International Human Resource Management in Japanese Firms Essay Example for Free

International Human Resource Management in Japanese Firms Essay During the 1980s, commentators and researchers of almost every stripe witnessed what was invariably seen as a miracle: the juggernaut Japanese economy. It seemed a perfect system, with all cylinders-from the political coordination of the economy through industrial structure and interfirm interactions to human resources management practices and cooperative relationships on the shop floorclicking at high, flawless speed. In the mindset of the time, one question quickly followed: How could the American economic system, with all its contrasting warts and imperfections, hope to compete against this titan? Now, little more than a decade later, that sighting of a miracle has been downgraded rather substantially. In the words of a Fortune analyst (Powell, 2002), Being compared to Japan these days, economically speaking, is about as low as it gets (p. 91). The reasons for this decline are varied but include many of the same factors that supposedly accounted for its ascendance. Now, Keeley pulls back the curtain even more, exposing a system seemingly trapped in neutral. Keeley, a Westerner fluent in Japanese and professor in international management at Sangyo University in Japan, is well positioned to reveal the inner workings of the Japanese corporation, particularly its international human resources management (IHRM) practices, without the infatuation that marked many of the earlier reports. The inescapable conclusion from this volume: These practices create almost insurmountable competitive disadvantages. In addition, Keeley provides a deep look at the tenets of Japanese culture, the management and personnel practices tied to that culture, and the resulting business practices and organizational dynamics that characterize the modern Japanese corporation. In the process, he also offers up a compelling argument for diversity, not simply as an affirmative action accounting of staffing, but rather as a mindset of inclusion and involvement. For all those who read about the Japanese miracle of the 1980s, this book is an important corrective and should go on your reading list. It can also be recommended to anyone interested in the cross-cultural application or transfer of management or human resources practices, or organizational behavior in a global environment. Keeley launches his analysis with the observation that the greatest challenge Japanese companies face in expanding their foreign direct investment is how to integrate host country national (HCN) managers into the management process of their oversees subsidiaries as well as that of the parent companies themselves (p. ). The reasons why such integration is important are clear and simple: competitive advantage in a global economy requires that a multinational company (MNC) be able to tap the talents of local HCN managers; to do this, the MNC must be able attract, retain, and develop talented HCN managers. Absent this, the MNC will forfeit local expertise as well as violate host country antidiscrimination laws, something for which Japanese MNCs have a certain notoriety. More specifically, Keeley argues, the IHRM practices of Japanese MNCs are their Achilles heel, and this is due to the fact that the Japanese system of management is so culture dependent that it is difficult to incorporate nonJapanese into the system, making internationalization of their organizations problematic. (p. 9) This theme is examined more fully in Chapter 2, looking at the issues of cross-culture management and the importance of national culture on organizational dynamics. For example, using Hofstedes (1991) national cultures variables, it is the work group-not the individual-that is the foundation of the Japanese organization. Japanese management techniques, such as lifetime employment, consensual decision making, and rewarding group members equally, are built upon the group. In Chapter 3, Keeley examines the three HRM practices that characterize the larger, global Japanese MNC: lifetime employment, a senioritybased wage system, and company-dominated unions. He also discusses the unique leadership role played by the personnel department. It is in this context that he reviews other distinctive features, like the long work hours of Japanese managers and the after-hours workgroup socializing that follows. Contending that this practice is essential to Japanese management, it is not common elsewhere, and Japanese managers find it difficult to manage without it. In this chapter, Keeley also does a good job reviewing the key traits of Japanese culture that so affect their HRM practices, including: strong ethnocentrism; an emphasis on the responsibilities of a (corporate) household (like paternalistic familism); harmony and loyalty in the context of vertically defined relationships; and the rigid separation of public face from private, personal feelings. Keeley also discusses how educational institutions are used as recruiting sources for corporate staffing. Although aspects of his review of Japanese culture, history, and institutions may be familiar to some, the coverage of Japanese IHRM practices in Chapter 4 is probably not. According to Keeley, Japanese firms were slow to move into investing in foreign sites and facilities, and it was not