Management Theory in Business Schools

In the 90s, Business Schools started to extensively teach Japanese Management Practice. This is because Japanese companies and the national economy were seen as being highly successful and continually experiencing greater growth than rival nations. However, the prominence of the focus on Japanese Management theory has been in decline from this high point. Naturally, the relative stagnation of the Japanese economy over the last 15 years will make people less inclined to promote the national management practice. However, should it be the case that Japanese management practices lose their promotion and focus due to economic issues it could also be caused by several other contributors.

Kaizen, Theory A and J and other theories have some fine principles that are valuable to many businesses. They helped companies like Toyota reach global prominence and attain years of strong profits. However, many of these companies are not as successful in recent years, so should their management practices be blamed as many did in the United Kingdom or are there other factors that have caused relative economic stagnation.

Economists will site many reasons for Japan's economic slowdown, which include the strong Yen, hierarchical society, new competitors and many more. Since the credit crunch and the collapse of the carry trade, the Yen's value has increased. This caused a significant problem for a country with a strong exporting base, as their goods became relatively expensive and this could have led to a loss of trade and competitive edge.

Some analysts blame the relatively hierarchical society for failing to adapt to the faster moving competitive market place of recent years. Nevertheless, this seems unfair given the tremendous technological advances and creativity that we have seen in numerous Japanese inventions over the years.

The collapse of large Japanese financial institutions during their financial crisis has led to some commentators citing that relative inefficiency in the financial system as a cause of slowdown.

Also, the emergence of Taiwan, South Korea and China as competitors in fields which Japan had previously dominated is often seen as a contributor to economic slowdown.

There are clearly many reasons for Japan's economic slowdown and varying opinions on their significance. It seems that the Japanese Management Theory that we were keenly learning in the 90s is unlikely to be a reason for this slowdown, but it was a contributor to the many economic successes seen by this island nation. Therefore, we should continue to eagerly learn about these management practices in conjunction with other valid theories.