Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2021

Publication Title

Handbook of Research on Applied Social Psychology in Multiculturalism

Pages

29-46

Publisher Name

IGI Global

Publisher Location

Hershey, Pennsylvania

Abstract

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept traditionally described as a type of beauty that conveys the philosophical values of imperfection, incompleteness, and impermanence. Going beyond the traditional interpretation of the concept, this chapter attempts to discover wabi-sabi as a way of life in Japanese corporate settings. This chapter first revisits the concept of wabi-sabi and the system of lifetime employment, positioning them as intrinsically linked systems. To contextualize employment practice, it examines the tool of a job description and the system of job rotation as attributes of employment practice. The findings reveal the existence of wabi-sabi as a way of life in corporate settings, demonstrate the relative nature of the wabi-sabi values, and show the duality of positive and negative attributes. The grounded findings exhibit the shared features with the traditional interpretation of wabi-sabi based on the same philosophical values. The shared features suggest that the concept of wabi-sabi can be used for relevant research beyond the fine arts.

Identifier

9781799869610

Comments

Author Posting © IGI Global, 2021. This chapter is posted here by permission of IGI Global for personal use, not for redistribution. This chapter was published in Handbook of Research on Applied Social Psychology in Multiculturalism, Edited by Bryan Christiansen & Harish C. Chandan, pp. 29-46. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-6960-3.ch002

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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