 | This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic.(July 2012) |
Japanese management culture refers to working philosophies or methods in Japan. It included concepts and philosophies such as just in time, kaizen and total quality management.
The Japanese term "hourensou" (also rendered as "Ho-Ren-So") refers to frequent reporting, touching base and discussing – important attributes that are said to characterize collaboration and information flow within effective Japanese corporate culture. Hou' stands for 'Houkoku', the Japanese word for 'reporting'. 'Ren' comes from 'Renraku', the word for 'informing'. 'Sou' is derived from 'Soudan', the word for 'consulting'. refers to "getting your hands dirty", to identify or solve immediate problems and leaders are not exempt from this. [1] Aspects of these principles are often mistaken by western managers as "micromanagement". [1] In contrast, these principles are used as tools to shepherd processes.
Mohammed Ala and William Cordeiro (1999) described the Japanese decision-making process of "ringiseido". "Ringiseido" provides the opportunity for equal ranking managers or employees of a group within a company to partake in an individual's idea. The process adheres to the Japanese cultural desire of harmony among people. The physical action of "ringiseido" is referred to as the "ringi decision-making process." It fosters an environment of support and agreement for a decision once a higher ranking manager has reviewed and accepted the recommended decision. [2]
The term of "ringi" has two meanings. The first meaning being of "rin", 'submitting a proposal to one's supervisors and receiving their approval,' and "gi" meaning 'deliberations and decisions.' Corporate policy is not clearly defined by the executive leadership of a Japanese company. Rather, the managers at all levels below executives must raise decisions to the next level except for routine decisions. The process of "ringi decision-making" is conducted through a document called a "ringisho". [3]
The "ringisho" is created and circulated by the individual who created the idea. As the "ringisho" reaches a peer for review, the peer places his or her "personal seal (hanko) right side up" to agree, "upside down" to disagree, and sideways to indicate being undecided. Once all peers have reviewed the "ringisho" the peers' manager reviews the "ringisho" and places his or her hanko on it. The upper level manager's decision is final and the "ringisho" is sent back to the originator who either initiates the idea or re-evaluates, based on the "hanko" of the upper level manager. [3]
Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos suggested in The Art of Japanese Management (1981) that western business practices lacked "vision", which they identified as one of the "key components of Japanese management". [4] Yang refers to "long-term vision setting" as a different process from "long-range planning". [5]
Tony Kippenberger (2002) elaborates on the leadership values that are deeply rooted in the Japanese business culture. These values were created by Konosuke Matsushita, the prominent deceased entrepreneur of Matsushita's Electric Company, who cared deeply for the employees of his company as if they were family. Matsushita firmly believed that a business as large as his was responsible to help all of society prosper, and not simply for those that owned and ran the company to prosper.
In 1933 Matsushita, during the great depression, created seven "guiding principles": [6]
The "guiding principles" were "remarkable for their time". The seven principles are used by Matsushita's company today and serve as principles for other Japanese companies. Because the "guiding principles" are such powerful statements and an extension of the Japanese cultural into business, the principles have been renamed the "Seven Spirits of Matsushita" to honor Matsushita. [7]
In smaller companies, an entirely different corporate culture developed. Similar to the Meister system of Germany, new recruits are placed under skilled senior specialists and spend years learning every technique that they have. They are trained to develop deeper understanding of specific areas of skills instead of the broader and less deep training that those in a larger corporation receive. They learn to produce work of high quality using few simple tools and few or no advanced industrial tools.
As the modern cultures of the world continue to evolve, cultural concepts either lose presence or evolve with the modern concepts. Japan is experiencing such an evolution in regard to women in the workplace and in management roles. While a main reason for this evolution is the adoption of western influence on Japanese society, Japan is being forced to support this evolution because it is grappling with a declining population and lower birth rate which will lead to a smaller workforce.
According to "Cloud, or Silver Linings?" published in the Economist (2007), it was reported that in 2006 Japan's birth rate was 1.32 and has been below 2.1 since the 1970s. A birthrate of 2.1 is necessary to successfully maintain current population numbers. The article described that the OECD has proven there is a "positive correlation between fertility and female employment." Thus, if an effort is made to support females work ambitions and family desires, then women will be more willing and likely to want to have children and families and not have to sacrifice their career in the process. Japanese officials are not taking this information lightly. During his last year in office, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2002–2007) began legislation to foster "financial support for families with young children and an expansion of child-care facilities (p. 27). [8]
Management is the administration of organizations, whether they are a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administration respectively. It is the science of managing the resources of businesses, governments, and other organizations.
A chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest officer charged with the management of an organization – especially an independent legal entity such as a company or nonprofit institution.
In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization operates. Strategic management provides overall direction to an enterprise and involves specifying the organization's objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve those objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the plans. Academics and practicing managers have developed numerous models and frameworks to assist in strategic decision-making in the context of complex environments and competitive dynamics. Strategic management is not static in nature; the models can include a feedback loop to monitor execution and to inform the next round of planning.
