Trends in Japanese Management: Continuing Strengths, Current Problems and Changing Priorities

The period of economic decline during the 1990s produced a wave of studies focusing on the failure of Japanese management according to western criteria. Yet Japanese manufacturing firms have continued to hold competitive power in the world market. This book identifies the institutional specificity of Japanese Management and the reasons behind its continued competitiveness. Through an exploration of the strategy and structure of Japanese manufacturing corporations the authors discover the essential features and strength of Japanese management systems, their problems and new trends, and consider how management strategies have been developed for future success. This new, sophisticated analysis of Japanese manufacturing corporations, based on data from over two hundred corporations, will enable the reader to better understand Japanese management systems and their potential to lay a foundation for successful management systems throughout the world.

TOYOHIRO KONO is Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, where he has taught Prinicples of Management and Corporate Strategy for over 30 years. A leading researcher in Corporate Strategy, he has published widely, and was previously Japan and South East Asia Editor for the journal Long Range Planning.

STEWART CLEGG is Research Professor in the School of Management at the University of Technology in Sydney. He is also Director of the Collaboration Research Group, leading research into alliancing and related forms of inter-organizational collaboration in a range of industries; and sits on the Registry of Co-operatives Ministerial Council. He has published over 20 books, and many journal articles, and acts as a consultant to The Sunday Times, the Australian Financial Review and to universities, businesses and health services.