By

Shweta Sharma
Roll No - 101
Outline

I. The 4 Pillars of Japanese Management

II. Japanese vs. Western HR management

III. Recent Changes and Future Trends

IV. Conclusion
I. The 4 Pillars of Japanese HR Management

A) Long – Term Employment

B) Seniority Based compensation and Promotion

C) Company – Driven Employee Training Programs

D) Trade / Labor Unionism

A) Long – Term Employment

 Long Term Employment => politically correct than life

time employment.

 55% of Japanese companies are still observing some

form of long – term employment.

 14% actively use it as a recruiting and retention tool.

A) Long – Term Employment

 Direct recruiting from college and staying with the

company until retirement ( 20-30 years)

 BASIC IDEA:

Age/Tenure = Experience = Contribution

 Results to seniority based promotion and

compensation.
 A) Long – Term Employment

Advantages Disadvantages
× Promotes culture of attendance
Promotes Industrial Peace
or entitlement instead of
performance / contribution.

High degree of employee – × Difficult to fire people

employer trust and understanding

× Can result in pay inequities

Layoffs are rare as they are only
especially if there are a lot of old
done as a last resort.
employees
× Discourages infusion of new
Strong talent pipeline (= long
talent bringing new ideas.
term projects or succession
planning)
B) Seniority Based compensation and
Promotion

“Pay – for – Age / Experience “ concept

 Salary is a function of Age ( = get more

experience/skills)

 Automatic pay increases

 More work, less pay when young.

Less work , more pay with age/tenure.
 B) Seniority Based compensation and
Promotion
Advantages
 Promotes harmony amongst
employees ( i.e. no animosity)
 Demotions or salary reductions
are rarely done.
 Employees can “budget” or
project their incomes useful for
future planning.
Disadvantages
× Not compatible for fast paced,
multi functional roles.
× Not competitive => creates
motivation problems for high -
performers.
× Not effective in attracting new
and more progressive talent.
 C) Company – Driven Employee Training
Programs

 Mostly focused on identifying High

performers and managerial talents.

 Traditional Japanese Training Styles :

1) Master – Apprentice (Senpai – kohai)

2) On/Off – Job – Training (OJT)
3) Job rotation/ Multi tasking

 Creates generalists than specialists.

D) Trade / Labor Unionism
 10 or more employees

 Employees at companies with no in house unions can

join trade unions.

 Strikes are rarely done due to co operative (rather

than confrontational) relationships of unions with
management.
Unique Peculiarities of Japanese Trade
Unions
 Union officials can become part of a
company’s management team.

 Transition from union to

management is seen to foster
“harmony” in the company.

 Union officials are still considered

employees of the company and hence
enjoy the benefits of long – term and
seniority promotion/wage systems.
 II. Japanese VS Western HR Management

HR Practices JAPAN WEST

Nature of Long-term (if not Employment – at –
employment lifetime)employment will
Paternal Approach Individual
responsibility
Compensation Pay-for- Pay – for
age/experience performance
(seniority based) (value based)
Training Company Personal
responsibility Responsibility
Generalist focus Specialist focus
Union Cooperative Confrontational
Relationship Passive Aggressive
III. Recent Changes
 Changes in the long -term employment practices

1) “Selective” lifetime employment

2) Shorter average tenure from 12 years to 5 years

 Changes in the employee assessment and compensation

systems

1) Introduction of performance-based –pay-system

2) 60% of companies have already done so while
only 2% of them still favor seniority-based
compensation.
III. Recent Changes
 Diversification of “employment portfolio”

1) Use of non-regular employee to make the

workplace flexible to business needs.
2) 1 out of 3 workers in Japan is a temporary/part
time employee

 Changes in the industrial structure and needs

1) Growing demand for “specialist employees”

2) More mid – career hiring
3) Need for new educational methods
III. Recent Changes

 Changes in employment patterns

1) Rise of the part-time phenomenon

2) Flextime/discretionary work hours system
3) Work sharing

 Dwindling union memberships and formation of

unions for foreign workers and part time workers.
結論……
Conclusion…
……
ありがとう
Thank You