SPECIFICS OF JAPANESE COMPANIES’ APPROACH TO THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE JIT LOGISTIC STRATEGY)
In this article the author explores the specifics of the approach used by the Japanese companies to human resources management under the logistic strategy «Just in Time» (JIT). The author examines Japanese requirements for a company’s staff that are essential for the successful implementation of the micrologistic system Kamban as the main communication tool under the logistic strategy «Just in Time». The aforementioned strategy is presented by the author as a management philosophy according to which trained and motivated staff are the best resource for the successful production which is primarily a team accomplishment. The author describes how the Japanese companies employing the «Just in Time» strategy create and organize a continuous process of development and efficiency improvement of «kaidzen» («improvement, development»), in which each member of a company’s staff has to be actively involved. Furthermore, the article touches upon the management philosophy that emerged as a result of the kaidzen system -»Total Quality Management» (TQM) and explains the main points of this philosophy under which a company’s all employees have to participate in the so-called Quality Control Societies. In the article the author points out that though participation in such Quality Control Societies is officially voluntary, in reality it is of vital importance for every member of a company's staff for several reasons which include the possibility of being included into the system of life employment, or on the contrary, into the system of making less productive employees redundant. Such a philosophy allows the author to call the logistic strategy «Just in Time» a high- stress management tool that sometimes induces suicidal events or «Karoshi» syndrome.