Japanese management culture

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A portrait of Mutō Sanji who brought familism to Japanese management.

The Japanese management culture is a management style that is widely used in Japan , especially in economically unstable times with a high level of appreciation for employees and production techniques, derived from Japanese life and work philosophies and methods. This Japanese style of leadership in management has strong parallels to the Japanese leadership , which also called Leadership is known.

Japanese management culture as a leadership style

First of all, it should be clarified that the Japanese management culture and thus the leadership style is based on theory Z , so it can be assumed that factors such as identification with the company and motivation of employees are always treated in style. In contrast to the US methods, which are designed for individuality and independence, the Japanese leadership methods are more related to group work and the exchange of ideas.

The communication between management and employees in Japan is an important factor with a famous quote from Akio Morita to be explained:

"A company will get nowhere if all thinking is left to management."

- Original by Morita Akio, Thorsten Petry

Japanese companies assume that people have the ability to achieve great developments with personal development and want to use this to create benefits for their own company. Matsushita Kōnosuke , best known for founding the company Matsushita Electric Industrial , later renamed Panasonic Corporation , created five of the later (1937) seven core principles in 1933 during the Great Depression of the 1930s , which also affected Japan. Seven Principles "(German seven core principles) have become known.

These core principles shape the Japanese leadership style to this day:

  1. Contribution to society
  2. Fairness and honesty
  3. Cooperation and team spirit
  4. Relentless efforts to improve
  5. Courtesy and humility
  6. adaptability
  7. gratitude

Methods

Based on the core principles, the following methods are used in Japanese companies based on management:

Hōrensō

The Japanese term Hōrensō ( 報 ・ 連 ・ 相 in other romanization Hourensou ) stands for a management style in which employees, in the event of a problem in the company, report the problem to the supervisor or the organizational department and should not keep it to themselves. This is to lead the employees to discuss problems and not to believe they have to deal with them on their own. To avoid confusion with the Japanese word for spinach , the spelling Ho – Ren – So is also used; here the Hō stands for “Hōkoku” ( 報告 ; German report ), Ren for “Renraku” ( 連絡 ; German contact ) and Sō for “Sōdan” ( 相 談 ; German advice ). Thus, the acronym Ho – Ren – So would theoretically be translated into German as report – contact – advice and hereby also describe the process of reporting the problem, contacting the supervisor and the subsequent discussion or assistance. These three attributes characterize the resulting collaboration and the flow of information in the effective organizational culture . This management style is considered suitable for factory workers who work with complex machines, engineers and managers .

Genchi Genbutsu

Under Genchi Genbutsu ( 現地現物 ) refers to the style of leadership in which one goes (the management / the supervisor) to the root of a concern or problem to derive necessary information for correct decisions, and then achieved the goals in an optimal speed become. In a nutshell , Genchi Genbutsu is translated, for example, as “gain knowledge yourself on site”. This leadership style is based on one of Toyota's five guiding principles , popularly known as The Toyota Way .

Ringi Seido or Ringisei

With Ringi Seido ( 稟議制度 ) or Ringisei ( 稟議制 ) refers to a Japanese decision-making process , the possible starting from a subject based on group decisions.

Criteria with comparison to the American leadership style

In order to give an overview of the system of the Japanese management style, the basic criteria are listed in alphabetical order below. The origin is defined in order to clarify the factors influencing the management culture that has been created. In addition, a comparison to the American leadership style is shown for a better illustration in relation to other styles .

criteria JapanJapan japanese style United StatesUnited States American style
Employment system
  • As the only known country in the world, Japan practices the so-called simultaneous recruiting of university graduates ( 新 卒 一 括 採用 ; Shinsotsu Ikkatsu Saiyō ), which always plans to hire new staff on April 1st of each year. According to a 2014 study by Mynavi , 80% of graduate students had a problem entering the world of work because of the difficulty of finding employment because of tough competition.
  • The concept Shūshin Koyō ( 終身 雇用 - or in German the lifelong employment ) begins with the simultaneous recruitment of university graduates, ends with retirement and offers the employee a job security with which the loyalty to the company should be advertised. According to Shūshin Koyō in Japan for a long time , some companies started to discard the concept since the financial crisis in 2007 .
  • Finally, there is the Nenko system or age-wage system ( 年 功 序列 ; Nenkō Joretsu ), in which the remuneration is rated higher according to a ranking list in which the placement towards retirement is higher.
  • As a special form, it should also be mentioned that the employer can only employ union members via a Union Shop clause and not members who must, however, register for the union within a certain period of 30 to 90 days after the start of the employment relationship.

