Beyond Japan, Beyond Consensus? From Japanese Management to Lean Production

Abstract

The author argues that the current hcgernonic conceptions of the trajectory of Japanese management at home and abroad allow for only a limited understanding of the broader sociological questions relating to the subordination-insubordination of labour. The Japanese management school in the UK reifies Japancsc management by either overplaying its consensual nature or over-estimating its coercive features. In addition, it is suggested that the arguments about ‘Japan’ in the Japanization school provide the basis, significant differences notwith-standing, for the ideological agcnda of the lean production school. A more nuanced account of Japan and Japanese management would draw upon the nature of struggles in the workplacc and the wider society. While some of thesc struggles can be contained within corporatist management and union strategies, othcrs clearly cannot. This suggests that a broader understanding of the uncvcnness of workplacc subordination and quiescence requires an agenda which gocs beyond that pr...