Management Practices in Cell Production Environments

At the end of the previous chapter, I provided tentative propositions on the relations between management practices and performance based on my studies of Japanese electronics manufacturers. However, I needed to improve my research. More specifically, I needed to make a thorough theoretical and empirical examination of what management practices Japanese manufacturers utilized in a cell production environment and whether the management practices they used mattered. I also needed to expand the number of companies participating in my case studies. This chapter’s primary purpose is to generalize and theorize the associations between management practices and manufacturing performance inductively through case study research. I focus on management practices in the area of human resources, that is, HRM practices.