W. 24-3 . Harvard Business Review, pp. Others find these new firms to be less effective than claimed and to haveemployee problems of their own. What Drucker sees in the large business of the future is a down-sizing from today in terms of management size, and he holds that the modelfor the business of the future in the non-profit organization of today,such as the hospital, the university, or the symphony: "For like them, thetypical business will be knowledge-based, an organization composed largelyof specialists who direct and discipline their own performance throughorganized feedback from colleagues, customers, and headquarters" (p. Sullivan says the real essenceof Japanese managing is the use of power in service to society. 5) The Japanese manager does not speak the international language ofBusiness - English.Yamashita says that the three management imperatives for the Japanese arerecognition, rationality, and innovation (pp. Japanese Confucianism has several distinct themes:1) the human being regarded with respect and dignity; 2) the values ofharmony; 3) righteousness and the acts of righteous individuals in aframework of loyalty; and 4) the morally superior person who leads byexample and is devoted to the other Confucian values. 4) The Japanese manager has little grasp of creativity. Growth was rapid so that by 19 Japan's capital industries had reached a level of technology comparable tothat of the West (Prestowitz, pp. (Prestowitz, 1988, p. 12-17). The Civil War becamethe impetus for the foundation of a consistent, centralized system of lawsand commerce and a solid industrial base. Japanese management: A study in stagnation. In the early 198 s, thepopular myth held that America would lead the world into the"postindustrial age" and that in the future American competitive strengthwould be based on service industries. Confucian ethics and Japanese management practices. Industrial Management, pp. J. Lareau (1991) finds that the American system is based in part on acertain American arrogance stretching back to the Revolutionary War period,which heightened the belief that America was special. Sullivan (1992) points out that Japanese management philosophiesemerge from both ancient traditions of thought in Japan and from the post-World War II thinking of business elites. The Japanese have asystem that is centrally controlled and directed, while the American systememphasizes the idea of the entrepreneur and of individual action andachievement, with no government control beyond regulation for fairness anda level playing field. 9). Japanese management philosophies. However, after World war II the West came to think of Japan as adeveloping country, and this attitude ignored the reality of the level thecountry had reached before the war when it was already one of the world'sleading industrial and military powers. (1992, Winter). Thiscould mean that the move to adopt many Japanese approaches, such as qualitycircles, the team concept, and so on, are doomed to failure because they donot fit the American context: The crux of the situation is that the United States and Japan have fundamentally different understandings of the purposes and workings of a national economy.
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