Table Of ContentChallenges of Human Resource
Management in Japan
Human resource management (HRM) systems differ across corporations around
the world. Japan has unique characteristics that create specific challenges for HRM
and there is currently a lack of research focusing on Japanese HR issues available
to Westerners. This book examines the major challenges and dilemmas in human
resource management as Japan’s industrial society continues its resurgence in the
global arena. The first part of the book deals with Japanese HRM from an inter-
national perspective, analyzing the overall structure of Japanese HRM systems,
and comparing these with current international systems. The second part of this
book looks at Japanese HRM from a domestic perspective and as such covers the
micro issues of HRM practice in Japan.
Written by a leading team of HRM experts from Japan, the UK, France,
Australia, and Canada, this book will be of interest to anyone interested in HRM
in Japan, and international HRM more generally.
Ralf Bebenroth is Associate Professor of International Business at the Research
Institute for Economics and Business Administration at Kobe University, Japan.
Toshihiro Kanai is Professor of Organizational Behavior at Kobe University,
Japan.
Routledge Contemporary Japan Series
1 A Japanese Company in Crisis 8 The Changing Japanese Family
Ideology, strategy, and narrative Edited by Marcus Rebick and
Fiona Graham Ayumi Takenaka
2 Japan’s Foreign Aid 9 Adoption in Japan
Old continuities and new directions Comparing policies for children
Edited by David Arase in need
Peter Hayes and Toshie Habu
3 Japanese Apologies for World
War II 10 The Ethics of Aesthetics in
A rhetorical study Japanese Cinema and Literature
Jane W. Yamazaki Polygraphic desire
Nina Cornyetz
4 Linguistic Stereotyping and
Minority Groups in Japan 11 Institutional and Technological
Nanette Gottlieb Change in Japan’s Economy
Past and present
5 Shinkansen Edited by Janet Hunter and
From bullet train to symbol of Cornelia Storz
modern Japan
Christopher P. Hood 12 Political Reform in Japan
Leadership looming large
6 Small Firms and Innovation Alisa Gaunder
Policy in Japan
Edited by Cornelia Storz 13 Civil Society and the Internet in
Japan
7 Cities, Autonomy and Isa Ducke
Decentralization in Japan
Edited by Carola Hein and 14 Japan’s Contested War
Philippe Pelletier Memories
The ‘memory rifts’ in historical
consciousness of World War II
Philip A. Seaton
15 Japanese Love Hotels 24 Perversion in Modern Japan
A cultural history Psychoanalysis, literature, culture
Sarah Chaplin Edited by Nina Cornyetz and
J. Keith Vincent
16 Population Decline and Ageing
in Japan 25 Homosexuality and Manliness in
The social consequences Postwar Japan
Florian Coulmas Jonathan D. Mackintosh
17 Zainichi Korean Identity and 26 Marriage in Contemporary
Ethnicity Japan
David Chapman Yoko Tokuhiro
18 A Japanese Joint Venture in the 27 Japanese Aid and the
Pacific Construction of Global
Foreign bodies in tinned tuna Development
Kate Barclay Inescapable solutions
Edited by David Leheny and
19 Japanese–Russian Relations, Kay Warren
1907–2007
Joseph P. Ferguson 28 The Rise of Japanese NGOs
Activism from above
20 War Memory, Nationalism and Kim D. Reimann
Education in Post- War Japan,
1945–2007 29 Postwar History Education in
The Japanese history textbook Japan and the Germanys
controversy and Ienaga Saburo’s Guilty lessons
court challenges Julian Dierkes
Yoshiko Nozaki
30 Japan- Bashing
21 A New Japan for the Twenty- Anti- Japanism since the 1980s
First Century Narrelle Morris
An inside overview of current
fundamental changes and 31 Legacies of the Asia- Pacific War
problems The Yakeato generation
Edited by Rien T. Segers Edited by Roman Rosenbaum and
Yasuko Claremont
22 A Life Adrift
Soeda Azembo, popular song and 32 Challenges of Human Resource
modern mass culture in Japan Management in Japan
Translated by Michael Lewis Edited by Ralf Bebenroth and
Toshihiro Kanai
23 The Novels of Oe Kenzaburo
Yasuko Claremont
Challenges of Human Resource
Management in Japan
Edited by Ralf Bebenroth and
Toshihiro Kanai
First published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2011 Editorial selection and matter, Ralf Bebenroth and Toshihiro Kanai;
individual chapters, the contributors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Challenges of human resource management in Japan / edited by Ralf
Bebenroth and Toshihiro Kanai.
