Global Japanization?: The Transnational Transformation of the Labour Process (Critical Perspectives on Work & Organizations)

Global Japanization? brings together a collection of articles exploring the impact of Japanese manufacturing investment and the adoption of Japanese working practices on a cross-national basis.
Key issues are explored through a range of national and sectoral studies of work reorganization and work experience within Japanese companies and their competitors. Original case studies are employed to support a wide-ranging critique of the established view of the 'Japanese model' of work organization. Alternative models, as in the Swedish and Italian cases, are discussed in depth.
Drawing on international research, this volume sheds new light on an important and often controversial debate centring on Japanese working practices. It will be of great interest to students and researchers in the sociology of work, organizational sociology and international business.

Tony Elger has taught Sociology at the Universities of Aberdeen, Birmingham and Warwick. His main research interests are in the Sociology of Work and Employment and Comparative Labor Studies. He is currently the Director of the Center for Comparative Labor Studies. Chris Smith has taught Industrial
Sociology, Industrial Relations and Organization Studies at the University of Aston, and held visiting positions in the Universities of Hong Kong, Sydney, Wollongong and Griffith. His main research interests are in the Sociology of Professions, Labor Process Theory, Comparative Work Organization,
and Human Resource Management. He is currently Research Director in the School of Management and Director in two research Centers: Health Experts in Call Centers and the Centre for Workplace Research in Asia Pacific Societies.
Chris Smith works at Microsoft on the F# team. His role as a software design engineer in test gives him a unique mastery of the F# language. Chris has a masters degree in computer science from the University of Washington. You can read his blog, Chris Smith's Complete Unique View, at http: //blogs.msdn.com/chrsmith/.