Engineering careers and technology transfer: Japanese companies in the UK

Abstract

This article examines two issues: f i s t how Japanese companies recruit, train and utilise engineers in their UK transplants; secondly, how technology transfer between British and Japanese engineers is affected by career structures. It draws on questionnaire responses from 88 companies and interviews at a small number of sites.Establishing overseas operations and achieving effective technology transfer is a complex process in which engineers are critical agents. For effective technology transfer to their UK transplants, Japanese companies will need Japanese engineers as expatriates who can introduce new processes and products. But if companies are to globalise their activities they will need to employ British engineers who can liaise effectively with the Japanese engineers on company sites in Japan. To gauge the extent to which these processes are occurring, we need to establish 0 Kevin McCormick is Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, at the University of Sussex; David Cairncross is at the Wilton Park Conference Centre, Steyning, West Sussex; Yumiko Hanstock is Research Officer on the Engineering Careers and Technology Transfer project at the University of Sussex; Brian McCormick is Professor of Industrial Relations in the School of Management at the University of Sheffield and Alan Turner is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the ThermoFluids Research Centre at the University of Sussex.the extent to which Japanese transplant companies are seeking to recruit professionallevel engineers and the ways in which engineering work is organised between British and Japanese engineers.The issues tackled in this paper had their origins in the Initiative on Engineering Careers launched by the SERC-ESRC Joint Committee [l]. The main aims of our study were:1. 2.to examine the two-way technology transfer between British and Japanese engineers and the effects of career structures on technology transfer; and, to examine how Japanese-owned companies in Britain recruit, train and utilise engineering manpower for manufacturing, design and R&D functions. Debates on technology transferSome writers have expressed severe doubts about the likelihood of any alleged benefits

The Olympus scandal – the dark side of social networks and corporate culture

“…Japanese prefer to engage with other Japanese (Lazonick et al, 1997) because their homogeneous backgrounds facilitate creating consensus-valuing individuals who avoid confrontation (Dore, 2010), and this integrates a flexible and loyal company workforce (McCormick and McCormick, 1996). Acceptance of foreigners emerges at different stages; initially, there is special attention, like parties in their honour, that shows that this person is still an outsider; once someone is accepted as an employee, their treatment is on an equal basis and they can be criticised for making mistakes, for example (Lo, 2016).…”

The History of a Mother Factory

“…For example, McCormick, Cairncross, Hanstock, McCormick, and Turner (1996) explained that Japanese companies use mother plants to transfer knowledge to subsidiaries and to continuously communicate with them. 15 Moreover, Liker et 15 In addition to this study, Lewin, Okumura, Sakano, and Valikangas al.…”