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14-8 Human Relations [CH 14

Table 14.1 Characteristics of Theory Z Management

Typical U.S. Theory Z Typical Japanese
Organization Organization Organization
Short-term employment Long-term employment Lifetime employment

Rapid evaluation and Slow evaluation and Slow evaluation and
promotion promotion promotion

Specialized career Moderately specialized Nonspecialized career
paths career paths paths

Explicit control Implicit, informal control Implicit control
mechanisms with explicit, formalized mechanisms
measures

Individual decision making Collective decision making Collective decision
making

Individual responsibility Individual responsibility Collective responsibility

Source: Adapted from William G. Ouchi and Alfred M. Jaeger, Type Z Organizations: Stability in the
Midst of Mobility," Academy of Management Review 3 (1978), pp. 308-311

receive varied and non-specialized experience to broaden their career paths. The result
of this approach, according to Ouchi, is increased productivity and improved worker
satisfaction.
The move toward participative management is dramatically reshaping U.S.
corporations. The new methods are based on asking workers how to improve their jobs
and then letting them do it. Instead of relying on a bureaucracy of departments such as
personnel and maintenance, Union Carbide welders now have a voice in their stand-

alone operations. Consequently, they reduced the number of costly back injuries by
implementing 20 minutes of exercise on the shop floor each morning before work.
General Electric is a participative management pioneer; its experiments with this
philosophy increasing productivity 25 percent within three years following the
installation of a participative management program at GE's Ravenna, Ohio, production
facility.

The Theory Z approach does not require adoption of all Japanese management
practices. Since highly qualified young managers in the United States are likely to
have numerous job alternatives with different firms, rigid adherence to the Japanese
practice of slow evaluations and promotions is likely to result in the loss of an
American firm's brightest talents.
"The problem with participative management," says Raymond E. Miles, dean of

the University of California's business school at Berkeley, "is that it works." A number
of companies with participative management programs report reluctance on the part of
middle- and supervisory-level management to support the programs. But successful
implementation typically produced dramatic results. A study of 101 industrial
companies found that those practicing participative management outscored the others
on 13 of 14 financial measures of company excellence.

Maintenance versus Motivational Factors

Psychologist Frederick Herzberg conducted a study in human motivation of various
job factors as sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Based on his research,
maintenance factors Herzberg reached two conclusions:
Job-related factors (job
security, salary) that are not 1. Certain characteristics of a job, called maintenance factors, are necessary to
strong motivators, but must maintain a desired level of satisfaction. They include such job-related factors as
be present to prevent salary, working conditions, and job security. They must be present to prevent
worker dissatisfaction. worker dissatisfaction, but they are not strong motivators. If they are absent or
inadequate, they are likely to serve as dissatisfiers. Since most industrial firms

make free parking available for their employees, a large employee parking lot is
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