THE DEVELOPMENT OF
IN-HOUSE TRAINING IN POSTWAR
--The Case of
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd--
Akira Ohara
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the
characteristics of the developmental process of in-house training in
First, in-house training, the training of foreman, in
postwar Matsushita were initiated by Kounosuke
Matsushita, the president of the company, who was eager to learn management
techniques from the
The “Personnel Principles” established in 1957. They
demonstrated basic concepts and directions of in-house training, and they
paralleled rapid growth of the company in size and its production. The department of in-house training, which eagerly promoted
enlargement of in-house training into all workshops and all levels in
organizations, was-set up in the head office in 1960.
At Atami Conference of 1964 all the management problems
of the economic slump and mature markets were severely discussed. However, all
activities relating to in-house training were stopped for a time, and “The
Principles on Long Term Human Development” were set up 1965 after an intensive
discussion. Thereafter based on the principles, the department of in-house training
in the head office proceeded with the training of middle management and with
the promotion of various kinds of job education, at the same time the head of
each workshop had responsibilities to train his workers in his own workplace.
U.S. CORPORATIONS AND
THE CONCEPT OF ROI IN THE 1830’s
Tadahiko Takaura
In 1975 Prof. H. Thomas Johnson claimed that materially
the concept of return on investment [ROI] was the product of the 20th century. In
1984 I criticised his view by showing the existence
of calculations of return on capital stock [ROCs] in
the 19th century. In response to my article, Prof. Takatera
insisted that Prof. Johnson claimed the non-existence of return on total assets
[ROA] calculations, while Prof. Takaura asserted the
existence of ROCs calculations. So he-concluded that
Prof. Johnson and Prof. Takaura’s positions are not
incompatible.
In this paper, I reconsidered this problem. I clarify
that in the 1830’s
--According to the Case
of J. Fukao and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.--
Hiroko Maeda
During the decade finishing in 1944, a drastic change of
production method occurred in aircraft industry in
Under a strong leadership of J. Fukao,
who was the key man of the engine department of the company, Mitsubishi strove
for building a new method. First, they tried to imitate the system of the
The result was awful. However, this cumulative and
self-generating experience formed the basis of production engineering of the
next generation.
THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP OF
ETHNIC MINORITY IN
Meisei Kawa
It is said that religious and ethnic minorities tend to
have an advantage over majority in making profit. However, there seems to be no
established theory to explain the reasons for this tendency. The purpose of
this article is to clarify this tendency through an analysis of ethnic
personality.
It is difficult for Japanese to recognize the existence
of the Korean first generation in
Because it is almost impossible for Japanese to different
fate Koreans from Japanese in outward appearance and they use Japanese name
when they are in business. For example, Takeo Shigemitsu the founder of Lotte
Co., Ltd. and Hisakichi Yamaguchi the founder of
Daiwa-seikan Co., Ltd., ets.
There was the ethnical discrimination in employment
against Koreans. There was no choice
except lowly tasks, they had to set up business on
their own. This circumstance focused not only their but also the next
generations’ capabilities on a certain industry.
The Korean first generation in
But the second and the third generation differ from the
first generation in personality, because they were assimilated into Japanese.
This resulted in decline in their ability as entrepreneurship.
This fact proves that the difference in ethnic
personality in one society is one of the most important factors in establishing
the entrepreneurship.
THE PROGRESS OF
SPECIALTY COMPONENTS MAKERS AFTER WORLD WAR II IN
Yuki Nakajima
This paper focuses on Electronic Components makers (of
mainly capacitors, resistors, transformers, speakers) from 1945 to 1960. Though
most of them were small and medium firms, they established a high volume of
production with many new components that large-scale firms were unable to make.
They also achieved a high growth in their scale of operations from less than to
workers to more than 300, sometimes 1000 workers within only a 15 year time
period. These firms will be referred to as Specialty Components Makers. Here I
study how they achieved such progress. In doing so, this period will be divided
into two eras of reconstruction (1945-52) and Growth (1953-60).
During the Reconstruction era, many electronic components
makers were founded. The founders didn’t require expensive capital equipment
because electronic components were labor intensive. They sold their products
through merchants mainly located in
During the growth era, the radio and television
industries began developing quickly. Main customers of component makers
switched to radio and television assembling makers. To catch up with increasing
demand, components makers had to expand their product line. Much of investment
was put into building factories and firm scale expanded. They also needed to
produce high quality components. However such a huge investment created a lack
of funds for research. So they were still strongly dependent on cooperative
investigations. As a result, many components makers became specialized
components makers, accumulated high technology within the firm, and achieved
high volume production by the end of 1950s.
