Now a question may appear: which of these could be applied somewhere else in the world? Can we adopt something to our business and organizational environment? The answer is both yes and no. First we have to fully comprehend that the Japanese management stems from a unique historical and cultural tradition, which cannot be simply copied, and trying to imply any of the practices which are strongly based on cultural principles would be inefficient and probably also dangerous. Secondly, we should be aware of the fact, that the Japanese management is an object of a reasonable (justified) criticism since the slowdown in the economy has appeared and some of the practices were proved not to be effective any longer even in the Japanese business environment.
Now, I will try to briefly describe some of the advantages and disadvantages of the above mentioned practices and the possibility of their use in Slovakia. The lifetime employment system is a permanent guarantee of loyalty to the organization and job security for the employee, it also generates a strong organizational culture at the meantime, but on the other hand means a practical impossibility of changing companies. To the Slovak environment this system seems to be inapplicable because of a high unemployment rate and a high level of fluctuation, but we could probably try the use of a short-term employment instead.
The evaluation according to the length service is, in my opinion, a barrier for initiative and qualified young people to build up their carrier, so I definitely would not apply this one in my own company.
The collective decision making brings on one hand a higher expertness achieved by a team, but on the other hand is a bit inefficient and slow, so I would probably recommend the Japanese system only on the strategic and tactical level of decision making process.
The holistic concern for people is only possible in combination with the lifetime employment system in big companies, so in most Slovak organizations, it would have no foundation.
And finally, the quality control is basically used with mass production, and is definitely one of the best contributions to the management theory from the Japanese side. It has already been used in the United States and proved to be very efficient , so it is only a question of time, and this practice will be applied almost everywhere in the world.
In conclusion: “If there is one major lesson to be learned from the Japanese business structure, it is how to manage…” Washington Post 1981.