2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Comparative Historical Study of Labor Management in UK and Japan
| Project/Area Number |
19730240
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Economic history
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Science, Suwa |
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Principal Investigator |
HIRAO Takashi Tokyo University of Science, Suwa, 経営情報学部, 講師 (50361861)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2007 – 2009
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| Keywords | 経営史 |
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| Research Abstract |
Previous study in labor management has been made from a historical and social point of view as well as an economic rational point of view. Especially, employment relations of Japanese management have been characterized by the former. Because what induced management to introduce labor policy into their firm has an influence on the future management of the labor policy. In addition, the management' intention requires acceptance with the employed in order that the labor policy brings good results in industrial relations. In this respect, there was a common point between British firms well known as paternalist firm : Paternalism introduced by salaried managers did not only mean the welfare provisions, but also included legitimation for their exercising authority. Because they had to reorganize industrial relations without any conflict was very important for salaried managers who replaced the founding family and were faced with the rise of trade unionism. Therefore, they invented 'paternali
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sm' by making a claim on traditional rule 'there used to be so'. Paternalism at Japanese firms was based on the idea of 'IE' (family) that was the family system in Japan before the Second World War. Therefore, these differences brought about differences in the management of labor policy between UK and Japan. For example, in UK, based on formal rationality of tradition, welfare provisions of the labor policy became a just claim of the employees, while in Japan that was based on a sense of belonging to the seniors employed at the firm.
On the other hand, a common point of British paternalist firm and Japanese paternalist firm is that paternalistic labor policy had economic rationality. In short, paternalist firm in both UK and Japan internalized labor force to make competitive advantage.
Research in networks in semi conductor laser technology resulted in higher mobility of engineers in UK than Japan. Therefore, comparative study of labor market in UK and Japan could not disprove the commonly-held view in the field : British system is market-oriented, while Japanese system is organization-oriented. However, comparative case study of labor policy at paternalist firm in UK and Japan could arrive at the results of a difference point of the management of paternalistic labor policy and a common point of competitive advantage from resource-based view. Less
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