Overcoming the Ethnocentric Firm? - Foreign Fresh University Graduate Employment in Japan as a New International Human Resource Development Method

This article analyses a new and, by international comparison, distinct recruitment trend – the systematic hiring of foreign fresh university graduates (FFGs) into Japanese multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) operations in Japan. Our explorative research, which is based on interviews with HR managers and FFGs, offers three major findings related to international HR development methods. Firstly, the inpatriate literature has identified the roles of foreign (subsidiary) staff as knowledge conduits and boundary-spanners between headquarters and subsidiaries. While such objectives do not drive Japan’s FFG hiring trend, we find similar challenges in terms of the absorptive capacities of headquarters. Secondly, following a Varieties-of-Capitalism perspective, we argue that FFG hiring is an institutional answer to the particularities of Japan’s employment system. Aiming at internationalizing headquarters from within, it contributes to resolving the internationalization conundrum of Japanese MNEs, but rather than overcoming the existing ethnocentric HR model it accommodates this orientation. Thirdly, we advance the general HR literature by proposing a new framework that addresses the viability of international personnel development methods in dependence of the workforce diversity and distinctiveness of employment practices in headquarters. We locate FFG hiring, inpatriation and self-initiated assignments within this framework

Brokers and the Organization of Recruitment of ‘Global Talent’ by Japanese Firms—A Migration Perspective

Japan’s major companies, aiming to diversify their human resources, have in recent years begun to systematically recruit non-Japanese graduates from universities in Japan, but increasingly also from overseas, for permanent positions in Japan. This article locates this development within the study of migration. Utilizing data from an interview study with brokers, HR departments and young foreign employees, it follows recent calls to look at the meso-level of migration. Looking at brokers in qualified labor migration and positioning them equally in a triangular relationship between employers and migrants, this article contributes to the growing discourse on brokers and migration that has so far focused on low-skilled, often temporary migration from a broker-migrant perspective. Based on the Japanese case, our research makes two contributions to the migration literature. Firstly, we show how following the call to investigate the changing roles of brokers along the stages of initiation, take-off, maturity and decline of a migration trend, does indeed contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of a migration system. Secondly, we demonstrate that brokers play a particularly important role in qualified labor migration and propose that the level of broker engagement depends on the distinctiveness of employment systems

Design, development and validation of a model of problem solving for Egyptian Science classes

Educators and policymakers envision the future of education in Egypt as enabling learners to acquire scientific inquiry and problem-solving skills. In this article, we describe the validation of a model for problem solving and the design of instruments for evaluating new teaching methods in Egyptian science classes. The instruments were based on an established model for problem solving and were designed to assess seventh grade students’ problem solving, experimental strategy knowledge, achievement and motivation towards science. The test for assessing students’ knowledge has been developed based on the topic, density and buoyancy which will be taught in seventh grade in a later intervention study. The instruments were partly self-developed and partly adapted from newly performed studies on strategy knowledge and problem solving in Germany. All instruments were translated into Arabic; the translation process and quality control are described. In order to determine the quality of the instruments, 44 students in Egypt completed the questionnaires and tests. The study’s aim to develop and validate the instruments did require an ad hoc and typical sample which was drawn from an accessible population. Accordingly, the characteristics of the sample are described. Data were analysed according to the classical test theory, but to underpin the results, the instruments were additionally analysed using the even stronger Rasch model. The findings demonstrated the reliability of the items and aspects of validity. In addition, this study showed how test items can be successfully developed and adapted in an international study and applied in a different language

Two Asian malls: Urban shopping centre development in Singapore and Japan

10.1080/13602380802399445Asia Pacific Business Review151123-13

Labour market and labour market policies for the ageing society

10.1163/ej.9789004154773.i-1199The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook about Japan947-96

Working for Japanese corporations in China: A qualitative study

10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200250Asian Business and Management7133-5

Survival during a crisis: Alliances by Singapore firms

10.1111/j.1467-8551.2006.00490.xBritish Journal of Management183209-22