Japan Human Dokument

8/12/2019 Japan Human Dokument

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JAPANESE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:INSPIRATIONS FROM ABROAD AND CURRENT TRENDS OFCHANGEMarkus Pudelko

Anne-!l Har"!n#Version November 2009To be published in Bebenroth, R. (ed) (2010) International HumanResource Management in Japan, London: Routlede.Co$%r!#&' ( )**+-)**, Markus Pudelko Anne-!l Har"!n#All r!#&'s reser.ed/!ro". #nne$%il &'rin m'il: 'nne$*il+h'rin.om-niversit o" /elbourne %eb: ***.h'rin.omep'rtment o" /'n'ement /'retin3'ult o" onomis 4ommere

!'rville 4'mpus/elbourne, V54 6010#ustr'li'

Japanese Human Resource Management:

Inspirations from Abroad and Current Trends of ChangeiAuthors

Markus Pudelko

University of Edinburgh Management School50 George Square, Edinburgh E! "#$, U%

&el' ( )) *+* 5* *)"*- .a/' ( )) *+* ! +05+, email' markus12udelko3ed1ac1uk

4nneil ar6ing

University of Melbourne, 7e2artment of ManagementParkville +0*0, 4US&849:4

&el' (* + !+)) +;


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it is sur2rising that little em2irical research has been done in order to understand better those

2erce2tions and Cudgments u2on ?hich ado2tion decisions ultimately rely1iii &his vie?2oint

guides the em2irical focus of the research1Dne obvious difficulty ?e are 2resented ?ith if ?e ?ish to ans?er the question ?hat #a2an

can learn from Ithe estJ is the selection of countries that are re2resentative of Ithe estJ1 :n

this study ?e limit our em2irical research to the ins2irations #a2an might receive from theUS4 and Germany1 &his selection has some merit, in re2resenting the largest and the third

+

+largest develo2ed economies in the ?orld @?ith #a2an being the second largest economyB, and

the economically dominant nations of Forth 4merica and Euro2e @?ith #a2an being the

leading economy in 4siaB1 :n addition, the US4 and Germany each embody the 2rime

e/am2le of t?o of the three main varieties of market economies' the US4 re2resenting thefree market economy of 4ngloSa/on countries and Germany the social market economy of

continental Euro2e @?ith #a2an embodying the third main variety of market economies, the

governmentinduced market economy of East4siaB1 .urthermore, according to Smith L

Meiksins @*""5'


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subsidiary level1 .or each of the t?o main sections, first the conte/t of e/isting research is

summari6ed1 Subsequently, the methodology of the em2irical research is described1 .indings

are then 2resented and subsequently discussed1 .inally, suggestions are made as to ho? the#a2anese might best make use of foreign 8M 2olicies to reform their o?n 8M 2ractices

and ultimately im2rove com2etitiveness1

ANA!"I" AT H#AD$UART#R" #%#Research conte&t

4s mentioned above, the #a2anese 8M model has often been recogni6ed as a key factor to

the rise of the #a2anese economy, 2articularly during the *"!0s @see for e/am2le :nohara,*""0B1 o?ever, the same #a2anese 8M ?hich until recently has been much celebrated in

the est, and 2resented as a rolemodel to be learned from @see for e/am2le ogel, *";"-

Duchi, *"!*- Peters and aterman, *"!


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summari6e the most relevant as2ects of the revie?ed literature on #a2anese, 4merican and

German 8M @Pudelko,


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&he results revealed that according to the 8 managersJ o?n evaluations #a2an, the US4 and

Germany have 8M models that clearly differ from each other1 More s2ecifically, according

to the means, it ?as noticeable that in * out of


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Germany1 &his again indicates that 4merican 8M is 2erceived as most attractive, ?ith

#a2anese 8M far less a22ealing, and German 8M the least desirable by a ?ide margin1

.urthermore, ?ith regard to #a2anese 8M, it is interesting to note that the number of thoseitems referring to the orientation to?ard the #a2anese model in the future @


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8M ?hich the 4merican 8 managers consider ?orth ado2ting @in total'


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may be described as a 2aradigm shift, one that a22ears to equate to a shift to?ard estern, in

2articular, 4merican management conce2ts1

'ollow-up&he results of a series of follo?u2 intervie?s to this study ?ith 8 managers of #a2anese

com2anies in #a2an, the US4 and Germany, as ?ell as 8 managers of 4merican and

German subsidiaries in #a2an, lend qualified su22ort to the notion of a 2aradigm shift1Sentences ?hich ?ere commonly uttered included 9ifelong em2loyment is dead, e need

to be more 2erformance oriented, e look much more to individual 2erformance and e

