In this paper, I discuss the popular performance appraisal methods, and how they have developed and changed over time. In a performance-based pay system, Performance Appraisal is important to link employee's performance and pay. I will show how performance appraisal became important as a communication tool, through the improvement. I choose two popular methods, MBO and Rating scale.

The MBO (management by objectives) method was first used in the 1950s. Douglas McGregor suggested that the MBO is an effective tool for performance appraisal. He criticized old methods, such as rating scales, based on the assumption that management is in the best position to evaluate employees' performance and behavior by "playing God" and by passing judgment from above. He proposed a more collaborative approach where management and employees jointly decide their goals, thus asking for a change in the job description. In the 1950s, the job description did not specify responsibilities and was only applied to clerical workers.

After the 1950s, the MBO became popular, especially for exempt employees (i.e. professional, technical, and executive), and the job description was defined for managers and professionals. A clear definition of their jobs was needed to show the basis of their salaries. The American Management Association supported this idea.

But even after specifying the job description, the MBO needed modification and adjustments to be more effective. In the collaborative mode, communication is essential, although sometimes only the boss decides the goal and the subordinates are not eager to participate in the process of performance appraisal. It is important that the top executives have to understand the philosophy of the MBO and not just the implementation. The MBO improved through these collaborative activities and discussions.

The rating scale method is a popular appraisal technique for non-exempt employees (i.e. clerical workers). It was born in the 1920s and remains popular. Like in MBO, the implementations of the rating scale have also changed. While the early application of performance appraisal emphasized administrative uses of appraisal (i.e. compensation and placement decisions), emphasis has shifted toward dual uses of appraisal for administrative and developmental-motivational purposes. I examine the actual implementation of performance appraisal methods in certain companies and how it has changed through time.

In the 1980s, many companies in the US changed the performance appraisal system. The reasons given were the lack of clear responsibility, insufficient feedback, de-motivation and so on. Motivation was an especially important factor. Some companies used a method to force a normal distribution of appraisals around the average or mean performance of all members of the working group. The forced distribution technique was used in about half of all US companies in the 1980's. Research on Fortune's hundred companies shows, however, that the shape of the distribution is not normal and that both the desired and the observed distributions are clearly top heavy. If the distribution was pre-determined, some people would get lower ratings as they would be evaluated relative to others. This may de-motivate, have psychological effects, and even prevent teamwork. These demerits cannot be overlooked. Employees' review of results also caused the abolition of forced normal distribution, the results of which were not based on employee job performance and were deemed unfair. After the 1960s, the equal employment opportunity became a big issue, so the job description was defined and updated for all employees. The EEO changed the appraisal procedures. The feedback of the result to employee became popular to avoid law suits.

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The number of software engineers has been steadily increasing in Japan. Simultaneously, the population of middle- and high-aged software engineers has been increasing, and this tendency is expected to continue. Meanwhile the size of the younger work force will decline, and the chances of employing younger software engineers naturally become lower in the future. Thus more active utilization of veteran, middle and high aged, software engineers would be necessary.

In the meantime it has long been pointed out that there exists a so-called "age-limit" for software engineers. "Age limit" means that the capability for software engineers to do the jobs would decline past a certain age. If that is the case it can be a high hurdle for the utilization of veteran software engineers.

This paper, taking into account the technological innovation in software development, discusses the problem of age limit that has to be dealt with in considering the possibility of the utilization of veteran software engineers. It will examine causes and the reality of the age limit through the interviews with software engineers and a personnel manager. The following three conclusions are reached through the research.

First, while the limits of physical capabilities and the level of technological skill were traditionally considered reasons for the age limit, few software workers left the firm for these reasons. Rather, the real reason is rather the gap between the levels of the performance and the wage increase. Especially, the gap is larger for the software engineers engaged in the jobs of lower stream of software development process (karyu koutei) and their age limit problem is more evident.

