Panasonic and Japan’s Changing Culture

Case 2 Panasonic and Japans Changing tillage 1. Some of the drivers of the cultural changes in the 1990s with Panasonic were that Japans generation of workers, offset with the generation born in the 1960s, did non wholly believe in existence a salaryman and working for a caller-out from when they start until when they retire. After many years, in the 1990s Japan entered an economic lapse that lasted the majority of the 1990s.Only a few companies at first started to lay off employees and go back on their promises of employment until hidea focal point because the older their workers, although they worked hard, also were less in force(p) than younger workers were. As the younger generations axiom this happening they concluded that loyalty to both(prenominal) the alliance and workers would non be reciprocated any to a greater extent than and became less harder working than previous. This undermined the traditional nicety in Japan of the central bargains of caparison and hideaway packages for an employees hard work and loyalty. 2.Japans straines in the future have to pursue with more than one plan when they lock on workers to effectively. In 1999 Panasonic gave recruits three different choices when they were gestural on in employment. They could continue with cosmos given housing, go ease to participation social yetts, and buy cheaper serve from banks, time also receiving a two year salary bonus when they retired. They could spot to let go the retirement bonus, while keeping the connection housing and be given a higher salary, or they could forgo the retirement bonus and any subsidise services just would be given an level(p) higher salary.In addition to the changes in hiring, companies postulate employees to be more risk winning and needed to encourage individuality which is some topic that was non very prevalent in Japan. Without employees taking risks, companies would suffer and that is what happened to Panasonic as they were f orced to coterminous thirty factories, and cut 13,000 jobs while interchange huge amounts of assets. 3. Japanese culture in the 1950s-1980s benefited Panasonic greatly because of how after the human race War II defeat, Japan was chagrined and it seemed fair that they would be taken tending of if they worked hard for their company.For Panasonic this was a great thing because employees worked extremely hard for the greater pricy of Panasonic and Panasonic responded by giving the employees blessings of company housing, and free social events. 4. With Panasonic cutting 15,000 employees and closing some other additional 27 plants, Panasonic is seek to secure a lower overhead represent in operation and also is trying to find out who their best workers ar so that they are not unploughed down when they should be promoted.By quickly responding to the recession, it showed a change in Panasonics company policies and shows that they might be moving even further away from company sub sidized housing and to make employees become harder workers not because they know that they give the gatenot be fired, but that they can be fired, at any time. If Panasonic implements these changes quickly, they leave receive a lot of reverberation from all those displaced employees and if they did it like this it would truly symbolize how Panasonic has changed into a company that is becoming westernized and is and concerned with how the company does and not their employees.If the changes take years to implement, although it would greatly affect the hitableness of the company, it would give employees chances to oblige to changes of no long-dated being employed and give them chances to be hired in another company. By making changes slowly, Panasonic would be able to usurp that it still wished to use the old way of never cutting jobs but it could not do it in this economy and had to do so to survive. 5.The Panasonic case teaches me that there is a fine line between social cu lture and business success and sometimes you have to be able to choose between the two to realize which is more important to you. To some companies, such as Panasonic, trying hard to keep with the societal culture becomes too much of a strain for a company to arrest so they are forced to adapt and realize that business success is more important that having all your workers love you. It may not be the type of business practice that gives you the best reputation but it will give you the greatest profit margins.