Suchergebnisse

The role of the scientist & of scientific research in industry in Japan & the implications of dependence on foreign technology for science-in-industry are explored. Data are from published sources & interviews with engineers in a shipbuilding & engineering firm. Japan's success in this industry is shown to be due little to research & development functions. At the national level, Japan's investment in research in industry is still much lower than in the US. At the level of the firm & the role of scientist, other social & cultural factors are shown also to impede research in industry. The Japanese U does not offer a role model of the research career with which scientists in industry can identify; the technical knowledge of the scientist/engineer is underutilized in industry. Behind all these factors is a more fundamental obstacle to research in industry: Japanese firms' dependence on foreign firms in the area of research & design. The net balance of forces is likely to make for an increasing role of research & development functions within Japanese firms in the future. 1 Table. AA.

It is widely believed that even large-scale, technologically modernized Japanese industrial firms have a "paternalistic-lifetime commitment" model of organizational structure, & either because of this, or in spite of this, they are highly successful in performance. This theory is used to support anticonvergence (with Western models) theories of modernization & organizational structure. The Japanese model is tested in 2 large, leading Japanese firms in the electrical appliance & shipbuilding industries. Each was studied intensively for 3 months on the basis of company personnel records, observation, interviews, & a questionnaire distributed to all personnel. An attempt was made to elicit the empirical consequences that should follow if the paternalism-lifetime commitment model is valid. Most of the implications of the model for various aspects of interfirm mobility & lifetime commitment to the firm are not borne out, either in the firms studied or in other Japanese data, at both the micro- & the macrolevels. The model exaggerates the uniqueness & traditionalism of the social organization (& personnel relations) of Japanese firms. 3 Tables. AA.