Human Resource Planning in Japanese Multinationals: A Model for U.S. Firms?

The efficient operation of a multinational corporation is contingent upon the availability of numerous—technology, capital, know-how, and people. In this paper, the argument is made that human power is a key ingredient to the successful operation of a multinational, without which all the other aforementioned resources could not be effectively and efficiently utilized or transferred from corporate headquarters to the various subsidiaries in the world. Hence, there is a need for multinationals to devote more attention to human resource planning, which is viewed as part of the overall planning and control process in a firm. The paper compares and contrasts the human resource development programs between a sample of U.S. and Japanese multinationals, and discusses the implications for U.S. multinationals.