96-J-13. Takahashi, Nobuo, "New Develop- ment of Lukewarm Management", May 1996.

In Japanese firms, the word `nurumayu' is used on the analogy of a lukewarm bath, and this word expresses lukewarm atmosphere in which employees easily accept the present situation and spend a carefree time.

Lukewarm feeling is a notorious facet of organizational climate in Japanese firms. This paper proposes the effective temperature hypothesis which explains that each member's sense of `nurumayu' is caused by the low effective temperature. The effective temperature is defined as the difference between the system temperature and the body temperature, which are respectively defined as the indexes of propensity to change of the organizational system and the members. The effective temperature hypothesis can be used to explain the boiled frog phenomenon as well as the lukewarm feeling ratio.

Our hypothesis is supported by data from 5364 white-collar workers in 209 organizational units of 28 Japanese major companies; there was a strong linear relationship (R2=0.9895) between the lukewarm feeling ratio and the effective temperature. Recently, our hypothesis and measures are applied to analysis of organizational problems in Japanese firms.