Asian Economic Problems and Prospects for Foreign Direct Investment: Local Evidence from the UK

This paper explores the implications of the Asian crises and economic problems in the Japanese economy on a UK region with a high dependence on employment in Asian manufacturing transplants. The paper examines the development of the Asian transplant sector in the case region (Wales), and maps out the economic significance of the sector on the local economy. Following a review of the potential impacts of economic problems in Asia on the local transplant sector, the paper uses local case evidence to explore recent changes in the Asian manufacturing base in Wales. Recent reversals in the transplant sector have largely been caused more by "local" manufacturing conditions. The paper concludes with a discussion of factors that are most likely to affect the trajectory of the Asian transplant sector in the case region in the new millennium.     

SIMPLY A QUESTION OF CULTURAL BARRIERS? THE SEARCH FOR NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE TRANSFER OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

This paper discusses the transfer of management practices from parent companies in Japan into the operations of overseas subsidiaries of Japanese enterprises. the literature reviewed as well as the findings of case studies on human resource management practices in Japanese manufacturing firms in Australia suggest that key but rather high-cost practices associated with Japanese management including tenured employment, seniority-based remuneration and the provision of extensive welfare benefits are absent in overseas Japanese firms. On the other hand, relatively low-cost practices such as internal training, internal promotion and job rotation have been generally introduced into the firms researched. It appears, therefore, that the transfer of Japanese management practices is primarily affected by economic considerations rather than socio-cultural constraints as it has frequently been argued in the literature. Thus, the development of new theoretical frameworks explaining the transfer (or its absence) of Japanese management practices is essential. the paper takes a small step in this direction by suggesting that the overseas expansion of Japanese subcontracting networks including large-scale corporations as well as smaller size firms, produces conditions leading to the marginalization of segments of the local labour force and the emergence of the core-peripheral workforce dichotomy at the international level.     

Human factors in the transfer of the ‘Japanese best practice’ manufacturing system to Singapore

A detailed examination of the practices reported by managers in thirty-one affiliates of Japanese companies engaged in manufacturing in Singapore revealed a high degree of conformity with the Japanese best practice (also known as ‘lean production’) model in the way work is organized and in the shop-floor level manufacturing practices, but greater conformity to host country norms in the HRM practices applied to the local work-force. This is consistent with the patterns reported in the existing literature regarding Japanese transplants in other countries, including the US and the UK. Strong statistical relationships were found in the Singapore study among the work organization cluster, the manufacturing practices cluster, and the performance outcomes. No significant relationships were found between the HRM cluster and any of the ‘downstream’ variables (work organization, manufacturing practices or performance outcomes), but relatively heavy reliance on expatriates was found to be highly related to work organization, manufacturing practices and performance outcomes. These findings suggest that heavy reliance on expatriates may function as an alternative to Japanese-style HRM practices in situations where it would be unduly difficult or costly to extend the whole package of Japanese-style HRM practices to the local work-force.     

THE ORGANIZATION OF INNOVATION IN THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN: NEOCLASSICAL AND RELATIONAL CONTRACTING*

This article discusses the role of intermediate governance structures between vertically related industries in the specific context of technological innovation. In the United States, relations between firms in vertically related industries correspond closely to the neoclassical contracting model, characterized by arms-length, spot contracting on the open market. In Japan, inter-firm relations are more likely to involve relational contracting, characterized by stable bonding mechanisms and a dense historical network of economic ties between the parties to the exchange. We focus upon the kinyu keiretsu type of relational contracting between firms of unequal size and power in vertically related industries, which is a special case of the more generally studied kigyo shudan, or inter-market financial group. For illustrative purposes, we compare the contractual arrangements used to manage the development of new technology by 46 US and 27 Japanese semiconductor equipment firms. We conclude by speculating that the organization of innovation in the Japanese semiconductor equipment industry has accelerated their development of new technology and led to their extraordinarily rapid worldwide market penetration.     

ADOPTING JAPANESE-STYLE MANUFACTURING METHODS: A TALE OF TWO (UK) FACTORIES*

Japanese manufacturing methods such as just-in-time production and total quality control are serving as a model of manufacturing organization which many UK manufacturers are currently emulating. This article describes the implementation of just-in-time production and its supporting practices in two factories owned by the same company. Empirical evidence demonstrates a profoundly political dimension to these innovations, requiring a significant rewriting of organizations’ political and cultural maps.     

