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The first features are feeling employment and social benefits known as Neo. What is unique about the system is that it provides lifelong employment security (Lee, Shenanigan & 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 he lifestyle of the Japanese people (Shaw 1993). The relationship between employers and employees could be described as the one of a family, where people are taking care of each other (Whitehall 1991), Each organization develops its own corporate culture to nurture this relationship. The Japanese Institute of Labor points out that from 1954 to 1980, the lifetime employment system has become more and more widespread since WWW II without once regressing (Whitehall 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 industrial structure (Shaw Bibb It remains an Ideal norm to which all companies, large and small, aspire (Non 2010). The second prominent feature of Japanese management is the system of promotion and reward. An important criterion is seniority. Seniority is determined by the year an employee’s class enters the organization.
Career progression is highly predictable, regulated, and automatic. Compensation for young workers is quite low, but they accept low pay with the understanding that their pay ill increase in regular increments and be quite high by retirement (Non 2010). Shaw (1993) shows a strikingly contrasting system between western countries and Japan. Western corporations set Job descriptions according to Job analysis, and employees’ salaries are determined by which position they are hired for.
In contrast, Japanese corporations emphasize the Importance of such factors as educational background, length of employment, and competency when determining salary. Take an example, for entering employees, pay tends to be rather standardized, with no great deference related to company size, Average starting salary for graduates who org for companies are almost the same, and the salary will increase to another level after a certain years of employment. Because of lifetime attachment to their Job and workplace, as well as of pay-based competency, continuous improvement, or Kamikaze, t Off employees.
Another feature is the decision-making process, which is a unique aspect of the Japanese style of management. There is a mix of management style, which ranges from authoritarian to participative. At the authoritarian end of the continuum, supervision is characterized by top-down’ decision making, unilateral action by management, and passive conformity by workers. On the other hand, the participative mode is characterized by decentralization of authority, an emphasis on mutual dependence and cooperation, and active participation in the decision.
This is called ‘bottom -up’ style (ring aside). With the bottom up approach to decision- making, it is fair to say that the Japanese come much closer to meeting the preferences and expectation of the workers (Whitehall 1991). One more thing notable is the process of informal consensus formation, or mishmashes, or preparing the ground, which is mainly based on a series of person-to-person negotiations. In other rods, this is informal preliminary sounding out of opinions. It gives minority views an adequate hearing and prepares the group for consensus or formal vote.
The last key aspect of management system is enterprise union or groupies. In the Japanese organization, working groups, such as departments or sections, are in charge of projects rather than one person taking all the responsibility. A project is usually assigned to a working group and members assign duties within the group. Job descriptions used in the western corporations do not exist in the Japanese corporation; however, these divided assignments may be considered as the Japanese equivalent of a Job description (Shaw 1993).