John Paul Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School, an author, and the founder of Kotter International, a management consulting firm based in Seattle and Boston. He is a thought leader in business, leadership, and change.
Quality management ensures that an organization, product or service consistently functions well. It has four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality management, therefore, uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality. Quality control is also part of quality management. What a customer wants and is willing to pay for it, determines quality. It is a written or unwritten commitment to a known or unknown consumer in the market. Quality can be defined as how well the product performs its intended function.
In Search of Excellence is a book written by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr. First published in 1982, it sold three million copies in its first four years, and was the most widely held monograph in the United States from 1989 to 2006. The book explores the art and science of management used by several companies in the 1980s.
Design management is a field of inquiry that uses project management, design, strategy, and supply chain techniques to control a creative process, support a culture of creativity, and build a structure and organization for design. The objective of design management is to develop and maintain an efficient business environment in which an organization can achieve its strategic and mission goals through design. Design management is a comprehensive activity at all levels of business, from the discovery phase to the execution phase. "Simply put, design management is the business side of design. Design management encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications, environments, and brands that enhance our quality of life and provide organizational success." The discipline of design management overlaps with marketing management, operations management, and strategic management.
The concept of operational excellence was first introduced in the early 1970s by Dr. Joseph M. Juran while teaching Japanese business leaders how to improve quality. It was formalized in the United States in the 1980s in response to "the crisis" among large companies whose market share was shrinking due to quality goods imported from Japan.
James C. "Jim" Collins is an American researcher, author, speaker and consultant focused on the subject of business management and company sustainability and growth.
Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms with labour, capital and product markets. A professional focus of the journal Business Economics has been expressed as providing "practical information for people who apply economics in their jobs."
The Toyota Way is a set of principles defining the organizational culture of Toyota Motor Corporation. The company formalized the Toyota Way in 2001, after decades of academic research into the Toyota Production System and its implications for lean manufacturing as a methodology that could be adopted by other organizations. The two pillars of the Toyota Way are respect for people and continuous improvement. The philosophy was popularized by Jeffrey K. Liker in his 2004 book, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. Subsequent research has explored the extent to which the Toyota Way can be applied in other contexts.
Organizational ethics is the ethics of an organization, and it is how an organization responds to an internal or external stimulus. Organizational ethics is interdependent with the organizational culture. Although it is to both organizational behavior and industrial and organizational psychology as well as business ethics on the micro and macro levels, organizational ethics is neither organizational behavior nor industrial and organizational psychology, nor is it solely business ethics. Organizational ethics express the values of an organization to its employees and/or other entities irrespective of governmental and/or regulatory laws.
Principles for Responsible Investment is a United Nations-supported international network of financial institutions working together to implement its six aspirational principles, often referenced as "the Principles". Its goal is to understand the implications of sustainability for investors and support signatories to facilitate incorporating these issues into their investment decision-making and ownership practices. In implementing these principles, signatories contribute to the development of a more sustainable global financial system.
Change management is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change. It includes methods that redirect or redefine the use of resources, business process, budget allocations, or other modes of operation that significantly change a company or organization.
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values than simply economic ones.
A celebrity board director is an officer with significant influence in the company's governance decision-making process and who possesses one or more celebrity traits including credibility, goodwill, rights, image, influence, liability, and standard of value. A director's leadership and decision-making affects the governance and wealth maximization of shareholders’ wealth.
The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by business consultants Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and Tom Peters and Professors Anthony Athos of Harvard and Richard Pascale of Stanford. Robert Waterman and Tom Peters also developed the MBWA-- "Management By Walking Around" motif,and authored In Search of Excellence) in the 1980s. Athos and Pascale authored The Art of Japanese Management in 1980 where the model was also introduced and focused on a Japanese company and an American company. The model was a strategic vision for groups, to include businesses, business units, and teams. The 7 S's model was originally superordinate goals surrounded by six other S's, i.e., structure, strategy, systems, skills, style, staff. Superordinate goals was later changed to shared values.
Narcissistic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is only interested in him/herself. Their priority is themselves – at the expense of their people/group members. This leader exhibits the characteristics of a narcissist: arrogance, dominance and hostility. It is a sufficiently common leadership style that it has acquired its own name. Narcissism is most often described as unhealthy and destructive. It has been described as "driven by unyielding arrogance, self-absorption, and a personal egotistic need for power and admiration".
Abraham Zaleznik (1924–2011) was a leading scholar and teacher in the field of organizational psychodynamics and the psychodynamics of leadership.
Richard Tanner Pascale, born 1938, is an academic, management theorist and business advisor. He was based at Stanford Business School for 20 years and is currently (2020) an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. The Economist magazine has named him "one of the leading management gurus of the past 50 years".
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . Country Studies. Federal Research Division. – Japan 