British Factory, Japanese Factory and Mexican Factory: An International Comparison of Front-Line Management and Supervision

This paper presents a case study of a Japanese-owned electronics firm, presenting a comparative analysis of the company's supervisory systems in three of its plants located in different countries – Japan, Mexico and Britain. Comparative analysis is enabled through use of the concept of a supervisory system of control, which allows us to match the relative positions of managers, supervisors and workers across the three sites. The case study data enables us systematically to examine questions of the transferability of a Japanese supervisory system – a central component of Japanese manufacturing – outside of Japan. The results suggest that 'Japanese' supervisory systems have been established with more success in Mexico than in Britain, and the main factors that explain this are varying local labour market conditions, limits to managerial control on the shopfloor, the relationship between the product market and the organization of production, and local and expatriate management commitment to a Japanese system.     

LOCAL ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION OR NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL GROWTH? A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF SMALL BUSINESS POLICY IN JAPAN AND THE U.S.

Contrasts in small business policy are examined for Japan and the United States. The author argues that Japan's small business policy has been part of an industrial growth-oriented policy, while comparatively the U.S. small business policy has been mainly part of locally-based economic revitalization schemes. Recent trends in policy development indicate that the policies in the two countries are converging. The U.S. policymakers have become increasingly concerned with the small business sector becoming competitive in global markets, while widespread offshoring of large firms have prompted Japanese policymakers to focus on supporting small businesses in order to prevent further loss of manufacturing jobs.     

White-collar human resource management in large Japanese manufacturing firms

This article explains white-collar Human Resource Management practices in large Japanese manufacturing firms. It first deals with the structural characteristics of white-collar HRM systems and some of its constraints. Then, the article discribes the personnel staff organization and analyzes in detail the four basic HRM functions: selection, development, appraisal, and rewards with data collected in two large Japanese firms. Implications for Western managers are suggested in the conclusion.     

Organisation vs. culture: Japanese automotive transplants in the US

It has long been argued that the Japanese production organization is culture-bound and therefore not transferable to other countries. This article examines seven major Japanese automobile assembly plants and over 270 Japanese automotive parts suppliers in the US. The successful transfer of Japanese work and production organization in these ‘transplants’ suggests that Japanese production practices are organizational forms which can be uncoupled from Japanese culture and transferred to other countries.     

THE TRANSFER OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT STYLES IN TWO US TRANSPLANT INDUSTRIES: AUTOS AND ELECTRONICS

Japanese industry is characterized by a unique set of industrial relations and management styles. the ability to transfer these relations overseas has been the object of much scholarly and popular debate. This paper examines this transfer to the United States in the automobile and electronics industries.
It was found that Japanese automobile manufacturers had been able to transfer most of the central features of the system with some adaptation. the most successful firms were using teams, quality control activities, rotation and quite egalitarian management styles. On the other hand, most of the electronics transplants examined had not transferred Japanese style industrial relations. the electronics firms seemed to be content to accept many of the prevailing US practices.
It is concluded that the transfer of Japanese style relations is possible, but that this occurs only where Japanese managers make a considered and sustained effort to implant their system. In many electronics operations it appears as though Japanese managers never seriously attempted to implement the Japanese system. Thus, the record of transfer is mixed at the moment.     

ENGINEERS,MANAGEMENT AND WORK ORGANIZATION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERS' WORK ROLES IN BRITISH AND JAPANESE ELECTRONICS FIRMS*

Many commentators have attributed the poor performance of British manufacturing to the ‘under-representation’ of engineers in management, and have proposed policies for bringing more engineers into management so as to develop a technologically oriented management culture. This paper argues that the under-representation of engineers in management is a symptom not the root cause of the problem, which lies in the split between technical and managerial expertise at the enterprise level. Based on a comparative analysis of engineers’ work roles and the relationship between technical and managerial functions in British and Japanese electronics firms, the paper argues that the mechanistically structured organization systems in the British firms generate a vertical polarization between technical and managerial roles, inhibit knowledge sharing and lead to the gross under-utilization of engineers in product development. A technologically oriented management cannot simply be achieved by getting more engineers into management. It requires, instead, organizational restructuring and changes in work practices to enable a better integration between technical and managerial expertise.     

