Japanese white-collar workers have been characterised by their intense loyalty and life-long commitment to their companies. This book is based on very extensive ethnographic research inside a Japanese insurance company during the period when the company was going through a major crisis which ended in the company's bankruptcy and collapse. It examines the attitudes of Japanese employees towards their work, their company and related issues at a time when the established order and established attitudes were under threat. The wide range and detail of the reporting of workers' attitudes, often in their own words, sustained over a considerable timescale, makes this study a particularly valuable resource.
Biography
Fiona Graham was the first Western woman to study at Keio University, Tokyo. Upon graduation, she worked at a traditional Japanese company in the life insurance industry. She completed her doctorate in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and has worked since then writing and directing anthropological documentaries. She is the author of Inside the Japanese Company, also published by RoutledgeCurzon.
'This book is a very useful study of employee's orientation to work and life...A Japanese Company in Crisis will be essential reading for Japan-watchers, and quite valuable for those interested in organizational ethnography more generally.' - Organization 13(1)
