Second Thoughts on the Transferability of the Japanese Management Style

Abstract

Adopting a strategic management perspective, an attempt is made to distinguish system-free from system-specific structural and interactional aspects in the Japanese and Western management styles and systems. To determine what system-specific elements can be transferred from the Japanese management system to the Western management system (in particular the U.S.), an ecological-cultural-institutional analysis is conducted. The intent of this analysis is to present a genuine open-systems view on the subject of comparative management and on the issue of transferring elements from one management system to another.