*5*5

look to the US4 for orientation1 o?ever, this move a?ay from traditional #a2anese 8

2ractices and redirection to?ard estern techniques should, according to the intervie?ees,

not be equated ?ith ?holescale abandonment of traditional a22roaches1 :nstead, ?hat ischiefly e/2ected is rather a hybrid a22roach and it is difficult at this stage to 2redict ?here the

ne? equilibrium bet?een traditional 2ractices and estern methods ?ill lie1

ANA!"I" AT "U)"IDIAR! #%#

Dur study 2rovides a 2erfectly balanced and controlled sam2le that includes not onlyheadquarters in each of the three countries, but also all subsidiary combinations1 4s a result,

?e ?ere able to com2are the 8M 2ractices of nine different grou2s of com2anies'headquarters in the US4, #a2an and Germany, subsidiaries of #a2anese and German MFAs in

the US4, subsidiaries of US and German MFAs in #a2an, and subsidiaries of US and

#a2anese MFAs in Germany1

Methods

Data collection and sample

7ata from the subsidiaries ?ere collected through an e/tensive mail survey in


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a very ?eakly significant result1 7ifferentiating by home country sho?ed that for both

#a2anese and 4merican MFAs, larger subsidiaries are more likely to follo? home country

2ractices1 &his result may reflect the strategic im2ortance of larger subsidiaries1 .inally, ?ecom2ared 8M 2ractices bet?een greenfields and acquisitions, both for the overall sam2le

and for each of the si/ subsidiary sam2les1 :n none of these sam2les did differences in 8M

2ractices bet?een greenfields and acquisitions attain statistical significance1Description of HRM models

8es2ondents at subsidiary level ?ere 2resented ?ith the same set of si/2oint bi2olar scales as

the H res2ondents1 o?ever, for the subsidiaries ?e only considered for this analysis thescales referring to the 8M areas in the stricter sense @recruitment and release of 2ersonnel-

training and develo2ment- em2loyee assessment and 2romotion criteria- and em2loyee

incentivesB, ?hile not considering the more organi6ational behaviorrelated scales

@communication- decision making- and subsidiarysubordinate relationsB1 4gain, res2ondents?ere asked to indicate, for each of these o22osing statements, the 2ractices they believed best

characteri6ed the human resource 2ractices @found throughout all hierarchical levelsB in their

subsidiary1 .or each of the si/ grou2s of subsidiaries, an 4FD4 analysis subsequently

com2ared the mean scores of the subsidiary 8M 2ractices ?ith the 8M 2ractices of thehome and host country @as measured at HB across all four 8M areas listed above1 &he

Aronbach reliability coefficient for this *


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:nsert &able about here

&o our considerable sur2rise, our assum2tion of subsidiary 2ractices being a kind of

combination model of home and host country models, ?hich had for us much face value,*!

*!

turned out to be incorrect1 :nstead of locating themselves Iin bet?eenJ home and host country,it became evident that subsidiaries frequently follo?ed the 4merican model, even, for

e/am2le, #a2anese subsidiaries in Germany and German subsidiaries in #a2an1 hile this

result ?as at first very sur2rising to us, ?e subsequently inter2reted this outcome as yetanother indication for the strong attractiveness of the US model, in 2articular to #a2anese but

also to German firms1 &his inter2retation only confirms ?hat ?e already had concluded from

our H data1 Given this a22arent dominance of the 4merican model on subsidiary level, ?e

labeled this 2henomenon dominance effect1 :n more technical terms, if a subsidiaryJs meanscore ?as significantly different from the home country mean score, but not significantly

different from the mean score of 4merican 2ractices, ?e defined this as a dominance effect1

More s2ecifically, our results indicate that a clear dominance effect is 2resent in t?o cases'

#a2anese subsidiaries in Germany and German subsidiaries in #a2an1 :n both cases,subsidiaries resemble neither home nor host country, but instead follo? 4merican 2ractices1

.or #a2anese subsidiaries in the US4, ?e can only conclude that they follo? 4merican2ractices, but ?e cannot establish ?hether this 2attern is caused by a dominance or

locali6ation effect1 &he same is true for German subsidiaries in the US4, although differences

here are smaller than for #a2anese subsidiaries1 4merican MFAs sho? a combination oflocali6ation and countryoforiginRdominance effects v 1 :n #a2an, the 8M 2ractices of

