Funny Business - Hardcover

Katzenstein, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0246136723 ISBN 13: 9780246136725

Publisher: Grafton, 1990

Synopsis

The story of a year spent in Japan studying Japanese management techniques. The author intended spending a year at the giant Sony corporation learning how they did things there but in fact came up against a dense network of incomprehensible rules, learning how big a difference existed between the Japanese and Westerners. It is a look at the Japanese way of life, both at work and at play.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Like Michael Shapiro's Japan: In the Land of the Broken-hearted ( LJ 6/1/89), this depicts the frustrations of foreigners living in Japan. Katzenstein went to Japan as a Luce Foundation Scholar to study Japanese management at Sony a few years ago. Related with considerable humor, but also with growing criticism (Katzenstein eventually loses his position at Sony because he attempts to meet with the company's top executive and founder to discuss the meaningless nature of the work he has been assigned), this serves as an excellent introduction to the problems Japan can present for the outsider. A series of concluding remarks offer a challenge to many of the commonly held assumptions regarding Japanese management techniques and the nature of the "economic miracle." Overall, an entertaining if sometimes embittered discussion. Reader's Digest condensed book selection.
- Scott Wright, Coll. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

MBA-holder Katzenstein went to Tokyo on a grant to spend 12 months working for Sony. He failed to fit in and was fired after several difficult months, but remained in Japan for the rest of his allotted year pondering his experiences. "While a dry prose style at times mars his account, readers will appreciate the author's candor and insights into a significant foreign power," noted PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grafton
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0246136723
• ISBN 13: 9780246136725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228