The impact of Japanisation, lean production and high performance work practices in the UK Workplace - Essay Example

The effectiveness of these techniques in practice has led many managers internationally to adopt these techniques; in this way the so-called ‘japanisation’ has become a common phenomenon within modern firms (referring to the management styles used throughout modern organizations). In most cases, the effectiveness of Japanese management techniques is based on the radical increase of employees’ performance; lean production as developed primarily by Toyota is extensively used by firms within the modern market in order to support the improvement of organizational performance: a target that is being achieved in most cases.

On the other hand, because there are cases where the adaptation of Japanese management techniques do not lead to the increase of the employees’ performance (and the following increase of the firm’s profitability) it is necessary to identify the key elements of the Japanese techniques’ potential failure ensuring at the same time that alternative management techniques – effective ones – will be available to managers worldwide. The design and the development of management practices in workplace should be decided taking into account the cultural and social characteristics of the specific region.

The culture of the particular organization should be also taken into consideration. The specific issue was examined by Soutar et al. (1999, 203) who noticed that ‘culture is an important idea as it deals with the way people live and approach problem solving in a social and organizational context’. In accordance with the above view, management practices in countries around the world are expected to present significant differences; however it has been proved in the literature and the empirical research that in modern workplace the practices followed by managers are similar; it’s just the fact that this similarity is further increased when referring to firms established in the same country.