Critical reactions to the japanese management model: A public sector perspective

Because there has been considerable interest in the Japanese management model, this study explores its limitations for the American setting and particularly the American public sector. These limitations include (1) cultural barriers, (2) the incompleteness of the model, and (3) undesirable elements in the model. This analysis concludes that there is little new in humanistic or participative terms to be found in the Japanese approach. Despite several objectionable elements in the model, some of its devices are instructive and may be carefully adapted to public sector use, but adoption of the whole model is unlikely and undesirable.     

‘Iraq: A note

Gordon Harmon was born in China in 1900 and after the First World War served in the Salt Revenue Guards for a number of years. After the outbreak of WWII he was posted in a liaison role to the centre of Chinese government in Chungking. There he worked with Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist Intelligence Service. But he also had quite close links with Chou En-Lai, who was also in Chungking at that time. The extent of his more general relationship with the Communists is unclear, but he seems to have reported fairly extensively on their plans and intentions. Harmon has left a very detailed record of a conversation with Mao Tse-tung in 1946 which seems to suggest that he had met Mao a few times before.. It was Mao who apparently said to Harmon “I am not interested in Hongkong and I will certainly not allow it to become a bone of contention between your country and mine”