An inquiry into the motivations of knowledge workers in the Japanese financial industry

Abstract

The knowledge base of companies is increasingly seen as underlying a firm's performance, and the role of knowledge workers within this framework is seen as strongly associated with a firm's competitive performance. This perspective views the effective management of knowledge workers as crucial in sustaining an organisation's competitive advantage. The paper views the financial industry as a knowledge intensive sector which nurtures the idea that financial firms rely on specialists' knowledge or expertise relating to a specific technical and functional domain. It is an exploratory study that aims to investigate the motivational needs of, and organisational environments best suited to, company analysts within the Japanese financial system. It identifies three key motivators as having an impact on the company analysts: monetary incentives, human resource development, and job autonomy. The paper concludes that the traditional Japanese management system is incompatible with the expectations of company analysts in the Japanese financial industry.

Leadership Style and Perception of Effectiveness: Enlightening Malaysian Managers

“…They look forward to have better work responsibilities, autonomy and empowerment (Tom, 2002;Gapp, 2002;MacNeil, 2003;Jayasingam, Jantan & Ansari, 2007). They do not take pleasure in working under close supervision or rigid control (Kubo & Saka, 2002). They are also willing to take risks and expect to learn from their mistakes.…”

Motivation for Knowledge Work

“…His research shows that salary and bonuses on personal effort are not a principal motivator for knowledge workers. Research by Kubo and Saka (2002) partly contradicts this finding in that it shows the relevance of monetary incentives as a principal motivator for Japanese knowledge workers, next to such factors as personal growth and human resource development. Studies addressing motivation issues as described above treat the class of knowledge workers as a black box.…”

“…In line with these findings, Horwitz et al (2003) show the strong motivational importance of what they describe as 'job crafting', or the degree of freedom for individuals to adapt the physical and cognitive elements in the task and relationship boundaries of their work. Within the broad spectrum of motivational measures for knowledge work, the class of incentive and reward systems has received special attention (e.g., Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996;Carson, 2001;Despres & Hiltrop, 1996;Hennessey & Amabile, 1998;Krönig, 2001;Kubo & Saka, 2002;McKenzie et al, 2001;Salo, 2001). Prescriptions for knowledge-friendly reward systems, which are partly backed by research, include that reward systems should be perceived as rational by the individual and the team, that they should focus on insights rather than status and hierarchical position, that they put challenge before monetary compensation, that they should involve an appropriate degree of flexibility and adaptability, and that the drafters of such systems should be aware that rewards can also demotivate because of crowding-out effects.…”

“…Firstly, several studies link motivation issues to the broad categories of knowledge work and knowledge workers. Questions addressed in these studies are how motivation explains knowledge worker turnover or which role career development plays in knowledge work motivation (e.g., Kubo & Saka, 2002;Tampoe, 1993). Secondly, studies address how motivation is linked to knowledge aspects of work, such as creativity and other facets of knowledge exploration, and cooperation and knowledge transfer in knowledge teams.…”

International Human Resource Management Practices in Automotive Industry in Pakistan: Implications for Economic Growth

“…This is akin to Lambe et al, (2002) articulation of 'alliance competence'; embedding of HRM practices in production systems (Meardi, 2004;Kubo & Saka, 2002), thus requiring operational consistency among practices in order to guarantee operational effectiveness and efficiency, and full utilization of the transfer of technology and expertise (Kostova & Zaheer, 1999) Competing demands of global integration and local differentiation have highlighted the need to develop human resources as a source of competitive advantage (Caligiuri &Stroh 1995;Sehuler et at., 1993;Taylor et al, 1996), MNCs standardization and local practices. In the context of international business, a number of scholars have pointed to the choice that MNCs typically must make between either standardizing their policies and practices across global settings or adopting local practices (Prahalad & Doz, 1987).…”