How Did the Japanese Employment System Change Investigating the Heterogeneity of Downsizing Practices Across Firms

How Did the Japanese Employment System Change Investigating the Heterogeneity of Downsizing Practices Across Firms PDF Author: Sebastien Lechevalier
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Beyond the general issue of institutional change at the aggregate level, some studies have shown that the diversity of Japanese firms has increased since the late 1990s, both in terms of performance and organization. This paper contributes to this literature by investigating the evolving employment practices at the firm level. In mobilizing a database of listed manufacturing firms, we focus on the evolution of the speed of downsizing between the 1990s and the 2000s. A specificity of our paper is that we do not limit our analysis to the introduction of individual effects but we rather resort to a Bayesian estimation procedure, which yields to (firm-specific) individual forecasts of the parameters of the adjustment process modelled with random coefficients. The first major result we get is a decreasing average speed of downsizing, contrary to what is found in a simple estimation with individual effects. Second, we confirm the increasing heterogeneity of Japanese firms between the 1990s and the 2000s, through a rising dispersion of the speed of downsizing. Third, we are able, from a descriptive viewpoint to identify some characteristics of firms with different speed of downsizing.

How Did the Japanese Employment System Change Investigating the Heterogeneity of Downsizing Practices Across Firms

How Did the Japanese Employment System Change Investigating the Heterogeneity of Downsizing Practices Across Firms PDF Author: Sebastien Lechevalier
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Beyond the general issue of institutional change at the aggregate level, some studies have shown that the diversity of Japanese firms has increased since the late 1990s, both in terms of performance and organization. This paper contributes to this literature by investigating the evolving employment practices at the firm level. In mobilizing a database of listed manufacturing firms, we focus on the evolution of the speed of downsizing between the 1990s and the 2000s. A specificity of our paper is that we do not limit our analysis to the introduction of individual effects but we rather resort to a Bayesian estimation procedure, which yields to (firm-specific) individual forecasts of the parameters of the adjustment process modelled with random coefficients. The first major result we get is a decreasing average speed of downsizing, contrary to what is found in a simple estimation with individual effects. Second, we confirm the increasing heterogeneity of Japanese firms between the 1990s and the 2000s, through a rising dispersion of the speed of downsizing. Third, we are able, from a descriptive viewpoint to identify some characteristics of firms with different speed of downsizing.

The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism

The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism PDF Author: Sébastien Lechevalier
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317974964
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
In the 1980s the performance of Japan’s economy was an international success story, and led many economists to suggest that the 1990s would be a Japanese decade. Today, however, the dominant view is that Japan is inescapably on a downward slope. Rather than focusing on the evolution of the performance of Japanese capitalism, this book reflects on the changes that it has experienced over the past 30 years, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the great transformation of Japanese capitalism from the heights of the 1980s, through the lost decades of the 1990s, and well into the 21st century. This book posits an alternative analysis of the Japanese economic trajectory since the early 1980s, and argues that whereas policies inspired by neo-liberalism have been presented as a solution to the Japanese crisis, these policies have in fact been one of the causes of the problems that Japan has faced over the past 30 years. Crucially, this book seeks to understand the institutional and organisational changes that have characterised Japanese capitalism since the 1980s, and to highlight in comparative perspective, with reference to the ‘neo-liberal moment’, the nature of the transformation of Japanese capitalism. Indeed, the arguments presented in this book go well beyond Japan itself, and examine the diversity of capitalism, notably in continental Europe, which has experienced problems that in many ways are also comparable to those of Japan. The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism will appeal to students and scholars of both Japanese politics and economics, as well as those interested in comparative political economy.

The Changing Japanese Labor Market

The Changing Japanese Labor Market PDF Author: Akiomi Kitagawa
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789811071577
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This book reappraises the Japanese employment system, characterized by such practices as the periodic recruiting of new graduates, lifetime employment and seniority-based wages, which were praised as sources of high productivity and flexibility for Japanese firms during the period of high economic growth from the middle of the 1950s until the burst of bubbles in the early 1990s. The prolonged stagnation after the bubble burst induced an increasing number of people to criticize the Japanese employment system as a barrier to the structural changes needed to allow the economy to adjust to the new environment, with detractors suggesting that such a system only serves to protect the vested interests of incumbent workers and firms. By investigating what caused the long stagnation of the Japanese economy, this book examines the validity of this currently dominant view about the Japanese employment system. The rigorous theoretical and empirical analyses presented in this book provide readers with deep insights into the nature of the current Japanese labor market and its macroeconomic impacts.

