HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN JAPANESE-OWNED COMPA

This research examines human resource management practices by Japanese-owned and operated companies located in the United States. Japanese-style management is a complex system that provides a holistic approach to an entire business-oriented operation. Human resource management is but one element within this complex system. While the focus of this research is on the human resource aspect of Japanese management, the actual practice of human resource management in Japanese companies occurs as an integral part of the total process of management.

In the 1990s, the trend is increasingly toward the development of international markets (Blank, 1993, p. 19). Accordingly, it is incumbent on multinational corporations to acquire the knowledge, and develop the expertise that will permit them to develop marketing strategies for functioning in a variety of cultural environments (Buckely and Casson, 1991, p. 87). Successful multinational corporations in the future will not be able to survive in the international marketplace, if they continue to seek market expansion only in those countries where the so-called cultural distance is short (Agmon, 1993, p. 18).

Multinational corporations have tended to establish production facilities in Third World countries when expanding beyond the border of their home countries. In the conduct of their operations in the Third World,

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on leaders to identify with company purposes to a higher degree than that which is found in a typical American firm. American workers are not accustomed to the development of an identification with corporate goals, as they tend to view management as an adversary. Flexibility, as represented by special project teams is another Japanese management technique that often creates problems for American workers (Fucini and Fucini, 1990, pp. 89-121). Japanese companies have achieved significant and rapid success through a capacity and a willingness to form special project teams. To form such teams, however, Japanese companies draw the required skills from wherever they may be within the organization. The needs or desires of specific organizational elements are not permitted to supersede the needs of the overall organization. The Japanese approach to management in the context of special project teams tends to conflict with the rigid distribution of rights and responsibilities spelled out in most American labor-management contracts. American workers and their unions tend to balk at such flexibility. Most Japanese companies operate without an organization chart. This low structure characteristic makes it easier to use the special pro
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Approximate Word count = 5206
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)