Kimono in the Boardroom: The Invisible Evolution of Japanese Women Managers

Taylor, Sully; Renshaw, Jean R.

doi:10.2307/259317

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…corporate layoffs). In order to keep scarce and quality employees, embracing familiar strategies like lifetime employment may be maintained, but the environment may also require instituting new practices like hiring more women 5 (Renshaw, 1999;Strober and Chan, 1999;Taylor, 2000) and foreign workers (Tsuda, 1999). The more crucial element will be that Japanese corporations clearly understand and implement strategies that address the realities of what actually does motivate contemporary employees and not simply what has traditionally been effective.…”

Section: Motivation Research -Japanese Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Perceptions of Japanese Workplace Motivation

Brislin

MacNab

Worthley

et al. 2005

Int'l Jnl of Cross Cultural Management

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This research effort specifically examines perceptions of workplace motivation in Japan between employees and managers while highlighting results that are somewhat counterintuitive to the traditional western perception of Japanese ethnography. Specifically, we find some evidence for a potentially shifting movement toward a self-orientation with more emphasis on lifetime employability over lifetime employment. During a period when incremental efficiencies are arguably more important than ever for the Japanese economy, practitioners therein stand to maintain the highest level of productivity by better understanding exactly how workforce motivation is currently evolving rather than relying on potentially dated assumptions. Specifically this effort advances cross cultural management studies by blending insight from past American research and theory with current research on Japan - which allows the additional benefit of comparing traditional Japanese cultural platforms to potentially more modern, dynamic realities. In partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Human Resource Solutions, a survey was undertaken in the metropolitan Tokyo area that examined motivation of the Japanese worker using the two-factor Herzberg model, which seems to be valid in Japan. The study indicates that there has been a movement from a more traditional, collective/company orientation toward more self-orientation. The study also demonstrates that Japanese managers seem to have an acceptable understanding of what motivates employees but that there is still room for improvement.

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Section: Motivation Research -Japanese Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Perceptions of Japanese Workplace Motivation

Brislin

MacNab

Worthley

et al. 2005

Int'l Jnl of Cross Cultural Management

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“…Japanese female participation in management is considerably lower than in other industrialized nations (Renshaw, 1999;Taylor, 2000), despite the fact that the female workforce in Japan is among the most educated in the world (OECD, 2011). The participation rate of prime-age women (between 25 and 54) rose from 65 per cent in 1994 to 72 per cent in 2010.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Major factors affecting contemporary Japanese business environment

Blahová

Haghirian

Pálka

2015

Int J Productivity & Perf Mgmt

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing contemporary Japanese business environment mainly in the field of strategic management and, therefore, having influence on corporate performance and its measurement in selected manufacturing companies located in Japan in respect to their key business perspectives focused on people, processes and systems, innovations, finance, social responsibility and ecology, and that in relation to ongoing economic crises and a fundamental transformation of mature societies (in particular in USA, Japan and Western Europe). Design/methodology/approach – The research involved assembling key academic and other literature on the subject of trends in strategic management and performance measurement in Japan as well as semi-structured interviews with managers within manufacturing companies located in Japan that deal with performance measurement, finance, strategic management, etc. and a review of various internal management reports. Findings – The research has been useful in identifying companies that respond to current changes and trends the fastest and the most effective. Research limitations/implications – Among the limitations of the conclusions belongs rather a small sample of companies involved in the research. Moreover, the respondents may have seen their own company more favourably than an objective outsider would have done. Originality/value – This paper shares insights on current trends influencing Japanese business environment and how these trends are implemented, used and updated in a selected sample of companies located in Japan.

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“…However, Japanese female participation in management is considerably lower than in other industrialized nations (Renshaw 1999;Taylor 2000), despite the fact that the female workforce in Japan is among the most educated in the world (OECD 2006). Many women in the Japanese labor force occupy lower-level clerical positions, usually in service to men (Staley 2002).…”

Section: Female Workforcementioning

confidence: 97%

Workforce motivation in Japan: an examination of gender differences and management perceptions

Worthley

MacNab

Brislin

et al. 2009

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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As Japan enters the new century, pending workforce shortages -a function of low birth rates and an aging population -increase the need to address gender issues in organizations. Throughout the past four decades, the number of female workers in Japan has been growing, although full-time female participation in the Japanese workforce remains below the levels of some other industrialized nations. Despite the growing importance that the Japanese female labor force is expected to play, relatively little is known about women's attitudes toward work motivation in Japan. Using a twofactor, Herzberg intrinsic/extrinsic approach to motivation, we examine the applicability of such a model in Japan, and compare the attitudes of female and male workers, as well as management and non-management. Our findings include:(1) support for the applicability of a Herzberg, two-factor model in Japan; (2) Japanese men in the workforce tending to value intrinsic motivators more than extrinsic factors;(3) female workers in Japan rating extrinsic factors higher than their male counterparts; and (4) managers' opinions of what motivates employees not constituting a refined match to those of female employees, especially with respect to extrinsic motivation. In multi-gender Japanese organizations, management will potentially benefit from a better understanding and functional integration of important gender nuances into their motivation strategies.

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Kimono in the Boardroom: The Invisible Evolution of Japanese Women Managers

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Evolving Perceptions of Japanese Workplace Motivation

Evolving Perceptions of Japanese Workplace Motivation

Major factors affecting contemporary Japanese business environment

Workforce motivation in Japan: an examination of gender differences and management perceptions

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