2026-09-25T17:06:55Zhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/oai/requestoai:mro.massey.ac.nz:10179/49272025-11-11T14:23:18Zcom_10179_294col_10179_296
DSpace at Massey University
author
Macpherson, Wayne Gordon
2013-12-09T01:28:26Z
2013-12-09T01:28:26Z
2013
http://hdl.handle.net/10179/4927
Q112903668
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112903668
In attempting to decode the industrial competitive success of Japan, researchers in
the Anglosphere have predominantly identified with the highly visible tools and
methods of the quality management philosophy of kaizen. However, due to data
collection methodologies and significant cross-cultural limitations kaizen appears to
have been largely misinterpreted and misunderstood. This ‘gap’ has resulted in
literature riddled with deterministic models of mechanical methodologies promoted
to pursue business excellence. Further, there has been a plethora of attempts at
transplanting Japan-centric tools and techniques, with little – if any – regard for the
country’s individual and indigenous social characteristics.
To deepen understanding of kaizen a phenomenological study was conducted in
middle-to-large sized industrial companies in Japan to investigate Japanese workers’
perspectives of kaizen. Two parallel and complementary philosophies of the pursuit
of business excellence were identified. The Japanese thread explored how Japanese
workers acknowledge and exercise kaizen; and, the Anglosphere thread examined
how workers in the Anglosphere attempt to adopt and practise kaizen. In the
Japanese context, society is identified as being highly bounded with little opportunity
for individual creativity. Many Japanese industrial organisations, being active kaizen
environments, channel worker creativity and expressions of individuality into
bounded environments, or kaizen audiences, providing a counter-point to social and
cultural requirements. In addition to Japanese-style management, this has resulted in
the production of tangible kaizen tools and methods, as easily identified by
Anglosphere researchers and practitioners.
The primary contribution to knowledge this research presents is the development of
understanding of the utility of the kaizen phenomenon. Kaizen in industrial settings
in Japan is found to be both culturally bounded and contextually dependent, and far
beyond continuous improvement; differences in the perceptions of older and younger
workers are seen to exist as kaizen drifts across generational boundaries; active
programmes are maintained to ensure that kaizen remains embedded in both the
individual and the organisation; and, the simplistic diffusion of kaizen to
Anglosphere organisations is observed to be an unlikely guarantee to sustainable
business excellence over the longer term, as it has in Japan. This research reports
that the only likely viable means to sustainably diffuse kaizen in Anglosphere
domains is for business leaders to return to square one and instil an implicit,
comprehensive understanding and appreciation of kaizen; and, acquire and develop
recipient-organisation-centric tools and methods. Such a new approach could
provide practitioners in the Anglosphere the means to adopt and sustain kaizen
thinking and practice, and a gateway to sustainable competitive advantage.
en
The Author
Corporate culture
Total quality management
Japan
English-speaking countries
Business
Administration
Anglosphere
Conformity
Creativity
Culture
Diffusion
Drift
Genba
Intergenerational
Japan
kaizen
An examination of kaizen drift in Japanese genba : implications for business in the anglosphere : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business and Administration at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
Thesis
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