Cultural change : a comparative study of the change efforts of Douglas MacArthur and Carlos Ghosn in Japan
Author(s)
Nakae, Koji. Sloan School of Management![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/1721.1/32114/63201635-MIT.pdf.jpg?sequence=5&isAllowed=y)
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Other Contributors
Sloan School of Management.
Advisor
John Van Maanen.
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When an organization adapts to a changing environment and struggles through an organizational crisis, its organizational culture is sometimes challenged. At such a time, a leader who can change current culture and embed a new culture is needed for the organization to survive. Dealing with cultural changes is one of the most important roles of a leader. In this thesis, I examine the leadership of two leaders-General Douglas MacArthur and Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn-who came to Japan from the outside during organizational crises and conducted organizational reforms and cultural changes at two different levels-the country Japan and the company Nissan. Using Edgar H. Schein's (1992) frameworks, culture-embedding mechanisms and basic assumptions, I examine what has, and has not, been changed by the two leaders in terms of organizational culture. I will show how most of Nissan's problems came from basic assumptions of postwar Japan, and how the country has not been changed while the company has been successfully changed. My research was conducted mainly through historical studies and articles written by both American and Japanese writers in order to analyze various events from differing objective perspectives.
Description
Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2005. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-139).
Date issued
2005Department
Sloan School of ManagementPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Sloan School of Management.