British Factory, Japanese Factory and Mexican Factory: An International Comparison of Front‐Line Management and Supervision
通过一家日本电子企业在日本、墨西哥和英国三家工厂的案例比较，分析日本式监督体系在不同国家的转移效果，发现墨西哥比英国更成功，并解释其原因。
This paper presents a case study of a Japanese‐owned electronics firm, presenting a comparative analysis of the company's supervisory systems in three of its plants located in different countries – Japan, Mexico and Britain. Comparative analysis is enabled through use of the concept of a supervisory system of control, which allows us to match the relative positions of managers, supervisors and workers across the three sites. The case study data enables us systematically to examine questions of the transferability of a Japanese supervisory system – a central component of Japanese manufacturing – outside of Japan. The results suggest that ‘Japanese’ supervisory systems have been established with more success in Mexico than in Britain, and the main factors that explain this are varying local labour market conditions, limits to managerial control on the shopfloor, the relationship between the product market and the organization of production, and local and expatriate management commitment to a Japanese system.