Confucian ethics and Japanese management practices

This paper proposes that an important method for understanding the ethics of Japanese management is the systematic study of its Confucian traditions and the writings of Confucius. Inconsistencies and dysfunction in Japanese ethical and managerial behavior can be attributed to contradictions in Confucius' writings and inconsistencies between the Confucian code and modern realities. Attention needs to be directed to modern Confucian philosophy since, historically Confucian thought has been an early warning system for impending change.

[1]  Hugh Borton.  Japan's modern century , 1956 .

[2]  W. T. D. Bary,et al.  Sources of the Japanese tradition , 1959 .

[3]  Robert Doktor,et al.  From the Atlantic to the Pacific Century: Cross-Cultural Management Reviewed , 1986 .

[4]  Wing-tsit Chan,et al.  A source book in Chinese philosophy , 1963 .

[5]  T R Miller,et al.  The Japanese management theory jungle. , 1984, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[6]  Edwin O. Reischauer,et al.  East Asia: The Great Tradition. , 1961, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[7]  J. Sullivan,et al.  A critique of Theory Z. , 1983, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[8]  M. Deutsch,et al.  Research Methods in Social Relations , 1952 .

[9]  G. Stalk,et al.  The Japanese Corporation as Competitor , 1986 .

[10]  Brian D. Steffy,et al.  A Critical Theory of Organization Science , 1986 .

[11]  M. Weber,et al.  The Religion of China. Confucianism and Taoism . By Max Weber. Translated and edited by Hans H. Gerth (1951), with a new Introduction by C. K. Yang. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1964. xliii, 308. $2.45. , 1965, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[12]  Richard T. Pascale,et al.  Zen and the Art of Management. , 1978 .

[13]  A. Jaeger,et al.  Control systems and strategic adaptation: Lessons from the Japanese experience , 1985 .

[14]  Hafiz Mirza.  The Wit and Wisdom of Japanese Management: An Iconoclastic Analysis , 1989 .

[15]  Ikujiro Nonaka,et al.  Japanese Management: What About the “Hard” Skills? , 1985 .

[16]  Ikujiro Nonaka,et al.  Strategic vs. Evolutionary Management: A U.S.-Japan Comparison of Strategy and Organization. , 1987 .

[17]  G. Hofstede.  The Cultural Relativity of Organizational Practices and Theories , 1983 .

[18]  T. Hamada.  Corporation, Culture, and Environment: The Japanese Model , 1985 .

[19]  F. Luthans,et al.  An Emic Perspective and Ethnoscience Methods for Organizational Research , 1984 .

[20]  W. Peterson,et al.  Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism , 1987 .

[21]  M. Maruyama.  CHAPTER XIV. Patterns of Individuation and the Case of Japan: A Conceptual Scheme , 1965 .

[22]  Ma. de la Natividad Jiménez Salas,et al.  The Conduct of Inquiry , 1967 .

[23]  G. Munchus,et al.  Employer-employee based quality circles in Japan: human resource policy implications for American firms. , 1983, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[24]  H. Passin.  CHAPTER XIII. Modernization and the Japanese Intellectual: Some Comparative Observations , 1965 .

[25]  Dexter Dunphy,et al.  Convergence/Divergence: A Temporal Review of the Japanese Enterprise and Its Management , 1987 .

[26]  Nobuaki Namiki,et al.  The False Promise of the Japanese Miracle. , 1986 .