AN EXTENDED DISCUSSION OF THE HARD FIT OF THE CORE CONCEPTS OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT INTO SRI LANKAN BUSINESS CULTURE

By Evan Pathiratne

Postgraduate and Midcareer Development Unit Faculty of Management and Finance University of Colombo

An Extended Discussion of the Hard Fit of the core concepts of Japanese Management into Sri Lankan Business Culture

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks for the guidance, which showed the different views of the world to us

An Extended Discussion of the Hard Fit of the core concepts of Japanese Management into Sri Lankan Business Culture

CHAPTER 3 EXPLORATION OF PROBLEM THROUGH CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT THOUGHT

The problem has been dissected into different areas- covering aspects such as its choice, reasons for its adoption and the ultimate non conformities that has resulted in doing so; to better understand and critically evaluate the problem from a micro and a macro level.

3.1 WHY JAPAN, WHY THE ATTRACTION TO THEIR PANACEAS

The rapid growth of Japan beginning 1950 has been well documented, and the statistics capture much the impressive performance of Japan at that time. According to Nakamura (1980) from 1951 through to the oil shock of 1973, Japan grew at an average annual growth rate of 10%, Exports rose at an average rate 20% over the same period. Because of Japans comprehensive defeat in the Pacific War, and the destruction of much of its productive capacity, such growth was unanticipated and it became popularly known as the Japanese miracle. Economic growth in itself would not have led to such an intense focus on Japan; it was the success of its companies which concentrated the minds of managers in other parts of the world, particularly the US. The 1960s saw companies such as Sony, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Matushita (Panasonic) emerge as leaders in their industries. (Barnwell,2010) When the open economy and globalized society paved the way for different ideologies related to business management i.e guru theories, Sri Lankan managers looked at ways and means to solve their business problems though them without carefully assessing the reasons for such theories and what are the its success factors. In contemporary business world now the need for managerial efficiency - the use of the limited resources judiciously and in a cost-effective manner became a priority in organizations is essential .This objectives were pursued by managers in Japanese corporations who make decisions pertaining to the desired objectives and concerning relationships among resources: the people, money and machines, materials and methods which can be effectively deployed to attain those goals. That formed the basis if most of the Japanese Guru theories. A systems thinking approach was chosen to solve business problems, this lead to the success of the Japanese management paradigm.

3.2 EXAMINATION OF ENTRY INTO SRI LANKAN CONTEXT

As at 2012 Sri Lanka has more of a capitalistic business culture. Sri Lankan managers face many challenging situations. The average executive in faces increased complexities posed by globalization, domestic competition, government regulation and shareholder pressure. The task is further complicated by rapid change, inadvertent disruption as well as minor and major crises such as the current economic, financial and political crises in Sri Lanka.

An Extended Discussion of the Hard Fit of the core concepts of Japanese Management into Sri Lankan Business Culture

One might argue that Sri Lanka as a country didnt go through a modernism period, the society culture rapidly transformed itself from a as a pre-modernistic agriculture based, self-sustaining societal monarchy to the constantly evolving post modernistic business culture seen today. After granting of independence and effects created by the open economy; coupled with the advent of globalization different factors such as technology, influence from external world powers and weak barriers for entry allowed western and eastern European panaceas /boxed solutions and ideologies to creep into Sri Lankan management context. Sri Lanka as a business community didnt go through an industrial revolution or a scientific renaissance which resulted in the exploration of business needs and wants and identification of a proper break fox solution but they adopted a set of canned solutions which was crafted by a different culture to solve its own problems.

3.3 WHAT IS SOLVING WHOS PROBLEM

As Tasie(2009) points out below various forms of Japanese management sprung as a solution for pain points for different root causes . In the sense there was a purpose for those theories and why it became to effect. QC Circle is against the negative impact of inferior goods JIT was a must as no possibility of knowing future demand 5S was introduced because of the lack of premium storage space in Japan Keiretsu is a result of American occupancys attempt of reorganizing zaibatsu Unionism is a result of the attempt of adding social responsibility to Japanese political life

An explanation of why Japanese management theories doesnt from a perfect it to Sri Lankan business problems might be a cause of it being not being developed to cater to the overall political, societal and cultural context of the dynamic business environment in Sri Lanka. The threat of adoption of such panaceas created for different purposes was highlighted by authors such as Drucker(1971) . Schon(1996) identified some common traits of Japanese organizations which are viewed as largely informal, clan-like organizations which had high levels of informal communication, with group consensus ,having a longterm & participative approach to decision making, to decision making with high regard for pursuit of equality. Sri Lankan business management which has a more westernized approach to business management mostly due to the influences created by long standing economic ties with Europe and North America has a different approach than a typical Japanese management style oriented firm.

