Working for Japanese Corporations in China: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

China's economy is emerging rapidly and foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) are playing an important role in this process. MNCs no longer view China just as a place for cheap production, but increasingly as a marketplace. This has led to increased interest in how to manage local white-collar employees and this article addresses this issue with regard to Japanese MNCs. Based on a qualitative exploration of the perceptions of local employees, the article develops a series of proposals in regard to the underlying factors and problems of human resource management (HRM) by Japanese MNCs in China. Local employees describe the management style of Japanese corporations as highly ethnocentric and despite Japanese management having been portrayed as an overall good fit for fastdeveloping economies, local employees voice discontent over several points, ranging from seating arrangements to incentive structures. This situation can be explained by an incomplete transfer of Japanese business practices, the heavy reliance on expatriate managers, and with the presence of multiple modes of competing management styles in the current rapidly developing Chinese economy.

Organizational Commitment-Rewards Relationship and its Change in Japanese Companies in China

“…Cf. Yu & Meyer-Ohle, 2008) are all important and should be considered comprehensively anytime irrespective of economic conditions.…”

“…However, in contrast, previous survey conducted in China has indicated that Japanese companies do not rank among the most popular employers, and are even frequently named as those that people would least want to work for (Zhang, 2003). Likewise, Yu and Meyer-Ohle (2008) revealed that employees who worked for Japanese companies had more complaints than those who worked for Western companies by interview surveys to employees who worked for Japanese and Western companies in China.…”

Institutional and cultural barriers to transferring Lean production to China: Evidence from a German automotive components manufacturer

“…Gamble, 2010;Yu and Meyer-Ohle, 2008;Schmidt et al, 2013), the same cannot be said for the transfer of Lean. In the same vein, there are several thorough investigations of the transfer of Lean manufacturing from Japan to Western countries, including the US (see Holweg, 2007) and Germany (Streeck, 1996), but we believe that our study is the first to systematically analyse the transfer of Lean to China.…”

Organizational Commitment and Rewards in Malaysia, with Comparison between University Graduates and Others

“…Another possible reason is that samples used in this research are employees of 'Japanese' companies. University graduates, who are generally at closer positions to Japanese expatriates than others, may be more accustomed to the way of Japanese management which is generally more dependent on circumstances than clear job description (Yu & Meyer-Ohle, 2008).…”