Multiskilling, Technical Change and the Japanese Firm

13. Theory and Evidence in Internal Labor Markets

“…Also, because new ideas can lead to the elimination of jobs, it is also important as argued by Aoki (1988) that firms offer high levels of employee security. Along the same line Carmichael and MacLeod (1993), argue that practices like job rotation can add to the range of jobs to which a worker is assigned and this can help a firm commit to high levels of job security.…”

Horizontal transfer, vertical promotion, and evolution of firm organization

“…7 Even in those firms, transfers across divisions are not common except for major organi-Our sample firm is no exception and employees typically experience transfers within two to three year period. The upshot of the argument is simple: lateral transfers are necessary ingredients for this type of skill formation and hence viewed as positive signal on the productivity of individual employees 8 . Complications arise, however, because they simultaneously find that not all the lateral transfers are considered as positive signals of learning capacity of each employee.…”

“…The impact of displacement by job loss may well go beyond the cost at the current job if the newly assigned job after displacement is not a suitable zation changes such as creation/destruction of divisions. 8 Transfers can be analyzed in the context of information and skill dissemination. Kusunoki and Numagami (1997) argue that regular and frequent transfers between R&D and production sections facilitate close and timely communications and information sharing.…”

Architecture de ressources humaines

“…Par exemple, une politique de sécurité d'emploi serait complémentaire à la participation de l'employé à la résolution des problèmes parce que cela fait partie du contrat implicite entre la gestion et les travailleurs (Ichniowski et al, 1996). Pour leur part, Carmichael et MacLeod (1993) expliquent le besoin de complémentarité liant les affectations fréquentes de tâches et la formation à des compétences multiples. Certaines études de cas fournissent des exemples documentés de complémentarité interpratiques (Hutchinson, Purcell et Kimie, 2000).…”