Summary
Japanese organizations combine the concepts of "competition" and "co-operation". They believe in long-term relationships and trust their workers and vendors. It is argued that because of the practice of single or dual sourcing, there is a tendency for high inter-dependence between assembler or automaker and suppliers. On the other hand, because of specialized capital investment, suppliers are highly dependent on the assembler (market dependency). In analyzing the diffusion or transferability of Japanese technology, some authors taken it as the supreme model and used it as a benchmark while other regards the Japanese software technology transfer as a discrimination model between Japanese. Early research on industrial organization tended to emphasize the cultural uniqueness of Japanese firms i.e. industrial relations, lifetime employment, and seniority wages and enterprise unionism were all proclaimed as uniquely Japanese and explained by cultural features. Recently, economists have explained Japanese industrial characteristics based on new developments in industrial organization research.
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Extract
An Overview of the Changes and Practices in the Japanese Human Resource Management
1. Introduction
Hiring of workers and managers into entry-level positions directly out of college is common. Pay rises and promotions are automatic. In the wage system based on seniority (nenko-joretsu), status and seniority are tied to length of service, rather than to job duties or merit. Shushin koyo is the lifetime employment system. Participation by coworkers in after-hours gatherings to foster harmony and cooperation is generally expected. Workers take responsibility and then accept blame, to protect their superiors from loss of face. Although subordinates know that they can influence decisions, the ultimate decision comes from the top. Japanese managers make an active commitment to preserve harmony, through intricate social rituals like gift giving, bowing to superiors, and using honorific language to show deference. They keep their opinions to themselves, rarely expressing true feelings (honne), instead voicing tatamae feelings, revised to harmonize with those of the group. Japanese managers humbly decline to take credit for personal achievements, even when credit is due. They cooperate with their coworkers in every way they can to complete their tasks without involving their boss in any mistakes and problems along the way. Every group member is responsible for lending a hand in achieving the objectives of the group (Engholm, 1991).Operationally, workers belong to production teams with fluid job assignments. They often gain a broad perspective on production by being rotated through different departments. Such investments in breadth of skill and overall understanding of the production process are justified by the strong lifetime employment guarantees bonding workers to their companies and allowing the skilled and experienced production workers to contribute to management decisions (Doeringer et al., 1998). The breakdown of the keiretsu (mterfirm network) system of crossshareholding and preferential trading among member corporations of a business group (Gerlach, 1992) has badly hurt the safety net of supporting the long-term growth strategy of Japanese firms and their ability to protect employees from downside market risks (Lincoln et al., 1996). Deregulation is another force for change. It has made Japanese markets more accessible to competitors, foreign as well as domestic. In heretofore protected industries - like financial services, distribution and agriculture - few firms are prepared for the onslaught of competition and uncertainty (Lincoln and Nakata, 1997).The aging population also has clear implications for corporate human resource practice. With an aging workforce, the permanent employment and seniority system burdens firms with rising numbers of higher-paid and less-productive workers. Previously, these systems were more suitable to employers, since the steep seniority escalator resulted in less payment for the relatively young workforce and the permanent employment norm reduced the uncertainties and costs of high staff turnover. Finally, the transition to a service economy combined with sociocultural and socio-economic changes has had a profound effect on Japan's employment institutions. Although leading-edge manufacturers are still competitive, their con...See the full content of this document
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