FORMATION OF THE ORGANIZATION OF TOP-MANAGEMENT IN MEIJI JAPAN

Abstract

The study of organizational structures from the historical perspective has fallen out of favor in the academic world. In Japan, historical studies of organizations seem to be neglected, except with regard to control of management. This is because historians so far have been inclined to describe industrialization or economic modernization exclusively in terms of capitalist development. However, in view of the importance of the organizational structure in any discussion of economic development, we should address ourselves here to the same problem and ask why Japanese businesses evolved the characteristic and elaborate organization for which they are well known.
In my opinion, Japanese top management has had unique organizational traits, summarized in the following three aspects: combination or fusion of managing and control positions, hierachical rank order, and restriction of membership to those with middle-level managerial experience.
In this paper I will analyze in detail how this kind of organization had been devised and developed on a trial and error basis in the Meiji Era.