Managing the Managers Essay -- Business Management

Managing the Managers MANAGING THE MANAGERS: JAPANESE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN THE USA The article reviews one of the greatest difficulties that Japanese multinational companies face, that is integration of its subplants in other countries, where not just management is viewed as different, but also the general running of the "mother" company's, not to mention the cultural changes which may be faced when atempting to integrate into another country. The article reviewed attempts to do two things. Firstly, the authors explore the management self so as to give reasoning into the two different managing styles of the United States of America and that of infamous Japanese management. Secondly, the authors report their research on management self-conception and style in Japanese owned factories or 'transplants' in the United States. The article is a summary of a large Japanese multinational company's intergration into the United States. This multinational opened 3 transplants in the same region of the United States. One of the transplants (Honshu manufacturing, which incidently seems to hold strategic significance as concluded by the massive capital investment of $300M) has a Japanese General Manager. The second, Honshu assembly holds and American born and raised General Manager. The third transplant is of an intereting nature as this is a Hybrid of Japanese and American management. The article begins with the facts involved when a firm of a more than a modest size is doing business in a foreign environment. It outlines the difficulties and failures that could be encountered when integration is involved. The article continues to inform us on how the article will be presented and the goals of the study at hand. The article is divided into 8 separate but relevant sections, these are: Introduction which talks about the methods used in the study and gives a brief rundown of the subject of Japanese and American management. Management in the Japanese transplants which talks a lot about previous surveys already concluded of which the nature is the same as the subject at hand. This subsection of the article also provides us with a history of the subject, as far back as 1976 . This section gives case example of previous studies made within the field of Japanese management and integration by Japanese multinationals. Mediating the selves... ...y Seniorities Promotion by competence Utilisation of employees Not fully Fully Utilised Blue-collar / White collar Single Class Double Class External relation Long term Short term Group relationship Keiretsu Ownership Basis of relationship Give and take Market mechanism Decision making Collective Individual Responsibility Collective Individual Ambition of employees Promotion within company Promotion in other company Dreams/ Goals Happily working together Efficiently working together Analogy (system) Organical Mechanical The Japanese management style is deductive and believes in insight and intuition. They believe in the power of logic and reasoning, they believe that which cant be seen or measured can exist, they do not break a whole down first into parts to analyze. Compare that with the Inductive American contructive reality belief that we believe in observing and measuring, the belief that that which cant be measured or seen does not exist, alongside the Joe Friday approach: Just the facts ma'am!