Determinants of the Extent of Participatory Employment Practices: Evidence from Japan

Prior studies on the effects of participatory employment practices often assume that once introduced, participatory employment practices change little in their nature and scope over time. Using unique micro data that provide detailed information on various attributes of participatory employment practices of Japanese firms as well as the age of such practices, we provide the first direct and systematic evidence that such practices expand significantly in their scope and nature as they age.     

Management practices of Taiwanese firms: As compared to those of American and Japanese subsidiaries in Taiwan

The management practices of local Taiwanese firms were evaluated by Negandhi in 1973 as the least developed as compared to those of the American and Japanese subsidiaries. Since then, the local Taiwanese firms have undergone a phenomenal change. In comparison to the American and Japanese subsidiaries, the current management practices — organisational structure, decision making and human resource management of the local Taiwanese firms are a mixture of those of the American and Japanese subsidiaries. The local Taiwanese firms have adapted very well to the impact of the West (the United States) and the East (Japan) and contributed greatly to the economic prosperity of Taiwan.The author wishes to thank the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Republic of China (Taiwan) for financial support.     

我国企业人力资源管理模式与所有制类型之间的关系研究

本文通过比较分析发现传统国有企业与民营企业在人力资源管理的基础工作和企业内部程序公平两个方面都显著落后于外资企业,传统国有企业在工作组织方式和外部人才引进两个方面都显著落后于民营企业与外资企业。进一步分析发现我国企业人力资源管理模式内部政策措施之间存在着结构性失调现象,揭示出我国企业人力资源管理模式与所有制性质之间的关系反映了权变主义和制度环境的联合影响。     

Flexibility in Japanese internal labour markets: The introduction of performance-related pay

The introduction of performance-related pay by Japanese firms, a development known as seikashugi, stands out as the most important adjustment in their management of regular employees. This paper discusses this development and analyses its implications for the logic of Japanese employment practices. Previous analyses and developments in other countries suggest that it could imply a breakdown of the internal labour market, a key feature of Japanese employment practices. However, drawing on theories of institutional change and two studies among Japanese firms in 2002 and 2007, this paper argues that implications have been modest in spite of the appearance of convergence. Enabled by its flexibility and a continued support for the practice of lifetime employment, the Japanese internal labour market has assimilated performance-related pay and shaped its own transformation.     

Employment Systems in Japan's Financial Industry: Globalization,Growing Divergence and Institutional Change

This article examines growing divergence and change in the employment systems of Japan's financial industry from the early 1990s until shortly after the so‐called Lehman Shock. This was a period which saw accelerated deregulation and globalization strongly impact the country's financial markets, leading to intensified competition over human resources. Foreign multinational corporations introduced into Japan's local product and labour markets new global ‘rules of the game’; in response, some native firms were forced to alter core aspects of a traditional employment model. The result was the emergence of diverging patterns of employment. The present study will demonstrate that the interaction of two key factors — national ownership and variation among core products and services offered — is shaping employment diversification, mediated by firms’ individual policies and practices. This research contributes to the debate on the effects of globalization on the divergence and change of employment systems.     

Firm enablement through outsourcing: A longitudinal analysis of how outsourcing enables process improvement under financial and competence constraints

The dominant view is that outsourcing is driven by efficiency considerations. We demonstrate that a different path to outsourcing originates from critical internal resource shortages. These shortages pose a critical dilemma; on the one hand outsourcing is a reasonably durable approach to solving resource shortages. On the other hand, the same resource shortages complicate the management of outsourcing and may create knowledge and evaluation problems. We empirically examine this dilemma and thereby add to the limited work on the enabling effects of outsourcing under resource constraints. We employ two rich and unique panel datasets of Australian firms observed over five-year periods, to test dynamic change models if firm-level financial and competence constraints induce outsourcing, and if this in turn enables internal process improvement. The results show that outsourcing indeed is associated with both financial and competence constraints, although the impact of these constraints differs over time. In turn, we find that increased outsourcing relates positively to contemporaneous and future process improvement. These findings thus shed a positive light on how outsourcing can enable firms to overcome constraints and realize internal process improvement.     

