A historical study on inter-functional information sharing and engineer's career and job behavior in technology development in Japanese companies

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K03789
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic history
• Research Institution: Dokkyo University
• Principal Investigator: ICHIHARA HIROSHI 獨協大学, 経済学部, 教授 (30168322)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 技術者の職務行動 / 技術開発 / 人事管理 / 技術者のキャリア / 電機産業 / 重電技術 / 技術者能力開発 / 技術者教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research elucidates the distinctive characteristics of the job behavior of engineers in Hitachi, Ltd. heavy electric machinery sections from the 1950s through the 1960s and changes therein, in connection with their career development.
The form of engineers’ activities in which they share information across functional sections and form cooperative relations with parties including skilled workers was not yet present in the years immediately following World War II. It was born beginning in the 1960s, when independent technological development started to take place in response to the increasing capacity of thermal power plants following advances in technological development. However, this paper differs from previous studies in that it finds that this form of behavior arose through the efforts of leading engineers to institutionalize exchange of technologies, rather than being supported by transfers of engineers across the boundaries between functional sections.

Free Research Field

経済史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本企業の技術者の職務行動やキャリアに関する研究は、日本企業の成長や国際競争力の形成に彼らが決定的な役割を果たしたにもかかわらず、技能工の研究に比べて立ち遅れてきた。本研究は、個別企業の実証研究により、その立ち遅れを回復し、特に、十分な実証的根拠を欠いたまま主張されてきた異なる職能の技術者間の技術情報の共有化と技術者のキャリア展開との関係に関する通念を否定する事実を実証的に検出した。