All these points are intended to create a harmony for the employees in cooperation with themselves and with management by trying to bind the employees to the company and, if necessary, to keep them busy for their entire professional life.

  • While the Japanese tend to stay with a company for a lifetime according to the definitions , American managers mostly gain experience abroad and switch to companies that want to strengthen their international position.
  • In addition, American managers are more loyal to themselves than to the company they work for, because they switch companies as soon as a better offer is available.
Business-to-business
  • As in Germany, there is cross-shareholding in Japan , whereby companies support each other with the same percentage of shares and are therefore strategically oriented. This system was introduced after foreign investors bought Japanese stocks in the 1960s as a defense against inflation . Cross-shareholdings result in alliances of companies, but the companies are becoming highly dependent on one another, because since 2004 there have been the first slumps that have dragged down some profitable companies because of cross-shareholdings with at least one extremely low-income company. This method then met with sharp criticism from abroad. The superiors of the Japanese companies, however, count cross-participation as part of their management culture and describe it as profitable because it is part of their corporate governance . 50% of the voting rights in Japanese companies should go to 2.1% of certain shareholders , which means that changing this method is considered difficult to implement anyway.

In conclusion, it can be said that the Japanese business-to-business on the stock market, through group work with cohesion in the sense of cross-participation, acts as part of the Japanese management culture.

In contrast to Japanese group work and the cohesion it creates on the stock market, the United States is more competitive. Some corporations even hold shares in companies that compete with one another.
The market
  • The English terminology Administrative Guidance (Gyōsei-Shidō - 行政 指導 ) is a Japanese bureaucratic leadership style that aroused the interest of students through the Japanese mass media in the 1960s and has therefore been used more frequently over the decades. This management style is about management activities based on the management, aimed at specific target groups, without being legally bound and interpreting these activities as administrative goals adapted to the target group. Although there is no legislation for this, they must not contradict Japanese law to be understandable. This loosens the bureaucracy in the company and ensures flexibility of the management.
  • Mainly in the period 1960 to 1980 , the so-called Gosōsen-dan Hōshiki ( 護送 船 団 方式 ; also known as the convoy system or convoy capitalism ) was used in Japan . The term convoy (English for convoy ) is used to explain "accompanying" for protective measures that metaphorically refer to ships or vehicles - which if a unit fails considerately wait until that unit has recovered. By “accompanying”, in the context of the market, one refers to the government that wants to protect the existence of economic growth. This system is also the reason for dealing with problems of economic stagnation caused by the bursting of the speculative bubble in the early 1990s .

On the basis of these points it can be said that management can be largely flexible in its activities , but can be limited depending on government intervention.

