exist in the British factory. At the same time, the British factories hired both men and women from all educational levels and social backgrounds while the Japanese factories had a much more elitist approach to hiring. Menial jobs in the Japanese factories were held by temporary workers or on-site contractors (Dore 70).
Dore also found considerable differences in the way in which wages were calculated and implemented. At the English factories, employees and managers were under the impression that wages are negotiated by the "market," which determines a particular price for a particular skill. Employers should pay that wage not merely because it is the right thing to do, but because employees are likely to seek employment elsewhere if they are not paid a rate commensurate with the market. At Hitachi, Dore found that these types of calculations are performed only with regard to temporary and contract workers. Permanent workers are paid a rate comparable not with their counterparts in the same region, but with similar companies throughout Japan. In addition, negotiations take place with unions who do not represent a particular skill (such as shop workers) across all companies, but with unions who represent all employees at a given company (Dore 110).
The way that unions are treated in the two countries identifies some of the more significant differences between management styles. There is a single union at Hitachi to which only Hitachi employees are admitted. In England, unions are organized by skill or industry, not by company. This is a significant difference in that the way in which management and unions interact changes radically between the two countries. In Japan, there is likely to be more co-operative negotiating as the employees' best interests are clearly linked to the best interests of the company. In England, the union looks out for the best interests of its members, but this can mean that the union negotiates...