The transfer of human resource and management practice by Japanese multinationals to Australia: do industry, size and experience matter?

This paper examines management and HRM practices adopted by Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the transferability of Japanese HRM in the Australian host-country situation. It also compares HRM practices of Japanese MNEs in Australia with the experience in North America and Europe and attempts to map the typology of the human resource management utilized by a range of Japanese firms operating in Australia, including large and small firms; manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies; firms with differing levels of Japanese equity and with different levels of operational experience. This paper is based on survey data from sixty-nine Japanese subsidiaries operating in the Australian manufacturing and service sectors in 1994.

[1]  R. Florida,et al.  Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S. , 1993 .

[2]  N. Oliver,et al.  Human Resources Management in Japanese Manufacturing Companies in the UK: 5 Case Studies , 1990 .

[3]  William Diebold,et al.  Alternatives to the Multinational Enterprise , 1979 .

[4]  Rodney Clark,et al.  The Japanese Company , 1980 .

[5]  Chalmers Johnson,et al.  Japanese-Style Management in America , 1988 .

[6]  Bengt Holmstrom,et al.  Moral Hazard and Observability , 1979 .

[7]  W. Dugger.  The Economic Institutions of Capitalism , 1987 .

[8]  M. Okuno-Fujiwara.  Monitoring cost, agency relationships, and equilibrium modes of labor contracts , 1987 .

[9]  J. Hennart,et al.  A Theory of the Multinational Enterprise , 1982 .

[10]  Hiroyuki Odagiri,et al.  Growth Through Competition, Competition Through Growth: Strategic Management and The Economy in Japan. , 1992 .

[11]  Anant R. Negandhi,et al.  The Management Practices of Japanese Subsidiaries Overseas , 1985 .

[12]  S. Sethi,et al.  The false promise of the Japanese miracle : illusions and realities of the Japanese management system , 1984 .

[13]  M. Yoshino.  Japan's Multinational Enterprises , 1976 .

[14]  S. Nicholas,et al.  Japanese FDI in Australia in the 1990s: Manufacturing, Financial Services and Tourism , 1996 .

[15]  M. Kreinin.  How Closed is Japan's Market? Additional Evidence , 1988 .

[16]  Management Systems and Practices In Japanese Subsidiaries: Japanization or Localization? , 1987 .

[17]  M. Aoki.  Information, Incentives and Bargaining in the Japanese Economy: A Microtheory of the Japanese Economy , 1988 .

[18]  K. Thurley,et al.  Japan's emerging multinationals : an international comparison of policies and practices , 1985 .

[19]  M. Trevor,et al.  Under Japanese Management: The Experience of British Workers , 1983 .

[20]  Dennis J. Encarnation,et al.  Does ownership matter? : Japanese multinationals in Europe , 1994 .

[21]  Tetsuo Abo,et al.  The Hybrid Factory: The Japanese Production System in the United States , 1995 .

[22]  A. Athos,et al.  The Art of Japanese Management , 1982 .

[23]  J. Dunning.  Toward an Eclectic Theory of International Production: Some Empirical Tests , 1980 .

[24]  Ulku Dicle,et al.  Human Resources Management Practices in Japanese Organizations in the United States , 1988 .

[25]  K. John Fukuda,et al.  Japanese-Style Management Transferred: The Experience of East Asia , 1988, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[26]  Duane Kujawa,et al.  Japanese Multinationals in the United States , 1986 .

[27]  S. Shavell.  Risk Sharing and Incentives in the Principal and Agent Relationship , 1979 .

[28]  Jean‐Franois Hennart,et al.  The transaction cost theory of the multinational enterprise , 1991 .

[29]  M. Trevor.  Japan's Reluctant Multinationals: Japanese Management at Home and Abroad , 1983 .

[30]  W. Ouchi,et al.  Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge. , 1981 .

[31]  M. C. Jensen,et al.  THEORY OF THE FIRM: MANAGERIAL BEHAVIOR, AGENCY COSTS AND OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE , 1976 .

[32]  J. Dunning.  Japanese Participation in British Industry , 1986 .

[33]  N. Oliver,et al.  Personnel Strategy In Eleven Japanese Manufacturing Companies In The Uk , 1988 .

[34]  J. Dunning.  Trade, Location of Economic Activity and the MNE: A Search for an Eclectic Approach , 1977 .

[35]  Hideshi Itoh,et al.  Japanese human resource management from the viewpoint of incentive theory , 1991 .

[36]  Barry Wilkinson,et al.  The Japanization of British industry , 1988 .

[37]  K. Arrow.  The Economics of Agency. , 1984 .

[38]  Tony McGuinness,et al.  The Economics of the Firm , 1987 .