How Did Traditional Japanese Culture Benefit Matsushita During the Period from 1950s to the 1980s? Did Traditional Values Become More of a Liability During the 1990s and Early 2000s. How so?

Japan cultural values are deeply rooted in eastern traditions such as

Confucianism but that lasted only 150 years before western culture started

to take roots. Confucian principles are humanity, loyalty, morality and

consideration on an individual and political level. (Japan-Guide, 2002) In

the context of this culture in an organization, it is base on strong group

identification, reciprocal obligations and loyalty to the company

Matsushita’s founder; Konosuke Matsushita advocated employees to respect

their cultural heritage. Several commentators attributed Matsushita’s success to

existence of Confucian values in the workplace. Staff are provided with a wide

range of benefits, including cheap housing, guaranteed lifetime employment,

seniority based pay system and generous retirement bonuses. CITATION

During the period from 1950s to 1980s, Matsushita was able to benefit from this

traditional culture because the business was able to hold onto their workforce

through the period of extreme progressive growth, with the ability to retain

acquired knowledge, experience and skills. CITATION Turnover of manpower

was never a concern as loyalty to the company is part of their social culture and

this enable the company to operate efficiently and effectively within its market.

Matsushita also rely on employees to encourage their sons and daughters to

follow in their parents’ footsteps to join the company where required and behave

in an acceptable manner to that of their parents.

The traditional Japanese values were not sustainable and with bubble economy

burst in 1989, it became more of a liability. Japan economy went through a slow

down and no-growth economy where real wages fell and overall employment

declined. There was fear of unemployment and with few people employed, the

Japanese were spending less and the economy slipped into a deflationary cycle.

All these affect the operations of business. CITATION

Japanese businesses were required to...