Japanese Management system
What are the key features of the Japanese management system?
Japanese management system is influenced over time by the Confucius’s doctrines, which value external orders and harmony within society, while at the same time emphasising the collective aspect of the social order. Human relationship, therefore, is generally more important than other factors in Japanese society, and this vital element has created a management system featuring four main characteristics: lifetime employment, seniority based system for salaries and promotions, consensus decision making and labour union within the organisation.
The first features are lifelong employment and social benefits known as Nenko. What is unique about the system is that it provides lifelong employment security (Lee, Schwendiman & Conference 1982). The corporations, in their benevolent paternalism, provide welfare benefits to the workers. This system presumably comes from the idea that the Confucian traditions, together with an assumption that human is the most important and precious resource of the Japanese, have placed the people at the centre of the management system. In Japan, the management system is established to reinforce a cooperative system between employers and employees, which is aimed at improving the lifestyle of the Japanese people (Ohsawa 1993). The relationship between employers and employees could be described as the one of a family, where people are taking care of each other (Whitehill 1991). Each organisation develops its own corporate culture to nurture this relationship. The Japanese Institute of Labour points out that from 1954 to 1980, the lifetime employment system has become more and more widespread since WW II without once regressing (Whitehill 1991). Lifetime employment is a psychological contract between company and employees, which is built on a trusting relationship between employers and employees. Though this tradition has become somewhat eroding because of the changes in today’s
Japanese management system is influenced over time by the Confucius’s doctrines, which value external orders and harmony within society, while at the same time emphasising the collective aspect of the social order. Human relationship, therefore, is generally more important than other factors in Japanese society, and this vital element has created a management system featuring four main characteristics: lifetime employment, seniority based system for salaries and promotions, consensus decision making and labour union within the organisation.
The first features are lifelong employment and social benefits known as Nenko. What is unique about the system is that it provides lifelong employment security (Lee, Schwendiman & Conference 1982). The corporations, in their benevolent paternalism, provide welfare benefits to the workers. This system presumably comes from the idea that the Confucian traditions, together with an assumption that human is the most important and precious resource of the Japanese, have placed the people at the centre of the management system. In Japan, the management system is established to reinforce a cooperative system between employers and employees, which is aimed at improving the lifestyle of the Japanese people (Ohsawa 1993). The relationship between employers and employees could be described as the one of a family, where people are taking care of each other (Whitehill 1991). Each organisation develops its own corporate culture to nurture this relationship. The Japanese Institute of Labour points out that from 1954 to 1980, the lifetime employment system has become more and more widespread since WW II without once regressing (Whitehill 1991). Lifetime employment is a psychological contract between company and employees, which is built on a trusting relationship between employers and employees. Though this tradition has become somewhat eroding because of the changes in today’s