The Ethics of Buddhism and the Ethos of the Japanese Management: The Spirit of Ji-Hi

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the reasons why most of the Japanese companies have a high regard for employee's competence and don't adopt personnel retrenchment as one of the urgent countermeasures to come out of a business slump. We looked over historical documents about business disciplines and practices from the 17th century to the 19th century, and examined ideas, beliefs, and philosophy advocated in those documents in order to elucidate the reasons why the Japanese companies assume the human-oriented attitude toward its employees, and extracted a conclusion that the human-oriented attitude in the Japanese management has its origin in the spirit of Ji-hi, such as the virtue of compassion of the Buddha.

Keywords: Manegerial Creed, Buddhism, Ethos, Japanese Management, Human-oriented Management, Historical Approach

JEL Classification: B15, L21, M10, M13, M14, N00, N01, N15, N80, N85