The Rice-paper Ceiling

The Rice-paper Ceiling
Author: Rochelle Kopp
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press, Inc.
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Every day, 700,000 Americans working in Japanese companies confront the rice-paper ceiling. International business consultant Rochelle Kopp exposes this invisible obstacle to advancement at Japanese corporations, how it operates, and what you can do to break through it to improve your workplace relationships and career prospects. Along the way she details case studies that reveal the profound differences between Japanese and American work styles and cultures. If you work for a Japanese company, or plan to, you need this book. A revealing, readable account of American-Japanese interactions in the workplace.-Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Rochelle Kopp is a Yale graduate with an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. She is Managing Principal of Japan Intercultural Consulting in Chicago.

Japanese Multinationals Abroad

Japanese Multinationals Abroad
Author: Schon L. Beechler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 1999-04-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0195353269

A defining feature of Japan's emergence as a global economic superpower has been Japanese firms' establishment of thousands of affiliate operations in North America, Europe, and Asia. Despite the tremendous importance of this development, there have been surprisingly few articles published on the management of Japanese operations abroad, and even fewer attempts to collect and make sense of this scholarship. Schon Beechler and Allan Bird remedy this situation with Japanese Multinationals Abroad: Individual and Organizational Learning, a unique collection of essays from an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars. The book opens with an introduction by the editors, followed by a chapter analyzing the evolution of research on multinational enterprises in general and on Japanese multinational corporations in particular. The remainder of the book is divided into three sections. In the first section the contributors address the impact of Japanese management practices on individuals and groups, analyzing the interactions between Japanese expatriates and local employees that lead to negotiated "third cultures." The second section shifts to the business unit level, examining the ways in which Japanese firms attempt to transfer or substantially modify home country management philosophies, policies, and practices to fit the local affiliate. The final section, focused on the corporate level, deals with the impact of subsidiary management activities on the organization as a whole. The contributors address various aspects of organizational learning related to the transfer of managerial knowledge from subsidiary to parent or from one overseas affiliate to another. Japanese Multinationals Abroad: Individual and Organizational Learning addresses a set of issues that are critical for both international business researchers and practicing managers. It not only provides an integrated picture of how Japanese employees and organizations learn to adapt and prosper, it presents an clear lessons for all multinational corporations, regardless of their national origins.

The EcoNest Home

The EcoNest Home
Author: Paula Baker-Laporte
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2015-07-20
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1771422025

Step-by-step instructions to build your own beautiful, environmentally friendly, healthy natural home.

Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities

Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities
Author: Adam Komisarof
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2015-10-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317578805

This book generates a fresh, complex view of the process of globalization by examining how work, scholarship, and life inform each other among intercultural scholars as they navigate their interpersonal relationships and cross boundaries physically and metaphorically. Divided into three parts, the book examines: (1) the socio-psychological process of crossing boundaries constructed around nations and work organizations; (2) the negotiation of multiple aspects of identities; and (3) the role of language in intercultural encounters, in particular, adjustment taking place at linguistic and interactional levels. The authors reflect upon and give meaning and structure to their own intercultural experiences through theoretical frameworks and concepts—many of which they themselves have proposed and developed in their own research. They also provide invaluable advice for transnational scholars and those who aspire to work and live abroad to improve organizational participation and mutual intercultural engagement when working in a globalizing workplace. Researchers and practitioners of applied linguistics, communication studies, and higher education in many regions of the world will find this book an insightful resource.

