AMERICAN AMERICAN MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
MODELMODELVERSES JAPANESEVERSES JAPANESE
MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT MODELMODEL
Fakeha Iqtidar Khan
Ayesha Sultan
American Versus Japanese Management Model
Every country is different from other. There management, food, way of living and standards are all different. In some countries government is very influencing while in other they are not much bother.
Such two different countries are America and Japan.
They have different cultures and management systems as a by-product of culture manifests unique characteristics in both the countries.
MAJOR DIFFERENCE
American are performance oriented unlike Japanese who are perfectionist.
1. LONG TERM COMMITMENT
Japanese tends to favor the development of long term relationships and strategies over short-term gain.
They spend much more time up front with a potential customer or supplier before making a commitment unlike Americans which then allows Japanese to implement decisions much faster after a decision is made.
Moreover, in down times Japanese companies avoid layoffs and contract terminations contrary to Americans.
2. TRAINING AND EDUCATION
On the Job Training is an American ideology.
Communication Plaza Concept—Though this is fading in Japan, employees meet with the executive informally over lunch or dinner to listen to each other.
3. GET-IN-TOUCH, LEARNING FROM FACTS
- Japanese mix with employees and customers:
Japanese engineers, e.g., go to the factories, and don’t wear distinguishing jackets or hard-hats. An insight in Japanese culture…Japanese neighborhoods are less stratified in terms of economic class. CEOs may live next door to engineers and factory workers where as most Americans would not consider livening next to a subordinate.
- Learn from competitor:
Americans are creative, but would be smart to do more copying.
Japanese are world class at copying and improving upon an idea, but would be smart to develop their creativity.
4. EFFORT EVALUATION- Process versus Results:
This seems to be the key difference between Americans and Japanese.
Americans are more results oriented while Japanese focus on process improvements.
Once they learn how to do something, they work on small improvements—they evaluate effort not results. Because Americans are process averse, they depend on manuals to tell what the results should be.
The down side of the process focus is to kill creativity. Overall, the two cultures should learn from each other, and become more like each other. Neither completely process nor completely results focused.
5. CUSTOMER FIRST AND SHAREHOLDER LAST
The priority order of customers and suppliers is different for U.S. and Japanese
businesses:
America
1. Shareholder
2. Customer
3. Employee
Japan
1. Customer
2. Employee
3. Supplier
4. Community
5. Country
6. Shareholder
Japanese firm is organized for the employee. It is a more human orientation
6. TEAM WORK The Japanese and Americans see two different meanings behind these words. In Japan team work means to help others, here it means functional
maximization, that is to improve results. This leads to a difference in the roles on the team. In Japan the team leader is
always asking team members to help more, here the team leader is responsible for results.
Americans are more inclined towards individual tasks performance.
7. QUALITY FIRST, COST LAST This is the proper ranking of quality in the Japanese organization: 1. Quality 2. Quality 3. Quality 4. Cost Profit is the result of the pursuit of quality—as quality improves, costs go
down. Quality includes products, services, machines, layout, policy, planning and
organization.
8. LEARN FROM THE BEST
Always look at someone better. The problem is when you get to the top, you have to become more creative—this is Japan’s challenge
Short comings of Japans practices are: Lack of Decisiveness: they are not transparent. Decisions sometimes take
too long and they loose their timing. Individual Ability Ignored: miss creative opportunities. Miss Strategic Opportunities: too much delay and time.
COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT
Because of the success of Japanese companies in world markets,
Researchers have paid a special attention to the Japanese management style . As a result,
Many scholars compared the Japanese management system with the American and European system
Short-Term EmploymentIndividual Decision MakingIndividual Responsibility
Rapid Evaluation and PromotionExplicit Control MechanismsSpecialized Career Path
Segmented Concern for Employee as a Person
Theory A (American)
Lifetime EmploymentCollective Decision MakingCollective Responsibility
Slow Evaluation and PromotionImplicit Control MechanismsNonspecialized Career PathHolistic Concern for Employee
as a Person
Theory J (Japanese)
Long-Term EmploymentCollective Decision MakingIndividual Responsibility
Slow Evaluation and PromotionImplicit, Informal Control with
Explicit, Formalized MeasuresModerately Specialized Career PathsHolistic Concern, Including Family
Theory Z (Modified American)
MODEL OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT
Hatvany and Pucik (1981) offer a model of Japanese management in which they define three interrelated strategies:
The authors assert that these general strategies are translated into specific management techniques including
Job rotation and slow promotion; Evaluation of attributes and behavior; Emphasis on work groups; Open communication; Consultative decision making; and concern for
employee.
SEVEN MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF
JAPANESE ORGANIZATIONS Lifetime employment, Slow evaluation and promotion of
employees, Non-specialized career paths, Implicit control mechanism, Collective decision making, Collective responsibility, And Holistic concern (building a complete
relationship between employer and employee, including concerning with employee's non-work, personal and family, matters).
The McKinsey 7-S Framework Followed by Americans
StrategyStrategy
StructureStructure
SystemsSystems
StaffStaff
StyleStyle
SkillsSkills
Shared Shared goalsgoals
OrganizationOrganizationManagementManagement
Pre Theory Z
Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)– Identified sets of basic human needs and suggested
that they could be arranged in a hierarchy based on their importance to the individual.
Douglas McGregor (1906–1964)– Developed the Theory X
(traditional—negative—management approach) and
Theory Y (positive management approach) to workers and work motivation.
Theory Z (Modified American Management)
Theory Z How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (Ouchi:1981)
Theory Z workers:
– Ouchi explains that the employees must be very knowledgeable about the various issues of the company, as well as possessing the competence to make those decisions.
– He also points out; however, that management sometimes has a tendency to underestimate the ability of the workers to effectively contribute to the decision making process
Implications of these types of theories for leaders
Modern implications for companies using these theories have shown:
An improvement of people skills,. Empowering their employees. Stimulating change. Helping employees balance work with life conflicts. Improving ethical behavior. Improvements in turnover rates. Productivity, effectiveness. Efficiency. Organizational behavior Job satisfaction
CONCLUSION
Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Y, and William Ouchi’s Theory Z have all proven to be useful in the management field.
Many companies have successfully integrated similar economic and human principles in a management style from Theory’s Y and Z.
Theory’s Y and Z have both shown to be quite successful framework for American companies. Theory X is not obsolete.
The results of an empirical test of the model show that American management style is different from the Japanese.
The variability between two countries lies among the all six managerial dimensions as well.
While American managers emphasize supervisory style, decision making, and control mechanism,
The Japanese are more concerned with communication process, interdepartmental
relations, and paternalistic approach.
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