ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has a longer history than I care to disclose publicly. As a consequence, the list of those whose support made it possible is quite long. Data for the sections on Japan were largely collected during my tenure as Fulbright Research Scholar in 1977-78. I am indebted to the Fulbright Commission for its support and to the Japan Institute of Labour for providing research facilities. I also wish to express my appreciation to the German Marshall Fund, which provided a grant for collection of Swedish data. Sigvard Rubenowitz provided research facilities at the Department of Applied Psychology at Gothenberg University. I am especially indebted to the countless business organizations and associations in Japan, Sweden, and the United States whose executives gave freely of their time in an attempt to educate me in the intricacies of organizational change. I would particularly like to thank the members of the board of directors and the staff of the International Association of Quality Circles, where I conducted participation observation research since its inception.

A grant from the East Asia Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1984-85 enabled me to spend a year doing my initial write-up in the congenial environment of the "castle." The Center for Japanese Studies and the School of Business Administration at the University of Michigan both provided substantial financial support as well. None of these institutional benefactors are responsible for my findings.

As a result of the long period taken to complete this study, I had occasion to come back again and again to some of my informants

with new questions about old and new developments. In this connection I would particularly like to thank the following for their extraordinary patience: Inge Janérus of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation; Berth Jönsson, previously with the Volvo Corporation; Jan Helling of Saab-Scania; and Junji Noguchi of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers. Andy Walder, William Whyte, Shimada Haruo, and Koshiro< Kazutoshi were especially helpful in getting me to frame some of the key ideas developed here. Howard Aldrich, Ellen Auster, Mayer Zald, Stanley Seashore, and Bertil Gardell read selected chapters. Still other readers prefer to remain anonymous, but I am no less in their debt for that. I also owe special thanks to Steve Fraser of Basic Books.

The way I evaluate this subject and its significance has changed dramatically since the initial data collection in the late 1970s. Rather than lament the long gestation period of this book, I would rather focus on the added enlightenment that has come my way during the long period I have had to think about the material.