DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES,QUAID-I-AZAM UNIVERSITY,

ISLAMABAD.

GROUP RESEARCH PROJECT

COURSE TITLE:

Human Resource Management

COURSE CODE:

BA-411

COURSE FACILITATOR:

Ajmal Waheed Khan

TOPIC:

Applicability of Modern HRM Practices at Atlas Honda Cars (Pakistan) Limited.

GROUP MEMBERS:

Amin Haider Shah, MBA III-AS.M. Zeeshan Haider, MBA III-A

DUE DATE:10th May 2008

INTRODUCTION

In today's world, there are basically two types of HRM practices followed in

the world. One is the western HRM practices and other is the modern HRM or the

Japanese Management Practices. Both the western as well as Japanese products are

very high in quality but there is a notable difference between the prices of the two

products. While Ford is too expensive a car, Toyota cars are relatively much cheaper

with the same specifications and similar quality. All this is the effect of the effective

modern HRM practices which allow the Japanese to produce high quality products at

lower cost. There are many different practices that Japanese follow in order to win the

heart of their customers. However, an important point to ponder is whether these

practices are being followed or can be adopted in Pakistan or not.

This project describes the applicability of the Japanese Management Practices

in Pakistan. The company visited in this regard was Atlas Honda Cars (Pakistan)

Limited. It describes HRM practices that are currently being followed and the way in

which they are being followed. In case of the practices which are not adopted, this

report tells the basic reasons behind it. Furthermore in the end, it has also been

recommended how can these practices be adopted in Pakistan and what are the

necessary changes to be made so as to completely follow the modern HRM practices

in Pakistan.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The modern HRM practices or the Japanese Management Practices are a great

way to have high quality products at lower costs. These management practices are

divided into three broad categories: Employment Practices, Manufacturing Practices

and Cultural Practices. In order to find the applicability of the modern HRM practices

in Pakistan, information from Atlas Honda Cars (Pakistan) Limited was collected and

the applicability of these practices was tested. The table below gives the Japanese

Management Practices and their applicability at Atlas Honda Pakistan.

From the chart, it is easily seen that most of the Manufacturing Practices are

being followed and it is basically the cultural practices that are not applied. The basic

cause for this is the cultural differences of Japan and Pakistan. In order to apply the

modern HRM practices completely in Pakistan, different measures are to be taken.

Some of them include unbiased attitude of the management towards employees, and

political stability in the country. The management should offer incentives, attractive

and competitive salary packages to its employees in order to reduce the turnover rate.

The government should devise a program and also assist poor people so as to have a

uniform basic education throughout the country. Last, but not the least, the

government and people should play a vital role by changing their attitudes towards

each other in order to develop a nationalist approach and working hand in hand for the

interests of the country.

AN OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Japanese Management Practices can be broadly classified into three categories:

1. Employment Practices.

2. Manufacturing Practices.

3. Cultural Practices.

This section will give an overview of these three different branches of the Japanese

Management Practices.

EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

Some of the employment practices followed by Japanese are given bellow:

LIFE TIME EMPLOYMENT (SHUSHIN KOYO)

In most of the Japanese firms, there is a life long commitment between the

organization and the individual. Japanese firms hire fresh graduates, train them, and

keep all of them on the payroll till the age of fifty-five that is the retirement age. This

system of permanent employment provides job security, guarantees livelihood till

retirement brings harmony to the enterprise, results in greater human interaction and

growth of fast friendship, promotes strong corporate loyalty, trust, high level of

motivation, group effectiveness and total commitment on the part of the employees.

There are also some disadvantages of Life Time Employment. Shah and Quraishi (as

cited in Waheed, 2001) pointed out that practice of Long Term Employment

contributes to increase in fixed cost and structural inflexibility.

DUAL STRUCTURE CONSISTING OF CORE AND PERIPHERY

EMPLOYEES

Core employees are those who are permanent and enjoy the status of Long

Term Employment, while the peripheries are the temporary employees. Waheed

(2001) stated that there is a requirement of enormous capital costs for core industries.

