An Empirical Test Of The Situational Leadership® Model In Japan

Abstract

Since the collapse of the "bubble economy" in the early 1990s, Japanese companies have been struggling with financial difficulty, and have been forced to change their structure, strategies, and management systems. The trend of learning and importing successful American management theories and systems expanded to Japanese society. The Situational Leadership® model, developed by Hersey and Blanchard, is an example of this phenomenon. However, many cross-cultural studies propose that Japanese society has a different culture and values from American society. Therefore, by focusing on Situational Leadership®, this study examined whether models developed in the United States are suitable for Japanese companies. The results partially support the basic principles of the model. However, findings indicated that the Japanese have a preference for stronger relationships between leaders and members than American workers. These findings suggest that it is necessary to interpret the principles of management differently when Japanese companies use American management models.