Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Importing theory Z to the software shop: cultural technology transfer

Importing theory Z to the software shop: cultural technology transfer Japanese management techniques have excited Western thought in recent years partly because they seem to promise relief from the "productivity crisis." Detractors have been quick to point out the lack of quick success, the enormous cultural content of these practices, and the difficulties in transferring organizational behaviour techniques from one culture to another. Proponents contend that the lessons, rather than the content of Japanese management techniques and their unique focus upon organizational process rather than upon production technique will provide the greatest benefit to Western business. This paper explores the transferability of one form of Japanese management technique, Ouchi's Theory "Z", to the last bastion of unarticulated management--the software shop. While there are no documented efforts at such transfer, it is likely that this unlikely migration can take place painlessly over the next decade. In the exploration, numerous similarities between computer programmers in today's software shop and the emerging form of the twenty-first-century worker are pointed out. The lesson learned from this exercise will be appropriate to all knowledge workers as office automation reaches out into professional and managerial positions. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png ACM SIGCPR Computer Personnel Association for Computing Machinery

Importing theory Z to the software shop: cultural technology transfer

Licker, Paul S.
ACM SIGCPR Computer Personnel , Volume 10 (1) – Jan 1, 1985
Download PDF
7 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/importing-theory-z-to-the-software-shop-cultural-technology-transfer-OtxatCgVrP

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by ACM Inc.
ISSN
0160-2497
DOI
10.1145/1036354.1036356
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Japanese management techniques have excited Western thought in recent years partly because they seem to promise relief from the "productivity crisis." Detractors have been quick to point out the lack of quick success, the enormous cultural content of these practices, and the difficulties in transferring organizational behaviour techniques from one culture to another. Proponents contend that the lessons, rather than the content of Japanese management techniques and their unique focus upon organizational process rather than upon production technique will provide the greatest benefit to Western business. This paper explores the transferability of one form of Japanese management technique, Ouchi's Theory "Z", to the last bastion of unarticulated management--the software shop. While there are no documented efforts at such transfer, it is likely that this unlikely migration can take place painlessly over the next decade. In the exploration, numerous similarities between computer programmers in today's software shop and the emerging form of the twenty-first-century worker are pointed out. The lesson learned from this exercise will be appropriate to all knowledge workers as office automation reaches out into professional and managerial positions.

Journal

ACM SIGCPR Computer Personnel – Association for Computing Machinery

Published: Jan 1, 1985

There are no references for this article.