The Performance-Maintenance (PM) Theory of Leadership: Review of a Japanese Research Program.

A systematic, interdisciplinary research program stimulated by the early Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) studies has been conducted in Japan during the past 30 years. The present paper provides an overview of this research on the "PM Theory of Leadership," covering its basic conceptual and methodological structure and the key studies that contributed to its development. The distinctive approach that the PM research program has taken to understanding the interaction between the performance and maintenance group functions is described, beginning with their initial representation as leadership types in experimental conditions. Experimental and field studies are described which suggest that the consequences of leadership in Japan are ordinarily the result of an interaction of P-oriented and M-oriented behaviors. When compared with U.S. leadership research results, PM research indicates that leadership at the lower and middle management levels may be consistently more important for subordinates' performance in Japan than it is in the U.S. However, the kind of autocratic leadership that some of Lewin's critics suggested would be successful in Japan may be less often constructive in Japanese organizations than it is in U.S. organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]