Pride In The Product

Pride in the Product

Group JAL

MGT 412 Organizational Behavior - DC 215UBSM

Group 215B

Will Oler, Ed.D., Instructor

September 4, 2007

The success of Japanese management practices has spawned discussions, researches and many written reports. This is because many countries have watched Japan become a "manufacturing miracle." Because Japan has accomplished so much in manufacturing and management, other countries are enthralled. Countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore are trying to emulate the success of Japan. Japan has survived being impoverished and desperately depending on the aid of the West, to becoming second only to the United States in manufacturing. Critics all offer different opinions about the Japanese approach to management; however, they are all in accordance that under the compulsion of survival Japan has adopted, adapted and improved western quality control techniques until they have reached superlative levels of effectiveness (Kharbanda, 2006). Critics also admit that Japan is currently a manufacturing superpower but critics are skeptical about whether or not Japan's current lifetime employment, loyalty and seniority systems will be resilient to modernization. In this research paper, we will cover the capacity of influence that Dr. W. Edwards Deming had on the evolution of Japanese management, Japanese management approach, the Japanese seniority and on-the-job training program and the Japanese lifetime employment and loyalty system.

Following World War II, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a statistician, went to Japan to deliver a speech to several high-ranking business leaders given the responsibility of rebuilding the Japanese economy. They were receptive and willing to change in the hopes of turning Japan around after the war. At a dinner party in Tokyo in the summer of 1950, 21 of Japan's most influential corporate leaders, who accounted for some 80 percent of the country's industrial capacity, made the latter kind of decision. What they did was listen to W. Edwards Deming, an obscure American statistician who had never met a payroll and had been to Japan only once before. Deming was nonetheless certain that he knew how to solve postwar Japan's economic problems. "You can send quality out and get food back," he told his skeptical audience ("20 Business Decisions that Made History" (Title of Article," 2005, p. 8).

There needed to be a change in how the world viewed products labeled, "Made in Japan." There was no other option for the Japanese but to think outside the box. That included listening to a foreigner's (Dr. Deming) course of action. Reluctantly, several Japanese companies adopted Dr. Deming's techniques. They implementing his approach to business practices up and down the organization's chain of command ranging from the senior management officials and even administrative office clerks. At the end of World War II, Japanese factories had been bombed to rubble and the country wondered whether it would ever recover. By 1980, the American industry battered by Japanese competition wondered if they could hold on to their economic strength (Wagner, 1995). For example, the automotive market was at its peak. The constant demand to build dependable, quality-built vehicles from one year to the next proved to be the challenge for American automotive companies. Within 30 years, Japan turned things completely around in electronics as well as the automotive industry.

"Made in Japan" became synonymous with Japanese products such as Honda, Toyota, Canon, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Yamaha and Fuji. The value of the Japanese yen surged while the U.S. dollar declined. By 1989, the U.S. trade deficit with Japan reached $49 billion (Wagner, 1995).

Japan clearly understood the importance and impact a "group" can make as opposed to the impact of an "individual." Educational Psychologist Bruce W. Tuckman and his original model involved only four stages (forming, storming, norming, and performing). The five-stage model in Figure 10-1 evolved when Tuckman and a doctoral student added, "adjourning" in 1977 (Kinicki, 2006, p. 254). Japan continues to make a significant impact on the global automotive market sales. Dr. Deming's teachings attributed to this. His teachings consisted of the "14 Points."

In 1980, NBC aired a television documentary titled "If Japan Can... Why Can't We?" It was a wake up call for North American companies to dramatically improve product quality or continue losing market share to Japanese electronics and automobile companies. A full-fledged movement ensued during the 1980s and 1990s (Kinicki, 2006, p. 11). This caused several companies to take a serious look at how they could improve

upon their products and services, which ultimately would result in increased dividends for the organization in the end. Total Quality Management (TQM) is necessarily employee driven because product/service quality will not improve without the active learning and participation of every employee (Kinicki, 2006, p. 11-12).

The Japanese were successful with implementing a program that ensured loyalty. Unlike most American companies, the primary virtue of Japanese management was to put more emphasis on humanistic treatment (Sato, 1989, p. 173). This process seemed natural for the Japanese because loyalty, trust and taking care of the elder are the norms of their culture. When senior management promulgates and exhibits espoused values this causes an enactment of the values by all employees. "It is important to reduce gaps between espoused and enacted values because they can significantly influence employee attitudes and organizational performance...a study revealed that employees were more cynical about espoused values when they believed that senior managers' behaviors were inconsistent with the stated values" (Kinicki, 2006, p. 45).

The seniority wage based system was one of the few motivation factors for Japanese workers. The seniority wage based system guarantees a better salary as the employee's time increases with the company. Seniority based wage and promotion is defined as "a system or practice which emphasizes number of years of service or age and education background in