Specialist Labour in Japan: Computer Skilled Staff and the Subcontracting System
| Author | Andrew Friedman |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1987.tb00724.x |
| Published date | 01 November 1987 |
| Date | 01 November 1987 |
Specialist Labour
in
Japan: Computer
Skilled Staff
and
the Subcontracting
System
Andrew Friedman
*
Lifetime employment, the seniority wage system and enterprise unionism
are considered to be the three ‘sacred tools’ of Japanese industrial
relations (Kobayashi, 1975; Inagami, 1984; Aoki, 1984). Together with
other policies they represent a system or a general strategy for conducting
industrial relations.’ The strategy
is
claimed to have created harmony in
Japanese industrial relations and
to
have contributed to high productivity
in the following way. The company provides lifetime employment,
steadily rising wages, considerable non-statutory benefits and an active
social life. The employees respond with high effort levels, low quit rates
and ‘flexibility’ or acquiescence with management’s assignment and
reassignment of work tasks, (particularly concerning the introduction of
new technology). In effect top managers offer their employees security
and benevolence in return for loyalty and obedience.
An important component of this strategy is an active policy of weakening
institutions which might compete against ‘the company’ for the loyalty of
employees. Perhaps the most actively opposed alternative institutions are
those based on occupations and skills or knowledge common to employ-
ees across different companies.2 The most obvious manifestation of this
policy has been the encouragement of enterprise unions to counter trade
unions. Professional associations which cross company lines are also
rather weak in Japan (Dore, 1973, p.47). However, the formation of
independent trade unions or professional associations represent half the
battle lost. Major Japanese companies discourage employees from
identifying with occupations or skills in the first place. A key feature
distinguishing these Japanese companies from comparable firms in the
West is the weakness of the link between employees and particular tasks
or functions. Nevertheless, specialist tasks
are
performed within these
companies. In this paper the tensions created by carrying out specialist
tasks in companies where overall policies discourage the identification of
employees with particular tasks will be explored.
*Lecturer in Economics, University
of
Bristol. The author
would
like
to
thank
Professor
K.
Ikegami
and
Professor
M.
Ikeda
of
Chuo University, and the British Economic and Social
Research Council
for
their support.
354
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
Evidence to support the following arguments will be presented below.
First, overall company policies toward labour formally apply to computer
specialists, including policies that specifically encourage generalists.
Second, the tensions thereby created for the firm lead managers to limit the
numbers of permanent staff in computer departments by using subcon-
tractors and especially by retaining large numbers
of
employees from
subcontractors to work on site.
Third, this does not completely ‘solve’ the problem of the need for
computer-skilled tasks to be carried out in companies which encourage
generalists. The weak position of computer specialists within major firms is
not alleviated by good employment opportunities in the computer manufac-
turing
or
computer services sector.
The computer services industry has been growing quickly but this growth
has occurred within a system
of
subcontracting which prevents independent
firms from flourishing. The peculiar nature
of
the subcontracting system in
Japan places the majority of employees in the computer services industry in
an even worse position than computer specialists in large user firms.
Finally, it will be argued that this combination
of
widespread generalist
labour strategies within firms and the lack
of
a strong independent computer
services industry has contributed to poor quality of software specialists and
underdevelopment
of
software in Japan.
I
THE MAIN DATA
Much of the information on computer specialists presented below is drawn
from two surveys. The Bristol University survey involved face-to-face
interviews with forty-one data processing managers (DPM’s) in Japan. It
was carried out over a two year period,
1983-1985.
The survey was part of an
international research programme involving similar surveys in Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Japan, the
UK
and the USA. In all
378
interviews were
carried out. In each country the sample was chosen on a random basis after
first stratifying by industry and by size
of
data processing department.
Sampling data processing departments meant that the collection
of
firms
sampled was biased towards larger sizes. Only seven of the forty-one firms
sampled employed
300
or less and none employed less than fifty-five.
The second survey was carried out by a small Japanese trade union, the
Computer Technicians Labour Union, in
1982.
This was a mailed survey.
The analysis, based on
249
returns was published in
1983
(Den-san-rou).
The surveys will be referred to as the Bristol University and the Den-san-rou
surveys. Both samples were small, and the Den-san-rou survey was clearly a
biased sample
of
computer specialists. Respondents were more likely to be
dissatisfied with their employment position than the average computer
specialist. However, the existence
of
this union and complementary findings
from the Bristol survey, from official statistics and from other published
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