Theory Z
The Theory Z , including "Japanese management style" called, was developed by William Ouchi in his book from 1981 Theory Z: How American management can meet the Japanese challenge to describe the Japanese management culture developed.
It is not an extension of Theories X and Y of Douglas McGregor . However, McGregor had already developed the theory Z as a synthesis of his XY theory shortly before his death in 1964 in order to counter the frequent criticism that the theories X and Y would be mutually exclusive.
Ouchi has dealt with three types of organizations. He describes the American companies as type A and Japanese ones as type J. Type Z has a new culture, namely culture Z. This management theory assumes that strong employee participation leads to higher employee motivation and thus to higher productivity.
Features of theory Z
Type Z is characterized by:
- minimal turnover and lifelong employment
- decision-making takes place collectively and by mutual agreement, which means that the interests of all members are incorporated
- The individual assumption of responsibility by the employees and the performance evaluation are also important
- the promotion of staff takes place in long cycles, and a career in various departments is the "wandering around" principle allows
- no formalized rules of conduct specified
- There is a holistic relationship structure in the organization because interpersonal relationships are of great importance to the company.
literature
- William G. Ouchi: Theory Z. , 1983, 256 pages, paperback, Avon Books, ISBN 038059451X
- Ronald Bogaschewsky, Roland Rollberg: Prozessorientierter Management , 1998, S. 132f, online , accessed on October 30, 2013