These industries are dominated by male workers and are producing higher value

added products such as automobile, steel, textile etc. On the other hand, periphery

companies are working under labor intensive technology, dominated by female, low

wage, poor working conditions and involve in low value added activities such as

electronic industry in Japan. Life Time Employment is less likely to exist in these

periphery companies.

SENIORITY BASED PAY AND PROMOTION (NENKO)

In Japanese industries, at the time of employment all the people are equally

treated and they climb the ladder of seniority in the form of groups. But when they

come to the age of forty, then they begin to depart. Now there comes a time, when

Japanese firms account for competence and performance. Only those people are given

the top posts that are competent and the other remains at their previous posts.

LOW TURN OVER RATE

Waheed (2001) claimed that the turnover rate in the Japanese firms is very

low. The main factors for low turnover are: Life Time Employment, seniority based

pay and promotion and family concept of company.

ENTERPRISE UNION (INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS)

There is a friendly relationship between unions and management in the

Japanese firms. Waheed (2001) stated that in Japanese firms unions’ survival depends

on the company’s survival. There are very rare of chances of disputes between unions

and management. There is cooperation between unions and management and unions

support management to improve competitiveness and profitability. They rarely oppose

the policies of company.

SELECTION AND CONTINUOUS TRAINING

Oliver and Wilkinson (as cited in Waheed, 2001) stated that in Japanese firms,

most of the recruits are taken from the best reputed institutes. After selection and

before training, there is a period of induction. The aim of induction is to make them

realize that they are now members of family. Then, there is a formal one-year training

program for all newly hired employees. The objective of training is to bring out the

potential ability of an employee. Continuous training might be the secret of Japanese

success and is treated as investment.

SERVICE OVERTIME (WORKING LONG HOURS)

Waheed (2001) stated that the Japanese people are known to the hard workers,

the world over. Japanese work more as compared to other nations. They work one to

three months more per year than the Western countries. Oliver and Wilkinson ( as

cited in Waheed, 2001) stated that Japanese people work 200 hours more than the

workers in United States and United Kingdom and 500 hours more than the workers

in France and Germany. The main reasons for such a high lead of work are less paid

vacation time and lower absenteeism. Japanese think if a worker takes holidays, he is

a trouble maker. So, service overtime is a sort of regimentation on the part of

management.

SATEI OR KOKA SYSTEM (PERSONAL ASSESSMENT SYSTEM)

The Satie determines the rate of promotion and level of monthly pay and it

applies to blue-collar as well as white-collar workers excluding temporary staff. Aoki

(as cited in Waheed, 2001) stated that the Satei system is very helpful in making

Japanese firms more effective and it also contributes to productivity improvement.

NON-SPECIALIZED CAREERS (JOB ROTATION)

Japanese firms do not produce specialists. They rather produce generalists. Job

rotation is one of the key characteristics of on the job training. It means the rotation of

workers from one job to another. Waheed (2001) stated that due to limited upward

mobility, employees may become frustrated, de-motivated and less productive. To

avoid this, they are rotated to different departments of the same company. Through

job rotation, workers are moulded into generalists and can perform multiple tasks.

SINGLE STATUS

Japanese have designed many mechanisms to minimize both conflicts of

interest common to the employment relationship and to soften organizational status

differentials. There is same uniform for the workers and managers. Both workers and

managers travel in the same bus. Managers do not have wall offices. Both workers

and managers take lunch in the same cafeteria. There are daily shop floor meeting

between supervisors and workers. Moreover, collective physical exercise, company

songs etc are the variable range of single status terms and conditions of employment.

MANUFACTURING PRACTICES

Some of the manufacturing practices followed by Japanese are given bellow:

TOTAL QUALITY CONTROL (TQC)

United States say that we are providing 95 percent accuracy of our products

but Japanese say that our accuracy start from 95 percent. Total Quality Control

implies that it is everybody’s responsibility to contribute to quality and to satisfy the

customers. It prevents error rather than simply uncover them. Japanese say that

quality cannot be controlled through inspection and rejection of the bad product.

