生産性向上のための生産性構造分析 : グローバル化・市場化・IT化への対応
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概要
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In the 1970s and 1980s, the Japanese economy achieved an excellent level of economic performance. Japanese companies succeeded in improving productivity to a remarkable extent during this same period. However, since the collapse of the bubble economy in 1990, the performance of the Japanese economy and that of Japanese companies has suddenly deteriorated. The main purpose of the present paper is to investigate the main causes of the sudden deterioration of economic performance in the Japanese economy and Japanese companies. Since I have already commented on the macro-economic causes in other books and papers, in the present paper I will concentrate mainly on the factors that influence productivity performance at industrial and firm level. In the 1980s, when Japanese companies achieved an excellent level of performance, the co-operative nature of the labour-management relationship and the human-oriented management in Japanese companies were assumed to contain the secrets of Japan's high productivity increase. In the 1980s, I confirmed by econometric analyses that those companies that had introduced worker participation and co-operative practices showed significantly better results in terms of productivity improvement (Maruo, 1983)'. However, since the 1990s, the situation has changed. Japan has had to shift its economy from the socalled "Gososendan" (Convoy) model to an open, competitive model led by the private sector so as to make more efficient and effective use of its resources. Japan was required to introduce a marketized economy at global level as well as the so-called global standards so as to be able to compete on an equal footing with other countries in international markets. Unfortunately Japan failed to make this critical transformation. The Japan Productivity Center for Social and Economic Development (JPC) set up a Committee for Productivity Structure Analysis 2 in 2002 and JPC conducted an enquiry among Japanese listed companies. The Committee analyzed the answers by econometric methods such as regressions, casual analyses and analyses of covariance structure. The causal relationship between productivity improvement and its underlying variables was made clear. Those analyses suggest that those companies that adapted positively to the market economy and the American way of management developed better than those companies that had adhered to the Japanese pattern of management. The enquiry suggests as well that those companies that took positive steps to introduce IT facilities and staff achieved better productivity performances. However, this does not imply that the human-oriented Japanese model of management should be abandoned. It is possible to maintain the merits of the system such as stakeholder consciousness, information sharing, mutual trust and close communication among "company members", while introducing IT system and a rational way of market-oriented management. A well-mixed model of rational management and human-oriented management has the potential to serve as a new model for the Japanese company of the future.
- 尚美学園大学の論文
- 2003-03-31