On the Transferability of Management Systems: The Case of Japan

Abstract

Over the past decade or so a considerable amount of research regarding the nature and functioning of Japanese firms and Japanese management has been carried out. It resulted in numerous books and an even greater number of articles in professional and academic journals, too numerous indeed to be cited in an introductory paragraph such as this one. Writing yet another essay on Japanese management therefore requires some justification. The present chapter concerning the transferability question of Japanese management has in the main been motivated by the ascendancy and challenge of a ‘Japanese-type’ system of management among MNEs in general and Pacific Rim MNEs in particular and an associated perceived lack of relevant material in both the economics and management literature. At the same time it was felt that the present discussion on the transferability of organisational structure and/or management styles had been too much steeped in US/Japan comparisons and stereo-typing at the expense of a more general/conceptual approach dealing with the applicability of management systems in alternate socio-cultural and economic environments.