Constructing the image of the other: a post‐colonial critique of the adaptation of Japanese human resource management practices

Organization theory is becoming increasingly pluralistic, not only as continuous theoretical and methodological developments, but also in terms of facilitating a more polyvocal view on organizing and administrative practices. The suggested “postmodern turn” in organization theory and HRM theory has given voice to marginal or excluded minority groups in organization. Informed by post‐colonial theory, this article presents a study of the use of a Japanese management technique, kaizen, in an alien socio‐cultural and institutional context, Sweden. In order to mediate the differences between Japanese and Swedish culture, the image of the other, the generalized view of the unfamiliar subject, is constructed in order to de‐paradoxify and eliminate ambiguities in the culture of the other and to facilitate the adaptation of Japanese human resource management practices.