4merican subsidiaries are in bet?een 2arent and host country 2ractices and significantly

different from both, but are closer to home country 2ractices1 :n Germany, 8M 2ractices of

4merican subsidiaries also lie bet?een 2arent and host country 2ractices, but are closer to@and not significantly different toB host country 2ractices1 Dverall, ?e therefore find that ?hile

all three effects are 2resent in our sam2le, the dominance effect a22ears stronger than the

locali6ation and countryoforigin effect1 &able ; and .igure


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increased no? over time, ?e ?ould e/2ect #a2anese and German subsidiaries in the US4 to

sho? an increasing resemblance to local 2ractices, ?hile 4merican subsidiaries in both #a2an

and Germany ?ould sho? a decreasing resemblance to local 2ractices1 4s &able ! and .igure+ sho?, this is e/actly ?hat ha22ens1 hile resemblance to local 2ractices ?as fairly similar

@. Q 1"++B for all four grou2s in the 2ast, it has diverged in the 2resent @. Q


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techniques in the *"!0s1 ith these e/2eriences in mind, #a2anese 8 managers should be

careful of not re2eating similar mistakes1 %no?ledge of a ?ider range of models ?ould give

#a2anese managers the confidence to reali6e that moving a?ay from the o?n traditionalmodel ?hich sho?s increasingly ?eaknesses does not necessarily mean to go from one

e/treme to another and to co2y the details of a system that might be quite unsuited to the

#a2anese conte/t1 Aurrent e/2erience in Iinbet?eenJ countries such as Germany might2ossibly offer a more realistic lead in 2roviding fresh ideas on ho? the quest for greater

individuali6ation may be a22roached, and the e/tent and ?ays it may need to be tem2ered,

?hen the conte/t is one of strong cultural im2eratives1 &his ?ill encourage changes inmanagement 2ractices to be better tailored to the s2ecific #a2anese conte/t1

aving said this, this 2a2er is far from suggesting that German 8M re2resents an ideal

model that #a2an should co2y1 .irst, de2iction of the German model cannot be confined

merely to its 2lacing ?ithin a continuum Iin bet?eenJ the other t?o systems, therefore beingsome?hat closer to the #a2anese model than the 4merican system is1 :n several res2ects it has

quite distinctive features, including a high degree of labor la?s, regulations, contractual

agreements ?ith the unions, and 2artici2ation rights of ?orks councils, all ?hich limit the

managerial discretion of German 8 managers in quite distinct ?ays1 Aonsequently, 8M inGermany has more of an o2erational orientation, ?ith fe?er o22ortunities to introduce

strategic changes than the #a2anese or 4merican 8M models @Pie2er, *""0- =re?ster andolt 9arsen, *""+B1 &hese very s2ecific as2ects of the institutional industrial relations

environment characteri6ing the system of codetermination are e/am2les of ?hat #a2anese


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?ithin the organi6ations1 &he true challenge #a2anese management is facing is, therefore, to

overcome this transition 2hase ?ith its frictions and inconsistencies, so that the management

model can enter into a ne? state of stable equilibrium in ?hich it is coherent and consistent initself and ?ell attuned to the global economic as ?ell as domestic sociocultural conte/t @see

also Pudelko


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=oston, M4' arvard =usiness School Press1

=leicher, %1 @*"!

nternational Human Resource Management, =oston' McGra? ill1anel, U1 @*""B1 +he /ranfield etwork on 0uropean Human Resource Management7

0rge$nis$ericht 1:1 University re2ort, 7reseden1

ar6ing, 411%1 @*"";B1 8es2onse 8ates in :nternational Mail Surveys' 8esults of a rich'erlag :ndustrielle Drganisation >rich1

ofstede, G1 @s /onseuences, /omparing


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:chnio?ski, A1, 9evine, 71 :1, Dlson, A1, L Strauss, G1 @M>ller, M1 @*"""B Unitarism, Pluralism, and uman 8esource Management in Germany,

Management nternational Re)iew, s2ecial issue +, *


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Pudelko, M1 L Mendenhall, M1 @

Smith, P1 @*"";B%apan7 A Reinterpretation, Fe? $ork' Pantheon1

Schmitt, M1, L Sado?ski, 71 @s Reluctant Multinationals, Fe? $ork' St MartinJs Press1

ogel, E1 .1 @*";"B%apan as um$er .ne, essons for America, Aambridge, Mass1' arvard