until the 1990s that Japan became a major foreign investor. Even so, only 8% of its manufacturing capacity was moved off shore, relatively small compared to the 17% for U. S. and 20% for German firms. On a continuum of IHRM practices, ranging from ethnocentric operations at one end to fully open and integrated global operations at the other, most Japanese firms would be classified as ethnocentric. Further, management positions in Japanese subsidiaries are invariably filled by native Japanese. Over the last 30 years or so, Japanese firms have consistently employed three to four times as many parent country nationals (PCNs) in manager jobs as have U. S. or European subsidiaries. Ethnocentric IHRM practices are also found in such other conditions as lack of local decision-making autonomy, demands for selecting and training PCN managers, substantial communication problems between PCN and HCN managers in Japanese subsidiaries, and even the pariah treatment that repatriating PCN managers experience when returned to Japan. In Chapter 5, Keeley continues his close and critical look at the interactions between culture and organizational behavior by examining communication and decision-making practices. This analysis is supported by the findings of his survey of Japanese subsidiaries in Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia in 1994 and 1996, as presented in Chapter 6. In the final chapter, Keeley draws out the implications of his analysis. HCN managers play a limited role in the management of local subsidiaries, with most decisions made at headquarters in Japan and communicated directly to the Japanese managers on site without local HCN manager involvement. These conditions make working for a Japanese subsidiary unattractive to many ambitious HCN managers, putting Japanese firms at a relative competitive disadvantage in the labor market. More generally, Japanese management practices are difficult to transfer to foreign operations and indeed may actually impede efficient and effective local operations. Both Japanese culture and their business operations create formidable barriers to effective integration. In short, Japanese MNCs seem tuck in an ethnocentric mode of operation that virtually dooms them to long-term mediocrity in the global economy. Keeley concludes that in order for them to succeed in a global economy, Japanese companies must transcend their ethnocentric attitudes and IHRM policies and practices and look at diversity, not as a defeat, but as a strength. Although some firms have recently begun to acknowledge this, most show little interest. International Human Resource Management offers an abundance of information and insight into the global HR operations of Japanese firms. In addition, it also provides an intriguing, more general assessment of the challenges involved in managing cross-culturally and the importance of effective diversity management. The book is well written. The frequent use of acronyms, like HCN and PCN, eventually becomes easy to follow. Though I found Chapter 6 on the authors own research somewhat anticlimatic, all in all this is a fascinating tour book and is recommended without hesitation.

The Rosetta Stone Essay -- Hieroglyphs Egyptian Writing System Essays

The Rosetta Stone In 1799, when Napoleon’s army was dismantling a wall in Rashid, Egypt, they discovered the Rosetta Stone. Little did they know that this 11-inch thick piece of rock would be one of the greatest discoveries in history! It contained Egyptian scripture, with Greek also on the stone. This was used to decode the once lost Egyptian writing system. Before the 1800’s, attempts at trying to uncover the secrets held by the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics found on walls inside numerous tombs were useless. The pictures were falsely believed to be symbolic, representing some sort of object or idea. Something soon changed all of this misconception. 1799 was the year of a great breakthrough in Egyptology. French troops, under Napoleon’s command, were destroying a wall when they found a black, basalt stone. The stone was inscribed with three different forms of writing: Egyptian hieroglyphics, a shorthand form of hieroglyphs, and Greek written in 196 BC. The Rosetta Stone then be came instrumental in decrypting the long forgotten Egyptian writing system. The stone was first discovered near Rosetta, Egypt, by one of Napoleon's soldiers, named variously as Bouchard, during his expedition to Egypt in August of 1799. In no time, this discovery was mentioned to all the top scholars who were immensely interested since there was no way to decode the hieroglyphs. In 1802, Johan David Akerblad was the first to break ground in identifying the first demotic symbols. He identified a few of the proper names in the demotic text, after comparing them with the same names found in the Greek text. (Ogg 78) Next on the scene was Thomas Young, an English physicist, who took an interest to the deciphering the Rosetta Stone as well. After much researching, Young was able to prove that the proper names in the hieroglyphics section of the stone did in fact have phonetic value, and were not made up of symbols. He then introduced the idea of the proper names being written with ovals around them, known as cartouches. In reality, the hieroglyphs only contained six. Of the phonetic values that he assigned