Supplier relations and management: A survey of Japanese,Japanese-transplant,and U.S. auto plants

This article presents the results of a questionnaire survey sent to a sample of automobile manufacturers in the United States and Japan (including Japanese-managed plants in the United States) during the spring of 1990. The data support observations that Japanese and U.S. practices tend to differ in key areas and Japanese suppliers perform better in dimensions such as quality (defects) and prices (meeting targets, reducing prices over time); and that Japanese-managed auto plants established in the United States have, in general, adopted Japanese practices and receive extremely high levels of quality from Japanese as well as U.S. suppliers. These findings provide evidence that Japanese practices and performance levels are transferable outside Japan and suggest that considerable improvements are possible for U.S. suppliers supplying U.S. auto plants. In addition, the survey indicates that U.S. firms have adopted at least some practices traditionally associated with Japanese firms, apparently reflecting some convergence toward Japanese practices and higher performance levels in supplier management.     

现代企业雇佣关系模式的变革、冲突及其管理策略研究

外部劳动力市场主导的雇佣关系模式中的企业雇佣管理法则迥异于内部劳动力市场主导模式，新的雇佣关系模式破坏了雇主和雇员之间的心理契约，互惠关系被打破，企业在员工管理中面临四大在原有雇佣管理理念中难以自圆其说的两难问题。新的互惠关系的达成和维护成为雇佣关系达成新的平衡的关键。该研究认为，可雇佣性成为新的互惠关系形成的关键，围绕可雇佣性提升建立新的员工管理理念和系统成为企业在外部劳动力市场主导的雇佣关系模式中的雇佣管理策略。     

Product Innovation Processes in Small Firms: Combining Entrepreneurial Effectuation and Managerial Causation

This article reports a multimethod study of product innovation processes in small manufacturing firms. Prior studies found that small firms do not deploy the formalized processes identified as best practice for the management of new product development (NPD) in large firms. To explicate small firms' product innovation, this study uses effectuation theory, which emerged from entrepreneurship research. Effectuation theory discerns two logics of decision‐making: causation, assuming that means are selected to attain goals; and effectuation, assuming that goals are created based upon available means. The study used a process research approach, investigating product innovation trajectories in five small firms across 352 total events. Quantitative analyses revealed early effectuation logic, which increasingly turned toward causation logic over time. Further qualitative analyses confirmed the use of both logics, with effectual logic rendering product innovation resource‐driven, stepwise, and open‐ended, and with causal logic used especially in later stages to set objectives and to plan activities and invest resources to attain objectives. Because the application of effectuation logic differentiates the small firm approaches from mainstream NPD best practices, this study examined how small firms' product innovation processes deployed effectuation logic in further detail. The small firms: (1) made creative use of existing resources; (2) scoped innovations to be realizable with available resources; (3) used external resources whenever and wherever these became available; (4) prioritized existing business over product innovation projects; (5) used loose project planning; (6) worked in steps toward tangible outcomes; (7) iterated the generation, selection, and modification of goals and ideas; and (8) relied on their own customer knowledge and market probing, rather than early market research. Using effectuation theory thus helps us understand how small firm product innovation both resembles and differs from NPD best practices observed in larger firms. Because the combination of effectual and causal principles leverages small firm characteristics and resources, this article concludes that product innovation research should more explicitly differentiate between firms of different sizes, rather than prescribing large firm best practices to small firms.     

How organizations promote person-environment fit: using the case of japanese firms to illustrate institutional and cultural influences

The majority of person-environment (P-E) fit studies have been conducted in the Western context and little is known about the process through which organizations promote P-E fit. In this paper, I illustrate how Japanese organizations promote multiple types of P-E fit through their human resource practices. I also develop conceptual models in which promoting P-E fit in Japanese firms is contrasted with that of U.S. firms. The case and models suggest that institutional and cultural contexts affect the way organizations promote P-E fit. Future research directions for a better understanding of P-E fit management especially in the Asia-Pacific region are discussed.     

Ownership and its Impact on Coping with Financial Crisis: Differences in State-, Mixed-, and Privately-Owned Enterprises in Thailand

Corporate turnarounds have been studied widely in Western contexts, but few empirical studies detail turnaround experience in non-western countries, especially those undergoing or recovering from financial crisis. An assumption in recent privatization policies has been that change in ownership triggers a form of performance reversal or turnaround. Here, we compare firms with three different forms of ownership two years after the financial crisis in Thailand. This study assesses the impact of ownership differences on the level of corporate entrepreneurship, human resource management practices, and worker effort among state-, mixed- and privately-owned enterprises in Thailand. The results suggest cautious optimism about changes in ownership as a potential means for triggering organizational changes that lead to increased productivity for threatened economies. Mixed ownership may be an effective substitute for private ownership or, alternately, an effective transitional form of restructuring state enterprises in preparation for private ownership.     

