I have been a contracting and construction management consultant for 28 years and have seen lots of ideas and theories on management come and go. I remember when the Japanese-style management was the in thing. We were all supposed to do jumping jacks in the morning, take deep breaths, etc. It might work, but culturally I think it is going to be hard to sustain. The real value or truth in Japanese management is improved communication through fewer middle managers and production workers who are more involved in the work product.
Technology has developed new myths of management. Computers used to come with strange languages and buttons that the computer salesperson understood but you could not get to function when you took the computer home. Then Bill Gates and the Microsoft gang came along and today computers are almost a commodity product. Fax machines, e-mail, the Internet, cell phones and enhanced software were all supposed to allow us to run our business easier and at a lower cost. Some of us mistakenly thought that these devices would give us more freedom but now it seems like folks can't function without their cell phone glued to their ear.