William Ouchi depleted years researching
Japanese companies under the enormous Japanese economic boom of the 1980s. In
this period, Japanese companies were by far the most prolific in the world, and
hence very interesting to western management scientists.
During his research, William Ouchi
identified several characteristic traits of Japanese leadership, which formed
the basis for the formulation of a new leadership style – Theory Z. Therefore,
Theory Z is also oftentimes described as the so-called Japanese Management
Style.
In short, Theory Z stresses the
importance of a caring and benevolent relationship between leaders and
followers, and presumes that workers will get motivated by a strong social
relationship with the company. Loyalty to the company will increase by
providing a job for life, in which the company takes genuine interest in the
well-being of the employee.
This leadership style is also comparable with Paternalistic
Leadership that is oftentimes the most accepted leadership style in
Asian countries, in which social relations between leaders and followers play a
significant role for employee motivation.
Just as for Douglas
McGregor’s Theory X & Y, it is very important always to acknowledge
that it is the followers needs that should determine which leadership style to
adopt, and that every leader must adapt his/her leadership style to the local
cultural context. Therefore it may not be easy to implement Theory Z in a
western cultural setting, because western employees may have completely
different needs for leadership than e.g. the Japanese workforce.
When wanting to understand cultural differences between
national and organizational cultures, current or prospective leaders may
benefit from understanding the research performed by scientists such as Geert
Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars and Edgar Schein,
who all conducted extensive research on both national and organizational
culture, and on how potential cultural differences may affect leadership.