Productivity: Learning from the Japanese

The New York Times (26 January 1979), p. 28.

For a more detailed description of what is causing productivity to slow down, see McConnell Campbell R. , “Why is U.S. Productivity Slowing Down?” Harvard Business Review (March-April 1979), pp. 36–60.

U.S. National Center for Productivity and Quality of Working Life, Productivity in the Changing World of the 1980s (U.S. Government Printing Office, September 1978), p. 24.

The New York Stock Exchange, Reaching a Higher Standard of Living (The New York Stock Exchange, January 1979).

Takeuchi Hirotaka , Productivity Analysis as a Resource Management Tool in the Retail Trade, unpublished dissertation (Berkeley, California; University of California, Berkeley, 1977).

Monthly Labor Review (November 1978), p. 15.

Juran J.M. , “Japanese and Western Quality: A Contrast in Methods and Results,” Management Review (November 1978), pp. 27–45.

The Rosen Electronic Letter (31 March 1980), p. 4.

Bucklin Louis P. , Productivity in Marketing (Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1978), p. 20.

International Management (February 1977), pp. 36–39.

See Cole Robert E. , Work, Mobility, and Participation: A Comparative Study of American and Japanese Industry (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1979).

Japan Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), Current Status of QC Circle Activities (Tokyo: JUSE, 1979), in Japanese.

These benefits took the forms of savings in labor hours, capital expenditures, energy, or materials, as well as quantifiable improvements in product quality or output rate.

This benefit-cost ratio is inflated to the extent that wages and overtime pay of the workers and expenses for materials and energy utilized in carrying out the projects are not included.

Example taken from International Management, op. cit.

Cole , op. cit., p. 140.

Yoshino M.Y. , Japan's Managerial System (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1978), p: 78.

Ibid.

Employee-initiated clubs are strongly supported by most Japanese companies. One of the divisions of Matsushita Electric, for example, has over twenty sports, cultural, and other company clubs. According to a Matsushita manager, “These clubs serve to counterbalance the intensity and pressure the work place may create. Our intent is to develop a ‘total’ person.”

For more details on these idiosyncrasies, see Yoshino M.Y. , op. cit.; and Vogel Ezra F. , Japan as No. 1: Lessons for America (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1979).

See Walton Richard E. , “How to Counter Alienation in the Plant,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1972); Davis Louis E. Cherns Albert B. (eds.), The Quality of Working Life, Volume II (New York: The Free Press. 1975); Glaser Edward M. , Productivity Gains Through Worklife Improvement (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1975); Poza Ernesto J. Marjus M. Lynne , “Success Story: The Team Approach to Work Structuring.” Organizational Dynamics (Winter 1980), pp. 3–25.

The New York Times (30 March 1980) p. 16F.

Ibid.

Johnson Richard T. Ouchi William G. , “Made in America (Under Japanese Management),” Harvard Business Review (September-October 1974), p. 63. and “Are Japanese Managers Really Better?” International Management (July 1976), p. 35.

Industry Week (19 February 1979), p. 74.

Yager Ed , “Examining the Quality Control Circle,” Personnel Journal (October 1979), p. 684.

Wall Street Journal (21 February 1980), p. 48.

Ibid.

“The Workers Know Best,” Time (28 January 1980), p. 65.

Wall Street Journal, op. cit.

For further readings on quality of work life programs, see Guest Robert H. , “Quality of Work-Life-Learning from Tarrytown,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1979); and Walton Richard E. , “Work Innovations in the United States,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1979).

The New York Times, op. cit.

Drucker Peter F. , “What We Can Learn from Japanese Management,” Harvard Business Review (March-April 1971).