Quality comes from making the product right in the first place by resolving the error

at the spot.

QUALITY CONTROL CIRCLES (QCC’S)

Izumaru (as cited in Waheed, 2001) stated that Quality Control Circles are

primary work group with seven to ten members employees each undertakes voluntary

studies on tasks for refining quality in line with the company’s total policy and

regularly hold meetings at which they discuss the results of their efforts and help one

another for enhancing quality.

STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)/ STANDARDIZED WORK

SEQUENCE

Oliver and Wilkinson (as cited in Waheed, 2001) stated that principle of

Statistical Process Control is that products emerging from any production process

reveal two types of variations: the first is called natural or unassigned variation,

because it occurs naturally in the process without a specific cause, the second is called

unnatural or assigned variation which is due to specific cause. Actually in Statistical

Process Control, firstly we work out the extent of a process’s natural variation and

then we regularly sample the process’s output.

JUST-IN-TIME (JIT)

According to Waheed (2001) the main features of Just-in-Time are:

Demand driven

Eliminate buffer stocks, time, manpower, defects and waste

Lean production: Adjusting production with demand

Nothing more concept

Quality and cost conscious

System efficiency

Out-put based (product)

Single supplier

LEAN/FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION

Japanese believe on lean production rather than mass production. They always

make products according to demand. The reason for following the concept of lean

production is that they do not believe in inventory system. They do not have ware

houses.

KAIZEN (CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT)

The key Kaizen practices narrated by Kotelnikov (2008) are as follows:

discipline in the workplace

quality improvement

customer orientation

zero defects

productivity improvement

total productive maintenance.

ZERO DEFECTS (PERFECTION)

Japanese believe in error free production. They are struggling to achieve their

goal that is 100 percent accuracy of their products. They are establishing zero defect

movement to achieve error free production and perfect product.

RINGI (DECISION MAKING BY CONSENSUS)

It is traditional decision-making process in Japanese firms. The system

involves circulating proposals to all managers in the firm who are affected by an

impending decision. Proposals are generally initiated by middle managers, though

they may also come from top executives. In the latter case, an executive will generally

give his idea to his subordinates and let them introduce it. Managers from different

departments hold meetings and try to reach an informal consensus on the matter. Only

after this consensus is reached will the formal document, or ringi-sho, be circulated

for approval by the responsible managers (Thomas Corporation, 2006).

TEAM EFFORT/GROUP TASK

Net reference stated that team work means to help others. They also take it as the

functional maximization that is to improve results. True team work implies the

existence of:

ability of members to switch between jobs

team responsibility

team determination of who has to work and where

team leadership

THINK LONG-TERM

Waheed (2001) claimed that in Japanese firms long-term thinking has the

following characteristics:

long-term survival of the company

long-term commitment to employees

long-term commitment to customers

long-term management targets

SUGGESTION SYSTEM

This practice is used by Japanese firms to connect workers’ knowledge and

ideas. The main purpose of this practice is to take suggestions from the workers in

order to improve the quality of the products and to reduce the costs of products.

PUNCTUALITY AND ABSENTEEISM

This practice is one of the most important practices followed by Japanese

firms. In Japanese firms, if a person takes holidays, he is considered as trouble-maker.

Workers come to the office half an hour earlier. Leaving early or coming late is

considered as serious as absence. Absence is also a serious issue because they have no

replacement/alternative workers.

CULTURAL PRACTICES

United States says that Japan is attaining success due to its culture but actually

this is not true because Japan is attaining success due to its superior management

system. Some of the cultural practices followed by Japanese firms are given bellow:

GROUPISM

In Japanese firms:

Groups are primary social units.

Basic social unit is family.

They have joint family system.

To them, father is all in all.

They take family concept to organizations.

They take boss’s respect as father’s respect.