University Press1Nchter, 1, L MullerAamen, M1 @


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)

TA)#" AND *I+UR#"Tab'e ,: Responses and response ratesCompanies Countr( of

origin

$uestionnaires

mai'ed

Returned

unde'i-erab'e

Returned

Responses

Response

rate

US4 500 *! 5; *


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bet?een em2loyer and em2loyeeB53 Training and De-e'opment pro-ided b( the Compan(

training focused on s2ecific kno?ledge for

narro?ly defined tasks @goal' to create a

s2ecialistB+1+5 +150 )100

?ides2read training for broadly defined tasks

@goal' to create a generalistB

tendency to be limited and focused on the

individual +1*" +15< )1+) tendency to be e/tensive and focused on the

?ork grou2

little effort to mould the em2loyee in

accordance ?ith the com2anyJs culture

)1** +15 +1!; much effort to mould the em2loyee in

accordance ?ith the com2anyJs culture63 #mp'o(ee Assessment and 4romotion Criteria

heavy ?eight on individual achievements


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taskoriented

Tab'e 5: HR managers. assessment of the main characteristics of their o/n HRM0s(stem

1significance ana'(sis2$uestion

U"A +#R J4N U"A

01*) 01*0 01*+

+1< 63>; 53?= 63>9 01*! 01*5 0100 01

01*) 01** 01*+1+ 5379 5397 63;7 *1*5 ) 637, 63;, 01+; 01*) 01*0 01*+

, and indicate statistical significance at the levels of *O, 5O, and *0O, res2ectively1

;;


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Tab'e 6: Orientation @ adaptation to/ard aspects from other countr( mode'sMean Mean *0-a'ue

#a2an orienting itself

in the 2ast to?ard ;(A

+10+ #a2an orienting itself

in the 2ast to?ard &erman#

51*) *++10< #a2an orienting itselfin the future to?ard ;(A


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total quality management * 0 * + 0 + )

others 0 0 0 < * + +Recruitment and re'ease of personne' ,6 ,> 56 7 > 7 5;

turning a?ay from lifelong em2loyment res2ectivelyfle/ibility of recruitment, release of 2ersonnel and change

of em2loyer! ; *5 0 0 0 *5

recruitment of e/2erienced s2ecialists for s2ecificallyadvertised 2ositions

< + 5 * 0 * managers are e/ternally recruited and can also be laid offagain more easily+ 0 + < 0 < 5

others 0 0 0 * 0 * *Training and de-e'opment 7 6 ; 9 , ; ,7

increased formation of s2ecialists and turning a?ay fromthe formation of generalists

) + ; 0 0 0 ;Cob rotation 0 0 0 ) 0 ) )others 0 0 0 < * + +#mp'o(ee assessment and promotion criteria 69 5, 8; ,6 9 ,? ;9

2erformance orientation *5 *5 +0 ; + *0 )0

result and obCective orientation *) ) *! 0 * * *"turning a?ay from the seniority 2rinci2le * ; 0 0 0 ;develo2ment of human resources 0 0 0 5 *

others * * < * * < )#mp'o(ee incenti-es 56 ,5 68 5, ,= 6? ;7

2erformance and result oriented remuneration ) ; ** " ! *;

remuneration+ * ) *< *others * 0 * ) *0 **Communication , , 5 9 8 ,, ,6

efficiency oriented relations * * < 0 0 0 5 ,5 5 6 8 ,;

autonomy ; 0 ; 0 0 0 ;2rom2tness and stringency 0 * * < < ) 5others + * ) 0 * * 5"uperior0subordinate0re'ationship 5 5 7 ,= ,> 5= 65

leadershi2 * * < 0 0 0 5 9; ,9? ,>7 => ,=7 686

"

"

Tab'e 8: Adoption from Japanese HRMAttributes U"A +#R

1ordered b( HRM categories2 4ast *uture Tota' 4ast *uture Tota'

"um of

tota's

"trategies , > , 7 > 7 8

strategic 2lanning * 0 * 0 0 0 *lean management 0 0 0 < 0 < , > , ,

Cob security 0 0 0 * 0 0 *Training and de-e'opment > > > 6 , 7 7

training of socially com2etent generalists 0 0 0 + 0 + +others 0 0 0 0 * * *#mp'o(ee assessment and promotion criteria , > , 5 > 5 6

grou2 orientation * 0 * * 0 *

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