The HRM strategies in Japan and the UK.
In this particular study, there will be intensive research on some of the HRM strategies that are adopted in two different countries, that is Japan and the UK and the evaluation of some of the reasons of why the Japanese HRM strategies cannot be transferred to the UK. These two countries under study are made up of a good number of the multinational countries that are economically active globally. A large percentage of the operating companies have got the Human resource management department that has got the duties and responsibilities of putting some necessary records pertaining the companies’ documents and the reception of the visitors and the submitted official letters upon the visitation of the given company (McCann and Monteath 2020). The HRM strategies simply refer to the practices that involve consistent coordination that corresponds to the general business objectives of the given organization to enhance some improvements to the performance of the business operation. Therefore in this particular research, the main aim is to carry out the evaluation and find out the reasons why the Japanese HRM strategies that cannot be transferred to the UK (Cookie and Parry 2020). There will also be some comparison of the HRM strategies on the two countries under this discussion.
The HRM strategies adopted in Japan that cannot be transferred to the UK.
Japan is one of the countries that has experienced economic growth and development in the past decades of years. Japan is found in the Asian continent with so many multinational companies such as the Futaba corporation, Toyota, Japan Tobacco, Tiger corporation, Toshiba and other related global organizations (Lopez and Cabrera 2020). The various number of the multinational companies within the surrounding of Japan are massively involved in the production of the motor vehicles, the electronics like the mobile phones and the digital televisions, the general telecommunication services and other related output of products or commodities.
The united kingdom is also one of the developed western countries that are found in the continent of Europe. There are several multinational companies in Britain such as the Total, the Royal dutch shell, the standard charter, the BMW and other related multinational companies. These companies are well organized with proper management of the various departments, including the human resource management that significantly contribute to the economic growth and development of Japan and Britain in general.
Now that we have got proper understanding concerning the operation some of the multinational companies in Japan and UK; let us now narrow down our discussion on the actual human resource strategic approaches that have been adopted in Japan and cannot be transferred in human resource management in the UK. The general examples of the HRM strategic approaches include the rewards of the employees, the style of the open-book management, the safety and health workplace, fair system of performance evaluation, knowledge sharing, open discussions and other related techniques that highly determine the success of the given company (Chiang and Birtch 2017). Some of the HRM strategic approaches of the multinational companies in Japan that cannot be transferred to the UK are intensively discussed, as shown below:
- Japanese policies.
The policies, rules and regulations that govern the operations of the business investments in Japan are different than ones that have been implemented in the UK. The Japanese government has put on board some measures, especially in the multinational companies that provide new forms of competition to the global market. Some of the policies in Japan are like the national desideratum on the oversee production, and a variety of measures have been taken to defray some private sectors in terms of costs and investments. Suchlike policies in Japan are very different as compared UK, therefore making it hard to transfer some Japanese HRM strategies to the UK.
- The Japanese culture, traditions and Ideologies.
As per the research done on coursework 1 of this study, the significant percentage of the Japanese have got the ideologies that differ from the various doctrines in the UK. The Japanese have got the Ideology of believing in the “four pillars” scope as the priority in their business management system, which is very different from the perception of the British people. On the same note, the Japanese have got an Ideology of believing and making some full utilization of the local labour while in Britain there is an ideology of recruiting competent employees from even the other foreign countries.
The culture and traditions of the Japanese people are also different from the British people. The Japanese believe in the silence culture on which they believe silence speaks loudly about emotional self-control and wisdom; they also have a culture of paramount group solidarity where they are a group-oriented culture which perceived as strength over the spirit of individualism while conducting any given business (Duggan and Sherman 2020). Therefore the Japanese culture is different from the British people as they are used to operate independently without interfering with anybody’s personal affairs.
- The local employment system in Japan.
The Japanese government and other private sectors in the economy are used to encouraging and supporting the local employment, which is central to the research done in coursework 1. A large percentage of the employees in japan that include the management team, the staffs and the sub-ordinate staff are usually individuals with Japanese nationality. On the other hand, Most of the companies in the UK seem to absorb some of the competent employees from the other foreign countries that are officially employed in the UK. Therefore this aspect makes it difficult to transfer the HRM strategies to the UK.
- The seniority-based promotions and compensation.
