Development of Competitive Hr in Japans Business Society in a Globalizing Economy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to overview the evolution of the traditional management systems of Japanese firms in the era of economic globalization and ICT innovation. The focus is put on HR management in that human resources are one of the key elements for the Japanese firms' success in global competition. Although Japan's economy remained devastated during a decade after the Second World War it developed robustly for more than three decades unto the end of the 1980s. It grew at approximately ten percent in the 1960s and developed steadily for another two decades. We can call these thirty years the successful three decades of the Japanese economy. In this period, Japanese firms formed the so-called traditional systems. They established inter-firm networks both in and across industries which are referred to as industrial keiretsu and financial keiretsu. The companies also formed an insider-type corporate governance system based on the core-banks' financing and control. Furthermore, they worked up the Japanese style management system which consists of three pillars: life-time employment, seniority-based wage and promotion system and in-house union system. These traditional systems carried out complementary functions that generated an international competitive edge over these successful three decades.