to hieroglyphs, five were correct (p, t, i, n, and f). (Budge 54) In 1814, he revealed the way in which the hieroglyphic signs were to be read by studying the direction in which the birds and other animals were all facing. He also was able to correctly identify some single-consonant... ...y death due to a stroke. The whereabouts of the Rosetta Stone today is the British Museum, in London. Without this old, black, basalt rock, we may never have deciphered the ancient egyptian scriptures. Still, there are many other writing systems of numerous lost civilizations that have yet to be deciphered. Until then, we can only make well thought inferences, and educated guesses until the next Rosetta Stone is unearthed. Works Cited 1. Budge, Sir E.A. Wallis. Egyptian Language- Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphs. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1991. 2. Ogg, Oscar. The 26 Letters. New York: Thomas C. Crowell Company, 1962. 3. Claiborne, Robert. The Birth of Writing. New York: Time Inc., 1974. 4. Andrews, Carol. The British Museum Book of The Rosetta Stone. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1985. 5. Giblin, James Cross. The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone - Key to Ancient Egypt. New York: Harper & Row Publishers,1990. 6. Frimmer, Steven. The Stone That Spoke- and other clues to the decipherment of lost languages. Toronto, Canada: Longmans Canada Limited, 1969. 7. Jean, Georges. Writing- The Story of Alphabets and Scripts. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992.

Moral Simplification in Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Disney’s Portrayal of Women and Simplification of Morals For most people, the first image that comes to mind when the subject of Walt Disney’s animated movies comes up is the studio’s popular princesses. Ever since Snow White made her debut in 1937, Disney has cornered the market on princesses. One primary topic that critics have discussed in Disney’s films is the way princesses are portrayed. The roles of the female characters are especially drawing the interest of academic critics.Jack Zipes, author of Breaking the Disney Spell, believes that the Disney princesses have regressed. On the other hand, Libe Zarranz, author of Diswomen Strike Back? The Evolution of Disney’s Femmes in the 1990s, and Rebecca Do Rozario, author of The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, The Function of the Disney Princess, believe that the Disney princess has progressed. Another aspect of Disney’s movies that catches the eyes of critics is the moral s implification in the films.They believe that the morals from the original fairy tales are being manipulated and simplified in the Disney films. A. Waller Hastings, author of Moral Simplification in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and Finn Mortensen, author of The Little Mermaid: Icon and Disneyfication, both agree that Disney’s simplification of morals is giving viewers the wrong depiction of life. Disney’s portrayal of women and simplification of morals are giving viewers the wrong impression of life and women. Many critics call the process of simplification in Disney movies, â€Å"Disneyfication. Disneyfication is especially shown in The Little Mermaid. In Disney’s version of The Little Mermaid, Disney retains elements of Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tale. A. Waller Hastings notes, â€Å"In the Disney adaptation, the elements of the fairy tale remain recognizable, but superimposed are typical elements of Disneyfication and a happy endi ng that contravenes the moral intention of the original tale† (85). The resistance towards Disneyfication is an agreement between academic writers.Zarranz also notes, â€Å"The dramatic transformation of literary fairy tales, nonetheless, has been problematic, since Disney’s animated fairy-tale adaptations have systematically undergone a process involving sanitization and Americanizaion, two distinctive features to compound the so-called ‘Disneyfication’ of folklore and popular culture† (55). Many critics believe that Disneyfication takes out the sting and variety of the real world. In the Disney world, everything is the same, everything is happy, and everything is full of everlasting hope.Zipes states that, â€Å"The great ‘magic’ of the Disney spell is that he animated the fairy tale only to transfix audiences and divert their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images he cast upon the screen† (2 3). The process known as Disneyfication seems to be giving viewers the wrong depiction of life. Original morals that are shown throughout the original fairy tales are left out when they become â€Å"Disneyfied. † The conclusion that Disney’s â€Å"watering down† of morals of the original fairy tales is an overwhelming agreement among academic writers.Most people applaud Walt Disney and his predecessors for their creations, however many critics have found a particular flaw of moral simplification in Disney films. Mortensen notes, â€Å"The message of the fairytale is conveyed in terms suitable for a modern public but is integrated into a product that cheats its intended public of small children†¦ † (449). Because the morals in the original fairytale’s are seemingly left out of Disney productions, critics view the Disney films as nothing more than simplistic reproductions