AM Lecture 1

Dark side of Japanese management in the 1990s

Chrisopher B Meek, in Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2004, noticed a number of weaknesses in Japanese management during the recession of the 1990s:

• The managers took advantage of the workers' loyalty, meaning that the culture of high commitment resulted in low job satisfaction.
• There was an increase in death through overwork (Karoshi), and bullying in the work place (Ilime).

Whitehill and Takezawa (1968) asked Japanese and American workers how important their commitment to their employer and work was in comparison to other aspects of their lives.

• It was found that 9% of Japanese workers viewed their company as being the more important than their personal lives, as compared with only 1% of Americans
• 55% of Japanese workers saw their company has being of equal importance to their personal lives, as compared with 22% of American workers
• Only 8% of the Japanese interviewed thought of their company as strictly a place to work and separate from their personal lives, compared to 23% of the Americans

Potential Reasons

The great management myth?

The China syndrome