A comparison of American and Japanese Work Practices: Skill Formation, Communications, and Conflict

1
A comparison of American and Japanese Work
Practices Skill Formation, Communications, and
Conflict Resolution

• Shibata (1999)
• Industrial Relations

2
U.S./Japan Comparisons

• 3 unionized U.S. manuf. firms compared to 3
  unionized Japanese firms
• Data collected from on-site visits and interviews
• Author also worked for 12 years in unionized
  Japanese firm

3
Skill Formation

• Japan
• Mechanical probs diagnosed and resolved by
  workers other than mechanics
• Around 10 of maintenance worker time spent on
  breakdown maintenance, 90 of time on
  preventative maintenance.
• U.S.
• Mechanical probs dealt with only by maintenance
  workers.
• 70-100 of time spent on breakdown maintenance,
  0-30 on preventative maintenance.
• Lack of faith in workers abilities as well as
  job protection of maint. workers.

4
Skill Formation (continued)

• Supervisors aid in OJT for Japanese workers
• Trouble-shooting skills taught
• Job rotation systematic in Japanese firms
• Work transfers more the domain of supervisors in
  Japanese plants
• U.S. workplaces starting to adapt, but still no
  troubleshooting skills for U.S. unionized plants

5
Communication

• Japanese work teams not self-managed
• Japanese supervisors (former shop floor workers)
  exercise middle-up-down decision-making
• Protects workers from whims of upper management
• Increases supervisor-worker unity
• Supes not good at this may see workers appeal
  directly to section managers
• American work organization more varied (varied
  levels of worker autonomy)
• Supervisors not unionized (unlike Japanese)
• Self-managed teams quite distinct from Japanese
  semi-autonomous teams

6
Conflict Resolution

• Japanese workers seldom use formal grievance
  system (see Table 5)
• Informal complaint resolution
• Enterprise unions dont address individual worker
  complaints
• Workers desire that Enterprise unions become more
  involved in individual level grievances
• Grievances falling in U.S. plants
• 1st-line supes becoming more cooperative
• Informal grievance recognition being developed
  more in U.S. plants