that give viewers wrong impressions of life.Hastings writes, â€Å"While generally praising Walt Disney’s technical contributions to animated film, critics have been troubled by the studio’s treatment of classic children’s literature and fairy tales† (83). The producers at Disney are giving children an unreal sense of false hope. Disney films are simplified to an extreme that give viewers the wrong depiction of life. The simplistic portrayal of female characters is a specific by-product of Disneyfication. The roles of female characters in Disney movies have regressed compared to Walt Disney’s first films that featured female characters.In Disney’s earliest movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White takes on a maternal image. She instructs the dwarves in small, everyday routines such as manners and hygiene, and serves as a mother to the dwarves. The role of Snow White is very simple compared to the princesses of late, and much more realistic. In more recent Disney movies, female characters are shown as prin cesses. While the female characters, such as Snow White, used to be a bit submissive and worldly, over time some critics believe the female character has progressed. Zarranz notes,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ven though it is still a long time before we can speak about successful feminist representations in a commercial icon like Disney, recent films incorporate complex females that are worth taking into consideration† (63). Some female characters are even seen as courageous women admired for their brave deeds in their films. Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Belle from Beauty and The Beast are the start of the more modern Disney princess. Do Rozario writes, â€Å"The Disney kingdom still may seem a man’s world, but it is a man’s world dependent on a princess† (57).While Rozario and Zarranz believe the Disney princess has progressed, Zipes strongly suggests that the princess of late has regressed. Zipes writes, â€Å"The young women are helpless ornaments in need of pr otection, and when it comes to the action of the film, they are omitted† (37). Rozario and Zarranz believe that the female character has progressed because of the role that has been given to the characters. However, they seem to overlook the fact that the princess role is very unrealistic.They also seem to overlook the fact that in almost every princess movie, the female character is relying on a male character. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel gives up her entire life to be with a man. Belle, too, lets go of her former life to be with the Beast. So as Rozario and Zarranz may believe that the more recent female characters are much more strong and courageous than those of earlier Disney films, they seem to have overlooked the flaws in the Disney princess. While Walt Disney and his studios are usually praised, multiple researchers have found flaws in in their creations.The inability to portray women in a more realistic way, and the simplification of morals that Disney produces in th eir films, are giving viewers the wrong impression of life and women in the real world. While Disney probably won’t take the critic’s suggestions into consideration, the critics do propose some very interesting arguments concerning the image of female characters and the simplification of morals. Works Cited Do Rozario, Rebecca-Anne C. â€Å"The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, The Function Of The Disney Princess. † Women's Studies in Communication 27. 1 (2004): 34-59. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 012. Hastings, A. Waller. â€Å"Moral Simplification in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. † The Lion and the Unicorn 17. 1 (1993): 83-92. Print. Mortensen, Finn Hauberg. â€Å"The Little Mermaid: Icon And Disneyfication. † Scandinavian Studies 80. 4 (2008): 437-454. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. Zarranz, Libe Garcia. â€Å"Diswomen Strike Back? The Evolution of Disney’s Femmes in the 1990s. † 2 7. 2 (2007): 55-65. Print. Zipes, Jack. â€Å"Breaking the Disney Spell. † From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Ed. Elizabeth Bell, Linda Haas and Laura Sells. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 1995. 21-43.

Descriptive And Predictive Analytics Tools - 1694 Words

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In this chapter, we provide a comparative analysis of all the tools and studies mentioned in the last three chapters. The overall goal of all of these tools is to improve the quality of care by using the resources in EHR. However, different types of tools described in this study have achieved it in different ways (e.g., data mining or information visualization). In the next three section, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these three types of tools based on the activity framework, cognitive load distribution, and type of theShow MoreRelatedChapter 17 : A Theme Park1337 Words   |  6 PagesChapter 17 is essentially all about â€Å"Business Analytics†, and what it comprises of are, are six specific segments. This chapter opens up with a brief story about a theme park, named WaldoLands. The theme park uses the characters from the Waldowood stories as their mainstay theme as well as overall design. 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