Best Practices in Human Capital Management Masakazu Sugiura/ Katsuyuki Kubo e-mail: sugiura@waseda.jp/ kkubo@waseda.jp (1) Course Outline This course is divided into two parts, i.e. Human Capital Management conducted by Masakazu Sugiura (the first half) and Organization and Human Resource Management Strategy of Japanese Firms by Katsuyuki Kubo (the second half). One of the major features of this course is to seek optimal mixture of practical and academic approaches. The first part is more practical and the second part is more academic. The purpose of the first part is assist participants to deepen their understanding of business strategy, organization and people management and the interaction of these elements in the world of uncertainty and complexity. It will also examine methods of motivating, directing the energies and unleashing the potential abilities of the human resources which, after all, form the basic unit of any business organization. These are the central themes of the fields of organizational behavior and human resources management. The fundamental concept of this course is Human Capital Management (HCM), and discussions are made from practical viewpoints. In addition to these themes, matters such as roles of HR Department, leadership, creativity, learning organization have been receiving great attention as key issues in business today and, accordingly, we shall address them comprehensively. The second half of this course is designed for participants to understand organization and human resource management strategy of Japanese firms, which is often considered to be the key factor of high productivity of manufacturing firms. Topics include long-term employment, 'seniority' based pay system, competence rank system, promotion, restructuring and corporate governance. (2) Method and Style (First Half) One of the objectives is that, upon its completion, participants should have been able to revise and define more boldly their own views on management of people and organizations from both practical and academic viewpoints. - 1 -
For this reason, for the first half, this course will place a strong emphasis on participants gaining a deep understanding of the issues and on being able to explain them in their own words. The course ultimately aims to assist participants in gaining skills that will be useful in practical terms in future leadership positions. There are four key concepts of the practical part of the course. Focus on Practical Approach Participants will learn knowledge and framework of best practices and how to apply these ideas in practical situations as well as its basic theories in HCM. The fist part of this course will seek to equip participants with tools that can be taken away (or back home) and used in a practical business environment. For example, mid-term report requires analyzing issues participants have encountered in organizations that they belong (or have belonged) to, and the instructor will make series of one-one-one meetings with each participant. Participation and Involvement - Instructor as Facilitator Classroom is defined as a place for encounters with knowledge of participants and the instructor. The most valuable teaching material in this course comes from participants themselves: the things that class participants have already thought or experienced themselves in various forms as human capital within organizations. The particular teaching style adopted in this class is participation and involvement where participants are expected not to be just a member of the audience but to be a player of the ensemble. To make this possible, various means of encouraging participation and two-way communication have been thought up, tried out and developed. Implementation of Organization Management in the Classroom In the first half, the classroom itself will be seen as a source of learning about the management of organization and human capital. One of the advantages of this theme is that we have the place for the experiment of organizational management right in front of us in which to put the ideas we have learned into practice on time. Learning on this course and putting it into practice in the classroom are inseparable elements of the course. Building Waseda=NTU Class Together This particular course is scheduled as the third course provided by Waseda because this - 2 -
course is to be also regarded as a bonding opportunity, which could be a practical implementation of Human Capital Management. By means of this participants will as a result get to know all about each other s backgrounds and ways of thinking, which is to be the foundation for the following sessions provided by Waseda and Business Study Mission (BSM). For this purpose, in the first part instructions about Business Study Mission will be made in the class. I will discuss how we could effectively manage Waseda part of the programme including BSM and BSM paper. This course belongs to its participants. (3) Course Contents First Half: Human Capital Management (Practical Part): Masakazu Sugiura After orientation, we will first focus on roles of Human Resources (HR) department. Then we will try to get a bird s eye view by utilizing the framework of five Ss which are Strategy, Structure, System, Staffing and Style. In other words, we will outline the macro framework of organization and human resources. We will focus on the more micro level elements of raising the productivity