ABSTRACT
A related argument is the idea that certain cultural traits – for example, the ‘traditional’ Japanese values of dedication to education and hard work, devotion to higher authorities such as one’s employer, and a sense of social cohesion, or the ‘typical’ German predisposition towards all things technical and complex – explain the success with which particular national economies have adopted post-Fordist production methods, including new forms of complex production technologies and modes of workplace organization within the individual firm. Conversely, the absence of these traits in other cultures explains the failures of their own indigenous firms to adopt these new practices with the same degree of success.