Teamwork Barriers in Japanese High-Technology Firms: The Sociocultural Differences Between R&D and Marketing Managers

Building and maintaining internal harmony is a fundamental concern for managers in many Japanese firms. Discussions of Japanese management practices often point to the intense socialization of new recruits, the rotation of employees through different functions, and the significant role of seniority in determining salary levels and promotions. Considering this emphasis on harmony, can we reasonably assume that the orientations of Japanese R&D and marketing managers do not differ in any ways that may pose significant barriers to teamwork between their departments? X. Michael Song and Mark E. Parry test this assumption by examining the sociocultural differences between R&D and marketing managers in Japanese high-technology firms. Using responses from both R&D and marketing managers in 223 firms, their study groups the respondents’ employers as either low- or high-integration firms. They examine the sociocultural differences between the R&D and marketing managers in the study along five dimensions: time orientation, bureaucratic orientation, professional orientation, tolerance for ambiguity, and preferences for high-risk, high-return projects. Contrary to expectations, the responses reveal several significant differences between the R&D and marketing managers in this study. Compared to their colleagues in marketing, the Japanese R&D managers in this study generally have a stronger preference for high-risk, high-return investments. The R&D managers in the study also have a longer time orientation than the Japanese marketing managers. However, marketing managers from the high-integration firms in the study have a longer time orientation than their counterparts in low-integration firms. Compared to the R&D managers, Japanese marketing managers in the high-integration firms studied have a greater tolerance for ambiguity. And relative to managers in low-integration firms, marketing and R&D managers in the high-integration firms in this study typically have a more bureaucratic organization. Perhaps most important, a significant number of R&D managers in this study perceive the marketing managers in their firms to have higher organizational status. Specifically, responses from R&D managers indicate that they perceive their marketing colleagues to have higher salaries, more power, and brighter career prospects. Such perceptions may foster morale problems among R&D professionals in these Japanese firms, and thus require management intervention to ensure that R&D performance does not suffer.     

Finance, Corporate Governance and the Management of Labour: A Conceptual and Comparative Analysis

This article explores links between the firm's financial structure, corporate governance, and the management of labour. It reviews various literatures, in particular drawing from financial economics and political economy, and combines these with industrial relations, and human resource management. We develop a model that identifies how financial institutions and pressures impact upon labour management. Managerial discretion is at the centre of the model, and six key influences and constraints upon management are identified. We present evidence from comparative analysis of labour management which illustrates how management decisions and practices are affected. A benefit of this approach is that it can take account of within‐country variations.     

Corporate Governance Structure and Employment Adjustment in Japan: An Empirical Analysis Using Corporate Finance Data

I investigate the influence of corporate governance structures on employment adjustment in Japanese firms, using financial data for firms listed on the Japanese stock market. The results indicate that corporate governance structures affect the rate of employment adjustment. The presence of large stockholders and the degree of stock cross–holding lengthens the period the firm remains in debt and slows down the speed of employment adjustment.     

Dynamic or Static Capabilities? Process Management Practices and Response to Technological Change*

Whether and how organizations adapt to changes in their environments has been a prominent theme in organization and strategy research. Within this research, there is controversy about whether organizational routines hamper or facilitate adaptation. Organizational routines give rise to inertia but are also the vehicles for change in recent work on dynamic capabilities. This rising interest in routines in research coincides with an increase in management practices focused on organizational routines and processes. This study explores how the increasing use of process management practices affected organizational response to a major technological change through new product developments. The empirical setting is the photography industry over a decade, during the shift from silver‐halide chemistry to digital technology. The advent and rise of practices associated with the new ISO 9000 certification program in the 1990s coincided with increasing technological substitution in photography, allowing for assessing how increasing attention to routines through ISO 9000 practices over time affected ongoing responsiveness to the technological change. The study further compares the effects for the incumbent firms in the existing technology with nonincumbent firms entering from elsewhere. Relying on longitudinal panel data models as well as hazard models, findings show that greater process management practices dampened response to new generations of digital technology, but this effect differed for incumbents and nonincumbents. Increasing use of process management practices over time had a greater negative effect on incumbents' response to the rapid technological change. The study contributes to research in technological change by highlighting specific management practices that may create disconnects between firms' capabilities and changing environments and disadvantage incumbents in the face of radical technological change. This research also contributes to literature on organizational routines and capabilities. Studying the effects of increasing ISO 9000 practices undertaken in firms provides an opportunity to gauge the effects of systematic routinization of organizational activities and their effects on adaptation. This research also contributes to management practice. The promise of process management is to help firms adapt to changing environments, and, as such, managers facing technological change may adopt process management practices as a response to uncertainty and change. But managers must more fully understand the potential benefits and risks of process management to ensure these practices are used in the appropriate contexts.     

