White-Collar Workers'Job Capabilities and Public Qualifications: Development and Evaluation of Job Capabilities in the Business Career System

Abstract

Until now in Japanese companies, required knowledge and capabilities for white collars’ jobs are only managed and utilized in an organization, and they are a little intended for evaluation out of the organizations. The knowledge and capabilities required for corporate job execution were partly theorized and systematized as learning or qualification.

This paper aims to clarify roles, significances, and problems of the public qualifications in development and evaluation of white-collar workers’ job capabilities through the research of the companies utilizing The Business Career System (BC). The qualifications are divided in national, public, private ones and BC is one of the public qualifications. Capabilities recognized by qualifications are limited, however, seemingly related to job capabilities.

New deployment of personnel management practices, such as performance-based system requires clear job knowledge and capabilities. Although BC was founded as self-training support system at the beginning, it is also utilized for promotion and evaluation at some companies after several years.

From the theory model for public qualifications based on Schein's HRPD model (1978), two hypotheses, 1. Acquisition of public qualifications is linked with development of white-collar workers' job capabilities, 2 Acquisition of public qualifications is linked with promotion of white-collar workers, are set and considered by the research.

In information system companies, many qualifications are requirements for engineers’ promotion, while there are little qualifications for staff workers. Application of BC is accelerated as the qualification for staff workers. From the follow research to big business, BC is not applied because of (1) huge size of organization and variation of business, (2) existence of the current company systems. Moreover, the corporate culture adhering to the original system of a company serves as a reason.

Based upon the hearing, the hypothesis 1 can be affirmed, while 2 cannot be affirmed due to limited facts found in the research. Company’s policies may decide whether public qualifications mainly link with development or promotion.

Construction for public qualifications for white-collar workers may be just started; it seems to be a theme that BC plays its role gradually. Although there are some problems, public-oriented preparation such as BC can be practical one at the first stage.

Through the limited research, we found that public qualifications can be not only a personal target for development but also an evaluation system for job capabilities. Not just BC, but many qualifications for white-collar workers in various companies would be investigated in the near future. It would lead the study of public qualifications more clear and significant.