Mitsuru Wakabayashi

CI activities as a mode of organizational communication: Its effects on changes in emloyees' attitudes toward the organization and corporate image

Effects of CI (Corporate Identity) building activities upon employees attitudes toward their organization was examined two years after the implementation of what they called the Image Reflesh Program. First, a degree of employee exposure to the companys CI media was examined. Then, a series of analysis were conducted to see how companys efforts to penetrate CI related communication were made successful in creating changes among employees in terms of their attitudes to and perceptions on their organization. Results of the analysis indicated that the employees tended to show a higher exposure to the CI related information. But, the corporate image, evaluation of corporate performance, and support of companys communication efforts were not found to be increasing in the second-year experience with the Reflesh Program, compared to those in the first year.

On determinants of the quality of life after retirement among retired managers

A mail questionnaire survey was conducted to examine relationships between the nature and the kind of past work experiences and the present quality of life perceived by the retirees from three large private corporations located in the Tokyo and Osaka areas. Out of 457 retired managers surveyed, 596 (74.8%) provided usable data for the present study. The respondents average age was found to be 66.5, and average years after retirement 9.1.A set of measures was developed to evaluate the quality of life after retirement, namely a Life Satisfaction Scale, a Degree of Contribution Scale, and a Sense of Life Meaningfulness Scale. Results of analyses indicated that past experiences of internal control on the job, intrinsic job satisfaction and work centrality significantly related to a set of QL measures, after controlling for age, income, and housing conditions. These findings were discussed regarding the corporate personnel policies involving older workers, and necessary training and education programs in the company to cope with the expected aging society in Japan toward the year 2000.

On relationships between past experiences at work and the quality of life after retirement

A mail questionnaire survey was conducted to examine relationships between the nature and the kind of past work experiences and the present quality of life perceived by the retirees from one large private corporation located in the Tokyo area. Out of 457 retired managers listed, 302 (66.1%) provided usable data for the present study. The respondents average age was found to be 63.3, and average years after retirement 8.0.A set of measures was developed to evaluate the quality of life after retirement, namely a Life Satisfaction Scale, a Degree of Contribution Scale, and a Sense of Life Meaningfulness Scale. Results of analyses indicated that past experiences of internal control on the job, intrinsic job satisfaction and organizat ional commitment (in terms of Porters OCS) significantly related to a set of QL measures, after controlling for age, income, and housing conditions. These findings were discussed regarding the corporate personnel policies which are generally sugested for reconsideration at the starting stage of the aging society in Japan toward the years in 2000s.

Technology advancement and personnel management of engineers

Impact of the recent technology advancement on the work settings surrounding engineers, their educational and development programs, and the ways of managing engineering personnelwere examined based on the report provided by 11 firms in Aichi Prefecture. Openendedquestionnaire data were obtained from managers in R&D sections, technical and engineeringstaffs, and personnel managers.The results revealed that new types of engineers with the following features were requiredin each corporation studied: namely those with multiple professional skills and thosewith multiple personal dispositions, such as creativity, frontier spirit, and strong eagernesstoward information and knowledge. The following problems were also pointed out:(1) whatorganizational structure needs to be built to encourage innovative attempts and activitiesfor the success, (2) how should wage and job qualification systems be redesigned to get theorganization geared to high performance, and (3) how existing educational and developmentalprograms which tend to depend mostly upon OJT should be changed to increase adaptabilityof engineers in the era of rapid technological changes.

Acquiring role development skills for career progress: Managerial

About 1200 managers derived from 5 large industrial firms in the Nagoya area were asked to respond the questionnaire designed to explore what managers are doing to develop. their own roles and careers in the organization. The hypothesis that states role develop ment and career investment activities are most rigorous among managers whose vertical re lations with their superiors are high, was developed and tested on the basis of findings of the previous 13-year follow-up study on newcomers managerial career progress in the Japanese industrial organization. Results of the analyses for the present study provided evidence to support our hypothesis. Although, age, the educational level, a job type, years of service, and status were found to have significant influence on managers role develop ment and career investment activities, the effect of vertical exchange remained highly signi ficant after effects of all the above variables were partialed out by using the method of a hierachical regression analysis.

Working conditions and work consciousness of retired workers

This study explored (1) by what factors the employment of retired worker were prescribed, (2) what changes in working conditions they faced at the job after their retirement, (3) which types of retirement they regarded as desirable for themselves. Based-on these facts, how the rate of employment of retired workers, which has shown a tendency to decrease in recent years, would be raised was also examined. Questionnaire data were obtained from 754 male aged people who had retired from the firms in Aichi prefecture 5 years ago.Results indicated that those workers who had highly specialized skills and/or widely applied skills were more likely to be hired, and could engage in full-time work. It was pointed out from these findings that in order to increase the employment of retired people it was of importance (1) to employ flexible working hours systems, under which people wishing part-time work could be hired and (2) to develop career and training programs long before retirement to heighten their skill level and variety. Other results were discussed in terms of promoting elder workers employment.

Effects of the accidents in the domain of high technology on its evaluation

This study aimed at exploring the effects of two great accidents (the explosion of the space shuttle “Challenger” and the disaster of Chernobyl nuclear power plant) on the evaluation and the image of each technology. Before and after each accident, questionaires were administered to university students. In this article, we reported only about the evaluation and the image of three technologies: space development, nuclear power generation, and artificial intelligence. Though the comparison should be carefully interpreted because the sampling was not systematic, some points were suggested. First, the accident of Challenger affected the evaluation and the image of space development very strongly, and also artificial intelligence a little. However, the accident of Chernobyl had an effect only on nuclear power generation. Second, after the accident of Challenger, safety evaluation of space develpment shifted negatively, though general and social evaluation changed positively. On the other hand, after the accident of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, all evaluation of nuclear power generration changed negatively.