CONFUCIAN ETHICS

Being an Asian country, Japanese Confucian ethics includes:

Loyalty and commitment to organization

Respect elders

Discipline, order, hierarchy, cooperation and helping each other

Hard work, selflessness, education, human goodness and filial piety

Common interest

HOMOGENEOUS SOCIETY

Japan is a unique homogenous society. They have one dress and one religion

(Buddha). There is only a little bit variation in region, religion, race, blood, genes or

person. As a result, they have established mutual understanding, teamwork and very

effective non-verbal communication system in business.

NATIONALISM

In Pakistan, loyalty leads to individual interests, then to individual interests

and again to individual interests. While in Japanese organization, loyalty of workers

leads to national interests, then to organizational interests and to individual interests.

COMPANY LOYALTY

Since there is family concept is the Japanese firms, employees and employers

take the firm as a big happy family. First of all they introduce themselves as member

of such and such company and thereafter they introduce their posts in the company.

Life time employment, seniority based pay and promotion and concept of leadership

promote loyalty and commitment to the company.

HARMONY (WA)

Actually Buddhism has a greater influence on the Japanese to be more

harmonious in group settings and living with others. Waheed (2001) stated that

Harmony emphasizes a high degree of collaborative behavior rather

COMPANY SONG AND MORNING EXERCISE

In most of the Japanese firms, before the start of the work, there is company

song. All the people in the organization read and discuss the business principles and

also participate in the morning exercise. The purpose of morning exercise is that all

the people working in the company remain fresh both mentally and physically. One

person also gives the message of the day.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AND CONTROL

Waheed (2001) stated that informal communication and control is an

important practice of Japanese culture. Japanese place more emphasis on informal

communication and control like:

Common cafeteria

Same uniform

Single status

Morning exercise and songs

Traveling in the same bus

BETTER THAN THE BEST

The greatest ambition of Japan is to be better than best in the world in any line

of culture and to provide cheapest and best quality product to others. So, Japanese

want to be at supreme spot in every field.

UNIFORM EDUCATION

Waheed (2001) stated that the education in Japan is surprisingly uniform but

the struggle to send children to a good school is very high. This high level of

education may be the cause for the Japanese incredible economic growth.

APPLICABILITY OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AT HONDA ATLAS CARS (Pakistan) LTD.

Atlas Honda Cars (Pakistan) Limited comprises an assembling plant of Honda

Motors, Japan located at Manga Mandi near Lahore. The company follows the

Japanese Management Practices to a much greater extent. Manufacturing Practices is

the place where they follow these practices the most. Now we see the different

modern HRM practices being adopted at the company.

APPLICABILITY OF EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

With respect to the employment practices, the following results were seen:

LIFE TIME EMPLOYMENT

Atlas Honda Pakistan wishes to maintain a long term relationship with its

employees. They leave the decision of life time employment to be made by them.

However, at present, they are not following this practice. The reasons they give for

not adopting this practice is the difference in the attitude of the Pakistani people as

compared to the Japanese. Another major cause is the difference in the living

standards of the two nations. While Japanese have a simple living style, people in

Pakistan tend to be more materialistic in nature. Furthermore, Japanese are much

more loyal to their company than Pakistani people, who leave the organization for

better opportunities. The company incurs a lot of training costs on their employees

who just leave the company for the sake of higher salaries and benefits. Thus the costs

of the company are wasted. Due to all these factors, offering Life Time Employment

is practically not possible (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

CORE & PERIPHERY EMPLOYEES

The company has the core and periphery employees. However, here the

categories are transformed into the names of permanent and contractual employees.

