Japanese Culture In Management

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“To some management thinkers in Europe and the U.S.A. , the overwhelming need of Japanese managers is for management principles and knowledge applicable to Oriental cultural tradition. There are few who would today seek major changes in Japanese culture to adapt the culture known to management principles . . . In Industrial relations, Japanese feel an impending need of guidance. The labor move- ment and growing competition appear to be the chief factors inciting recognition of these needs. From the western industrialized nations, such guidance is sought, but the Westerners organizations , are able only to teach them Western management…show more content…
Although it must now be clear that socio-cultural factors that work within the firm greatly affect management style, management practices and the contents of the operating policies, this should not preclude top management from drawing up company policies and objectives, designing strategic plans, organizing, formulating operating policies, controlling operations, etc. We can see, therefore, that some principles remain the same. A major effect which the cultural value system has, for instance, on the external environment is the ability to attract the best talent to either join firms or to start new businesses. In the United States , professional managers and business entrepreneurs are given a high social status well above that given to government employees. In most other countries, more so in underdeveloped countries, the more pronounced effect is that of business managers being accorded a lower status than that given to those in most other…show more content…
Development, by definition, means change, and the most important aspect of change is neither economic nor technological but the change in people. And, change in people ultimately means change in the culture, in the attitudes, in the value system. Hence, as a country industrializes, most of the socio-cultural factors included will undergo change. Again, it is important to anticipate these when setting long-range goals and making long-term plans. An individual country, with its culture, is one arbitrary political unit that is a subsystem of the total international system. It is an arbitrary unit because there are very few nations-states that are culturally unique – there are other nations with the same cultural base as theirs. And, very few nations have a homogeneous culture – there are usually one or more minority groups that maintain subcultures. To a large extent, however, each country supports a separate culture and amid other cultures, and these interact and affect each other. Corollarily, an individual firm, which is an arbitrary economic unit (a subsystem within the national economic system) , can develop its own
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