Basic Human Nature and Management in Japan

In: Journal of managerial psychology, Band 5, Heft 3, S. 3-12

Abstract

Management practices in Japan differ from those prevalent in the West partly because of different cultural assumptions regarding the basic character of humanity itself. Whereas opinion in Western tradition tends to favour the pessimistic assumption, Japanese tradition (as represented, particularly, by Confucianism) has always held man′s nature to be intrinsically good. Confucian ideology has been gradually absorbed into business management, and various well‐known features of Japanese management such as emphasis on personal relations, informal superior‐subordinate ties, consensus oriented decision making, and life‐time employment derive from the notion of the individual′s intrinsic virtuousness.