p. cm. — (Routledge contemporary Japan series ; 32)
1. Personnel management—Japan. 2. Manpower planning—Japan.
I. Bebenroth, Ralf. II. Kanai, Toshihiro, 1954-
HF5549.2.J3C42 2010
658.300952—dc22 2010003783
ISBN 0-203-84670-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN: 978- 0- 415- 58260- 5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 203- 84670- 4 (ebk)
Contents
List of figures and tables ix
List of contributors xi
1 Challenges of human resource management in Japan: an
introduction 1
RALF BEBENROTH AND TOSHIHIRO KANAI
PART I
Japanese HRM from an international perspective 9
2 Taking stock of the research on evolving relationships between
Japanese human resource management practices and firm
performance 11
NEALIA S. BRUNING
3 Japanese human resource management: inspirations from
abroad and current trends of change 28
MARKUS PUDELKO AND ANNE- WIL HARZING
4 Expatriation and performance 61
RALF BEBENROTH AND DONGHAO LI
5 Human resource management and employment systems in Asia:
directions of change and new challenges 79
PHILIPPE DEBROUX
6 Demystifying the relationship between intercultural adjustment
and effectiveness in international assignments: reflections on
Japanese expatriate managers 97
BEATRIZ MARIA BRAGA AND EDSON KEYSO DE MIRANDA KUBO
viii Contents
7 Global talent management and learning for the future: pressing
concerns and opportunities for growth for Japanese multinationals 124
MARY YOKO BRANNEN
PART II
Japanese HRM from a domestic perspective 131
8 Strategic human resource management research in the Japanese
context: unique opportunities for theory advancement 133
TOMOKI SEKIGUCHI, NORIHIKO TAKEUCHI,
AND TOMOKAZU TAKEUCHI
9 Psychological contract in Japanese companies: an explorative
study on contents, fulfillment, and breach of contracts 154
YASUHIRO HATTORI
10 Cognitive framework for performance appraisal: an empirical
study of narrative evaluations in a Japanese auto company 171
KIYOSHI TAKAHASHI
11 Diversification of employment categories in Japanese firms and
its functionality: a study based on the human resource portfolio
system 188
MITSUTOSHI HIRANO
12 Quantum leap experiences for leadership development: stories
and lessons of Japanese top and middle managers 210
TOSHIHIRO KANAI AND YOICHI FURUNO
Index 236
Figures and tables
Figures
2.1 HRM practices and relationships with organizational
performance 17
3.1 HR managers’ assessment of the main characteristics of their
own HRM system 35
3.2 Country- of- origin, localization, and dominance effects by home
country 50
3.3 Extent of adaptation to local practices 53
4.1 Model and summary of all hypotheses 68
10.1 Threefold model of performance criteria in Japan 175
11.1 Model of human resource portfolio system 198
11.2 Examination of human resource portfolio system 200
12.1 Four shifts in leadership study 212
12.2 Three time spans of leadership 215
Tables
2.1 Examples of HRM practices included in high- performance
HRM system definitions 14
3.1 Responses and response rates 32
3.2 HR managers’ assessment of the main characteristics of their
own HRM system (significance analysis) 36
3.3 Orientation/adaptation toward aspects from other country
models 38
3.4 Adoption from American HRM 39
3.5 Adoption from Japanese HRM 43
3.6 Subsidiary, home, and host country means 48
3.7 Country- of- origin, localization, and dominance effects 49
3.8 Extent of adaptation to local practices 52
4.1 Motives by Edstrom and Galbraith and agency theory 65
4.2 Descriptive analysis and correlations 71
