From a series of qualitative interviews with Japanese managers and German managers and workers in thirty-one Japanese-owned companies in the Dusseldorf region of western Germany, this article discusses differences in cultural patterns and organizational styles between the German and Japanese employees and the problems these pose for communication, cooperation, and morale. First, we deal with cultural contrasts: language issues, interpersonal styles (personability and politeness), and norms regarding the taking of responsibility. Second, we examine the impact on cross-nationality relations of established organizational practice: for example, German specialism vs. Japanese generalism; direct and vertical vs. indirect and incremental decision making. We also discuss efforts by these firms to find compromise systems that would meet the needs and interests of both sides. The third focus is the reactions of Japanese companies in North Rhine-Westphalia to German unions, works councils, and codetermination regulations. In the labor view, Japanese firms overall do no better or worse than comparable German firms.Japanese direct investment in Western economies is concentrated in North America and the United Kingdom. In consequence, a rich journalistic and scholarly literature examines the Japanese experience in the Anglo-American countries, the management styles and organization structures of the subsidiaries, and the relations between the Japanese management and the local workforce (see, e.g
In response to the empirical and theoretical weaknesses of the older social stress or deprivation theories of social movements, a new general theory of social movements—resource mobilization theory—has become increasingly popular. One of the most basic points of disagreement between theorists accepting one or the other general perspective involves the extent to which the development and growth of a social movement can be attributed to the preconditions of social stress or some form of deprivation. This article begins by describing how the two perspectives are indirectly rooted in differeing paradigms of social organization, which leads to divergent assumptions about the nature of social conflict and social order. Next, theoretical and empirical problems contained in each perspective are shown to be partially related to these assumptions. Finally, a continuum describing “movements of crisis” and “movements of affluence” is constructed to suggest that the structural conditions inviting social movement activity are varied. When such variance is recognized, we find there is a place for both theories in the complex field of study, though deprivation theories especially face many continuing problems.
It is a worldwide stereotype that Japanese, compared to Americans, are oriented more toward collectivism. But this stereotypical notion of more collectivism among Japanese, which typically stems from a view that individualism and collectivism stand at opposite ends of a continuum, has been filled with dashed empirical findings, especially in a sample of college students. In the current study, following the view that individualism and collectivism are two separate concepts rather than one with two extremes, we test and compare both individualistic and collectivistic tendencies among college students in Japan and the United States. A review of theories and research on this dimension of cultural variability across the two diverse cultures and the literature on societal pressure of collectivity and on parents as primary socialization agents of culturally expected values lead to two hypotheses: 1) Japanese college students tend less toward individualism than do Americans, and 2) Japanese college students tend less toward collectivism than do Americans. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and in the United States provides strong support for both hypotheses.Despite modernization, the old images of Japan held by Westerners, and even among Japanese themselves, persist. One of the most important of these images is that Japanese people are more collectivistic than Westerners, and especially more so than Americans -a stereotype based primarily on an abundance of qualitative studies on stronger 'group-orientation' among
This paper examines the level of protest activity by the unemployed in the United States between 1890 and 1940 as a test of the value of a political process model for explaining social movement activity. Data on protest events and elite attitudes towards the unemployed were collected from newspaper articles. Voting behavior was used as an indicator of contested elections and unemployment levels were reflected by available indicators. Consistent with previous research on lower-and working-class mobilization, a change in the political environment was key to the extensive protest by the unemployed in the 1930s. Toward the end of the 1920s, and especially in the early 1930s, elites were no longer simply making public statements about the problem of unemployment, but were also discussing the need for aid programs. In the context of this new political environment, elections were once again contested in the 1930s, and extensive protest began in 1930, even before unemployment hit its high point in 1933. Thus, it was not simply deprivation, but the changed political environment which legitimized the issue of unemployment and created prospects for reform, which in turn helped produce the massive protest of the 1930s.The primary goal of the research reported in this paper is to further understanding of the development, and lack of development, of protest by the unemployed in the United States between 1890 and 1940. The focus is on resource mobilization, and more specifically, on a political process perspective on the development of social movements, and the interaction between political environment and deprivation in the mobilization of social movement activities.We examine a specific condition (unemployment) likely to produce hardship, presuming that unemployment creates hardship for the vast majority of the unemployed. It could, of course, be argued that the pain of unemployment is eased somewhat in agricultural settings, or through the provision of extensive welfare benefits. For the period 1890 to 1940, however, neither of these factors had much effect on the impact of unemployment. By the 1890s, most of the labor force was urban (U.S. Bureau of Census 1975), and the best historical descriptions of unemployment during this time period do not credit welfare support or food resources from private lands as significant factors in reducing the impact of unemployment (Feder 1936; Garraty 1978.) Our approach overcomes some limitations of past research which typically focused on all collective action events in a specified time period, often involving diverse issues and interest groups (Kerbo and Shaffer 1986; Snyder 1975:275; Tilly 1984). We examine a specific source of hardship affecting a segment of the population which can be followed over an extended time period in order to understand the changing parameters associated with collective action.' * Correspondence to: Kerbo, Social Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407.1. In previous work we have argued for the use of "group an...
Since 1960 there has been a rapid increase in the number of Native Americans attending college; but the rate of completion has been less than half that of whites. The research reported in this note begins an inquiry into the reasons for the lower rate of college success, indexed by GPA, among Native Americans than among their counterpart whites.Although empirical studies of college success among Native Americans are few, there has been some speculation (and a little empirical work) on their performance in the lower grades. In common with other racial and ethnic groups, low family SES, school quality, educational aspirations, and the racial mixture of primary and secondary schools attended have been related to educational success. But most measures of school quality have been found unimportant; and family SES has not been so effective a predictor at the college level as for the earlier years of schooling.In contrast to other racial or ethnic groups, however, the literature on Native American educational attainment has stressed cultural factors most heavily. The present research attempts to empirically test for the importance of these cultural factors, along with other aspects related to the general concept of assimilation/acculturation among Native Americans. SampleThe sample consisted of 253 individuals, of whom 102 were Native Americans and 151 whites, attending universities in the state of Oklahoma in 1978.1 The white sample was obtained by distributing the questionnaire in six social science classes at two universities. In order to obtain an adequate *Data analysis was partially funded through a research grant from California Polytechnic State University (# 2623.31). I would like to thank Sara Pawlan, Robert Quan, and especially Walter Lamar for their help and comments. Also I would like to thank Marcia Dunklau, Diane Goldman, and Patricia Tupac-Yupanqui for their typing and editorial comments.
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