Whenever downsizing is to be done due to any reason, it is the contractual employees

who have to leave the company. The contractual employees are given overtime if they

work for extra hours. Overtime is not given to permanent employees. Assistant

Managers and above are not given any overtime for their extra work. They are asked

to choose from a cash of Rs. 700 or an extra casual leave for their compensation

against their extra work. The permanent employees are however, given pension once

they retire. Deputy Managers are given a Honda City from the company while the

Manager and senior employees are given Honda Civic for their use. Such facilities are

not provided to the employees on contract. Medical facilities, bonuses, and different

basic allowances are given to both the categories, but there is a difference in the

magnitude of these incentives (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

SENIORITY BASED PAY & PROMOTION

The criterion of promotion varies from company to company. In Atlas Honda

Pakistan, an employee is promoted totally on the basis of his performance and age or

seniority does not play any role. They believe that promoting a senior inefficient

person will just result in a decline of productivity and furthermore, this would act as a

discouraging factor for the efficient and hardworking employees, who in turn may

give up the rigorous work they do to achieve organizational objectives. Thus, it is

better to give the credit to the deserving person (Imran Farooq, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

LOW TURNOVER

Like the criteria of promotion, the turnover rate also varies from company to

company. However, the turnover rate is much higher as compared to that of Japan.

Last year, the turnover rate was approximately 10 %. The basic causes behind this

turnover rate are the cultural differences between Japan and Pakistan. People here

leave jobs for higher salaries and better opportunities. Furthermore, in Japan, a

competitor of a company is reluctant to select an employee of its professional rival,

which is simply not the case in Pakistan. Most of the workers (almost 80 %) who

leave the organization are the fresh graduates who only stay at the company for a year

or two and leave the company for better opportunities and better benefits (Imran

Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

ENTERPRISE UNION

The company does have an enterprise union which does the collective

bargaining and keeps the interests of the employees and the organization in the same

direction. The purpose of having an enterprise union is that the internal employees are

far more understanding than the external people and can serve the purpose of the

bridge more effectively (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

SELECTION AND CONTINUOUS TRAINING

Honda is a 60 year old company and it gives continuous training to its

employees. Selection is made totally on merit. Selection is made at the base level. It is

seldom a case that a person is being recruited at a middle management or higher level.

At present, training is done internally only but efforts are being done to establish the

external trainings. There are courses which are meant for each and every employee.

Alongwith the general courses, they also offer specialized courses for different

designations, such as Logistics, Engineers and Managers e.g. Honda Manager

Learning Program is devised specifically for the Deputy Managers and above (Imran

Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

SERVICE OVERTIME

Executive people are not given any overtime. They have to choose from a

compensation of Rs. 700 cash or an extra casual leave. However, overtime is given to

the employees on contract basis. The reason for not giving overtime to the permanent

employees is their much greater number. As for the executives, giving overtime to

each one of them would call for a much higher fixed cost to be incurred by the

company. Thus, a non monetary compensation of an extra casual leave would serve as

a useful compensation for satisfying the employee (Imran Farooq, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

JOB ROTATION

Job rotation is adopted only in the production area so that the worker can have

the technical know how of the whole production process. It is less common in the

Junior Management while the Top and Middle Management remain at their positions.

Atlas Honda believes that applying job rotation in the office would be irrelevant to the

nature of work of a person. In Pakistan, people tend to focus more on specialized

fields, so a marketer may not find it comfortable in the finance department; hence he

would feel dissatisfied with the job. On the other hand, he may not perform well in

other department as he could do it in his own field. Furthermore, Atlas Honda has

only 16 managers in Marketing and Human Resource department and 17 in Finance

department so applying job rotation to such a small number would be less useful to

the organization (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

SATEI (PERSONAL ASSESSMENT) SYSTEM

Personal Assesment System more or less of the Japanese style is followed.

The formula used for the promotion of a person includes performance of a person in

the previous years, the performance in the current year and his intra-department and

inter-department reputation. As for salary determination, the formula includes the

previous salary of the person, inflation rate, his performance in the organization and

his extent of work in compliance with the objectives of the organization (Imran

Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

SINGLE STATUS

Like in Japan, all the employees wear the same uniform and only way to

differentiate is their company I.D. cards. They all sit in the same common offices and

if a worker wants to meet the CEO, there is no barrier in between. All the employees

eat in the same cafeteria. They follow the queue system and no one is given priority

over anyone. If a Manager is standing behind a worker in cafeteria, he cannot force or

pressurize him to leave the place for him. He would rather wait for his turn. However,

the common traveling of the workers is limited to some extent. The Deputy Managers

are given Honda City while the designations of Managers and above are given Honda

Civic for their use (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

APPLICABILITY OF MANUFACTURING PRACTICES

Most of the Japanese Manufacturing Practices are being followed by the Atlas

Honda Pakistan. Now, we discuss each manufacturing practice that is being followed

by the company.

