The Recent Transformation of Participatory Employment Practices in Japan

Takao Kato

No 7965, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Using both quantitative data from national surveys and qualitative data from our own field research, this paper provides evidence on changes in participatory employment practices in Japan during the economic slowdown in the 1990s. Overall, consistent with the complementarity of such practices and the long-term nature of their effects, evidence points to the enduring nature of such practices (except for small to medium size firms with no union where we find evidence for management to try to weaken the role of employee participation). There are, however, a few early signs of trouble even for large, unionized firms, which might eventually result in the breakdown of the system if left untreated. First, while the number of full time union officials has been falling substantially as a result of continued downsizing of the firm's labor force, the amount of time and effort that union officials need to put into participatory employment practices have not been falling. This often results in an uncompensated increase in workload for union officials. If this trend continues, union officials who have been playing a key role in Japanese participatory management will become less effective and less committed to the interest of the rank and files. Second, top management sometimes finds its participatory management system detrimental to timely and efficient management, and hence tries to streamline the system. Overloaded union officials may offer less resistance to this kind of management initiative. Third, the current system tends to produce a gap in the quantity and quality of information acquired from management between top union officials and their general membership. It is conceivable that such a gap may eventually result in the breakdown of the system.

JEL-codes: J33 J53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-10
Note: LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published as Kato, Takao and Motohiro Morishima. "The Productivity Effects Of Participatory Employment Practices: Evidence From New Japanese Panel Data," Industrial Relations, 2002, v41(4,Oct), 487-520.
Published as The Recent Transformation of Participatory Employment Practices in Japan , Takao Kato. in Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States , Ogura, Tachibanaki, and Wise. 2003

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w7965.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: The Recent Transformation of Participatory Employment Practices in Japan (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7965

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w7965

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().