Date of Award

1987

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Business

First Reader

Dr. Robert F. Allison

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are to 1) research the cultures of Japan and the United States. 2) describe five salient management characteristics which differ between the two countries . 3) use these five characteristics to compare corporate management systems. 4) determine which characteristics are bound by Japanese culture and which are transportable to the U.S. 5) draw conclusions from the information regarding which, if any, of the Japanese characteristics should be emulated by the U. S.

The research design for this paper is one which presents antecedent conditions for both countries which cause certain distinctive management practices and which eventually affect organizational performance or, in other words, the possibility of emulating them.

The firms presented in this paper were chosen because they possess all or some of the five characteristics previously mentioned. The firms chosen for comparison in part III were selected because they are direct competitiors of one another and are of comparable size by sales.

In order to gain a clearer understanding of the management practices of specific firms, vice presidents of both a U.S. manufacturing/service firm in American and a Japanese-owned American manufacturing firm located in the States were interviewed. A questionnaire containing the same questions which were covered in the interviews was sent to a vice president of a comparable Japanese firm in Japan.

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