ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT “BUSINESS SCHOOL COURSEWORK FEEDBACK SHEET” “ “Student number” “Date 201510392 10/01/2017 “Module Title” Comparative HRM “Assignment Title” Collectivism versus Individualism, the selection models in Japan and United-Kingdom. “Module Code” 26440 “Your Word Count” 3546 “Strengths exhibited in the assignment:” “Click here to enter text.” “Areas of weakness in the assignment, and ways in which the work could be improved:” “Click here to enter text.” “Additional comments:” “Click here to enter text.” “First Assessor’s Initials” “Click here to “Date” enter text.” “Click here or from” “the dropdown to” “enter a date.” “Indicative” “Mark %” “Click here to enter” “percentage” Second Assessor’s Initials (by initialling here the second assessor is confirming they agree with the mark and is also confirming he/she has checked that the feedback references the module’s learning outcomes) “Click here to “Date” enter text.” “Click here or from” “the dropdown to” “enter a date.” “(Subject to Module Board Agreement)” “(Before any penalty applied)” Human Resource Management is the function within an organization that focuses on the recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in an organization. All of the processes and programs that are touched by people are part of the human resources in an organization (S. Heatfield, 2016). We can distinguish two types of human resource management the soft and the hard. We will focus on one practice of the soft part: the selection differences between Japan and the United-Kingdom.” Japan is one of the most powerful countries in the economic world order. We often consider Japanese management as mysterious and original because of its effectiveness and uniqueness across the world. Nevertheless, the country has been strongly hit by the financial crisis in 2008 but also by natural disasters in 2011. In this study we will focus on the particularities regarding the selection methods and criteria. Then we will analyse the Japanese model of recruitment and critically discuss how the financial crisis of 2008 impacted the Japanese human resource management. On the other hand, we will compare Japan to the United-Kingdom, one of the strongest countries in Europe. British human resources management really reflects the Anglo-Saxon model; we can clearly feel the occidental roots of their management. We will clearly focus on their selection methods and recruitment process as well. . Through time, Japanese corporations have had to review their human resources management because of historic and economics change in their political and economic landscape. We also have to notice the aging demography of Japan, which leads to a high number of, retired workers each year, and young employees quitting their jobs as well. This phenomenon is one of the explanations of the full employment status in Japan (average of 3% of unemployment rate). Yet, the financial crisis of 2008 and the natural disasters in 2011 as well, really impacted Japan and forced the corporations to modify their way to run companies but also to review their famous and particular selection process. We will start with the selection criteria and the different selection methods then we will focus about the recruitment practices in the XXIst century. In Japan the companies consider that the candidate’s potential is based on the merit of its education in a way to get the best talented employees. There is no universal way to select the candidates, each company as its own way of functioning. Yet, the most common practices remain the personal skills, the teamwork spirit and the interpersonal skills. The attitude and the personality are as important as the level of education, even if the university degree is undeniably necessary. The recruitment system starts in April, were the graduates have to choose the different vacancies available. At the early summer, the candidates have their first announcements (Singh, 2017). Then, the candidate is in a relation with the company and will have to realise an application following several interviews, written exams, medical checks... The final decision of the company is released in Fall (companies give the answer the earliest possible so that the most competitive candidates don’t go anywhere). After the acceptance, the candidate has to do a written promise to the company and will start his new job in April (The 1st of April) after the graduation. Students graduating from the leading universities are practically taken as a guarantee for the applicant’s overall acceptability (Gallagher and Marsh, 1998). Trust and personal relationships are two of the most important criteria according to the Japanese corporations. The Japanese employees have to know how to work with few explanations but on the other hand, with a lot of cooperation. The team working and the personal attitude is also an important factor in the selection criteria, the Companies and candidates believe in long-term employment and in lifetime careers (Singh, 2017). In most of the companies, there are no written contracts between the employee and the company, because their relation is focused on trust and loyalty. Job security and loyalty is there among the employees. According to Dillon, L.S. 1990 “workers in Japanese companies rotate among departments to learn overall operations. This increase loyalty to the organization”. There exists teamwork and fair treatment in the organization. Success lies in „we feel‟, „us‟. Japanese