The state hardly ever intervenes in the market, leaving companies with enormous trading leeway, with the confidence that the individual protects himself for the most part in times of crisis, for example through savings. Management can thus centralize entrepreneurial interests which the government could not prevent by intervening in the overall market, but only because this intervening rarely or not at all.
Decision-making process
 This is where the Ringi seido method is used, which runs bottom-up . Due to the complexity of this procedure, this method requires a longer time and is therefore strategically designed, but leads to the collective involvement of the employees in the decisions that make up the consensus , which compensates for the time lost in the subsequent fulfillment. In contrast to the Japanese style, the top-down method dominates in US companies.
Familism
  • The Japanese democratic , egalitarian , emotional and social matriarchy , as the family order of the rice farmers is described up to the year 300 , separated its village members according to age and gender. This past order in Japanese villages based on the rice farmers shows similarities to today's Japanese management culture. In our day and age, Japanese companies apodictically divide workers based on gender, new recruits from longer-term workers, and living in company-owned bachelor apartments.
  • With the influence of the samurai and Confucianism , the following system Ie ( 家 ; house ) emerged. Ie is described as a household in which blood relatives, members by marriage, or adopted members of the family live together. Here, the male head determines the personal interests of the individual family members, which are subject to the domestic interests. According to this system, family members should live together in harmony, behave loyally and decently, pay tribute to their ancestors and teach Ie to the following generations. The social identity of the individual was thus shaped by the belonging to the house.
  • During the Meiji period (1868 to 1912), the family harmony intended to serve the emperor was transferred to the Japanese state as an ideal. During this period, industrialization began , with poor working conditions triggering increased fluctuation and strikes. This ultimately led to a shortage of qualified workers and the Ie concept was now also included in the Japanese management style, which was previously not used in management. The person responsible for the introduction in Japanese management was Mutō Sanji , who was concerned that a planned adaptation to the western management style would bring the Japanese management into conflict with the workforce, since a nationwide establishment of a European-oriented workers' association, which was described as radical would represent a destruction of the values ​​of Japanese familism. Sanji suggested the workers' unions adopt a paternalistic leadership style (in the form of Ie ) towards the workers, which was approved.

The resulting form of paternalism ensures that the employees under the "tutelage" do not regularly make their own decisions in the company and are subordinate to a hierarchy.

The "American" follows personalism with his freedom of individuality .
Disclosure of Information
  • The Japanese economy was controlled by a small number of banks , keiretsu , noble families, or zaibatsu during industrialization in the Meiji period . During the course of the Meiji restoration , these replaced each other, so that, for example, the Zaibatsu replaced the Keiretsu.
  • After World War II , Japan grew into a significant part of the global economy , which has been in deflation since the early 1990s due to the bursting of the speculative bubble . Due to the weakening of the yen and the collapse of the Japanese stock exchange , the six largest banks in the world were no longer Japanese from the end of 1998, as they were before. This slump led to a reorganization of the accounting for the Japanese banking system, which wants to cooperate better with the companies. Japanese banks have direct access to their clients' accounting information and therefore have little interest in external financial reporting. Shareholders, including banks, tend to want private accounting information and vote in annual meetings with management of the respective companies.

Large Japanese companies, while orienting themselves to the principles of proper accounting from a strategic point of view, are strongly influenced by the banking sector . Information is disclosed more privately between the credit institution and the company. The companies also share the accounting information with the employees, as these belong to closed trade unions and thus private communication, so to speak, is maintained.

  • After the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol , more and more companies began to make environmental assessments available to the public. As part of the environmental balance sheet, some companies also published information on internal social and economic activities. In 2002, 650 Japanese companies took part in this publication, 187 of which published the environmental balance sheet with an addendum - and the trend is rising. Since the growing popularity of information disclosure in Japanese companies, management has become increasingly interested in improving environmental performance. This should be achieved by structuring environmental protection and a higher income for employees with a win-win strategy . This also improves the company's public image . This part of management is also referred to as environmental management , which has to take into account that there is a considerable gap between “actual performance” and “expected performance” in the decision-making process in the environmental balance sheet.

In summary, it should be mentioned that both private and public communication is operated by management.

In the United States, this is a bit more specific, because there, in addition, differences in salaries have to be published based on these balance sheets.

Japanese style abstract

The Japanese management is oriented towards the long term, i.e. strategically in its actions. Collective decisions are prepared and made with employees to build a consensus, also with other companies. This means that decisions are made rather slowly, but refer to a variety of opinions, which describes the cohesion through group work. With the trend of disclosing information about public communication to the Japanese people, management hopes to be able to represent the company with a better image. Nevertheless, a paternalistic hierarchy is created in the company.