Second, with the technological innovation in software development, there the jobs of the upper stream of development process (jouryu koutei) in which fewer age limit problems are seen have increased, and the jobs in the lower stream of manufacturing process in which age limit problem is more striking have decreased. In other words, as a result of the structural changes taken place in the types of jobs, the reason for the age limit become weak and the age limit problem less arises.

Third, It does not necessarily means, however, that all software engineers engaged in the type of jobs belonging to the lower stream of the software development process can automatically be shifted to the jobs of the upper stream process. Furthermore it depends on the needs of customers which development process is more needed. In some cases jobs of the upper stream development process such as consulting and proposal making are given priority, in other cases software engineers are actually stationed at a client's office. When more weight is placed on the consulting and proposal making type of jobs, jobs of the upper stream development process are enough available. Meanwhile only jobs of lower stream development process are often available when the engineers are sent to a client company. In addition software engineers stationing at a client's office become gradually familiar with the works of the office, and, naturally, the client finds it beneficial to keep them and requests not to change accustomed software engineers for unaccustomed. As a result it creates difficulty for the rotation among software engineers and they are fixed in the same types of jobs (in majority cases, jobs of lower stream) in the same company.

In a larger company, there must exist the parts that are more likely to arise age limit problems and the ones that are less likely within a company: there must exit a gap within one company in terms of the level of the age limit problem, since it has a number of customers who vary in the types of works they put more weight.

Analysis of the seniority-based wage system that was applied in the past in Japan has made it possible to explain the distinctive Japanese wages curve, which has tilted more extensively than in any other country, in terms of the "security hypothesis" and the "experience hypothesis." However, the results of the survey conducted on this occasion into the current situation have brought to light a new hypothesis to the effect that we are approaching a state in which wages reflect productivity. The conventional hypothesis has it that wages are kept at a low level in relation to productivity when a worker is still young, and that when he reaches middle age and approaches retirement he receives higher wages that reflect his higher living costs and the intellectual skills he has acquired over the years. The shared awareness has been that productivity and wage accumulation coincide by the time a worker has reached retirement age.

Although productivity seen from the standpoint of contribution to the company as in this case is based on age classification, the precondition here is intellectual experience based on the gradual accumulation of years of company service. The data shows that the relationship between wages and productivity is such that wages exceed productivity soon after a person has joined a company, whereas productivity exceeds wages from the late twenties. It is only when a worker is in his fifties that wage levels exceed productivity, and this tendency is rapidly curtailed during the late fifties. Although productivity (i.e. contribution to the company) is examined with substitute indices (assessment according to the standards of personnel directors), an important fact that can be pointed out on this occasion is that there is no conspicuous deterioration in ability with advancing age in work categories such as General and Personnel Affairs, Accounting, and Marketing and Business. If in the future we see a closer relationship coming into being between productivity and wages (i.e. less of a separation between the two), one can well imagine that a qualitative transformation will occur in the significance of conventional age restrictions on employment, the retirement age of executives, and the system of fixed-age retirement itself.

In Japan, since the beginning of the 1990's, many labor law scholars have discussed the individual labor conflict resolution system. Consequently, outside enterprises, the individual conflict resolution system was established. And a great number of employees and employers put the individual conflict resolution system to practical use.

The establishment of a labor conflict resolution system outside the enterprise is one method of social policy. But the present writer think that measures based on personnel management are necessary first.

What is the meaning of resolving a conflict within the enterprise?

How do the parties and interested persons in conflict respond to conflict resolution systems? How do they want to resolve the conflict? How do they use measures of conflict resolution? This paper aims to answer these questions.

The findings of this paper are as follows: First, employers and employees generally want to settle their conflicts within their enterprises as much as possible. Second, in many enterprises, people prefer to settle a conflict according to the law of situation rather than according to law. Third, even if a conflict is resolved outside an enterprise, it is human relations that affect the efficacy of conflict resolution.

