On 17 Mar 2006, at 18:26, Mark Wieder wrote:
Marielle-
Friday, March 17, 2006, 4:44:16 AM, you wrote:
many Japanese management concepts such as Total Quality Control,
Quality Control circles, small group activities, labor relations. Key
elements of Kaizen are quality, effort, involvement of all employees,
willingness to change, and communication.
Having been involved with Total Quality initiatives, Quality Control
Circles, etc, on this side of the pond I can say from experience that
they are doomed to failure because of underlying cultural differences.
Labor and social relationships are not structured in western societies
to provide the level of trust and support required to allow them to be
effective.
Like Lynn, I've spent a long time in Japan, and my life still carries
the trappings.
I agree with what you say, Mark, but I think it isn't the whole
picture. In the early 80s, a guy at a Japanese steel company
explained to me how his time was being taken up with visiting
Americans determined to learn the secrets of Japanese TQC. He felt
they were wasting their time. Not because they were incapable of
learning, but because there was nothing to learn. He said that
Westerners will debate and evaluate various methods until they decide
on the best approach. Japanese corporations, on the other hand, will
take any method, good or bad, and make it work. Having subsequently
worked with a number of large Japanese corporations, I think his
comments were very shrewd. In other words, it's not that Japanese
methods transferred to the west are doomed to failure, but rather
that any method adopted by Japanese corporations is doomed to
success. (But that was in the 80s, and plenty has changed since then.)
Cheers
Dave
_______________________________________________
use-revolution mailing list
[email protected]
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
