Roger Blanpain

Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management in Japanese Enterprises in Europe Roger Blanpain

In this book, the authors, leading academics from Japan and 6 EC-Member States, look particularly at the industrial relations and human resource management practices in Japanese subsidiaries in Western European countries. This was done not only on the basis of desk studies, but also and especially by way of interviewing local actors, local management and representatives of employees. In order to be as comprehensive and representative as possible they wanted the study: 1) to focus as much as possible on subsidiaries of Japanese multinational enterprises, which operate in most if not all of the countries under review: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom 2) to pay attention to the manufacturing as well as the service industries. They also envisaged examining whether and in what way Japanese management adapted to local practices in the host countries, and whether it introduced Japanese practices into the European subsidiaries and if so, which ones. This research is in fact the first attempt of a group of scholars to penetrate in the world of Japanese business in Europe.