The new Japanese Firm as a Hybrid Organization

The new Japanese Firm as a Hybrid Organization PDF Author: Mitsuharu Miyamoto
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811088519
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book examines corporate reform in Japan by focusing on corporate governance and the employment system. Contrary to a prevailing assertion of radical change, it is revealed that actual change is gradual, and a new type of Japanese firm is generated by reform with gradual change. Throughout the book, Japanese firms are seen to be evolving through gradual institutional change. Chapter 1 discusses how Japanese corporate governance changed incrementally and cumulatively to rebuild management and restore corporate performance. Chapter 2 focuses on reform in work organization and discusses how performance-related pay was introduced in tandem with corporate governance reform. It is shown that the practice of long-term employment has been maintained despite the prolonged depression and mounting pressure to shift to shareholder-oriented corporate governance. Chapter 3 investigates how Japanese firms are diversified into four types, based on whether performance-related pay is introduced and whether long-term employment is maintained. The author demonstrates that major Japanese firms reconstruct their organization as hybrid structures based on a combination of long-term employment and performance-related pay. Chapter 4 investigates how performance-related pay actually operates. It is analyzed by distinguishing the three main objectives to be attained by performance pay: succeeding in individual performance, contributing to overall organization performance, and meeting the challenge of new tasks. Finally, Chapter 5 investigates how employees react to changes in corporate governance. Using survey data, the book shows that Japanese employees approve of increasing shareholder value, regarding it as corporate value. They not only approve the monitoring of management by shareholders, but also demand a part in the monitoring. Employees seek to be engaged in corporate governance—a true challenge for a Japanese corporation.

Changes in Japanese Employment Practices

Changes in Japanese Employment Practices PDF Author: Arjan Keizer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135233462
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Japan’s employment practices were long considered a cornerstone to its economic success. However, the reversal in economic performance during the 1990s altered the positive perception and inspired major adaptations like the rise in performance-related pay (‘seikashugi’) and non-regular employment. This book presents case-studies of the adaptations in personnel management by major Japanese firms. It highlights the diversity, the stability and the considerations behind the adaptations that are implemented by these firms. Drawing on insights from institutional theory, it shows how factors such as legitimacy and institutional interlock have guaranteed an important continuity in employment practices. It discusses how the adaptations have not actually replaced the existing practices but have been shaped by them and, as a consequence, the result may not be as revolutionary as once expected but is likely to last. Furthermore, it argues that the employment practices remain specifically Japanese and that expectations of convergence have so far proved misplaced. Overall, this book is a valuable contribution to the study of employment issues. It provides an effective framework to analyse the ongoing developments in Japanese employment practices and demonstrates that Japanese developments continue to offer important insights for human resource management and labour market institutionalisation in general.

The Change of a Lifetime

The Change of a Lifetime PDF Author: John C. & Martha N. Beck
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824815295
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
"This book documents the changes in Japanese employment structures, behavior patterns, and attitudes that indicate that lifetime employment was not 'an indestructible bastion of Japanese cultural heritage.' ... Readable and refreshingly free of jargon." --Asiaweek

Downsizing and the Deinstitutionalization of Permanent Employment in Japan

Downsizing and the Deinstitutionalization of Permanent Employment in Japan PDF Author: Christina Linn Ahmadjian
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Downsizing of organizations
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description


Long Term Employment and Employment Adjustment in Japan

Long Term Employment and Employment Adjustment in Japan PDF Author: Tomohiko Noda
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This study examines whether Japan's long-term employment system has changed by investigating changes in employment adjustment behaviors. Using dynamic panel data for the last two decades, we examine if and how Japanese firms' downsizing avoidance behaviors--even at the expense of profits--have changed. Therefore, we conduct the Arellano and Bond estimation of employment adjustment function and the bivariate probit estimation of determinants of massive employment reduction. Both estimation results suggest that deeply rooted Japanese firms' downsizing avoidance behaviors that protect employment have been maintained for a long time even at the expense of profits, although weakened to some extent.

The Japanese employment system

The Japanese employment system PDF Author: Daniel Joachim
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640180046
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Sociology - Work, Education, Organisation, grade: 1,7, University of Osnabrück, course: Economical and Technical Development and Organisation, WS 05/06, language: English, abstract: After Japan recovered from the disastrous defeat of World War II, its enormous economic growth provided a series of questions to the world’s leading economists. With constant growth rates over 11% on average in the 1960s, Japan had the world’s second largest GDP. Seeking explanations and reasons for this phenomenon, soon a couple of important influences on the Japanese economy were found. The increased demands on Japanese products during the conflicts in Vietnam after the Second World War (which led to the Vietnam War 1964-1973) and the Korean War 1950 to 1953 as well as the government aid for selected industries and protective duty accelerated its growth, which exceeded all former expectations1. Another important element of the Japanese prosperity was met with the Japanese-style employment system2. What would primarily influence the image of the Japanese to the further decades, the industrious, never sleeping blue-collar and white-collar workers, fulfilling a life for the company in a state of mutual dependence, is the result of an elaborate employment system. And in fact, lifetime employment, a predetermined career path and the seniority-based wage system were established to commit the regular workers to "their“ company, while the temporary workers still did not reach a similar status. This "Japanese Model“, as several authors call it, is subject to constant change. Even though the system was never fixed, it changed its surface not before the "collapse of the bubble“ in 1990. Shortly after this prolonged economic recession, which forced every industrialised country to undertake economic restructuring, Japan was able to recover very fast through strict rationalisation and a revision of its employment system. Today, Japan has changed. Still the second largest economy of the world, it has to confront an economic growth close to 2%. With this comes a call for a more flexible employment system which still has to pay the regular workers who many years ago were attracted with the seniority-based wage system reflecting the workers higher needs in subsequent years. Furthermore, the new generation of workers is organised in unions and knows their value to the market, and would not agree earning half the sum a senescent worker does.

The Heterogeneity of Employment Adjustment Across Japanese Firms

The Heterogeneity of Employment Adjustment Across Japanese Firms PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description