The Japanese Management and Production System in Australia Recruitment, Training and Bonus in Japanese Hybrid Factories

Japanese manufacturers have reconstituted the Japanese management and production system in Australia at different levels of success since the late 1960s (Hutchinson and Nicholas 1994, Nicholas and Purcell 2001, Purcell et al. 1999). Three of the essential elements of the Japanese system, recruitment, training, and bonus payments are discussed in this paper in order exhibit the structure of the labour contract within the Japanese hybrid factories. The Japanese system has been transferred to all the continents in the past three decades (Abo 2011, 2010). It has been studied in the UK (Kumon 2007, 2004a), the US (Abo 2007, Kawamura 2011), and Australia (Bayari 2011). A common characteristic of these studies is that they use 2001 data sets in their discussions. This paper uses the author’s data, also from a 2001 research, in its analysis of eighteen Japanese manufacturers in Australia. The common thread that runs through the Japanese system and work force interaction in these three Anglo-Saxon economies is the waves of labour market deregulation since the 1980s (Bayari 2011). This process has undermined the traditional union power base, and reduced the scope of the state institutions to arbitrate.