One of the commonly used HRM strategical approaches in the multinational companies in Japan is rewarding of the employees based on their performance and seniority. The strategy of the rank-based reward is aimed at increasing the tendency of pay that enhances the employees to live a comfortable life in spite the increase of the living due to marital status, increased number of children and other related factors. These various forms of rewards on the profession can also boost the morale of the employees, therefore increasing the confidence to well and conveniently within the company. The reward system in most of the Japanese multinational companies is based on the seniority, and this also leads to the demoralization of the junior employees within the organization since it is perceived as being biased.
In the UK, most of the multinational companies in the UK have got the HRM management that gives some bonuses and credits to the employees who have reached the best performance on the Companies responsibilities. These incentives can provide some of the situations like promoting the number of sales and increasing the number of clients to the organization. Toyota is one of the motor vehicles companies with the highest number of transactions on the royal cars and even some of the heavy commercial vehicles. Therefore when the employees of such as companies perform well by increasing the number of sales on the company, they are usually given some incentives in form bonus. This strategy is suitable and fair as the reward is provided per the hard work of the assigned employee and therefore boosting the morale of the employees.
- Long-term employment in Japan
The Japanese companies have got a variety of employees that include the employees from different categories. There are those employees that are professionals in a given file of professionalism, those who are skilled with experience and those who are the subordinate staffs of the given organization. All these different classifications of the employment in the multinational companies are highly valued and retained in the HRM department. Once an individual has been employed in a given organization, he or she will be kept for a given number of years without being deployed neither sacked provided there is no any sort of misconduct experienced from the employee. This HRM strategy has highly contributed to the growth of most of the multinational companies in Japan. On the other side of the UK companies, the companies may end up recruiting and replacing the new professionals to cater to the unique needs of its clients.
- Flexible workforce.
Let us consider one of the multinational company in Japan, such as the Toyota Company. The Toyota company is one of the globally recognized companies that is known over the production of different variety of motor vehicles. The headquarter of the Toyota company is located in Japan, but it has got different branches and diverse countries and continents. Therefore some of the employees within the Toyota company are always shifted to a different location while working under the same company (Ellamla and Pasupathi 2015). The flexibility of employment can also be observed when an employee is given various forms of responsibility since the multinational companies have got the relatively broad distribution of working department where the staffs can be shifted to different departments to carry out different duties. This aspect is very different from the HRM strategies as they believe in professionalism and specialization, where an employee is just fixed with his or her professionalism and specialization. Therefore the Japanese HRM strategies cannot be transferred to the UK.
- Teamwork and family-oriented.
The HRM operation of most of the multinational companies in Japan is based on the culture and behaviours of society as a whole. This involves the formulation and implementation of the policies that correspond to the culture and the requirements to the employees who are the citizens of Japan. Some of the multinational companies were also initialized due to the cooperation of the family members where there is a combination of resources which contributes to the proper progress of the company. The family cooperation is beneficial as most of the multinational companies need a lot of capital to operate; therefore combining efforts from the families becomes an advantage.
The Japanese have got the culture of believing in teamwork which is considered more potent than the aspect of individualism. Considering another side of the coin, the strategy of the family-oriented system in HRM department can result to the poor performance of the company when some of the company members fail to coordinate and cooperate to the maximum level. Another disadvantage that can be incurred from the family cooperation orientation is when the disputes occur with some of the family members that are involved in the operation of the organization (Endo and Morris 2015). The family dispute can be an attribute to the decline of the given multinational company operation or sustainability. All these discussed elements from Japanese are very different from the HRM strategies in the UK since they believe in independence and self-confidence while venturing into the given business idea. This is evidenced in Britain as a large percentage of the Companies in the UK are owned and operated by a specific individual as compared to the organizations operated by families or groups. Hence the Japanese HRM approaches cannot be transferred to the UK.
CONCLUSION
Both Japan and the UK nations have got a lot of multinational companies, but the UK has the leading as far as the number of multinational companies is concerned. Japan has adopted several HRM strategic approaches such as the increasing the rate of flexibility among the employees, the long term employment, seniority-based rewards and the family-oriented cooperation which are different from the human resource management strategies in the UK since the two countries under study do not share ideologies, policies neither culture in contrast to the research done in coursework 1. On the other hand, Britain has also got some approaches of the HRM strategies that include the safety and the heath of the workplace, the knowledge sharing, the offering of bonuses as per the performance of the employee and system of fair evaluation within the multinational companies which are a bit different from the HRM strategies in Japan since they reward of the employees is based on seniority. The HRM strategic approaches from the two countries that is Japan, and Britain have got positive and negative impacts on the employees and even the clients. Still, the Japanese HRM strategies cannot be transferred to the UK due to different policies, different ideologies, various forms of employment with different culture and traditions.
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