2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Intra-organizational processes of making the first rehabilitation plan of JNR

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21830041
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Business administration
Research Institution	Niigata University
Principal Investigator	TSUBOYAMA Yuki Niigata University, 人文社会・教育科学系, 講師 (50508645)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	経営学 / 組織論
Research Abstract	The purpose of this research is to analyze intra-organizational process of making the first rehabilitation plan of Japan National Railways (JNR) in the late 1960s. JNR was a state-owned railway company、which was broken into seven companies and privatized as the JR Group in 1987. The first rehabilitation plan was made to ascertain fare raise and acquire government subsidies. This plan was based on overestimated transportation demand、and many critics claimed that its overestimation was intentional. I conducted interviews to ex-employees and examined internal documents to analyze how this 'intentional' overestimation of demand, especially freight demand, in the first rehabilitation plan was made, handled, and discussed a the level of inter-department and intra-department in JNR. This research showed how inter-departmental politics made the overestimated demand 'valid' and how division of labor in the freight department led the members of the department to misapprehend each other's real intentions.