3.4 THE HARD FIT , NOT JUST A SRI LANKAN PROBLEM

Even though research for the Sri Lankan context is limited, it was found by Ebrahimpour and John B. Cullen(1993) on a research titled Quality Management in Japanese and American Firms Operating in the United States that most of the American firms which adopt Japanese quality management practices use it more as an inspection role within the company whereas traditional Japanese firms use it as a promotional element within the organization emphasizing quality of service. This implies that for Japanese management to be successful it has to become a part of the business , instead of just a support function.
An Extended Discussion of the Hard Fit of the core concepts of Japanese Management into Sri Lankan Business Culture

On a separate research done by Lim (1997) on A comparison of U.S. and Japanese management systems and their transferability to Singapore industry suggests that the transfer of U.S. management system into the Singapore industry is more successful than the Japanese management system. Desta(2011) in a research titled The Globalization of the Japanese Management Process Reinvigorating Ethiopias Industries through Kaizen criticized that even though seeing the substantial economic slowdown that Japan is facing today together with the fact that most of the prerequisites of Kaizen are not met Ethiopian industries its governments are using Kaizen as a standard baseline approach to quality management. Even there is limited academically cited research available on this matter such similar industry examples are abundant in Sri Lanka, where Japanese management has been adopted blindly. Traits seen in a post modern consumerist society such as customization of your own truth can be also observed. Pheng and Shang (2011) in a research done on Bridging Western management theories and Japanese management practices: case of the Toyota Way model explains the historical account for the Toyota Way model by connecting with possible combination of the western management theories and Japanese management practices. Now these types of hybrid models are being used to mitigate the risks and issues that have been created by Japanese management practices.

3.5 THE CURRENT, THE FUTURE AND THE PRACTICALITIES

Marxism explains the deskilling of labor that has resulted in characteristics as described by Gough (1972) the case for productive and unproductive labor. Workers are now more prone to exploitation and alienation this is a gradual move away from the principals in which Japanese management was forged upon. According to Cooper & Burrell (1988) in the modernist model, organization is viewed as a social tool and an extension of human rationality. In the postmodern view, organization is less the expression of planned thought and calculative action and a more defensive reaction to forces intrinsic to the social body which constantly threatens the stability of organized life. This would mean that workers, the managers and owners would become more self oriented in their business management. Such base of thinking would be yet another drastic departure from the success factors or effective Japanese management. As with the typical nature of evolution an individuals taste, perception of life, goals and needs change. This means that one theory or and common ideology that supports a group of theories (such as Japanese management) wouldnt be able to resist the temptation of change. Now it can be observed that even Japanese companies are looking at off-shoring their work to more efficiently managed countries like China, and also looking at how the Chinese are managing their business and the ways and means they are running their companies. Through this evaluation one can find that blind adoption of theories with preconceived notions of success doesnt always reap the best rewards. And even such practices which do not always stand true in rapidly changing times.

An Extended Discussion of the Hard Fit of the core concepts of Japanese Management into Sri Lankan Business Culture

REFERENCES
1. Barnwell, N (2010), Japanese management: its emergence into western consciousness and its long term impact, School of Management, University of Technology. Sydney 2. Cooper,R Burrell,G (1988), 'Modernism, Postmodernism and Organizational Analysis: An Introduction 'European Group for Organizational Studies 3. Cullen, JB (1993), Quality Management in Japanese and American Firms Operating in the United States: A Comparative Study of Styles and Motivational Beliefs, MIR: Management International Review Vol. 33, Strategic Quality Management pp. 23-38 4. Drucker P.F (1971), What We Can Learn from Japanese Management, Harvard Business Review 5. Desta, A (2011) , The Globalization of the Japanese Management Process Reinvigorating Ethiopias Industries through Kaizen, Dominican University of California 6. Gough, I (1972), 'Marxs Theory of Productive and Unproductive Labour', New Left Review 7. Lim, T E. (1997) , A comparison of U.S. and Japanese management systems and their transferability to Singapore industry, Aston University 8. Nakamura, T. (1980) The postwar Japanese economy University of Tokyo 9. Pheng, L.S , Shang G (2011) , Bridging Western management theories and Japanese management practices: case of the Toyota Way model , National University of Singapore 10. Schon, B, Najjar, N, Stucker, K & Bird, A (1996) ,'Japanese-style versus American-style Human Resource Management Overseas: Examining Whether the Data Support the "Facts', California Polytechnic University. 11. Tasie, G (2009) , Can Japanese management styles be applied to Africa? African Journal of Business Management Vol.3 (4), pp. 233-239, School of Business and Management, American University of Nigeria.

An Extended Discussion of the Hard Fit of the core concepts of Japanese Management into Sri Lankan Business Culture