Review by Choice Review
This book is a study of Japanese business practices based on interviews with 36 alumni of the Keio University English Speaking Society who graduated in 1962. As such, the authors attempt to answer several questions: Is Japanese management unique? What is the impact of cultural factors on management style? Has Japanese management been successfully transplanted overseas? Are Japanese management practices changing? The bulk of the text consists of parallel histories of the world economy, Japanese industries, and the careers of the alumni between 1962 and 2000, organized into four distinct periods. In the concluding chapters, the authors answer the questions posed about Japanese management and offer some astute observations about the general trajectory of the Japanese political economy in the post-WW II period. Because the discussions of the world economy and Japanese industry are not directly connected with, nor well integrated into, the business careers of the alumni, they make the book too long and could have been omitted or substantially compressed. Moreover, the sample from which the authors generalize about Japanese management is not representative; it was chosen because of biographical coincidence and not because it provides an accurate cross-section of Japanese managers or business practices. Most appropriate for comprehensive graduate and research collections. C. H. A. Dassbach Michigan Technological University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