This paper looks at promotions of women to managerial positions and the factors preventing such promotions seen in the light of the relationship between selection for such positions and the skills needed to qualify, based on the results of interviews at five regional banks. In particular, the paper discusses the effectiveness of past policies, gaining an understanding of at what point in their careers most women are faced with the choice between work and family, by analyzing work systems and the career formation process.

The most significant discovery was the existence of three steadfast walls blocking the advancement of women in the workplace. Women working in financial services, an industry that is characterized by overtime and irregular working schedules, encounter the first wall. The problem is especially compounded when women attempt to expand into corporate financing, an important service in the industry.

The second wall exists when moving into public relations. This profession requires the worker essentially to adapt to the customer's circumstances, which entails further overtime and even more irregular schedules. As a result, the public relations experience vital for moving up the ladder is often found lacking in female employees.

The third wall lies in transfers between branches. Transfers necessitating moving house are a requirement for acquiring the business sense needed when promoted to a position of responsibility, often coming as a result of extensive experience in many geographical regions. Since this creates difficulties for women looking to raise children and maintain households, advancement by women to managerial positions equivalent to store manager and above is complicated.

In this way, skills formation in the banking industry has changed little from past methods, as has the fact that women feel the burden of trying to advance while raising children and maintaining households. These facts combine to paint a picture of a situation facing women which cannot be said to have undergone much reform. Women's opportunities for horizontal career expansion have not seen significant improvement, and as a result vertical promotion remains difficult. Methods for acquiring skills are closely interrelated to a company's competitiveness, and as such the outlook for easy change in this area looks bleak. Put differently, the problematic choice between work and family remains unresolved, regardless of different personnel policies which have been implemented.

Based on this analysis, this paper discusses the shape personnel systems should take in order to provide a greater tolerance for diverse work-life cycles as part of overall policy direction. Specifically, this would mean eliminating age conditions on training and promotion/advancement and allowing employees to select at what age they want to perform those jobs required for acquiring skills. If it were possible for employees to form their careers whenever they wished within their lifecycle, they would be able to arrange periods of concentration on work with periods of emphasis on family within long-term life plans. This would mean not just creating a situation where it would be possible for a worker to choose his own work style different from others within one period, but to consider the necessity of a situation where workers could switch back and forth between work and family, in other words where workers would have a variety of options in their work-life cycle throughout their lives.

This article analyzes the relationship between turnover/transfer and promotion of R&D professionals by scientific field and industry. Knowledge contributed to innovation is divided into two distinct types: functional knowledge and product-system knowledge. The former is knowledge about specialized disciplines, components, and functions. The latter is knowledge of how to integrate functional knowledge: knowledge about the linkages between components, coordination between functions, and consumer demand and competition in product markets. It is mainly acquired by working with the various functions, components, and disciplines that should be integrated to create a product-system. The managers in organizations where the outputs require a high level of product-system knowledge have a great responsibility for the coordination of functional areas and the linkages between components. Therefore, they have to be trained by rotating among the areas that need to be integrated. On the other hand, managers in organizations where a high level of functional knowledge is imperative should improve this expertise by engaging in a specific functional or disciplinary area.

The first hypothesis of this article is that in organizations where product-system knowledge is important, the more R&D professionals transfer among jobs, the higher their probability of promotion to managerial positions. The second hypothesis is that mid-career hires are at a disadvantage when it comes to promotions, since they have fewer opportunities for such transfers, the participation in projects and the informal communication that enable development of product-system knowledge. In order to examine these hypotheses, we analyze the relationship between the number of transfers and the promotion probability and that between the turnover experience and the promotion probability in the electronics and telecommunication industries, the pharmaceutical industry, and the two types of national laboratories: basic research laboratories and applied research laboratories. The pharmaceutical industry and the two types of national laboratories need high levels of functional knowledge, on the other hand, product-system knowledge is important in the electronics and telecommunication industries. The over 900 samples analyzed for this article were obtained from questionnaire surveys held in private companies and national laboratories in 1999.

