Shifting Boundaries of the Firm
Japanese Company - Japanese Labour
Published on 5. June 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-19-954703-6 (ISBN)
Description
All firms wrestle with restructuring, involving consolidation of mergers and acquisitions on the one hand, and fragmentation through outsourcing and spin-offs on the other. Through an in-depth investigation into the organizational strategies of Japanese corporate management and union leaders in Japan, Mari Sako explores the issue of 'organizational boundaries' that arises from such restructuring.
Examining the strategy and structure of both businesses and trade unions, the book draws upon empirical evidence drawn from interviews conducted at Toyota and Matsushita and their respective unions. It examines their respective strategies in coping with organizational boundaries against the backdrop of changing labour markets, and, in the process, challenges widely held notions about Japanese corporate and union structures.
Mari Sako goes on to explore the implications of these relationships in other advanced industrial countries for corporate restructuring, jobs, and labour market flexibility.
Examining the strategy and structure of both businesses and trade unions, the book draws upon empirical evidence drawn from interviews conducted at Toyota and Matsushita and their respective unions. It examines their respective strategies in coping with organizational boundaries against the backdrop of changing labour markets, and, in the process, challenges widely held notions about Japanese corporate and union structures.
Mari Sako goes on to explore the implications of these relationships in other advanced industrial countries for corporate restructuring, jobs, and labour market flexibility.
Reviews / Votes
Review from previous edition Blending economic and sociological analysis, Sako updates our understanding of what is happening today inside Japan's corporations and labor unions. This fascinating book is required reading for anyone interested in modern Japan or the varieties of capitalism that exist in our global world. * Sanford M. Jacoby, author, The Embedded Corporation, and Professor of Management, UCLA. * This is the book we have been waiting for to understand how the Japanese employment system has adjusted to its decade of trauma. By carefully documenting the symbiotic adjustments of firm and union boundaries, Mari Sako shows how Japanese institutions have decentralized and introduced greater variation in employment conditions while struggling to preserve basic principles of employment security, coordinated wage adjustments, and networked unions. Shifting Boundaries will quickly become the classic reference on industrial adjustment in Japan and set the standard for those who study this issue in other countries * Thomas A. Kochan, George M. Bunker Professor of Work and Employment Relations, MIT Sloan School of Management *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
numerous tables and figures
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
465 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-954703-6 (9780199547036)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2006
Oxford University Press
€180.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Mari Sako is Professor of International Business at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. An international expert on Japanese business, she has published widely on the issues of global coroporate strategy, comparative business systems, and human resource management. Her recent books include Are Skills the Answer? The Political Economy of Skill Creation in Advanced Industrial Countries (with Colin Crouch and Donald Finegold, OUP, 1999) and Japanese Labour and Management in Transition: Diversity, Flexibilty and Participation (edited with Hiroki Sato, Routledge, 1997).
Content
Introduction ; 1. Strategy, Structure, and Institutions of Management and Labour ; 2. From Factory to Enterprise, from Enterprise to Corporate Group ; 3. Strategy and Structure at Matsushita Group ; 4. Strategy and Structure at Toyota Group ; 5. Inter-Industry Differences: Criteria fro Union Boundary Decisions ; 6. Intra-Industry Differences I: Why Companies Differ ; 7. Intra-Industry Differencesx II: Why Unions Differ ; 8. Harmonization vs. Differentiation, Employment Security vs. Labour Flexibility ; Conclusions ; Appendix: List of Interviews