of human resources, focusing on Competency, Commitment, Congruency, and Creativity. Each of these will form the topic for one unit. Session 1 Orientation: Explanation of the features of the course and opportunity for participants to become acquainted Session 2 Roles of Human Resources Department 1 Session 3 Strategy: Business Strategy and Organizations Session 4 Structure: Various forms of Business Organization Session 5 System: Compensation, Benefits and other HR systems Session 6 Competencies: What makes a High-performer? Session 7 Commitment: Issues Surrounding Motivation Congruency: How to Coordinate Individual and Organizational Goals Session 8 Creativity: Case Study and DVD: Cleanup Corporation, Wrap-up Additional We will have additional individual meetings with you on the term papers you write. - 3 -
Second Half: Organization and Human Resource Management Strategy of Japanese Firms (Academic Part)/ Katsuyuki Kubo Session 9/10 Session 11/12 Session 13/14 Session 15 Session 16 Traditional internal structure of Japanese firms Long term employment and Firm specific skill Performance related pay Corporate Governance Financialization and employment (4) Assessment Class Participation Term Paper/ Essay Fist Half 70% 30% (Term Paper) Second Half 40% 60% (Essay) Note: For the first part, active contributions to the good running of the class will be recognized with additional credit. Because participation is so crucial, the instructor will also make the greatest efforts to learn each of your names, faces, backgrounds, experience and personalities as soon as possible. Class participation include attendance rate. Term paper for the first part will take the form of issue identification about an organization to which you belong or to which you have belonged in the past. (5) Readings First Half: Otaki, R, Umezu, H, Sugiura, M: Fundamentals of Human Capital Management for Asian Global Company, Marshall Cavendish, 2010. Second Half: Session 9/10: 19.Dec.2011 Traditional internal structure of Japanese firms Hirano, M., Y. Uchida and R. Suzuki (2009) "Knowledge Combination and Value-creation Mechanism under the Japanese- Style Career System" Japan Labor Review 6, 95-114 - 4 -
Nakashima T. (2009) "Career Competition within Organizations: Competition among Graduate White-Collar workers in Medium-Sized Manufacturing FIrms" Japan Labor Review, 6, 59-78 Kubo, K. (2008) "Japan: The Resilience of Employment Relationships and the Changing Conditions of Work", in Lee, Sangheon and F. Eyraud eds. Globalization, Flexibilization and Working Conditions in Asia and the Pacific, Chandos Publishing Session 11/12: 20.Dec.2011 Long term employment and Firm specific skill Kato, T., (2001) "The End of Lifetime Employment in Japan?: Evidence from National Surveys and Field Research " Journal of the Japanese and International Economies Volume 15, Issue 4, December 2001, Pages 489-514 Ono, H. (2010) "Lifetime employment in Japan: Concepts and measurements" Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 24, Issue 1,1-27 Session 13/14: 21.Dec.2010 Performance related pay Abe, M. (2007) "Why Companies in Japan Are Introducing Performance-based Treatment and Reward Systems - The Background, Merits and Demerits" Japan Labor Review, 14, 7-36 Session 15: 22.Dec.2010 Corporate Governance Economist, "Capitalism with Japanese characteristics." Economist; 10/8/2005, Vol. 377 Issue 8447, Special section p6-9 Economist "JapAnglo-Saxon capitalism", economist Nov 29th Kubo, K. and T. Saito (2008) "The Relationship between Financial Incentives For Company Presidents And Firm Performance In Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, 59, 401-418. Yoshimori, M., (1995), Whose Company is it? The Concept of the Corporation in Japan and the West, Long Range Planning, 28, 33-44 Session 16: 22.Dec.2010 Financialization and employment Ahmadjian, C. and G. Robbins (2005) A clash of capitalisms: Foreign shareholders and corporate restructuring in 1990s Japan American Sociological Review 70, 451-471. Kang, J., A. Shivdasani, (1997), Corporate Restructuring during Performance Declines in Japan, Journal of Financial Economics, 46, 29-65 - 5 -
About the Instructors (as of December 2011): Masakazu Sugiura Masakazu Sugiura is a Professor of Graduate School of Commerce, Waseda University. He joined Waseda in 2004 and has taught Human Capital Management in Tokyo and Singapore after 22 years of business experience (9 years in car industry with Nissan, 4 years in consulting with Bain/ Mercer and 8 years in finance with Citibank/ Schroders. He obtained BA from Kyoto University and MBA form Stanford University. He was the Project Director of Waseda=Nanyang Double MBA Programme, and has been Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Commerce since September 2010. Dr. Katsuyuki Kubo Dr Katsuyuki Kubo is a Professor of Graduate School of Commerce at Waseda University, Japan. Dr. Kubo holds a doctoral degree in Industrial Relations from London School of Economics, UK. He also holds BA and MA in Economics from Keio University, Japan. His articles have been published in journals including Corporate Governance: An International Review, Japanese Economic Review, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies and Japan and the World Economy. His research interests are in corporate governance, financial incentive of executives, and the role of human resource management in merger process. - 6 -