Kaizen

1. "Fair day's work for a fair day's pay" comes from Frederick Wilhelm Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management (1909). You work a full day, you get paid for a full day. Not too flexible in terms of give and take. Reminds me of the way managers in Beijing will prorate monthly salaries by the day and even down to the hour and minute for late workers.
2. "Esprit de corps" would appear to come from Henri Fayol, an early 20th century Turkish immigrant in France and coal mine manager. It's one of his 14 principles of management. From military to modern management consulting, this phrase is all over the place now.
3. Beginning in the 1990s, Toyota has really been tearing it up in terms of management theory. Some vocabulary: "Kanban" refers to visual indicators of depleted resources on a supply chain that can quickly and easily signal a line manager that he needs to order up a new batch of a certain material, enabling just-in-time manufacturing processes. Kaizen might be translated as "good changes," the key to continuous improvement methodology; instead of momentary, sweeping change--which throws things into chaos--things should be improved modestly, subtly, and continuously to maximize retention, employee support, employee satisfaction, and ultimately, customer satisfaction.