Smaller businesses

In smaller Japanese companies, a different style of management developed, which is based on the German model, but is not identical to the division of employees into career opportunities in the form of championship titles . In the Japanese education system and on the Japanese labor market, there is no subdivision according to professional qualifications and state certifications for technical competencies are not given; therefore there are no recognized qualifications. This service required for the labor market is therefore created internally in companies. As a rule, there is no definition of a specific area of ​​activity, which means that training to become a generalist in the company is achieved. This internal training leads to an individual adjustment in the establishment of the company, which means that another company regards these internally achieved qualifications as unacceptable. Employees collect their internally applicable qualifications by being deployed in various areas or activities of a company using the " training on the job " concept. The time until the theoretical completion of “training on the job” varies in trade, such as with the “ sushi chef”, with up to 15 years for men, which ultimately also results in gender differences.

It is said that in-company training strengthens flexibility in the deployment of work within the company, but almost prevents the mobility of workers on the labor market. In the form of Shūshin Koyō , a company integrates its employees more closely with a certain degree of dependency in the company.

The Japanese OJT management style of the companies is criticized because it was not adapted to the economic changes of the time by older superiors (to be compared with senior management ) or even seems completely reprehensible. The (older) superiors do not seem to develop any new ideas and cling to their old management culture, which has to face a new generation of knowledge society .

Women in Japanese management

More than 30% of the 500 companies in terms of market capitalization have at least one woman holding a senior management position - in 2013 it was only 23% of the companies. 152 companies have at least one female board member, a total of 192 women, who make up a tiny fraction of 2.6% of the positions. (Status: 2014) This means that women in Japan have a significantly below-average position as managers (in relation to men) compared to the international average of the industrialized countries . Shinzō Abe , the 63rd Prime Minister of Japan , announced as part of his " Abenomics " policy a social improvement in the role of women in Japan, which should increase the attractiveness of the profession with improved childcare. Previously, the then Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi announced in 2003 a nationwide positioning of 30% women in management positions by 2020, which Shinzō Abe included in his "Abenomics" - but the problem is the society in which women in management positions repeatedly because of a sexist “ Corporate culture ”, which is shaped by the familism of Japanese society, must be suppressed. The distribution of tasks in management should also vary according to gender. An equal opportunities office , which exists in Japan with the title Danjo Kyōdō Sankakukyoku ( 男女 共同 参 画 局 ) and debates or makes decisions about the roles of the sexes, announced towards the end of 2015 that a nationwide positioning with 7% by 2021 would be more realistic.

See also

Web links

literature

Since Japanese management culture is a broad subject area, references to various topics are listed:

