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Japanese Management Techniques

Japanese management and decision-making techniques have shown a great deal of success in recent years. In contrast with the American style, Japanese management places more focus on the people within the organization than on the organization itself. Also in contrast with the American way, Japanese decision-making is considered to be a responsibility of the group rather than that of a single individual. One area in which these factors have had particularly strong success is that of long-term planning. Because of the managerial concern for people, the average Japanese employee is hired for a lifetime. In addition, because they share the communal interests of the group as a whole, Japanese managers tend to work on goals which emphasize the long-term growth of their companies (Sheldon & Kleiner, 1990, May/June, p. 17). This way of thinking is sharply contrasted with that of most managers in the United States. As noted by one commentator, American managers generally suffer from "too much short-term thinking" (Oka, 191, August 8, p. 8). This helps explain why many Japanese firms grow and prosper over the years while many of their U.S. counterparts are experiencing failure within the first few years of operation.

Japanese management has been described as having a "holistic concern for people" (Sheldon & Kleiner, 1990, May/June, p. 19). All aspects of the employees' lives, both on and off the job, are taken into consideration during long-term planning by management. The Western approach to planning is quite different. Whereas Japanese managers are concerned with the "soft S's" (staff, skill and style), managers in the U.S. focus on the "hard S's" (strategy, structure and systems) (p. 19). According to the American way of thinking, the people within the organization are on their own. They must strive to make their own way and are expected to climb up the corporate ladder on the basis of their own individual achievements. Thus,...

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Japanese Management Techniques. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:45, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1705051.html