JAPANISATION: THE EMERGING AGENDA FOR RESEARCH Available to Purchase

In this article “Japanisation” is used as a shorthand term for the diffusion of Japanese management systems and practices, whether this be via Japanese direct investment overseas or the emulation of such systems and practices in non‐Japanese organisations. Based on the philosophies of total quality control (TQC) and just‐in‐time (JIT) produc‐tion, the Japanese organisational form has been held up as a new “paradigm” which challenges the logic of tradi‐tional Western production regimes (Aoki 1987; Oliver and Wilkinson 1988a) and has crucial implications for both intra‐ and inter‐organisational structures and relations of power and control (Wilkinson and Oliver 1989).