Overview
Robert March, author of TheJapanese Negotiator, now critically examines the Japanese multinational company from the perspective of its non-Japanese employees in the United States, Japan and abroad. Against a background of growing Japanese investment overseas and simultaneously increasing concern about the qualifications of some Japanese companies as good employers abroad, March examines, through the actual experiences of their foreign employees, how the vastly different ideas of the Japanese about good management practice, corporate culture, harmony in the workplace, interpersonal communication, employment conditions, decision-making power for non-Japanese, and manager-subordinate relationships often lead to many real problems in the workplace, and sometimes escalate into an ultimate polarization between Japanese and non-Japanese personnel.Using the successful approach of his earlier book (which Savvy Magazine called "an indispensable guide to the ins and outs of Japanese commerce"), March uses revealing testimony from foreign employees in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia to show how the Japanese really manage and direct their foreign employees, as well as to expose the roots of tension, misunderstanding, confusion, frustration and antagonism in the multinational Japanese company. A longtime student of Japanese corporate behavior who himself has many years of first-hand experience working for the Japanese in Japan and abroad, March in Working for a Japanese Company presents a comprehensive study of what it is really like to work for the Japanese--and the first guide to evaluating Japanese companies as employers. His skillful use of verbatim interview materials is combined with the interpretive approach of a cultural anthropologist who is completely at home in a business environment. Reading Working for a Japanese Company will transform your assumptions about Japanese companies and Japanese managers themselves. This essential work goes beyond stereotypes to offer truly new perspectives and insights on things Japanese in today's world of multinational business.
Editorials
A look into the complex world of the multi-cultural,Japanese-owned organization with an eye toward differences in employee relations, management methods, and interpersonal behavior.
"... a useful tool for the increasing numbers probing the question: should I accept that job at 'Mitsushati Motors' in New Jersey, or not?