Product Description: All firms wrestle with restructuring, involving consolidation of mergers and acquisitions on the one hand, and fragmentation through outsourcing and spin-offs on the other. Through an in-depth investigation into the organizational strategies of Japanese corporate management and union leaders in Japan, Mari Sako explores the issue of "organizational boundaries" that arises from such restructuring...read more

Product Description: While the acquisition of skills has become a major public need, there is increasing dependence for their provision on individual firms. These firms can have no responsibility for general needs with government action being restricted to residual care for the unemployed rather than contributing at the leading edge of advanced skills policy...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Japan is regarded as a world leader in the field of education and training for improved economic performance. Yet success in Japan is often achieved by going against what is regarded as ideal practice elsewhere. This book offers the most comprehensive review available in English of the many facets of Japanese vocational education and training. Covering the system from primary education through to in job-training offered by companies, this book provides a detailed study of current practice giving equal emphasis to formal training in explicitly vocational courses, and informal training in factories, shops and offices.The authors analyse the difference between substantive 'person-changing' training and mere 'ability-labelling.' They raise important questions, such as: To what extent does the need to package skills to provide convenient qualifications distort the actual training given? How efficient is it to rely on professional trainers to certify the acquisition of skills, rather than run separate testing systems? The authors reveal how, in Japanese companies, employees are strongly motivated by pride in the successful execution of their jobs, and that much company training is carried out by colleagues.

Product Description: Japanese Management and Labour in Transition explores the changing face of Japanese industrial relations. Part one of the work outlines recent trends in Japanese labour markets, labour law and corporate strategy, and explores the responses of both management and labour to pressure posed by these trends...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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