HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN JAPANESE-OWNED
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, most of these multinational corporations tended to think that they could get away with the imposition of cultural imperialism in the host countries. The rapid economic growth of Asian countries other than Japan, the looming reemergence of Eastern Europe as an economic growth sector, and economic progress in Brazil and Mexico are, however, changing the global business environment (Stewart, 1990, p. 59). This changing environment demands changes in the multinational approach to management to recognize the benefits and the necessit...