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE
RAISE OF LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN THE GDR’S SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY DURING 1945-1955
Satoshi Ishii
The aim of this paper is to analyze the cause of the
sluggish growth in the labor productivity of the shipbuilding industry of the
German Democratic Republic--GDR--during the decade immediately following World
War II. Particular attention will be placed on the quality of laborers and its
management.
From 1945 to 1955 the shipyards of the GDR in the Baltic
seaport of Mecklenburgs employed some 35,000 new
laborers. Although some of these individuals had been skilled workers, most of
the others had been not. So it was necessary to train these laborers, but the
vocational training had many problems. To further complicate matters, a number
of the skilled workers there began leaving the industry in search of improved
working conditions and better wages. Consequently, the GDR’s shipbuilding
industry was crippled the shortage of the skilled workers.
In terms production management, most of the middle
management personnel lacked the ability to manage well. Foreman lacked the
authority to avoid having their leadership usurped by the organization of labor
interest groups-called “Brigade.” In addition to management’s inability to
lead, socialist competition was not sufficiently regulated. This caused poor
production. Furthermore, there was little rationality in setting up wage rate
and norm for piecework wages. These critical factors combined brought about
laxity of production.
It is true the post-war condition was a cause of the
difficulties of the shipbuilding industry after the war, but the defects in
production planning, delayed supplies and the poor quality of materials, and a
seller’s market of labor and goods were important and determining cause of the
negative ramifications in both labor and management.
NEW FACTORY SYSTEM AND
REDUCTION OF WORKING HOURS IN
Ryoichi Koda
Factory systems changed drastically around the turn of the
19th to 20th century in the Western countries. In the
The first section deals with the new factory system from
the viewpoints of architecture, machinery and administration focusing on the
great rolls of engineers. Through their activities traditional workshop
management was substituted by a kind of “scientific management”. The second
section describes the reduction tendency of working hours from the middle of
the 19th century to WWI and then points out the importance of new time
management through introducing the American time-recorder. The third section
analyzes the relations between the mass production system and the reduction of
working hours by using two survey reports of the German metal workers union in
1911 and 1912. Results of these surveys suggest that there were intimate
relations between the two.
Factory science was well developed in
THE FOUNDATION OF THE
PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT IN MITSUI BUSSAN KAISHA AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW
GRADUATES’ BLANKET RECRUITMENT
Yukio Wakabayashi
This paper dealt with a history about the occurrence and
the fixation of the blanket recruitment that was peculiar to big business in
The employment practices in Mitsui Bussan Kaisha have a
long history and it includes most kinds of the recruit methods that had
appeared in the big business in modern
With the rapid progress of the high and middle educational
organizations, the graduates substituted for it. In the First World War, Mitsui
Bussan Kaisha set up the personnel department and could meet the demand for all
kinds of talent only by employing these graduates. In this case, we must pay
attention to following two points. First, the radical change of demand structure
for i.e. remarkable decrease of the demand from the government offices was took
place in the labor market of the new graduate persons at
this time. Second, the supply structure also experienced
the change, for the high educational organizations started making reasonable
modifications to get the jobs for their own graduates. In it, the most
remarkable modification can be found in the academic year, which was changed
into the April to March Form from the September to July Form prevailing in
THE INSTITUTIONS OF
“ADVANCES ON DOCUMENTARY BILLS” DURING THE RISE OF SILK-REELING INDUSTRY
Masaki Nakabayashi
From the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s the machine
silk-reeling industry in Suwa district, Nagano
Prefecture, developed quickly and expanded the ex-port of silk to the United
States. This period may therefore be called the era of silk-reeling industry
rising. The growth of the industry and the’ capital accumulation were
accelerated by finance. Silk finance was directly executed by silk wholesale
merchants in the
Silk reelers
forward packages of silk-to-silk wholesale merchants and are discounted the
domestic documentary bills addressed to them by the local banks in Suwa district. The local banks charge silk wholesale
merchants for silk through the correspondent city banks in
The first-rate
wholesale merchants issue promissory notes on the security of silk and the city
banks in