The best of both worlds? An exploratory study of human resource management practices in U.S.-based Japanese affiliates

Japanese management practices have received considerable attention and notoriety over the past fifteen years as Westerners have searched for an understanding of Japan's meteoric economic success. As Japan's foreign direct investments have skyrocketed in the last few years attention has shifted from what the Japanese are doing at home to what they are doing overseas. In spite of this, however, relatively little empirical research has actually been conducted on the management of foreign affiliates of Japanese firms. This chapter reports the results of an exploratory study examining the characteristics of human resource management practices and policies in 49 Japanese manufacturing and service affiliates located in the United States. It describes the policies and practices of personnel selection, compensation, appraisal, and development in terms of three archetypal strategies for managing human resources. This chapter also examines the extent to which policies and practices conform to predications for the three HRM strategy types, as well as the degree of consistency found between stated organizational policies and actual practice

The transfer of human resource management systems overseas: An exploratory study of Japanese and American maquiladoras

The field of international management has, until recently, largely ignored how human resources management (HRM) systems in overseas subsidiaries are designed and how design impacts performance. In addition, there is virtually no research comparing the HRM systems in Japanese and Western affiliates. In an attempt to begin to address this important issue, this chapter presents the results of a study of Japanese and American maquiladoras (in-bond assembly plants) in Mexico. This chapter examines the relative influence of parent company strategy, strategic role of the affiliate, parent company administrative heritage, and host country environment on the HRM systems in eight maquiladoras, four Japanese and four American, located in Tijuana, Mexico. Using a contingency framework, this chapter also describes the fits between each maquiladora's HRM system and its internal and external environments. Finally, it identifies the resulting impact of these fits on performance, both at the individual employee and affiliate levels

The prospects for industrial cooperation between the United States and Japan

As part of an extensive research project on the competitiveness of US and Japanese firms in three key industries (automobiles, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals) the research team undertook an examination of what some consider to be the inverse of competition, the possibilities for cooperation between the US and Japanese industries and firms. The series of questions that we asked was as follows: is there room for cooperation between US and Japanese companies and/or industries to further the cause of fair competition? Can the energy that is currently being put into breaking down barriers be usefully turned to building bridges

Japanese banking in the United States: From transient advantage to strategic failure

Japanese banks instantly became major players in world financial markets when the 1985 Plaza Accord doubled the value of the yen. Access to cheap capital and long-term relationships with Japanese firms doing business abroad allowed them to undercut overseas rivals and achieve early success. However this quick-term overseas strategy lacked a defined long-term outlook. Based upon the author's interviews with 61 Japanese bankers, this paper examines the failure of Japanese banks to create and sustain competitive advantage. Their lack of "soft" resources, such as international experience, knowledge about local markets, and management expertise, have all contributed to their recent retreat

The relationship between expatriates, parent company-affiliate integration and HRM control in overseas affiliates of Japanese and American MNCs

This paper examines the relationship between the level of parent company-subunit integration, parent control over the affiliate, and affiliate performance in a sample of 69 Japanese business units in the United States and 89 American business units in Japan. A discussion of the results and their implications are presented

Ware ware nihonjin but we're not all alike: How Japanese managers champion innovation

This paper, using a study based on a survey of 678 managers in 8 Japanese firms, examines the similarities and differences in the preferred styles of innovation championing that exist across large established Japanese companies. The results of the study show that championing styles vary greatly across Japanese organizations. The implication of this finding is that research on Japanese firms should avoid looking only for similarities which reinforce stereotypes of a "Japanese way" of managing the innovation process

The Performance Implications of Asset versus Transactional Advantages of MNEs

The current paper found no significant relationships between performance and the degree of a MNE's foreign direct investment. The current paper did find a significant positive association between performance and the degree to which a MNE internalizes its intermediate product market. However, this latter relationship also appears to be mediated by the industry in which the firm is embedded

Japanese-style versus American-style human resource management overseas: Examining whether the data support the "facts"

This paper first provides an overview of the existing literature documenting contrasts between human resource management practices in Japanese and Western Firms. Then we present the results of a comparative research study of HRM practices in a sample of Japanese affiliates in the U.S. and American affiliates in Japan

Decision making localization and decentralization in Japanese MNCs: Are there costs of leaving local managers out of the loop?

This paper reports results on decision making decentralization and localization in a study of 119 Japanese affiliates located in Europe and the U.S. The data indicate that decisions are generally decentralized. However, they also show that Japanese managers are involved in 80% of all decisions, and many decisions are made without any involvement by local managers. Our data also indicate, however, that there are few significant relationships between decision making decentralization or localization and affiliate performance. Implications of the results are discussed