believe in creating a family like atmosphere and comfortable working in teams rather than performing individually. According to the Geert Hofstede’s (1980) research, japan is a country that value group more than the individual and tends to avoid uncertainty and seek comfort in known situations and groups. Japanese score very high on masculinity. They give importance to the performance of the team not to the performance of Individual. Leading companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hitachi in India is very successful due to their unique system of Japanese management practice (Singh, 2017). The roots of the Japanese recruitment practices come from the 70s and the 80s, at that time Japan has developed a particular and unique way to recruit and select the employees. Recruitment and selection in Japan is systemic and well organised and seems to be scheduled. This particular recruitment process is made over a year and is called “aotagai” which means buying corn before it is harvested because the students are hired before their graduation. Students who attended prestigious universities or Business Schools can pretend to core vacancies. The different features preferred by the companies as selection criteria are the personality, the motivation and the communications skills (Huo, Huang and Napier, 2002). Yet, everything depends on the field of activity, indeed in the social science area is an exception because the experience is more valuable than the personality skills. The other exception regards the natural science field, where the professors recommend the students to different companies or institutions (Huo, Huang and Napier, 2002). The “aotagai” process starts in April when the student accomplishes its 4th year of university. During the year, the student will have to attend several interviews and written tests. Like in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the interview is one of the most step in the recruiting and selection process. During the interview, the graduated learn more about the different missions, tasks, corporate’s culture or even about the different place location. After a positive interview an “advance agreement” is contracted between the recruiters and the candidates, this system is still occurring nowadays (Pudelko, 2004). In the 90s, the Japanese economy went into a long recession and this modified deeply the human resources process of recruitment and selection. In a way to reduce the costs and to face the recession, the Japanese corporations has to cut the labour costs, indeed the companies had to hire more part-time employees and reduce the number of full time workers and employees. Long ago, the students accessed to generalist jobs because of a lack of choice, indeed there were no diversity or variety of accessible jobs. These employees were constrained to take part to various departments in various places across the country each year, yet, some companies allowed the students to choose in which department and location they wanted to work. Today, the graduates have the choice, per example the corporation Matsushita Electronics bids 16 different types of vacancies, in some companies the applicants can even draw a list of their preferences for their first job. The aim of letting the choice to the applicants was to attract the most qualified students across Japan (Pudelko, 2004). Nowadays, more and more corporations allow the new recruits to work in the city of their choice, in the past it was only limited to some industries (i.e. female employees in retail stores). Today it is a common way of working and especially in the bank industries like Mizuho and Mitsubishi Tokyo. On the other hand, more and more companies (More than 60%) are recruiting University graduates who quitted their position after few years of work. These graduated are called “dainisotsugyosha” which actually means, “Second graduate”; it means that they have already worked within a minimum of 3 years (Pudelko, 2006). These second graduates have the particularity to ally and mix their personal skills and their experience as well. We name this phenomenon as an “Americanisation” of their selection process because of the new importance of the experience. Indeed, a survey emphasises that MNCs consider these second graduates are more valuable because of their fresh and recent experience because these graduates have already done a step in the world work (Pudelko, 2004). This concept is a real change in the Japanese society and in the human resource management, before; getting a job in a large company after graduation was seen as a once in a lifetime chance. Due to the financial crisis, the corporations decided to review their way to recruit and select the candidates. Indeed since 2011, some corporations as Toyota and Takeda Pharmaceutical have also started to consider candidates up to three years after they have graduated. This allows the Japanese students to develop themselves during these 3 years and have different experiences in foreign countries and learn different skills before coming back to Japan. Moreover, globalization has also its effects on Japan, because more and more Japanese corporations start to hire international applicants to diversify their companies and this became a necessity (Singh, 2017). Japanese human resources recruiters do not differentiate the Japanese from the foreign applicants; their selection criterion and the recruiting methods remain the same. The Japanese corporations want the expatriates to learn