Japanese management culture

From ArticleWorld

Japanese management culture, famous worldwide, provides high salaries, excellent working conditions, and secured employment for the workers. Placement and advancement are based on the educational background of the workers, and after a six-month probation period employment of selected candidates is secured.

Although widely acclaimed in western countries, the Japanese management culture is to date limited to large organizations in the country only. Smaller firms follow a completely different, albeit quite effective, work management culture.

Japanese management culture components

High salaries, prime working conditions and job security are all major features of the Japanese management culture. Large industrial units in Japan provide excellent salaries and working conditions coupled with secure employment, thus forming the central features of Japanese management culture. Students of highly ranked colleges are favored for employment in large companies only. Graduate training is a rarity for the Japanese. The search for entrepreneurs begins following the students' graduation. But often the competition is fierce. Selected new employees enter a group on the first day of April every year in the company who has selected them.

Permanent employment, a prominent feature of the Japanese management culture, includes only a minority of the work force that is working for the major companies. Trainees are directly recruited from the campus of their educational institute, undergo a six-month probation period with the companies concerned and are expected to stay with the company for f his or her entire career. Dismissal is very rare, affected for serious breach of ethics only.

The inherent purpose of Japanese management culture is to maintain harmony and avoid stress and jealousy within the group.

Japanese management culture uniqueness

Unlike most other countries, permanent employees are hired as generalists and not specialists under Japanese management culture. The three attributes determining such recruitment are:

• Individual intelligence
• Educational background
• Personal attitudes

During training the new entrant become accustomed with all facets of the company's organization and management without any specialization. Career progression is highly predictable, regulated, and automatic. Compensation for young workers is low but regular raises are provided. Low-cost loans for housing and other personal facilities are made available. Career advancement largely depends on seniority. Many generous bonuses are offered while uniform increases in salary and promotions make the job quite attractive.

Only the best workers are selected for advancement into upper management. Others who fail to live up to the expectations of the company are made to retire between their mid to late fifties. However, retirement benefits continue to be poor. As a result, many management retirees work for smaller subsidiaries of the larger company, another large company altogether, or the large company itself for considerably lower salaries.

Another unique aspect of Japanese management culture is that while every worker is obliged to join a union, his link to the company restricts the activities of the union considerably since no worker wishes to harm the economic well being of the company. Naturally, strikes are rare and usually brief.

Japanese management culture examples

Harmony is one of the key goals of the Japanese management culture. Japanese management culture requires flow of information to come from the bottom up. Here the top management is a facilitator and not merely the authority. Middle management shapes the policy and provides the necessary impetus to get it rolling. Consensus in decision-making and well being of the workers are two important ingredients of the system. A CEO works as the consensus builder. Maintenance of harmony is the primary task of top officials.