The Comparative Study Of Enterprise Culture Between America And Japan

Dating back to the origin of enterprise culture, it has a long history. While, as a conscious business practice, it began in Japan after the Second World War; as a theoretical system of business management, it was founded in the United States in1980s. Enterprise culture is defined as the sum of business practices , managerial systems, the patterns of staff's behaviors and the image of its foreign enterprise that are cored by the enterprise spirit, values and operation principle abided by all staffs in the production and operation .Enterprise culture has three levels: material culture, institutional culture, and spiritual culture. In the current context of financial crisis, this thesis ,starting with origins and the characteristics of the US and Japan enterprise cultures, studies the similarities and differences in enterprise culture, then puts forward the correlative revelations for China, which is significant for our enterprises.This thesis, taking enterprise cultures in United States and Japan as research objects, describes the origins and the characteristics of the enterprise culture in United States and Japan and the similarities and differences of the two countries in enterprise culture ,from which thesis puts forward correlative revelations for China and for the reference of our enterprise culture -building.This thesis uses several research methods: a combination of theory and practice of research methods ; inductive, deductive and reasoning research methods based on the data and information in library and network; a research method using actual data as evidence proof focused on integrating theory with practice; Comparative analysis of methods in which the United States and Japan will be compared with the two respective lateral longitudinal comparison of the combination; case study methodology used to analyze a large number of cases on and gain enlightenment.This thesis is divided into six parts. The first part is introduction in which author describes the research purpose, significance and research at home and abroad about studying the enterprise culture in the current financial crisis. The second part is an overview on the enterprise culture. Through the analysis of several definitions of enterprise culture, author's argument goes: Enterprise culture is defined as the sum of business practices , managerial systems, the patterns of staff's behaviors and the image of its foreign enterprise that are cored by the enterprise spirit, values and operation principle abided by all staffs in the production and operation. It has three levels and seven elements. The third part is an overview of the U.S. enterprise culture. This thesis ,starting with the origin of enterprise culture of United States, combined with the case, focuses on the characteristics of the U.S. enterprise culture, that is, the fate of autonomy, philosophy ideology of respect for the individual value, rigid management principles -- system outweighing social relationship; only appointing people on their merits, rewarding incentive mechanism; supporting risk-taking and encouraging innovation; business philosophy-- "customer is God". The fourth part is an overview of the Japan's enterprise culture. This thesis ,starting with the origin of Japan's enterprise culture, combined with the case, describes the characteristics of Japanese enterprise culture, that is, the concept of social business; awareness of family-owned; team spirit; a business philosophy-- " integration means creation ". The fifth part is about comparison of the similarities and differences between enterprise cultures in U.S and Japan, then puts forwards some enlightenment for building enterprise culture in China. All the enterprises in the United States and Japan are based on private ownership, and are built on the basis of capitalist relations of production enterprises. They, in the process of development, have established their own enterprise culture. In the conditions of private ownership, the boss and workers is the main employment relations, distribution of the fruits of their labor is being exploited and the exploitation of the relationship. This relationship in the enterprise will inevitably be reflected in the superstructure. The differences between US and Japan enterprise cultures are reflected in several aspects: First, from comparison of corporate decision-making mechanism; Second, from the comparison of staff's position and treatment; third from the comparison of life and values; Fourth, from the comparison of enterprise management philosophy; Fifth, from the comparison of the relationship between the individual and the collective. By contrasting the enterprise cultures of United States and Japan, author draws a conclusion that Chinese enterprises'culture should be built on the cultural construction of traditional culture and foreign culture; should focus on harmonization of social and personal benefits; should pay attention to the unify "soft" management-- the family-style and "hard " management–system style; should attach importance to unify collectivism and individualism ;should have the perspective and level of the international strategy of national rejuvenation. Finally, it is concluded that Chinese enterprises should establish their own unique corporate culture; achieve optimization of business philosophy; build their core values.It is still difficult for most business managers that how to really establish a enterprise culture, especially to form a good enterprise culture and to play a leading role in the operation and management of enterprises. In some enterprise cultures, their slogans are sounded dramatic on the surface; while, they can not be recognized by the staffs. Sometimes the negative effects of enterprise culture overweigh the positive effects. For example, a company advocates"Harmony is what matters"as its enterprise culture. As a result, it never helps the teamwork in the company and democratic decision-making; on the contrary, it forms an atmosphere that everyone is peacemaker; existed orders can not be obeyed; only the prohibition can works; loose management and low performance exist. China has a specific historical factors and traditional culture. To solve the issue---"How to form an appropriate management model in China to effectively improve the productivity of enterprises", we should absorb and digest others experiences combined with practical situation then continually adapt to the changing environment. William Ouchi said that productivity is a social organization, namely the issue of management organizations. Can be productive as long as the coordination of people's attitude to long-term point of view to encourage staff to implement it accordingly, while productivity can be resolved.