Panasonic and Japan’s Changing Culture

Case 2 Panasonic and lacquers Changing Culture 1. any(prenominal) of the drivers of the cultural changes in the 1990s with Panasonic were that Japans generation of workers, starting with the generation born in the 1960s, did non wholly believe in being a salaryman and working for a guild from when they start until when they retire. subsequently many years, in the 1990s Japan entered an economic slump that lasted the volume of the 1990s.Only a few companies at first started to lay off employees and go back on their promises of employment until retirement because the older their workers, although they worked hard, also were little(prenominal) efficient than younger workers were. As the younger generations saw this happening they cogitate that loyalty to both the caller-up and workers would not be reciprocated any much and became less harder working than previous. This undermined the traditional finishing in Japan of the central bargains of caparison and retirement packages for an employees hard work and loyalty. 2.Japans businesses in the future contri notwithstandinge to operate with more than one plan when they hire workers to effectively. In 1999 Panasonic gave recruits tether different choices when they were signed on in employment. They could continue with being fathern housing, go free to company social eventidets, and buy cheaper services from banks, piece also receiving a two year salary subsidy when they retired. They could train to forgo the retirement bonus, while keeping the company housing and be given a higher salary, or they could forgo the retirement bonus and any subsidized services but would be given an even higher salary.In addition to the changes in hiring, companies needed employees to be more hazard taking and needed to encourage individuality which is something that was not very normal in Japan. With pop out employees taking risks, companies would suffer and that is what happened to Panasonic as they were forced to clo se thirty factories, and cut 13,000 jobs while selling huge amounts of assets. 3. Japanese culture in the 1950s-1980s benefited Panasonic greatly because of how after the World War II defeat, Japan was humiliated and it seemed fair that they would be taken care of if they worked hard for their company.For Panasonic this was a great thing because employees worked extremely hard for the greater good 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 trying to achieve a lower knock cost in operation and also is trying to find out who their best workers are so that they are not kept guttle 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 subsidized housing and to make employees become ha rder workers not because they know that they cannot be fired, but that they can be fired, at any time. If Panasonic implements these changes quickly, they will arrest a lot of backlash from all those displaced employees and if they did it like this it would truly epitomize how Panasonic has changed into a company that is becoming westernized and is only concerned with how the company does and not their employees.If the changes take years to implement, although it would greatly affect the profitability of the company, it would give employees chances to aline to changes of no longer being employed and give them chances to be hired in another company. By making changes slowly, Panasonic would be able to birdsong 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 subject area teaches me that there is a fine line between societal culture and business success and sometimes you have to be a ble to guide 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 similarly much of a strain for a company to bear 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 shell of business practice that gives you the best reputation but it will give you the greatest profit margins.