JAPANESE SPIRIT, WESTERN THINKS

Japanese Spirit, Western Thinks

Japanese Spirit, Western Thinks

Introduction

This paper is based around the Japanese Spirit, Western Thinks, so deeply rooted as to easily repel outside influences. Bur Japanese corporations need to change their basic goals.

The article demonstrates that The Japanese business culture has been described by Beedham as a culture that acts like a clan, in that there is a large amount of authority given to the man at the top, and in the commitment that is shown by the people around him, Beedham points out that this can be evident in the way that their car factories, investment banks and government ministries are ran.

This clan-like-behaviour has the effect of making decision making painfully slow, with compromises having to be met in all directions, but this is starting to change, as the people of Japan are starting to change and have different priorities. These changes can be put down to several factors that are changing in Japanese society as a whole (Hall, 2004, pp. 98-100).

Discussion: Changing social Culture

The increasing and speeding up of urbanisation is one way in which corporate culture is being changed. Because of this urbanisation there is less commitment to groups as people become more individual and have their own priority in life. Marriage and family ties are also starting to loosen. Links between children, parents and grandparents are not the same as they were ten years ago.

The greatest impact on peoples commitment to their work is money. As the Japanese become richer, they are starting to see that there is a lot more to just working every hour possible. With this extra money they have been given the opportunity to make friends out of the workplace and focus on other activities such as clubbing, music, football etc. and they are seeing spare time ...