and return to their home country in management positions with Japanese skills and a Japanese style of management (Waxin, Barmeyer and Brewster, 2008) . Japan has a unique model of human resources management, yet the Korean one takes its inspiration of the Japanese model even if the competitiveness in Korea is higher. Japan has its own recruitment process, and also own selection criteria, which really differ from the Anglo-Saxon model. Yet, a new trend occurs in Japan and especially in the human resources management. This phenomenon can be named as “The Americanisation of human resources management” indeed; the Japanese companies tend to copy the Anglo-Saxon model of recruitment and selection. Moreover, Japan has shown its envy to globalize its companies, with recruiting foreign students after their graduation. This concept has also the aim to extend the Japanese culture in International management and export the Japanese methods and theories. Now let’s turn to the British model of selection in the human resources context. “The main elements in the design and validation of personnel selection procedures have been in place for many years. The role of job analysis, contemporary models of work performance and criteria are reviewed critically. After identifying some important issues and reviewing research work on attracting applicants, including applicant perceptions of personnel selection processes, the research on major personnel selection methods is reviewed. Recent work on cognitive ability has confirmed the good criterion-related validity, but problems of adverse impact remain. Work on personality is progressing beyond studies designed simply to explore the criterion-related validity of personality. Interview and assessment centre research is reviewed, and recent studies indicating the key constructs measured by both are discussed. In both cases, one of the key constructs measured seems to be generally cognitive ability. Bio data validity and the processes used to develop bio data instruments are also critically reviewed. The article concludes with a critical evaluation of the processes for obtaining validity evidence (primarily from meta-analyses) and the limitations of the current state of the art. Speculative future prospects are bravely reviewed.” “One of the last stages in recruitment and selection is selection itself, which includes the choice of methods by which an employer reduces a short-listed group following the recruitment stage, leading to an employment decision. For most people, this is the only visible stage of the resourcing cycle because their experience of it is likely to be as a subject – or candidate – rather than involvement in planning the entire process. While recruitment can be perceived as a positive activity generating an optimum number of job seekers, selection is inherently negative in that it will probably involve rejection of applicants (Budhwar and Khatri, 2001). It would be prudent to argue that selection decisions should be based on a range of selection tools as some have poor predictive job ability. While it is almost inconceivable that employment would be offered or accepted without a face-to-face encounter, many organisations still rely almost exclusively on the outcome of interviews to make selection decisions (Budhwar and Khatri, 2001). To have any value, interviews should be conducted or supervised by trained individuals, be structured to follow a previously agreed set of questions mirroring the person specification or job profile, and allow candidates the opportunity to ask questions (Edenborough, 2005). The interview is more than a selection device. It is a mechanism that is capable of communicating information about the job and the organisation to the candidate, with the aim of giving a realistic job preview, providing information about the process, and thus can minimise the risk of job offers being rejected. Organisations seeking high performance in their selection processes should therefore give considerable attention to maximising the uses of the interview and, ideally, combine this method with other psychometric measures where appropriate (Edenborough, 2005) . “The next stage in the recruitment cycle is the attraction of candidates, as one important objective of a recruitment method is to produce an appropriate number of suitable candidates within reasonable cost constraints. (Lazaridous 2006) note that ‘There is no ideal number of applications and no intrinsic value in attracting a high volume of candidates.’ Neither is there a single best way to recruit applicants. Rather the chosen recruitment medium needs to ensure that there are a sufficient number of suitably qualified candidates from which to make a selection without being overwhelmed with large numbers of unsuitable applications (Waxin, Barmeyer and Brewster, 2008). Using a recruitment agency to find a small number of suitable candidates, particularly for senior or specialised posts, may prove a significantly more cost-effective and efficient method than a major advertising campaign, which generates a large response from unsuitable candidates (Broughton and Foley, 2017). The Choice of method will also be influenced by the availability of candidates – that is, is there likely to be a shortage or surplus of candidates? For example, in the period around 2005 there was a large pool of Polish migrant workers wanting to work in Britain, but within four or five years this had significantly diminished as employers found some applicants were