Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Japanese institutions: are they different?
- 2 The study: overview and methodology
- 3 Entering the firm: recruitment and training
- 4 Lifetime employment and career patterns
- 5 Reward systems
- 6 Female employees
- 7 Organisation and decision-making process
- 8 Discussion and conclusion
- Index
4 - Lifetime employment and career patterns
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Japanese institutions: are they different?
- 2 The study: overview and methodology
- 3 Entering the firm: recruitment and training
- 4 Lifetime employment and career patterns
- 5 Reward systems
- 6 Female employees
- 7 Organisation and decision-making process
- 8 Discussion and conclusion
- Index
Summary
Lifetime employment
Cole (1971) notes that one of the official criteria for dismissal at Takei Diecast, one of the Japanese firms he studies, is “strikingly … similar to what one might expect in an industrially advanced Western country”:
when there are superfluous personnel because of readjustment and curtailment of business, rationalisation of operations and other unavoidable reasons, and these personnel are not absorbed through personnel realignment, changes in type of work or other means.
(p. 117)But, he adds, in reality, “the managements dismissal rights at the Takei firm was far more limited and not necessarily because of worker pressures” (p. 118), hinting at the long-term mutual commitment between the employee and the company that forms the cornerstone of Japanese labour relations. Thus, Abegglen (1958, p. 72) notes:
It is family-like. When a man enters the large Japanese company it is for his entire life. Entrance is a function of personal qualities, background, and character. Membership is revocable only in extraordinary circumstances and with extraordinary difficulty. As in a family, the incompetent or inefficient member of the group is cared for, a place is found for him, and he is not expelled from the group because he is judged inadequate … Fidelity and tenure bring the highest rewards and, should the group encounter financial difficulty, it is expected that all members will suffer these difficulties together.
The concept of lifetime employment is fundamental to the community firm and the functioning of the internal labour market.
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- Conflict and ChangeForeign Ownership and the Japanese Firm, pp. 114 - 138Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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