ollowing page. Lifetime employment, non special ized career paths, and a wholistic concern are the characteris tics of Japanese management which are most often emphasized in American management literature favorable to Japanese management techniques. While these characteristics are important, others may be of greater significance in explaining the success of Japanese firms. These other characteristics which may better explain the success of Japanese management are (1) an emphasis on the small sections within an organization, which are often referred to as building blocks, (2) an ability and a willing ness to form special project teams, and (3) less structure
and flatter hierarchies in organizations.
Summary Comparison of Japanese and American
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Factor or Japanese American
Philosophy Orientation Orientation
Employment Lifetime Short term
Personnel evalu Slow Rapid
Career paths Non specialized Specialized
Control Implicit Explicit
Decision Collective Individual
Responsibility Collective Individual
Organizational Wholistic Segmented
Managerial Small group Individual
emphasis manager
Participation Quality circles Management by
objectives
Project teams Used extensively Used sparingly
Structure Low High
Hierarchy Flat tendencies Tall tendencies
(Ouchi 58; Peters, and Waterman 126 127, 133, 269 270; Pascale, and Athos 28 57, 116 149)
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Oppos...