How to Wrap Five Eggs

How to Wrap Five Eggs
Author: Hideyuki Oka
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 149
Release: 2008-10-14
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1590306198

Traditional Japanese packaging is an art form that applies sophisticated design and natural aesthetics to simple objects. In this elegant presentation of the baskets, boxes, wrappers, and containers that were used in ordinary, day-to-day life, we are offered a stunning example of a time before mass production. Largely constructed of bamboo, rice straw, hemp twine, paper, and leaves, all of the objects shown here are made from natural materials. Through 221 black-and-white photographs of authentic examples of traditional Japanese packaging—with commentary on the origins, materials, and use of each piece—the items here offer a look into a lost art, while also reminding us of the connection to nature and the human imprint of handwork that was once so alive and vibrant in our everyday lives. This classic book was originally published under the title How to Wrap Five More Eggs in 1975. The eminent American designer George Nelson praised the work featured here, saying, “We have come a long, long way from the kind of thing so beautifully presented in this book. To suit the needs of super mass production, the traditional natural materials are too obstreperous . . . and one by one we have replaced them with the docile, predicable synthetics. . . . What we have gained from these [new] materials and wonderfully complicated processes to make up for the general pollution, rush, crowding, noise, sickness, and slickness is a subject for other forums. But what we have lost for sure is what this book is all about: a once-common sense of fitness in the relationships between hand, material, use, and shape, and above all, a sense of delight in the look and feel of very ordinary, humble things. This book is thus . . . a totally unexpected monument to a culture, a way of life, a universal sensibility carried through all objects down to the smallest, most inconsequential, and ephemeral things.” Now, over thirty years later, this revived classic on the art of traditional Japanese packing may leave us with the same response, and the same appreciation for the natural and utile packaging presented in this book.

In the Eye of the China Storm

In the Eye of the China Storm
Author: Paul T.K. Lin
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2011-08-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0773538577

Born in Vancouver in 1920 to immigrant parents, Lin became a passionate advocate for China while attending university in the United States. With the establishment of the People's Republic, and growing Cold War sentiment, Lin abandoned his doctoral studies, moving to China with his wife and two young sons. He spent the next fifteen years participating in the country's revolutionary transformation. In 1964, concerned by the political climate under Mao and determined to bridge the growing divide between China and the West, Lin returned to Canada with his family and was appointed head of McGill University's Centre for East Asian Studies. Throughout his distinguished career, Lin was sought after as an authority on China. His commitment to building bridges between China and the West contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and China in 1970, to US President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972, and to the creation of numerous cultural, academic, and trade exchanges. In the Eye of the China Storm is the story of Paul Lin's life and of his efforts - as a scholar, teacher, business consultant, and community leader - to overcome the mutual suspicion that distanced China from the West. A proud patriot, he was devastated by the Chinese government's violent suppression of student protestors at Tiananmen Square in June 1989, but never lost faith in the Chinese people, nor hope for China's bright future.

International Business

International Business
Author: Andrew Delios
Publisher: FT Press
Total Pages: 904
Release: 2012-12-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0133409961

International Business: An Asia Pacific Perspective (Second Edition) provides a unique exploration of the topic of international business. It examines decisions relevant to managers in internationalizing and multinational firms operating in the Asia Pacific region. Its uniqueness stems from the cutting-edge conceptual material that underlies the decision-making frameworks in the text and in the numerous Asian company examples and illustrations. Users of this text examine such essential topics as the measurement and analysis of the cultural, political and economic dimensions of the international environment; the formation of internationalization strategies, including entry mode choice and strategic alliances; the analysis of the competitive implications of multinational firms and business groups; multinational, subsidiary and expatriate management; and the management of ethical issues.

The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis

The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis
Author: Michael Handford
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 709
Release: 2013-06-17
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1136672923

Approaches to discourse analysis -- Register and genre -- Developments in spoken discourse -- Educational applications -- Institutional applications -- Identity, culture and discourse.

Area Bibliography of Japan

Area Bibliography of Japan
Author: Ria Koopmans-de Bruijn
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780810833746

Provides a general overview of literature relating to Japan and covers a broad range of subject matter, from art, feminism, and linguistics, to corporate culture, history, and medicine. Includes books published since 1980 that are related to the geographical area of Japan and to Japanese culture within that area.

Japanese Subsidiaries in the New Global Economy

Japanese Subsidiaries in the New Global Economy
Author: Paul W. Beamish
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781782542933

Since the 1970s, there have been many changes in the ways in which Japanese firms have conducted business. This volume examines the strategies of Japanese subsidiaries in the new global economy and present a comprehensive picture of Japanese multinational enterprises.