Confucius - a Chinese thinker still present in Japan's business practices

Abstract

Regarding the impact of Confucius on Japanese management, we consider that it is important to distinguish between the 'economic' factors and the 'psychological' factors in Japanese-style management. The latter, despite their eroding economic relevance, seem to be more strongly connected to Confucianism. Based on the literature we identify the main Confucian values and empirically test for their presence by using a panel of 353 full-time Japanese employees. We find that the main components of Japanese-style management such as the 'Parent-like responsibility of managers' and 'Loyalty' are strongly related to Confucian values. On the other hand, practices based on economic rationality are not significantly affected by the latter.