The Layering of Meso‐Level Institutional Effects on Employment Systems in Japan

Japan's corporate governance and employment relations systems have been under considerable pressures to reform towards a more Anglo‐American model, against a back‐drop of intensified global competition and slow economic growth over two ‘lost’ decades. But what is the relationship between these systems, and specifically, how does corporate governance structure condition employment relations practice? This paper adopts the ‘Systems, Society, Dominance and Corporate (SSDC) effects’ framework in order to contextualize and evaluate the outcomes of these pressures, particularly in the period following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It reports case study data from various parts of the Japanese economy drawn from a series of firm‐based interviews and a variety of secondary sources. It is argued that there has been a strong degree of continuity in certain employment practices, such as lifetime employment, even in relatively new high technology firms, but that the pattern for other practices, such as seniority‐based pay, is more mixed with increasing differentiation between industries and individual organizations. We articulate a layered assessment of the varying SSDC effects at play in corporate Japan. This differentiation across industries and organizations is a function both of strategic choice (corporate effects) and also the increasing variation in the meso‐level institutional pressures that are experienced at organizational level; that is, the differentiation in the sources and nature of dominance effects that are relevant.     

The Productivity Effects of Participatory Employment Practices: Evidence from New Japanese Panel Data

We report the first results for Japanese firms on the effects of clusters of participatory employment practices (or participation/employee involvement at the top level as well as at the grassroots level, and financial participation) by estimating production functions using new panel data. We find that the introduction of a group of complementary practices will lead to a significant 8–9 percent increase in productivity. However, the full productivity effect is felt only after a long developmental period.     

Japanese Employees' Attitudes Toward Changes in Traditional Employment Practices

This study examines Japanese employees' attitudinal opposition to changes in such employment practices as nenko (seniority)-based wages and promotions, and implicit long-term employment guarantees for the regular workforce. The study shows that (1) overall, Japanese employees are strongly opposed to placing a cap on senior employees' pay and to mid-career transfers to subsidiary companies, and (2) the level of opposition is a function of their perceptions of unions' past performance and of employers' human resource policies.     

Strategies for the exploitation of intelligence capital: evidence from Hungarian Research Institutes

This paper is based on survey interviews with 64 respondents conducted in four Hungarian Research Institutes during the spring of 1993. The main objective of the research was to assess progress made with the exploitation of intellectual property contained within these bodies. This investigation has two subsidiary goals. First, given a rapid decline in funding provision by the Hungarian government for these organisations, an initial task of the work was to ascertain the actual and potential financial contribution that has been made from consultancy activities and new 'spin off firms. Second, existing 'spin off firms which had emanated from these sources were examined to ascertain if they had potential for providing industrial growth in the local Hungarian economy. The paper concludes, on the basis of detailed evidence, that progress has been disappointing, and moreover, that severe barriers to the achievement of both these goals continue to exist within the Hungarian economy. Coherent planning will be necessary to exploit potentials which are in danger of being lost through the haemorrhaging of staff to foreign employment opportunities.     

Stakeholder management in complex product systems: Practices and rationales for engagement and disengagement

Collaboration with stakeholders has become a cornerstone of contemporary business; however, absolute collaboration is not trouble-free. The present study explores how and why firms engage and disengage external stakeholders in their value-creating activities in complex product systems over time. From the existing research on stakeholder management, we know that actor roles, strategies, reasons and challenges of engaging external stakeholders in innovation and business activities vary across contexts. However, additional research is needed to construct a more comprehensive understanding of the practices as well as their rationales by which firms engage or disengage external stakeholders in complex product systems. Our empirical study of a European district development megaproject improves the current understanding of stakeholder management in complex product systems contexts. We derive nine practices and four rationales that timely describe the engagement and disengagement of external stakeholders. The study develops a processual model of stakeholder management in complex product systems with implications for both stakeholder management literature and managerial practice.