The Future of Japanese Manufacturing in the UK

The expansion of Japanese FDI into the UK manufacturing sector during the 1980s and early 1990s gave rise to the debate on the Japanization of British industry. The paper argues that this debate was constructed from a Western perspective. It did not locate the strategies and structures of Japanese subsidiaries within the broader context of how Japanese multinational corporations were evolving in this period. The necessity to look at these issues from a more global perspective is reinforced by the changes which have occurred since the mid 1990s in the environment for Japanese multinationals. The global economy offers more choices to firms about their location as well as facing them with a more competitive environment. In the Japanese case, this is leading to a growing differentiation between standardized mass production (which can be located in Asia and Eastern Europe) and science–led sectors of industrial production (which necessitate location near to centres of research and development expertise in the USA and Europe). This means that Japanese firms are reconsidering the strategy and structure of their subsidiaries in the UK. Standardized mass production will only survive in the UK as long as costs can be pushed further down and productivity increased, both of which are difficult conditions to meet given possibilities elsewhere in the world for cheap mass production. The growing area of investment will be in science–based manufacturing, though here the UK will be competing against the USA and Germany for Japanese investment. Here, however, the organizational and management characteristics of Japanese subsidiaries will make the necessary connections with local managers and local networks of expertise difficult to achieve. Thus Japanese subsidiaries in the UK are in a period of prolonged uncertainty about their role in the future. These changes open up the necessity for a new agenda of research which goes beyond the Japanization approach and is concerned with the organization and management of Japanese multinationals in an era of global competition.     

PROCEDURAL RATIONALITY IN THE STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING PROCESS*

Despite the central place of rationality in the organization theory, strategic management, and decision-making literatures, we know relatively little about why some strategic decision-making procedures are more rational than others. This question was addressed in a study of 57 strategic decisions in 24 companies, using a multiple-informant, structured interview protocol. Results indicate that environmental competitive threat, perceived external control of the organization, and the uncertainty of the strategic issues being addressed are related to procedural rationality. Surprisingly, some of these relationships were in the opposite direction from our predictions. These results are interpreted within a framework that emphasizes the link between procedural rationality and managerial discretion.     

跨国公司混合型采购方式研究

文中从供应链运作出发,站在跨国制造企业母公司及子公司的角度,主要研究了跨国制造企业的混合型采购组织方式。     

The transfer of Japanese work practices to plants in Thailand

This paper analyses two Japanese transplants that have been manufacturing products in Thailand for a number of years. The research shows that these transplants have not fully adopted three Japanese work practices that are characteristic of workplaces in Japan (the significant troubleshooting skills possessed by production workers, the production support work provided by assistant first-line supervisors and the overlapping roles of manufacturing engineers). The low wages and the subdivided job consciousness of Thai employees, the presence of Japanese expatriates who are not familiar with the workplace practices actually used in Japan and the fact that the transplants have manufactured standardized mature products that do not require high troubleshooting skills, are found to be the main causes for the incomplete transfer of work practices from the mother company.     

THE ORGANIZATION AS POLITICAL ARENA

Politics and conflict sometimes capture an organization in whole or significant part, giving rise to a form we call the Political Arena. After discussing briefly the system of politics in organizations, particularly as a set of ‘political games’, we derive through a series of propositions four basic types of Political Arenas: the complete Political Arena (characterized by conflict that is intensive and pervasive), the confrontation (conflict that is intensive but contained), the shaky alliance (conflict that is moderate and contained), and the politicized organization (conflict that is moderate but pervasive). the interrelationships among these four, as well as the context of each, are then described in terms of a process model of life cycles of Political Arenas. A final section of the paper considers the functional roles of politics in organizations.     

Effects of diversification of career orientations on management systems in Japan

Until a few years ago, when compared to employees in countries of the Western World, Japanese employees entering an organization tended to have similar values and to stay in that organization rather than switching from one organization to another. That fact, however, has been changing. This article discusses the effects of this diversification of career orientations in young Japanese people. The main focus is on the effects of diversification on employment choice, the individual's decision-making as to which kind of employer to work for, and on the differing perceptions of management systems. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A comparison of the roles and responsibilities of manufacturing engineers in Japan and the United States

The manufacturing engineering work in nine Japanese firms is structured by a horizontal division of labor between manufacturing design engineers and production process engineers, in contrast to a vertical division of labor between manufacturing engineers and technicians in three American firms. The production process engineers in the Japanese firms link manufacturing engineering processes closely with production processes, whereas less coordination between the two processes occurs in the American firms. Regarding product design, manufacturing engineering, and production processes in the Japanese firms, employees engaged in downstream processes are more heavily involved with work concerned with upstream processes than in the American firms.     

DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The United Kingdom abolished domestic property taxation, the major autonomous revenue source for local authorities, in 1989 (Scotland) and 1990 (England and Wales). The introduction of a flat rate personal charge (called by the Government 'the community charge' and by its opponents 'the poll tax') aroused huge political controversy. The choice of a substitute tax, to operate from 1993, and based at least partly on property, was one of the major domestic issues in the recent General Parliamentary Election. This paper examines the background to the abolition of domestic property taxation and why it was such a key political issue, explains why the "community charge" failed and describes the immediate prospects.