Shared Organisational and National Cultural Values as a Factor in Japan's Competitive Advantage

Japan has been a successful global economy able to expand its domestic operations to most parts of the world. Although there is no shortage of literature on Japanese management, business practices and etiquette, little literature exists on the relationship between organisational cultural values and national cultural values. This paper reports on a research study designed to determine whether the espoused organisational values of three international Japanese companies were matched with Japanese national cultural values and if so, to propose that their alignment is a factor in Japan's competitive advantage. The espoused organisational values of the three companies were extracted during a formal content analysis and later compared with Japanese national values as defined by the European researcher in management culture, Geert Hofstede (1980-1994). The results of the study showed that the two sets of cultural values were matched, but also revealed an emphasis on values that are not usually thought of as traditionally Japanese. This paper suggests that this 'matching' may well be at least one of the factors which continues to enable Japan to create and maintain a global competitive advantage.