Career Management of Human Resources that Facilitate Cross-Sectoral Inter- Organizational Collaboration

A Comparative Study of Cases in Japan and Germany on Efforts to Promote the Agricultural Food Industry

抄録

This study investigates the agricultural food industry and how to make it more competitive by upgrading its industrial structure. To solve this, we investigated the skills and the career manage- ment of human resources whose role is to facilitate cross-sectoral inter-organizational collabora- tion and create high value-added businesses. Following the presentation of a conceptual model created based on a review of previous studies, this study aims to construct a theory based on the results of a comparative analysis of three cases in Japan and Germany. The results of this analysis indicate that human resources for facilitating cross-sectoral inter-organizational collaboration have several skills that are classified as human, technical, and conceptual skills. Two cases in Japan put great emphasis on career development through on-the-job training (OJT) and work experience, whereas in Germany, suitable personnel are recruited from the external labor market and are further developed by learning technical and human skills through an off-the-job-training (Off-JT) system. An analysis of the effect of networks with related businesses on human resource development showed that Germany has an evaluation system that does not exist in either case in Japan, and that this system is linked to the continuous career management of human resources. The initial conceptual model was corrected based on the analysis of results.