Definition from the authors
As observed, the Japanese commonly observe two manifestations of kaizen philosophy. In
daily life, kaizen literally refers to improvement and ingenuity. In industrial settings, it
denotes management’s engagement of the organisation in the pursuit of business
excellence through the interplay of the enterprise-side pursuit of profit and competition, and
employee-side skills, creativity, confidence and pride. On the enterprise-side,
management ultimately requires financial profit as a means of sustainability for the
organisation, and competition as motivation. On the opposing side, employees require
skills from which to draw knowledge and understanding; creative output as a response to
social and cultural boundaries, but within organisational boundaries; confidence in their
own abilities, and confidence in future prospects; and pride that channels the employee’s
talents and contributions into their organisation.
In addition to the human traits, kaizen also requires the means to operate – tools and
methods – and to generate and implement improvement. The culmination of these two
elements – the enterprise-side/employee-side and tools and methods – results in an energy
that permeates the organisation and creates a shared state of mind among employees to
achieve proactive change and innovation. Changes in the proximity or elimination of one or
more of these elements affect the level of energy and kaizen activity in the organisation.
Kaizen is culturally bound. Japanese culture provides the directives for the acquisition and
development of resultant Japan-centric tools and methods and the enabling kaizen
environment. More than being continuous improvement, as often quoted in the Western
literature, kaizen is the means and the result of the demands of management and the
management of human and non-human resources in the organisation’s pursuit of business
excellence.