TOTAL QUALITY CONTROL

Total Quality Control is strictly observed strictly in compliance with the

standards set by the Headquarters (Japan). The product is checked at each step and

error is removed right there and then. This saves the company from wastage cost, and

hence there remains no need of the Quality Assurance Department (Imran Farooq,

personal communication, May 6, 2008).

QUALITY CONTROL CIRLCES

In case of the Quality Control Circles, Honda uses the term New Honda

Circle. It is a self-triggered group activity that includes 5 – 7 people. They can be

from the same department as well as from different departments. They identify a

departmental level problems or an organizational problem and they hold meetings,

brainstorm and share ideas to find solutions to it. The basic issues discussed in the

meetings are cost, efficiency and quality. There are various groups working on

different problems within the organization. Open participation of the people is invited.

The company conducts a competition between these groups. Each group is

given a chance to present the ideas to their identified problems. The President and

Vice President of the concerned department sit in the presentations, listen to their

ideas and decide the best group on the basis of the contents and benefits to the

concerned department and eventually, the organization.

The best group is sent to the world convention held which enriches them with

a vast exposure to the other firms. The second best group or the runners-up are sent at

a Regional Activity conducted every year within a specific region. In case of Pakistan,

the concerned region is Asia and the competition can be held in any Asian country

(Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008)..

STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL

As in case of the Total Quality Control, the Statistical Process Control is

strictly followed at the line. Tasks are performed in a definite sequence with the

compliance of the practices followed in Japan. They are given the name of Set

Operating Procedures, which implies that things are to be performed in a definite

sequence and no compromise will be performed in this regard. These standards are

strictly followed all over the world at any of the Honda assembling plants (Imran

Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

JUST IN TIME

Atlas Honda Pakistan does not follow the Just in Time Approach. They rather

adopt the Just in Case approach in their working. They keep stocks of the

manufacturing parts due to the poor infrastructure which may result in the delayed

supply of the parts. The infrastructure in Pakistan is much underdeveloped as

compared to that of Japan. Furthermore, the attitude of the people of Pakistan is much

more casual compared with that of Japan.

Another reason of not following the Just in Time approach is that most of the

parts needed to assemble the car are not manufactured in Pakistan. They are to be

imported by air shipments. The delay in flights and the delay in transportation can

result in ineffective utilization of the time, hence forgoing the optimal productivity.

Therefore, keeping stocks in Pakistan is a necessity (Imran Farooq, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION

The production at Honda is based on different factors. Most important factor is

the market demand of their product. They do not adopt the lean production

phenomenon but they use the flexible production method. The plant needs to be

utilized at 100% efficiency so as to minimize the fixed costs. The units produced in

2006 were 30000 and those produced in 2007 were 17000 whereas the capacity of the

plant was 20000 units (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

KAIZEN (CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT)

Kaizen is very much common at the Atlas Honda Pakistan. The individual

makes a proposal for the improvement of productivity or quality of the product as

well as the workplace conditions. He then gives the proposal to his supervisor. The

supervisor does not reject any proposal, as it would prove be demotivating factor for

the individual who gave the idea. The idea is taken into consideration, validated and if

feasible, it is implemented. The individual who gave the original idea is given

incentives in the form of world tour of Honda factories where he can get a vast

exposure and groom his personality (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6,

2008).

ZERO DEFECT

The zero defect practice is followed at Atlas Honda Cars. The aim at the

production is to attain perfection. The product is examined at each stage and it is

corrected right there and then before getting it into next stage. As a result, the final

product obtained is free from all defects and an efficiency of almost 100% is reached.

