Koya Azumi

Evaluating Quality Circles: The American Application

In what represents a reversal in the flow of knowledge between the two countries, managers in U.S. organizations have begun to study and imitate the practices of their Japanese counterparts. The qualify circles programs that exist in many Japanese organizations are being widely adopted in U.S. organizations. However, the high expectations and lack of planned evaluation for the quality circle programs in many U.S. organizations suggests that quality circles are already in the adoption-disappointment-discontinuation cycle that has been characteristic of many other managerial fads. The authors present several reasons why quality circles can lead to increases in the morale, motivation, productivity, and work quality of workers and suggest that the conventional wisdom, which sees them as either a form of job enrichment or a human relations technique, is ill-focused. The types of organizational settings in which quality circles are most likely to be effective are discussed and suggestions are made regarding the proper evaluation of quality circle programs.

R&D management strategies: America versus Japan

This paper outlines some differences between the American and Japanese approaches to R&D management and suggests future trends. Data from a comparative study of U.S. and Japanese factories is used to evaluate supposed differences. Japanese factories were found to invest comparatively more in employee training, include more group processes, such as quality circle, and receive more suggestions per employee than American factories. Innovation is also evaluated with available evidence suggesting that the rates are higher in the Japanese than American plants included in the samples. However, there seems to be a slight convergence in R&D management strategies in the two nations; American industry appears to be placing greater emphasis on quality enhancement and cost reduction in manufacturing, coupled with a revitalized attempt toward more participative management styles. Japanese industry seems to increasingly emphasize new product development coupled with an exploration of Western approaches to the management of R&D staff as individual professionals.

Suggestion rates and sociotechnical systems in Japanese versus American factories: beyond quality circles

Available information for two samples of factory organizations on the US and Japan are compared. Japanese factories are found to differ systematically from those in America in terms of several characteristics. These include marketing outputs, input of materials, machine automation, methods of production, human resource development, motivating incentives, and willingness to work. Moreover, available data suggest that the Japanese plants are outperforming those in the American sample. It is proposed that one reason is the higher rate of suggestions by employees in Japan. Causes and consequences of suggestion rates in the two nations are studied. >

Strategies for innovation and productivity in Japan and America

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe the types of organizational settings in the West that have been especially conducive for innovation and productivity. Then the same predictive factors are tested for a sample of 44 Japanese factories in order to investigate the extent to which similar relationships are found in both nations. The results suggest that R&D and the innovation function is handled somewhat differently in Japan, but that the consequences of the scale of operations for innovation and productivity are basically similar. In general, large scale operations are more productive, but less innovative in both nations. However, emphasis on specialized R&D seems to be more characteristic of U.S. industry. Many small firms in Japan achieve innovative performances with relatively little expenditure on R&D per se. However, to what extent the Japanese formula which has worked in the past will continue to work in the high technology era of the 1980s remains an open question.

Technology and Participation in Japanese Factories: The Consequences for Morale and Productivity.

Why are Japanese factories so productive? This article explores the reasons by comparing 50 plants studied in 1972, when the basic patterns of Japanese management were first securely in place. The principal finding of a 1972 survey was largely reconfirmed in a 1983 restudy: The productivity level of plants is correlated not only with technical-economic factors, but also with human relations factors. Both technical-economic and human factors explain equal amounts of variance in productivity. This finding is important because the historical pattern of industrialization in the West has often sacrificed human relations for efficiency. That productivity and employee morale is highest in mass-production plants contradicts Western experience and offers hope that technological advance need not result in alienation of employees. By fully utilizing their human resources, Japanese factories have succeeded in mass producing goods of low cost and high quality. One method commonly used was quality circles. Surprisingly, the more workers attributed influence to managers, instead of vice versa, the more productive the factory. Thus participation in Japanese factories seems to occur in a more modern hierarchical framework than advocated in the Western model of worker democracy.

Inventive payoff from R&D in Japanese industry: convergence with the West

An attempt is made to determine if investment in R&D and the hiring of college-educated employees result in a higher rate of inventions. The relationship between the input of R&D and inventive output is studied in two samples of Japanese factories, 34 in 1982 and 44 in 1970. These results are compared with findings in a parallel American study. The correlations between R&D and inventive output are similar in Japan and America in the 1980s, despite some differences in the management of innovation in the two nations. Moreover, the most Westernized subsample of Japanese firms in the 1970s had correlations between R&D and invention similar to those observed in the American study. Thus, it is concluded that some degree of convergence may be taking place in R&D management strategies in the two nations. >

Invention rates and R&D in Japanese manufacturing organizations

Abstract Industrial outputs from Japanese manufacturers now compete with Western products in terms of innovative new attributes as well as high quality and low cost. To understand why, organizational and managerial correlates of invention rates, as indicated by patent applications per employee, are analyzed in 44 Japanese factories in a 1983 survey. These correlates are more similar in several respects to those observed in a matched sample of U.S. factories than results from an earlier survey in 1970 of Japanese manufacturers. While this trend suggests that Japanese management practices may be converging with those of the West, significant differences remain. To the extent that such distinctive practices are correlated with inventive success, the assumption that the Western model represents the one best way to organize is challenged.