Organizational behavior can be studied across cultures and regardless of the country in which a company is based. However, it is important to understand that companies operating in any given culture are likely to have common denominators among them, and differences when compared to companies based in other cultures. The differences between American and Japanese companies with regard to organizational behavior stretch across the entire spectrum of issues that organizational behavior encompasses. In some cases, the differences are diametrically opposed, while in other instances, companies take a similar approach to solving problems that are likely to arise in any organization. Although generalities are sometimes difficult to draw across an entire nation's industrial sector, some observations are possible with regard to the general approach that Japanese and American companies take with regard to organizational behavior.
Organizational behavior covers a broad range of issues in any company. These issues include the company's overriding mission, the way in which it conducts business, how employees are brought into the organization, how they are inculturated in the company, and how they are promoted within or encouraged to leave the organization. Japanese and American companies have solved the problems associated with organizational behavior in different ways, in large part due to the differences associated with the societies at large. The Japanese approach to organizational structure cannot be imported wholesale into American companies, and American management styles and techniques cannot be imposed on Japanese organizations without causing considerable disruption and a loss of productivity.
For American businessmen trying to conduct business with Japanese companies, an understanding of their approach to business is key to success. A similar understanding is necessary from the other direction if the relationship is to be trul...