being more selective, while other potential Polish workers had returned home after the financial and economic crisis took hold in the UK after 2008 (T. Robertson and Smith, 2001).” “According to the research of Hofstede’s (1980), the U.K ranked highest of the individualistic score beaten only be some of the countries like Australia and the U.S.A. People are highly individualistic and private people. U.K is also grouped with those countries that accepted high degree of uncertainty and risk. They possess high degree of masculinity but less than that of Japan and also low power distance (T. Robertson and Smith, 2001) . U.K firms make use of walk-in applicants, advertising, and public employment agencies. Firm uses newspaper, magazines to advertise the vacancies. Also they make use of technology i.e. Internet to advertise the vacancies (Broughton and Foley, 2017). Most utilized selection sources are interviews, application blank and reference check. Large organizations take students from renowned universities and business schools. Companies conduct written tests also to find out the candidates aptitude, personality and problem solving skill. Past experience of the candidate is also of supreme importance. Both internal and external recruitment is done in the organizations like through the reference of the existing employee and through newspaper advertisement. Interviews are taken and conducted by the members of HR department and three to four rounds of interview takes place (T. Robertson and Smith, 2001). Qualification should match with the job requirement and in some cases work experience also matters. They pay very little attention to the actual subject studied. People in U.K give lot of importance to the value of work and also time. Time is money and it should not be wasted rather they treat it as an economic resource. There is a feeling sometimes that their life is rushed. It is considered very impolite to arrive late at office as well as for business meetings. There exists fairness and transparency in business transactions and also there is lot of independence as well as freedom to express also exists (T. Robertson and Smith, 2001). They like that everything is being told to them in terms of the performance, which is expected out of them and also the deadline of the work. They are very particular about the work and are very positive about it. They are giving importance to the older generation as the work force is getting older and the percentage of employees under the age of thirty-five is decreasing. One of the reasons for this is the improved health and medical care, which is helping them to live longer. Concept of lifetime employment does not exist in the organization.” “After studying the recruitment and selection practices in the selected countries, Japan and U.K it has been concluded that the countries are different from each other on the basis of cultural dimensions. The value system and beliefs differs significantly. Culture of the respective countries shapes the path in which procedures and practices are undertaken. The Japanese culture has a lot of influences in the human resources management. Indeed, their rigor, their teamwork skills, and serieusity is a common point between the Japanese society and the Japanese companies. On the other hand, we can easily deduct that UK firms follow the occidental and Anglo-Saxon model, where individualism seems to be more important the collectivism, the British way of recruitment and selection is close to the United-States way of managing human resources. There are number of differences between the Asian and European work forces. While the workers in the Europe prefer to work independently, on the other hand Asian workers seeks a sense of belongingness and feel more proud in their organization than in their individual job. Moreover, Japanese companies are rather focused on internal recruitment based on merit and personal skills; indeed, junior managers have high chances to become senior managers in the same company. On the other hand, British companies follow the Anglo-Saxon model and prefer to recruit externally. In other terms, a British firm will prefer to hire an external senior manager rather than upgrade an actual junior manager. Companies in Asia are now giving emphasis on recruitment, selection and retention practices so to make the employees happy and contended. The result of this study suggested that cultural values in a specific culture and recruitment practices are not static. It can be changed over time. The success of Japanese organization lies in their unique style of managing.” Referencing: Broughton, A. and Foley, B. (2017). The use of social media in the recruitment process. acas. 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Human Resource Management Journal, 16(2), pp.123-153. Reese, G. and French, R. (2010). Leading, Managing and Developing People. 3rd ed. CIPD. Singh, A. (2017). Cross Cultural differences in Recruitment & Selection practices with reference to India, Japan and U.K. Institute of Innovation in Technology and Management. [online] Available at: http://iitmjp.ac.in/JOURNAL/Cross_Cultural_differences_in_Recruitment___ Selection_practices_with_reference_to_India__Japan_and_U.K.pdf [Accessed 6 Jan. 2017]. T. Robertson, I. and Smith, M. (2001). Personnel Selection. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Waxin, M., Barmeyer, C. and Brewster, C. (2008). Gestion des ressources humaines internationales. 1st ed. Rueil-Malmaison: Éd. Liaisons.
