In an effort to determine, with reference to the US and Japan, what factors give rise to a society's emergence, growth and possible decline, some parallels are found between Buddhist, Confucian and Tao ideals and Christian tenets, representing the equivalent of a “Confucian ethic” which...

Female nursing supervisors and subordinate nurses in an American hospital were given questionnaires to see if there was a link between sex‐role behaviour and leadership style. It is concluded that a form of job stereotyping exists, since individuals in supervisory positions are perceived by...

Japan's adoption (and adaption) of QC circles 10 years earlier than most of the rest of the world, and the role this has played in Japan's advancement as an industrialised nation, is examined. The growth of circles in Japan is charted, and a consideration is given of the implementation of QC...

Over the past few years public interest in value for money from educational institutions has obliged administrative and teaching staff in such organisations to plan, organise and control more effectively, and in some cases to upgrade quality. Improved performance in an educational establishment,...

Many researchers have been investigating the subject of corporate culture, which has become a buzz word of the 1980s. All results have not been in agreement but a variety of changes to accommodate a change in corporate culture have been observed. Usually the change is effected in order to...

Action Research (AR) is presented as an interpretive conceptual framework through which an understanding of management systems can be achieved. The proposed interpretive framework is briefly described and examined as a comparative management framework. The merit inherent in AR as an interpretive...

Corporate use of video offers new solutions to many of the problems of corporate communication. It has become so sophisticated and can be used in so many ways that many large companies are using it extensively, especially firms with multi‐site operations and/or high staff turnover, such as...

There are a vast number of foreign‐born and minority employees in the United States. Using Hofstede's four dimensions of cultural values — power distance, individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance — as well as some more basic cultural differences between nationalities, the...

Japanese and American management decision‐making patterns are compared. The Daido Steel Company of Nagoya, Japan, was a very co‐operative partner in providing both demographic and action step information. Overall, three research hypotheses are focused on relating to decision pattern, length...