  • Byron K Marshall: Capitalism and nationalism in prewar Japan; the ideology of the business elite, 1868-1941. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University, Stanford 1967, ISBN 978-0-8047032-5-3 .
  • Dean McFarlin, Paul D. Sweeney: International Management: Strategic Opportunities & Cultural Challenges, Routledge Verlag, Perth 2010, ISBN 978-0-4158029-9-4 .
  • Iris Petzold, Alexander Thomas and Nadja Ringel: Professionally in Japan: Training program for managers, specialists and executives, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-5254906-1-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Byron K Marshall - Capitalism and nationalism in prewar Japan; the ideology of the business elite, 1868–1941 (book), Stanford, Calif., Stanford University (publisher) 1967 edition, pp. 86–87, read January 29, 2017.
  2. ↑ Campus Verlag Japanisches Management In onpulson (German), accessed on January 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ Changing Minds Leadership vs. Management In changingminds.org , accessed January 28, 2017.
  4. ↑ Rainer Müller “Theory X and Theory Y” and Theory Z (4/12) In rainer-mueller.de (German), accessed on January 27, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b JAPAN INTERCULTURAL CONSULTING - taken from Japan Close-Up, on November 19, 2012 HOW TO COPE WITH A MICROMANAGING JAPANESE BOSS In JAPAN INTERCULTURAL CONSULTING , accessed on January 26, 2017.
  6. ↑ Successful leadership in times of the digital economy . In: Digital Leadership . Lots of Lexware. April 14, 2016, p. 59.
  7. ↑ 胡蓉 - Hu Rong, 单 小 海 - Shan Xiaohai and 邓南林 - Deng Nanlin, July 2, 2013 浅谈 日本 的 企业 文化 及 管理 模式 - Overview of Japanese corporate culture and its management model In vanke Weekly (Chinese), accessed on January 27, 2017.
  8. ↑ SCHOLASTIC Pearl Harbor: 1929 The Great Depression In teacher.scholastic.com (English), accessed January 26, 2017.
  9. ^ Tribute website to Matsushita Kōnosuke Biography In konosuke-matsuhita.com (English), accessed on January 26, 2017.
  10. ↑ 1000advices Lessons from Konosuke Matsushita, Panasonic's Founder - 7 Core Principles of Management Philosophy In 1000advices.com , accessed on January 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ a b c Patricia Pringle - Japan Intercultural Consulting, on May 1, 2012 HORENSO - (REPORT, CONTACT AND CONSULT) In JAPAN INTERCULTURAL CONSULTING , last accessed on January 26, 2017.
  12. ↑ Juju Kurihara, January 22, 2015 What is HOURENSOU? In Iromegane.com , last accessed January 26, 2017.
  13. ↑ Manufacturing Terms Genchi genbutsu In Manufacturing Terms , accessed January 26, 2017.
  14. ↑ Toyota - Corporate Philosophy The Toyota Way ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In Toyota (German), accessed on January 26, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.toyota-forklifts.de
  15. ↑ William P., on Friday, January 1, 1999, published in the Business Forum Ringi Management Process In stiltij.nl , accessed on January 26, 2017.
  16. ↑ a b Zhang Yulai ( 张玉 来 ), Institute of Japanese Study, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China, on September 15, 2010: 现代 日本 经济 - Contemporary Economy of Japan (journal); Title: 日本 企业 管理 模式 及其 进化 路径 - The Pattern and Path of the Japanese Management Model (Chinese / English), read on January 27, 2017.
  17. ↑ a b Uploaded by Rahul Bajaj Difference in American and Japanese management style In Scribd , accessed January 27, 2017.
  18. ↑ ReseMom, on Friday, October 17, 2014 at 11:15 a.m. 【大学 と 就職】 8 割 の 企業 が 採用 し な い？ 既 卒 の 就職 活動 の 厳 し い 実 態 In ReseMom (Japanese), accessed on January 27, 2017.
  19. ↑ Jerome Langford Globetrotting HR: Japan - Meet the culture that has a word for 'death by overwork' In HRVILLE , accessed on January 28, 2017.
  20. ↑ HIROKO TABUCHI, May 19, 2009 In Japan, Secure Jobs Have a Cost In The New York Times , accessed January 28, 2017.
  21. ↑ Cross Currents The Seniority Wage System (nenkō joretsu) In Cross Currents , accessed January 28, 2017.
  22. ↑ The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, July 20, 1998 - last updated May 27, 2005 Union shop In mbaskool.com , accessed January 28, 2017.
  23. ↑ Dean McFarlin, Paul D. Sweeney - International Management: Strategic Opportunities & Cultural Challenges (book), Japanese Culture (title), pp. 123 to 125, Routledge Verlag (4th edition, July 22, 2010)
  24. ↑ ARD cross-participation ( memento of the original from January 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In ARD (German), accessed on January 29, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / boerse.ard.de
  25. ↑ a b c d e f g Christopher Nobes and RH Parker - Comparative international accounting (book), Prentice Hall / Financial Times (publisher), 12.2.1 Context of accounting, pp. 258-259, read on January 29, 2017.