Since all the departments are located within the same factory, the problem can be

diagnosed, discussed and solved right there and then (Imran Farooq, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

RINGI (COLLECTIVE DECISION MAKING)

The decision making at Atlas Honda is collective. The management of course

is the main decision maker but the decision making is done after taking the views of

everyone concerned with the problem. The democratic way is adopted generally.

There is no need of formality and no protocol for a higher designation exists. Hence,

it allows more informal and unblocked communication between people who are thus

motivated and participate in the decision making (Imran Farooq, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

TEAM EFFORT

Teams are much common part of the company. People from the same as well

as different departments are grouped as teams. They are assigned different set of

tasks. They brainstorm and hold meetings on the issues like output, quality of product

and customer demands. In the end, they present their ideas to the concerned

authorities. They are accountable for their progress and the tasks they perform to

achieve their objectives (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

LONG TERM THINKING

The long term thinking practice is adopted partially. The basic production

instructions are given from the headquarters. Everything is planned and developed in

the R & D wing at the Headquarters. The regional plants cannot plan to launch a

different vehicle in Pakistan. All they can do is to make slight modifications in the

model of the car such as Interior, Seats, and Music System after the approval from the

Headquarters. This is done so as to cater the potential market as well as to compete

with the rival companies in the region (Imran Farooq, personal communication, May

6, 2008).

SUGGESTION SYSTEM

Suggestions from employees are taken so as to improve the product quality

and eventually satisfying the customers at a greater extent. The employees get

motivated once they are asked to give their views. The useful suggestions from them

help in increasing the productivity of the organization (Imran Farooq, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

PUNCTUALITY AND ABSENTEEISM

The issue of punctuality and absenteeism is of much importance in the

company. The company has its own pick and drop service which takes a 50 minutes

time to get the people from the city to the factory which ensures complete punctuality

and a minimum chance of getting late at work.

The working calendar is planned at the beginning of the year. Total working

days in a year are 261 and holidays are planned at the beginning of the working year.

The absenteeism rate is below 4.5%. This is because at the major cultural functions

like Eid and Independence days, the employees are given a complete week off. This

serves as a sort of long holidays. Furthermore, the employees can cash their unavailed

casual leaves. Thus, all these measures prevent absenteeism to a much greater extent

(Imran Farooq, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

APPLICABILITY OF CULTURAL PRACTICES

Most of the cultural practices of Japanese are not being followed here and this

is because of the different cultures and attitudes of people. The applicability of the

Japanese Cultural Practices is discusses in detailed below.

GROUPISM

Groupism is experienced to some extent only. Most of the employees want to

work individually and the feelings for the profession vary from person to person.

Some people are more interested to make their individual identity than as a team

member while the rest are loyal to the organization. However, since our culture

promotes unity and common interest, groupism is practiced to some extent but not as

much as in Japan (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

CONFUCIAN ETHICS

Youngsters today have different perceptions about their family life and

professional life. While the family life is believed to sincere and having common

interest, they believe professional life full of politics and leg pulling. Confucian ethics

are however followed to a some extent but not completely as in Japan due to the

generation gap and the changed perception of the young employees at present.

Respect for elders is a part of our religion and culture but people now are looking for

shortcuts and hence, they become undisciplined and do not concentrate on working

hard (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

HOMOGENEOUS SOCIETY

Pakistan has a heterogeneous Society which can be differentiated notably on

the basis of race, sects, region and languages. However at Honda Pakistan, this

heterogeneity does not makes any negative impact over the working of the people and

effective management ensures that no dispute arises on the basis of any racial or

regional differences (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

NATIONALISM

The spirit of nationalism in Pakistani people is on a lesser priority. The people

of Pakistan are normally selfish in nature. Furthermore, the heterogeneous society of

Pakistan acts a barrier in the nationalist approach. People first look at their personal

interests, and are not at all bothered about the national interests. They are rather

looking to find ways to get on the top spot as soon as possible. They desire a high pay

without doing anything (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal communication, May 6,

2008).

