One of the main characteristics of the Japanese style of management is offering lifetime employment to company employees. Lifetime employment is highly regarded in the Japanese community and is very positive in the fact that it allows workers to better identify with the long-term goals and future of the company; however, I do not think the concept will be as warmly embraced in the United States. In Japan, young adults are willing to start at the bottom with a low salary because they know that over time they will move up to higher positions like those above them. This is how they are raised. In America, people with higher credentials over other employees do not want to start at a lower wage rate simply because someone else has been there longer.

I also feel as a result of the lifetime employment, there is much more intermixing of companies with their employees outside of work. Americans like to keep their work and personal lives separate. When the bell signals quitting time, American employees want to leave their office work behind. Finally, the Japanese are able to promise lifetime employment to their employees because when finances need to be cut or layoffs made, management salaries are the first to be cut, due to their philosophy - equality of sacrifice. In America, so much emphasis is placed on the money you earn. I can’t see managers in the American workforce taking pay-cuts to save an hourly-paid, production line employee.

Another major factor of the Japanese management system is their emphasis on teamwork, rather than individual job tasks. Teamwork helps to make jobs wider in scope and eliminate multiple job descriptions, while emphasizing flexibility, rather than specialization. Japan also feels that teamwork increases productivity because whenever problems arise workers are allowed to stop the line and work together to solve problems, without evoking any disciplinary action. Although this seems like a very positive technique, further studies have determined that teamwork actually serves as a form of social control.

Team peer pressure, instead of management supervision, now enforces high productivity and quality. If someone on a team messes up, they must now deal with fellow coworkers, whom they work with everyday. They now must answer to each other, which increases the stress level of each employee. Also, with teams, individual benefits are never fully recognized; therefore, there is never a feeling to really do anything spectacular by employees. While adding stress to an already hectic day for employees, teamwork also reduces individual autonomy because employees aren’t able to make singular decisions.

Also, the Japanese idea of ‘Just in Time" production coupled with their computerized assembly lines increasing stress and reduces autonomy. Although the idea of ‘Just in Time’ production does help eliminate space and cut down on costs, it adds tremendous stress to employees. It can easily lead to overtime work being demanded on short notice. The factories are not run by set shifts, instead, they are run by production schedules that make sure certain amounts of cars are produced daily. If the company does not have a certain part needed for a car in storage and the car has to get finished, then someone must work overtime. There aren’t to many American employees who enjoy being told that they have to work late. Japanese firms expect total commitment from their employees, and it works in Japan because the culture embraces the idea that the man works while the women takes sole responsibility of the family.

Finally, a large emphasis of the Japanese management system is placed on the idea of Kaizen, or the philosophy that constant changes are the easiest and fastest road to maximizing productivity and quality. Kaizen is the one thing that many Japanese managers think American companies lack. I think the philosophy is a very good one. While I agree that there is always room for change and improvement, the rate at which it occurs within Japanese plants again creates stress for many of the employees. As soon as they learn how to do something, they are being taught to do it differently. Kaizen’s goal is to reduce slack, but in the process it also takes away the relaxed environment of work. Since the Japanese feel that work should never stop, workers are scarred that if they have a moment’s free time, then they will be given more work. This line of thinking makes many employees take their time and do things slowly, so that they are not given more responsibility.

I do not question that the Japanese have excelled in producing high quality cars with productive labor. What I do question is how well those practices will transfer to our society. In the United States we are use to a chain of command, but in Japan there is more of a belief that everyone is equal. This eqilitarian approach has not been widely accepted in the US because a great deal of the decision making is still done in a hierarchical structure. While other countries are successful in transferring to the Japanese style of management, strength for them is that they have never used the American Mass Production system. It is too hard to completely change old ways; therefore; I feel that the system most beneficial to America is one that would incorporate the positive ideas from the style of Japanese management and intertwine them with current practices that we use.

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