  26. ^ The Economist, November 6, 2008 Criss-crossed capitalism In The Economist , accessed January 29, 2017.
  27. ↑ The Economist, March 26, 2016 [www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are-too-high-america-needs-giant-dose-competition-too-much-good-thing Too much of a good thing] In The Economist , accessed January 30, 2017.
  28. ↑ Roshi Shiono, Professor at Tokyo University Administrative Guidance in Japan (Gyosei-Shido) In SAGE Journals , accessed January 30, 2017.
  29. ↑ Tan Jing Yi Germaine, on April 26, 2015 Convoy Capitalism In wiki.nus (English) - based on Schoppa LJ 2006. Race for the Exits, The Unraveling of Japan's System of Social Protection. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, United States . Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  30. ↑ Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Will the USA now also introduce the social market economy? In Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (German), accessed on January 30, 2017.
  31. ↑ Gabe Duverge, on Friday, October 16, 2015, published in Business Administration and Management Top-down vs. Bottom-up Management Styles In Touro University Worldwide , accessed January 28, 2017.
  32. ↑ a b c Iris Petzold, Alexander Thomas and Nadja Ringel - Professionally in Japan: Training program for managers, specialists and executives (book), Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (publisher), December 5th, 2012, pp. 86–87 read on January 28th 2017.
  33. ↑ Jesse Colombo, June 4, 2012 Japan's Bubble Economy of the 1980s In The Bubble Bubble , accessed January 29, 2017.
  34. ^ Clem Chambers, September 19, 2013 Is Japan's Depression A Bad Thing? In Forbes , accessed January 29, 2017.
  35. ↑ Shyam Sunder - The Japanese style of business accounting (book), Westport, Conn. [u. a.] Quorum (Publisher), 1999, Development of Japanese Business Accounting; Labor Market; Corporate Unions, p. 38, read January 29, 2017.
  36. ↑ Embassy of Japan, December 2006 Japan's international cooperation for climate protection - contributions within the scope of official development aid (ODA) In the Embassy of Japan (German), accessed on January 30, 2017.
  37. ↑ a b Dr Chika Saka, School of Business Administration, Kansei Gakuin University, Japan and Roger L Burrit, The Australian National University ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING IN JAPAN - RECENT EVIDENCE In University of South Australia , accessed on January 29, 2017.
  38. ↑ ZEIT ONLINE, August 5, 2015 at 9:40 p.m. US companies must disclose salary differences In Die Zeit (German), accessed on January 30, 2017.
  39. ↑ Duden Meister In Duden (German), accessed on January 26, 2017.
  40. ↑ a b Wolfgang Dorow and Horst Groenewald, on March 13, 2013 - Personnel Management Change in Japan: Social Change in Values ​​and Consequences for Corporate Culture and Employee Management (E-Book), Gabler (Verlag), 2.3 The Erosion of the “Company Social Contract” No. 2, p. 357, read January 28, 2017.
  41. ↑ Sushi course training to become a sushi chef In Sushikurs.eu (German), accessed on January 28, 2017.
  42. ↑ Dr Greg Story, September 28, 2012 at 7:03 am The death of on-the-job training in Japan In Japan Today , accessed January 28, 2017.
  43. ↑ a b c JIJI, July 9, 2014 Number of women in Japan Inc. upper management rises, but still far below global average In The Japan Times , accessed January 27, 2017.
  44. ↑ KOJIMA Akira, World Trade Center Tokyo, Inc., August 26, 2014 The Abenomics Growth Strategy Enters the Implementation Stage In Japan Foreign Policy Forum , accessed January 27, 2017.
  45. ^ A b Sylvia Ann Hewlett, September 27, 2013 What's Holding Japanese Women Back In Time , accessed January 30, 2017.
  46. ↑ a b Steve Mollman, December 6, 2015 Japan cut its target for women in leadership positions from 30% to 7% In Quartz , accessed January 27, 2017.

Remarks

  1. ↑ A mixture of the XY theory , but is considered culture Z.
  2. ↑ All information in the following columns relates to the sources given next to the headings (Japanese and American style), unless additional sources have been added.
  3. ↑ Translated from the English terminology seniority-wage system .
  4. ↑ Translated from the English term Environmental Accounting .
  5. ↑ As already described in the heading, this section consists of a summary of the descriptions above.
  6. ↑ Also OJT; on [the] job training ; abbreviated.
  7. ↑ Terminology of the global "business language", rarely represented in German business parlance, can also be described as a management team, from a traditional Japanese point of view mostly older people are included.
  8. ↑ Translated from the English term Gender Equality Bureau .