The result shows that the following relationship was observed only in the electronics and telecommunication industries, where product-system knowledge is important: the more R&D professionals transfer, the more probability of promotion they have; those who have changed organizations are at a disadvantage for promotion. Therefore, it seems to be reasonable for R&D professionals who desire to be promoted to managerial positions to hesitate before moving among private companies.

According to previous research results, turnover from laboratories in private companies to national laboratories tends to be a positive change. R&D professionals who moved in this direction were attracted by the greater freedom to do research and the superior research environment in national laboratories. Their level of academic achievements, measured by the number of papers published and research presentations given at academic conferences, was greater than that of their peers in national laboratories. On the other hand, there are many R&D professionals who have moved among private companies because of strong dissatisfaction with their previous companies. Their level of achievements, measured by number of patents, is lower than that of professionals in private companies who have never changed organizations. The results of this article imply that prospects for promotion may influence these differences between the turnover to national laboratories and the turnover to private companies.

This paper explores the competitive basis of manufacturing suitable for medium-sized sewing firms which aim at overseas production. Since the skill of operators directly affects the competitiveness of firms of labor-intensive industries such as the sewing industry, this paper extracts HRM as the most important factor from the various factors of garment manufacturing. After that, this paper tries to identify which type of HRM will bring competitiveness to firms operating in East Asia through two case studies.

For that purpose, this paper focuses on two sewing firms, both of which enjoy competitive positions in Japan. Although both of their factory operations have been sound in Japan, in East Asia their performance is opposite to each other.

The Firm A, a successful case, has developed HRM far before they decided to go overseas, in setting up to extend the working territory of each operator in Japanese factories. Under such type of HRM, almost every operator not only extended her working territory, but also expanded the knowledge regarding garment manufacturing. As a result, almost every operator of the Firm A has come to have capabilities enough to conduct, not one, but several different works. Thanks to their capabilities to conduct several different works, they can work well in ever-changing processing lines in which frequent changes in specifications, numerous kinds of materials, and everyday change in lines and work organizations take place.

By transferring such type of HRM, the Firm A has been able to manage its three overseas sewing factories, and all of them have been making profits. This paper investigate the HRM and work organization of its factory in China, and found that by transferring HRM from Japanese factories, Chinese operators has acquired capabilities equivalent to that of Japanese operators. With that capability, Chinese operators also can work well in ever-changing processing lines. Consequently, its factory in China is able to manufacture garments that have sophisticated tastes as well as good quality, both of which intertwiningly fulfill demands of the Japanese moody market.

The Firm B has developed the different type of HRM. It has requested its sewing operators to be equally skilled, to be equally performing, and to be devoted in a single unchangeable work. In order to manage ever-changing processing line well, many extra liaison men were deplored in lines. Having two types of employees in processing lines, one of which consists of sewing operators devoted in a single unchangeable work, the other is organized by liaison men, the Firm B's Japanese factories have supplied the Japanese moody market with garments that are well-qualified and sophisticated.

The Firm B's HRM, however, has not worked well in East Asia, since it could send only four liaison men from Japan. Without sufficient number of liaison men, the local sewing operators who have been trained to conduct a single unchangeable work could not manage the everyday change in processing lines. Consequently, its factory in East Asia has suffered from a pile of faulty products, all of which have been sent to Japanese factories for the re-inspection and the correction. This extra practice burdened the Firm B with further costs. It also led to the delay of delivery. For those reasons, the Firm B's overseas factory was closed after 3-year-operation.

Considering these two cases explained above, this paper deduced one conclusion, that is, a type of HRM which enables operators to manage everyday change in processing lines is very important not only for factories in Japan but also for factories in East Asia. Therefore, Japanese medium-sized firms aiming at overseas production should develop such type of HRM previous to the expatriation.

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