“Front‐end reflections”: supervisory systems in the UK’s Japanese transplants and in “Japanized” companies

Abstract

The Japanization debate in the UK has moved considerably since first mooted in 1987. On the one hand academics ‐ advocates as well as sceptics ‐ have questioned its continued usefulness as an analytical framework. On the other, there has been greater sophistication, refinement and clarity on what is being studied, and particularly surrounding aspects of the transferability of the Japanese model. This paper reports on a study of production supervisors in Japanese transplants in the UK, and data from emulating or comparable non‐Japanese owned organizations. It also draws on comparative data from Japan and North America. The study focuses on two industries ‐ consumer electronics and autos ‐ and uses a variety of methodologies.