The purpose of this research is to investigate the diverse process of knowledge workers’ career developments and personal characteristics which are suitable for each career. In this paper, Japanese knowledge workers’ career developments are analyzed through the interview research. The key factors of the analysis are their career orientations, learning styles, and human networks. Especially, the difference between careers in organizations and careers out of organizations (job changes and opening a business) are investigated. As the results of the interview research for 20 Japanese software engineers, the findings are summarized as follows.

In software engineers’ careers in one organization, organized processes are able to be seen. Through these processes, engineers acquire knowledge about not only technology but also business, project management, and customers’ contexts, so on. At the same time, they become to have career orientations about both technical and managerial. Especially in the large company, engineers are able to find many opportunities to learn in the organization, and they interact very closely with superior colleagues, customers, and the other companies’ engineers who join the project team. Thus, they are able to learn very advanced and refined knowledge about both technology and contexts.

In contrast, in careers with job changes, such organized processes are not seen. Since there are many happenstances and accidents in their careers, engineers must adopt various environments very quickly. In addition, they must learn many things by themselves. Thus, successful engineers are always seeking for opportunities to learn outside of the organization. Therefore, they have spread human networks outside of organization, and many kinds of persons join the networks. Especially, entrepreneurs exchange information and knowledge about business or management frequently in the networks. It must be said there are some risks in their careers, and self-reliance and toughness are very important to survive in such careers.

Since the 1990s, there has been a remarkable rise in the rate of those who work as non-regular workers after leaving school. This paper is aimed to establish 1) whether those whose first jobs are as non-regular workers have reduced opportunities for training and growth compared to those whose first jobs are as regular workers, and, 2) if so, whether they are later granted the opportunity to work as regular workers. We conducted quantitative analysis based on micro data obtained from workers, focusing particularly on the first three years of the first job.

Experiences at work that lead to growth, such as finding one’s role model, feeling a sense of achievement and that the job suits them, etc., encourages the worker to develop a career outlook. Substantial training in the first three years of the first job has the effect of inducing such experiences, regardless of whether the worker is a regular or non-regular worker. Overall, however, those whose first jobs are as non-regular workers have less chances to receive off-the-job training, and therefore less chances for training as a whole, regardless of when they started working.

This does not mean that working as a non-regular worker on the first job has a conclusively negative effect on one’s career. Some non-regular workers are granted a considerable amount of training, both on and off the job, while some regular workers receive neither. Not only are non-regular workers working in environments providing sufficient training opportunities afforded experiences that lead to growth; some of them proceed to work as regular workers.

These observations suggest that even those working as non-regular workers on their first jobs can, by choosing a workplace providing sufficient training, mitigate potential restrictions on career development. Companies, in turn, should acknowledge the effect training in the first three years of a worker’s first job has on the development of his or her career, and seek to provide a working environment in which such training is encouraged.

Recently, there has been an idea of “the end of enterprise welfare” and it has been suggested that the financial resources of public welfare service departments offer welfare services to everyone irrespective of their social and economic conditions. “The end of enterprise welfare” issues have been discussed only from the aspect of welfare and social security. However, enterprise welfare has two aspects; one is welfare and social security, and the other is personnel and labor management. Even though enterprise welfare may end its roles in welfare and social security, the author is sure of enterprise welfare’s sustainability in the other.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the reasons why the enterprise welfare system will continue to survive in future. This paper describes the feasibility of a new type of enterprise welfare, i.e., workplace nursery owned by a large company located in the center of a large city. The literature indicates several important issues on this type of workplace nursery and presents useful data for subsequent investigations. Based on the results of the literature, this paper reports a case analysis of M company’s workplace nursery (hereinafter referred to as“ nursery room”) at Y district in Tokyo by focusing on the following:

1) The literature indicates that many users of this type of nursery live in the center of a large city and can use such a company-owned nursery.

2) The company-owned nursery is set up to function to the employee’s benefit (welfare) and the company’s policy (corporate merits).

3) Since workplace nursery is set up to meet enterprise welfare needs, its relation to employees’ retention attitude, the major purpose of enterprise welfare, would be clarified in view of the benefits to both employees and the company.

The following are the results obtained from M company’s case study:

(1) Many users of the nursery room live in the center of a large city.

(2) This paper reveals new merits for users: employees can use the nursery room at their convenience depending on their work schedule. The author discusses corporate efforts to reduce any inconvenience that users might have.

(3) The major aim that the company owns the nursery room is encouraging the retention of female workers. Also, female workers who are oriented to retention use the nursery room.

(4) Female workers have the retention attitude. For this reason, they are willing to take maternal leave and to be back on the job smoothly without any trouble. Their desire for retention can be realized by using the nursery room. Thus, the effect of workplace nursery in personnel and labor management will be put in the following cycle: retention attitude → use of the nursery room → realizing the desire for retention → appreciation and satisfaction to the nursery room → love and loyalty to the company → maintaining and encouraging retention attitude.

In conclusion, the large company-owned workplace nursery located at the center of a large city will be effective for enterprise welfare if: [1] users live in the center of a large city, and [2] users are oriented to retention. Considering [1] and [2], the supportive nursery daycare policy is suggested to target the female white-collar workers, which in turn indicates that enterprise welfare may fulfill the roles of personnel and labor management in future. Finally, future corporate welfare will be viewed with further policy considerations.