As Japanese automotive and electronics firms have expanded their operations into the United States more attention has been focused on Japanese management and manufacturing. In Hybrid Factory a team of Japanese and American scholars explores the potential for the effective transfer of Japanese management and production systems that have been credited with giving Japanese firms their competitive superiority to a much different national culture. The book looks in particular at which management factors, that provide strength to Japanese production systems, can survive the transfer to the United States or whether the radically different social and cultural environment makes such a transfer impossible. Contributors: Tetsuo Abo, University of Tokyo Hiroshi Itagaki, Saitama University Duane Kujawa, University of Miami Kunio Kamiyama, Josai University Hiroshi Kumon, Hosei University Tetsuji Kawamura, Teikyo University Mira Wilkins, Florida International University

The authors explore the degree to which Chinese multinationals have a distinctive 'Chinese' approach to human resource management, in the same way as large Japanese companies are widely regarded as having a special Japanese approach. Based on extensive original research in the subsidiaries of Chinese multinationals outside China, the book examines a wide range of issues related to this key question including the evolution of human resource management in Chinese companies, the internationalization of Chinese business, recruitment and selection, rewards and compensation, performance appraisal, strategic integration, and employee relations. Shen and Edwards give a detailed account of the international human resource management of Chinese multinational enterprises; a topic of increasing significance in understanding global economic affairs.

This study focuses on the management/labor interface within the context of the foreign direct investor in the United States, eespecially the Japanese. Utilizing case studies and interviews, the author examines both the effects of Japanese multinationals on U.S. workers' interests, and the effects of the U.S. work environment on Japanese multinationals. Three basic questions permeated the research: How do labor and management considerations come together as key strategic and operating decisions are made and implemented by Japanese multinationals in the United States? How do Japanese experiences compare to the experiences of other foreign-owned and domestic firms? What do these experiences portend regarding U.S. labor's interests in jobs, income, unionization, etc., Japanese firms' interests in being able to compete successfully in the U.S. market, and the U.S. national interest in promoting employment, expanding incomes, competitive markets, and so forth? Findings in both regards are compared to similar effects at other foreign, non-Japanese multinationals and at U.S.-owned firms in similar industries.