japan company

Japanese Management
Abstract

As we know, Japan’s economy, situation, and condition was totally destroyed during the World War II. But
surpassingly, Japan now become one of the powerful countries in the world especially in the economic in
only took for less than fifty years. This the reason why I choose this topic. In this Paper we will look at how
are the Japanese managing their company that is one of the key of their success in the business. Also I will
comparing the Japanese way with what the western country way of how to manage. The possibility of us
in putting in the Japanese Theory in our (western) world are also discussed in this paper.












1.0. INTRODUCTION
As we know, Japan had a very amazing growth in economy in the 70’s and 80’s. We remembered
that before Japan had this growth, Japan’s economy was really destroyed by the World War Two. Japanese
bounced back from disaster to one of the most powerful countries. Two reasons Japanese firm became so
successful is how h well managed their firms are. They blend their own culture with others in operating
their firms, as a result, they come out with their own unique way of management. They are also successful
in the way they develop their human resources.
The Japanese business and management system is strongly rooted in Japanese culture and
tradition. Japanese have a very unique relationship between institutions and state , between individuals and
the state, and between individuals and individuals. These relationships are linked to culture and traditional
values. The Japanese is a plural homogeneous society. They have varieties of people but instead of
individualism, they tend to form a group and there are no competition between group. They have very good
loyalty in a group. Lee and schwendian wrote in their book," When a Japanese man asked his occupation,
he will usually answer that he is a Sony or Hitachi man, not that he is an accountant, sales person, or
business manager. (Japanese Management, 1982. pp 9). The Japanese also tend to look a non-Japanese as
an outsider. They will treated non Japanese differently until they are learned how Japanese culture works.
The Japanese often refer to their nation as our country (waga ku!
ni) and non Japanese as outside people (gaijin). (Lee and Schwendiman, 1982. pp. 7). In the Japanese
psyche is a concept of inside (uchi) and outside (soto) that not only defines one’s membership, in a group
but determines how one speaks to and interact with others. (Iwata 1977, pp. 60-65).
1.1. CULTURE INFLUENCE
The Japanese have a very unique culture. They are good at mixing other cultures with their own. As a result
of this blending, they come out with their own identity. China was the most importantly influenced.
Buddhist and Confucian philosophy are the basic framework the Japanese use to develop their way of
thinking. Buddhist was contributing the way of life. The Confucian taught the Japanese about traditional
value, external values, and harmony within the society, while at the same time emphasizing the collective
aspect of the social order. These systems are the most important thoughts of Japanese management system.
The Japanese used these influences to reject individualism. They prefer the natural order represented by
people living in human community, rather than by individual living in the state of nature.
Even though Japanese culture had a lot of influence by others, Japanese still use their own culture
to develop their management system. One of the Japanese traditional values is the samurai. Samurais are a
leader in a society. They have three codes: first, giri, social obligation, second, on, the concept of
benevolence and thus obligation to the lesser status, third, ninjo, a human felling- a kind of tolerance for
human nature. These three characteristics are known as the code of ethics in a professional’s life. Beside
these three, samurai are also known for the loyalty to their landlord. Today’s Japanese dedicate their life to
a corporation for their work. These system in their society are well known and apparently will be used as
long as this form of elitism justified itself through legitimate behavior.
Japanese firms used ringi-sei to make a decision regarding firm decisions. Ringi-sei is a document
circulated from the bottom levels of management to the top, and requires the signature of each manager at
each level involved before a decision can be implemented. The top managers only act as a facilitator to the
lower management, and if the decision is made then the upper management will look at whether it is proper
or not. These systems of decision making will allow everybody to participate in a organization.
The classical Asian assumption about seniority and age are the main influence in Japanese
management. The juniors management are always learned and they have to respect the senior management.
They must trusted the senior management just like the son to their father. In term, the Senior management
have a responsibility to give their knowledge and leaned younger guy. The upper managers have a big
responsibility for their subordinates. Therefore, the upper managers have a freedom in hiring them and
encouraged them to reach higher productivity. To have a successful career the junior management have to
learned everything . There is no fast track. Everybody will get promotion in time. Subordinates look up to
the seniors. This maintains the relationship very well.
2.0. Management Japanese System
The beginning of this paper, Japanese used traditional values as a codes to manage their firm.
These system can be summarized books: Theory Z (ouchi), Organized of Management (Yamagata) and The
Art of Japanese Management (Pascale and Athos). From these three books we find that Japanese
management style emphasized the group rather than individual, emphasized on human rather than
functional relationship and a view of top as generalist and facilitators rather than as a decision makers.
Japanese society tends to live in groups. This kind of style also is reflected in corporation life. If
someone works in a corporation than he or she will felt sense of belonging. He or she will devote his or her
life to corporation. In this group, he or she will work as a unit to achieve corporation goals. Akiro Morita,
the president of Sony Corporation, once said his firm is a ship. Every person on this ship shares the same
fate. If one falters and causes the ship to sink, all will suffer (Morita, 1981). The President of Nippon,
describing the differences between America and Japanese management , said that, while a U.S. corporation
is regarded as a cold, impersonal economic unit, the Japanese unit is regarded as a community with a
common destiny (Japanese Managers 1977, p. 130).
The second important thing in Japanese management is emphasized on human rather than on
functional relationship. Japanese firm’s believe in how important human factor is for a corporation.
Therefore, they emphasize in individuals relationship. These are very important since a firm is viewed as
one big family. If there is a conflict in the firm, than it must be solved in a way so that one is humiliated.
The last important thing in Japanese management is a view of top managers as generalist and
facilitators rather than a decision makers. In a Japanese firm top managers are the ones that have already
worked a long time. They already know about the firm and have experience. The important job for the
managers is to become a facilitator and a generalist for subordinates to make a decision. A problem will be
solved in a group and tend to be a consensus. Perhaps the most widely discussed of Japanese management
is consensus or participate decision making. Such decision making modes have received considerable
attention by scholars. They conclude that a consensus approach, as compared with individual decision
making, often yields decisions that are more creative and that can be implemented more effectively (Ouchi
1981, p.43).
3.0. Practices and Process on Human Resource Management
Another important reason Japanese firms have been successful are, they have developed the
human resource very well. Japanese firms know that they have a limited resources except human resource.
Therefore, the only way to support these limited resources is they have to developed human resource.
3.1. Recruitment
The Japanes...