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I can't believe it
Mar. 15th, 2007 01:25 pmThis was on the news yesterday in Japanese, so I may have misunderstood. However, what I think they were saying was that one of the politicians has made an amazing discovery.
Specifically, this gentleman noticed that the general approach to promotion in Japan involves two basic processes. First of all, there is the main company heirarchy, with a narrowing pyramid of positions. Along this line, we have many, many young people. Then at about 30, some of them become bottom level managers. And then at . . . say 40, some of them get promoted to become the next level. And so on, until someone gets to be president at . . . maybe 70?
And along the way, there are those who don't move up, simply because there are not enough positions for them. The traditional answer to this in Japan is that they are placed with kogaisha, small related companies. So instead of getting frustrated because everyone else got promoted and they didn't, they are given a lateral promotion, or even promoted but to a related company. Many of them become presidents of these smaller companies.
Now what our politician noticed is that this takes a long time! And he thinks it is one of the root causes of Japanese companies being . . . not agile, not fast to change, perhaps the best word is stolid.
So being a smart fellow, he decided that Japan needs to change this system. Yep, just quit promoting from within and replace it with a new approach.
His recommended replacement is a winner. He thinks the government should organize a human resources bank that people will register with. Then when a company needs . . . say a vice president, or a president, or even a bottom line manager, instead of promoting someone within the company, they can go to the human resources bank and select from the highly qualified people there! Yep, grab the best person from anywhere in the country and slap them into that upper management position.
He thinks this will encourage agility and ability. I guess I can see why he might think this, and there is a certain value in job and career mobility that this might encourage, but . . . a government-run, centralized human resources bank? I suspect it would be the worst disaster ever, with enormous potential for people to set up "paper" personalities that look much better than their actual performance and achievement.
If I understood correctly, the other politicians have already snowed this under a heap of criticism, ranging from someone pointing out a previous proposal for a voluntary HR bank that has been floundering to various comments about the irony of asking the government to centralize HR just after they have been working on privatizing various government branches. It does seem like a retrograde proposal, at best.
The question of how to change Japanese industry to achieve more agile companies is a good one. The suggestion that the best way to achieve this is for the government to set up a bureaucracy and take over running some part of the economy is . . . not a good one.
I sincerely hope that I misunderstood the news, and that the people who were pointing out holes in this proposal heap sufficient ridicule on it to make it a non-issue.
Specifically, this gentleman noticed that the general approach to promotion in Japan involves two basic processes. First of all, there is the main company heirarchy, with a narrowing pyramid of positions. Along this line, we have many, many young people. Then at about 30, some of them become bottom level managers. And then at . . . say 40, some of them get promoted to become the next level. And so on, until someone gets to be president at . . . maybe 70?
And along the way, there are those who don't move up, simply because there are not enough positions for them. The traditional answer to this in Japan is that they are placed with kogaisha, small related companies. So instead of getting frustrated because everyone else got promoted and they didn't, they are given a lateral promotion, or even promoted but to a related company. Many of them become presidents of these smaller companies.
Now what our politician noticed is that this takes a long time! And he thinks it is one of the root causes of Japanese companies being . . . not agile, not fast to change, perhaps the best word is stolid.
So being a smart fellow, he decided that Japan needs to change this system. Yep, just quit promoting from within and replace it with a new approach.
His recommended replacement is a winner. He thinks the government should organize a human resources bank that people will register with. Then when a company needs . . . say a vice president, or a president, or even a bottom line manager, instead of promoting someone within the company, they can go to the human resources bank and select from the highly qualified people there! Yep, grab the best person from anywhere in the country and slap them into that upper management position.
He thinks this will encourage agility and ability. I guess I can see why he might think this, and there is a certain value in job and career mobility that this might encourage, but . . . a government-run, centralized human resources bank? I suspect it would be the worst disaster ever, with enormous potential for people to set up "paper" personalities that look much better than their actual performance and achievement.
If I understood correctly, the other politicians have already snowed this under a heap of criticism, ranging from someone pointing out a previous proposal for a voluntary HR bank that has been floundering to various comments about the irony of asking the government to centralize HR just after they have been working on privatizing various government branches. It does seem like a retrograde proposal, at best.
The question of how to change Japanese industry to achieve more agile companies is a good one. The suggestion that the best way to achieve this is for the government to set up a bureaucracy and take over running some part of the economy is . . . not a good one.
I sincerely hope that I misunderstood the news, and that the people who were pointing out holes in this proposal heap sufficient ridicule on it to make it a non-issue.
