Japanese management stresses long-term growth over short-term profitability. It commits to collective well being over the pursuit of individual success.
Its philosophy stems from the unique culture of Japanese companies as government interventions and state planning.
Japanese organisation appear oppressive and authoritarian regimes that leave workers little option other than to conform and perform to very high standards.
Lifetime-employment leads to a tight labour market with poor job prospects for the majority of workers.
Many academics researched Japanese management. Each author stresses similar but slightly variating elements to its approach. Overlapping beliefs are that the Japanese success stems from:
involvement and commitment of the entire workforce
a set of internally consistent norms, practices, and behaviours based on trust and strong ties between employee and organisation
practices such as lifetime employment, slow evaluation and promotion, and collective decision-making
the belief that workers want to build cooperative and close working relationships
Cheung et al. (2013) lists the core to the Japanese Approach via a set of personnel practices and policies:
Core policies and principles aimed to offer a sense of security, strong commitment to hard work and improvement, an atmosphere of cooperation rather than conflict, and a belief in self-development and improvement.
lifetime employment: Many employees are recruited straight out of school or university. Both employer and employee expect to work their entire working life at the same company.
Internal labour market: Most positions are filled from inside the company. Eliminating potential tension which can originate from recruiting outsiders.
Seniority-based promotion and reward systems: Employees are ranked and rewarded - primarily - for their length of service. Independent from of the precise nature of their job.
Teamwork and bonding: Japanese employees are first and foremost member of a particular team over the organisation. The group is constructed in a way that it compromises a single entity which takes collective responsibility for its performance.
Enterprise unions: Japanese companies only allow one union to represent the interests of the workforce. Japanese unions tend to be single-company or enterprise unions.
Training and education: Extensive and continuous training and eduction form an integral part of Japanese personnel policies. Organisations emphasise the continuous development of employees. Much of the training is done on the job and geared to both improve organisational performance as individual development.
Company welfarism: Wide range of welfare benefits are offered. Varying from medical services to education for children.
Long-term planning: The timescales in which Japanese organisations operate are far longer then their Western companions. Their focus is on building strong market positions over short-term profits.
Ringi system: A procedure in which proposals for new policies, procedures or expenditure are circulated throughout the firm for comment. Proposal circulates in written form to all who might be affected if it were to be implemented. In ascending order of seniority. Only when all agree, the proposal is implemented. This causes Japanese to be slow in their decision making, but to be famous in getting it right the first time.
Timeliness: The Japanese are competitive in their ability to develop products and bring them to market faster then their competitors. Partly is this explained by their teamwork, working on activities simultaneously. Additionally, they adopted a set of practices to reduce manufacturing lead time. For example: just-in-time manufacturing.
Quality: Japanese have a strong commitment to quality. Using Kaizen for continuous improvement.
Change management: Their approach to change is slow, but with wide-spread support and clear understanding of what's required.
Based on three factors: