Submitted by: Submitted by mkavinda
Views: 1236
Words: 786
Pages: 4
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 12/05/2012 10:01 PM
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...