In Japan, it is often said that riding on or managing “nagare” is very important. Japanese practitioners often use the word “nagare”, which roughly translates into the English word “flow”, to represent the changing phenomena as a whole. Despite the importance of this concept, there is almost no research that directly focuses on the concept of flow in management studies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct qualitative research in order to understand and describe how people cope with the flow of phenomena in management practice. Two models were developed based on data gathered through questionnaires, interviews, my work experience, and various kinds of literature. Model 1 captures the cyclic nature of flow-conscious behavior that consists of (1) making sense of flow, (2) manipulating flow and (3) riding on or taking advantage of flow. Model 2 classifies the strategies for coping with flow into (1) becoming the center of flow by producing and enlarging it, (2) taking advantage of the flow that is produced by others, and (3) reacting passively to the flow that is produced by others. The relationship to other theoretical issues and implications for practice are discussed.

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The aim of this paper is twofold. One is to criticize typical studies about the Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) based on social psychology and organizational science, and the other is to evoke a new research agenda on this field. Previous studies of CMC have presumed face-to-face situation as desirable for human communication, as its fruitful social cues. However, we cannot equate the usefulness of organizational communication with social cues, because it has to be evaluated in terms of the social purpose of organizational practice itself. In this paper, the author will examine the case of home-office introduced at the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co in 1998. Usually, home-office (or more generally, telework) is regarded as a style of working remotely by imitating face-to-face communication at the physically shared office by CMC. Actually, however, not only do people as home-office working use CMC at remote places, but also entail organizational communication itself (tacit information sharing, newcomer coaching, evaluation of task process, and cultivation of organizationalmoral) for reflection and reconstruction. Now, it is difficult to compare the effect of CMC in the organization with face-to-face situation as an ongoing controversy. New research agenda for CMC in the organization is to seek an alternative possibility of organizational practice itself, along with analyzing reflecting and reconstructing process triggered by adopting CMC.

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The purpose of this research was to examine the relation of psycho-social development and motivation in career development process by analyzing the way three managers from one Japanese company dealt with their psycho-social developmental tasks of adulthood. These subjects, aged between 45 and 59, were considered to have professionally attained a certain level of success. Data was obtained by using 1 hour and 50 minute to 2 hour and 20 minute video-taped interviews. The detailed description from those interviews was used as qualitative data for analysis of their psycho-social development and motivation. The framework of this research was based on the psycho-social development theory of Erikson, E. H. and the motivation theory of Maslow, A. H. The findings were as follows: 1) A self-actualization tendency differs by the individual. 2) A close relation exists between growth motives and positive coping with the psycho-social developments. 3) The self-actualization tendency increases with age. 4) The crisis conquest require the following conditions: sufficiency of lack desire, intimacy from the others and emergence of growth motives.

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The purpose of this study is to examine relationships between influence action by supervisor and upward influence strategy. In this study, Leadership and social power are adopted as influence action by supervisor. In precedence research, the definition of upward influence strategy was not clear and was ambiguous. In this research, upward influence strategy was defined as intentional influence action from subordinate to supervisor. In first study, composition of measure about upward influence strategy was conducted. 8 strategies were acquired as upward influence strategy. In second study, it was shown clearly that there are some upward influence strategies in which is related to influence action such as leadership and social influence by supervisor.

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In order to compete successfully in a foreign market, a firm must possess ownership advantages that can take the form of managerial and technological know-how, human skills, marketing capabilities, etc. This paper studies the impact of these advantages on foreign investor's preference for a wholly owned subsidiary versus a joint venture. The empirical results are based on a sample of 324 Japanese manufacturing companies established in Europe over the period 1994-1998. The main hypothesis is that large firms with greater experience and industrial advantages are more likely to choose a full ownership structure for its foreign affiliates. The study finds that international experience, and resource-based industries of the investing companies have a positive influence on the choice of shared ownership structure for the foreign subsidiaries. Furthermore, firm size and intangible assets measured by the R&D and advertising intensities are shown to have a non-significant relationship with entry mode.

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The concept of managed care depends on the idea that the insurer, instead of medical service consumer, should choose the medical providers. The market mechanism is used more popular in the US. It has negative effect on the interaction between consumer and provider/insurer. The medical Doctors (MDs) should work under this circumstance in the US. Contrary, the Japanese MDs are working under different circumstances. Some of the problems happened in medical field now may be originated from the lack of proper administration for MDs in Japan. In this article, the administrative methods will be discussed on the basis of the comparison between American methods and Japanese ones.

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