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This study contributes to the construction of a theory on humanistic leadership in the context of Japanese culture. Although the Japanese management system has been described as human-oriented, there has been limited research on this subject, especially regarding top leaders. This case study focuses on Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic), who devoted his life as a businessperson to investigating human nature. The authors examined how the humanistic approach influenced his beliefs and behaviors, as well as his company's performance. The authors then show how current employees at Panasonic have implemented and interpreted his philosophy.

This research is a qualitative case study. Data were gathered from transcriptions of archived recordings, interviews and Internet documents. They were then coded for analyses.

The findings show how humanistic leadership can succeed via seven behaviors: building a company philosophy aimed at the prosperity of society and the well-being of people, being aware of one's own weaknesses, listening to others, improving oneself, developing people, respecting people and making a profit for society.

The study identifies the behavioral aspects of humanistic leadership for building a leadership theory and provides insight into how Matsushita's leadership characteristics and behaviors are connected to Japanese cultural values.

The analysis of manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan has contributed significantly to the advancement of interorganizational theory. It has yielded broad evidence that long-term collaborative partnerships enable firms to exploit the incentive benefits of market-based exchange while reaping the learning and coordination benefits of internalization within a corporate hierarchy. In this paper, we go beyond the issues of trust and cooperation that have occupied much prior theory and research on supplier relations in considering another dimension along which collaborative agreements may be arrayed. We build on transaction and network theories, respectively, to propose two types of long-term collaborative ties: dyadic or bilateral governance and network embeddedness. A comparative analysis of collaborative relationships in product and process development between two Japanese TV manufacturing companies and their suppliers provides empirical evidence for the distinctive effect of network ties over dyadic relationships for collaborative knowledge-sharing.

Among all the important qualities essential for management, the most fundamental of all is the sunao spirit. Without it, a manager will never succeed in actualizing the company's endless growth.

Discusses the people side of TQM implementation with reference to organisations and organisation development theorists. Argues that a focus on the individual in the organization, and the organization’s social systems, is the key to TQM success. Provides information on the traditional approach to securing employee commitment to quality and looks at the development of the TQM vision. Concludes that a considerable number of Western managers still cling to an outdated traditional approach.

For years we have talked about managing change, now it's leading change. Why the shift?

The decisive Japanese victories in competitive confrontations with U.S. and European companies in a broad range of basic industries and in certain high technology industries like integrated circuits, has attracted the attention of the world. In exploring Japanese business practices, much attention has been focused on government/business cooperation, research and development, rates of savings, quality circles, productivity, and financial strategies. To date, little attention has been given to the role of marketing in the Japanese success. One of the most significant developments in marketing during the past decade has been the growing importance of Strategic Market Planning. This article focuses on the Japanese approach to Strategic Market Planning and its role in the competitive performance of Japanese companies. Part one outlines the basic principles of Strategic Market Planning. Part two describes Japanese strategic market planning practices. Part three is an evaluation of the implications of Japanese practice for Western marketers, and especially for U.S. companies.

The essential steps of “hoshin kanri”, or policy management, in Japanese companies are described. They are annual policy and medium‐ to long‐term policy, basic company philosophy and quality policy, converting methodological policy into objective policy, the composition of policy, two deployment styles of target ‐ top‐down and bottom‐up, target deployment and “catch‐ball”, and top management internal quality control audit

The essence of Japanese culture is said to lie in the group rather than in the individual. According to the viewpoint favoured in most writings on Japanese society and culture, the Japanese are a group‐oriented people; they like to work in groups and have always worked in association with one another, and social pressures on the individual to conform happen to be irresistible. The nail that sticks out, as the popular saying goes, gets hammered down.

Few works have dealt with the impact of a corporation's country of origin on the perception of the qualities and behaviour expected of its leaders. This paper seeks to focus on these aspects with special attention to the specific nature of the Japanese leadership style. The choice of Japan was conditioned neither by the author's admiration for this country, nor by his admiration for their unusual determination to attain perfection, but mainly by the position that Japanese corporations occupy in the global economy. The main objective of the work is to analyze the nature of the vision creation process.

The research project incorporated surveys of and interviews with 2,000 of the world's largest corporations (the Forbes Global 2000 database (2006 version)).

Japanese corporations' leaders more frequently opt for giving their subordinates a free hand in shaping their own visions than leaders of the other researched corporations. However, in nearly all the cases it was mentioned that the proposed assumptions must be coherent with the vision envisaged by top management.

The paper attempts to examine the phenomenon of leadership from the perspective of corporate business. The work deals with the problem of the impact of the corporation's country of origin on the perception of the expected qualities and behaviours of its leaders.