Abstract
Company mythologies relate to contemporary narratives, its characters, settings, developments, and endings. Company management is often associated with something mysterious. When people tell how the livelihood community is formed and exists in the world, a mythological system is employed. Contemporary company is no exception. The founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, is even identified as a “god of management.” The company itself is also surrounded by many “myths” which are created, demystified, and revived. In this chapter, three types of mythology are discussed, namely, the founding myth, the hero myth, and the brand myth. By regarding company as a cultural community or livelihood community, statements shared by the community members can be analyzed from the perspective of mythology.
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Notes
- 1.
A shrine where the origin of the cosmos is worshiped as a god. It imitates the Grand Shrine of Ise in shape and is located in the garden of Shinshin-an, Matsushita’s private house in Kyoto, in the head-office building of the PHP Research Institute and in the Forest of Matsushita Business Establishment in the Panasonic headquarters. Research on Kongensha has also been conducted from the perspective of the anthropology of administration (Nakamaki 1992: 66–69, 2004: 102–104; Mitsui 2010: 10–11).
- 2.
Earlier studies on company mythology have rarely been conducted, but various myths of modern Japan were once taken up at the National Museum of Ethnology. It was at the fifth symposium of the special research on “The Traditions and Changes in Modern Japanese Culture” (1989). The theme was “‘Mythology’ of Modern Japan” (Nakamaki 1989). Discussed in the symposium were various “myths” of family/home, society, economy, nation, education, health, religion, informatization, and “myths” in the study of Japan. The gap between the broad recognition and reality was recognized. However, company mythology itself was not reported, and sociologist Chizuko Ueno pointed out the necessity to discuss, for example, the collapse of the myth of the seniority and lifetime employment systems in Japan (Nakamaki 1989: 242). This special research was followed by another special research on “The Traditions and Changes of the Various Ethnic People’s Cultures in the 20th Century.” In its fifth symposium entitled “Community in the Twentieth Century” (1996), Hioki reported about “Company Related Community Now.” He didn’t refer to the idea of myths, but discussed the peculiar aspects of Japanese companies (Hioki 1998: 206–220).
- 3.
Roland Barthes’ Mythologies (Barthes 1967) and Modern Mythology (1957a, b) have played a pioneering role in the study of modern mythology. However, Barthes has been ignored for a long time, because he poked fun at and analyzed the subconscious ideology observed in the daily life of petite bourgeoisie (Matsumura 2010: 30).
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Hioki, K., Nakamaki, H. (2016). Company Mythology. In: Nakamaki, H., Hioki, K., Mitsui, I., Takeuchi, Y. (eds) Enterprise as an Instrument of Civilization. Translational Systems Sciences, vol 4. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54916-1_3
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