E-Books →Cleaning and Corporate Management

This book provides a new way of understanding Japanese management by focusing on the relationship between Japanese companies and their social practices. Whereas previous studies have often concentrated on the uniqueness of Japanese companies' systems (e.g., lifetime employment, the seniority system, company-specific unions) or methods (e.g., bottom-up management, Toyota production methods), this book explains the uniqueness of Japanese companies' activities and practices. It especially highlights the day-to-day cleaning activities that many companies have practiced for numbers of years, regardless of their size or industry. Activities that continue beyond a certain period of time are called social practices, and the book clarifies how this particular social practice has historically been formed in Japanese companies and then shows what it means to keep cherishing those cleaning practices.