COMPANY LOYALTY

People in Pakistan are more committed than to be loyal. There is a notable

difference between the two. Loyalty is one way and an unconditional term, while

commitment is a two way conditional term. A loyal employee always stands for the

interests of the company irrespective of the salary or status given to him. On the other

hand, commitment means that a person is looking after the benefits he is getting

against his services rendered for the company. In Japan, people are loyal to their

companies but in Pakistan, people stay with the company only till they are getting the

desired benefits against their services. People leave for other jobs if they are offered

higher salaries or better facilities, hence showing company disloyalty (Jamshaid Siraj

Yousafi, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

HARMONY

The phenomenon of harmony is almost inapplicable. Leg pulling dominates

and as the people are selfish, they look after their personal interests first than their

joint interests. Furthermore, in some cases, competition is unavoidable. For example,

if there is one post of Deputy Manager to be filled from three Assistant Managers,

then it is impossible to expect a lack of competitive behaviour. However, competition

is unannounced but people are well aware of its presence (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi,

personal communication, May 6, 2008).

COMPANY SONG AND MORNING EXERCISE

Company song is not sung at the start of the day as it is in Japanese, and most

of the people are unaware of the language. Furthermore, translating it may complicate

and change the entire the meaning and zeal. However, morning exercise is practiced.

At 7:50 a.m., the bell rings as a signal to the beginning of exercise. The exercise

continues from 3 – 4 minutes. Plants are away from factory and exercise is done so as

to warm up the employees before getting them to work. People gather in big areas as

groups and one person steps out and leads the steps of exercise. Senior management

can perform their exercise within their office place. The exercise includes head

rotation, arm rotation and body rotation etc. (Imran Farooq, personal communication,

May 6, 2008).

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AND CONTROL

Since all the management sits in the same hall irrespective of designation, the

way of communication at Atlas Honda Pakistan is informal and people can interact

freely with each other without any fear. The worker on the line can directly talk with

the Manager without any barrier. Since all the departments are located within the

same factory, the informal and free communication can help in resolving the problem

right there and then (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal communication, May 6, 2008).

BETTER THAN THE BEST

People in Pakistan do not believe in working hard and making continuous

improvements. They rather want to work for the time that is sufficient enough to get

the job done. Japanese are hardworking people while Pakistani people are looking to

shortcuts. The different psychology of the two nations forbids the continuous

improvement here in Pakistan (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal communication, May

6, 2008).

UNIFORM EDUCATION

Education in Pakistan is diverse in nature. While some are educated till

primary, the others are matriculates and even some graduates. The literacy rate of

43.4% includes those people who can only write their names. Thus, the organization

faces problems at the workers level in order to bring them at a uniform standard.

However, there is a fixed criteria for hiring managerial level jobs so the problem of

diverse education is minimized in this case (Jamshaid Siraj Yousafi, personal

communication, May 6, 2008).

ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

From the information collected from Atlas Honda Cars Pakistan, we can see

that most of the Japanese Manufacturing practices are being followed. We can also

see that the majority of the cultural practices are not being adopted. Employment

practices are followed partially whereas some of them are not being followed. First of

all, we analyze employment practices which are not followed or partially followed.

It is very difficult to apply Life Time Employment in Pakistan, because of its

expensiveness. However, once applied, it would save the company from many other

costs such as training, orientation costs etc. First of all, there needs to be a total

change in the attitudes of the people so that the Life Time Employment may be put

into practice. They need to show loyalty towards the organization. The company on

its part should offer Life Time Employment to only those people who have stayed for

a significant period with them and performed really well. They should offer attractive

benefits to the Life Time Employees which would motivate the other employees to

show greater organizational loyalty and hence, offered Life Time Employment by the

company.

The seniority based pay and promotion is applicable in Pakistan to some

extent, especially in public sector. However, such a system can bring more demerits

than merits as promoting an employee just for the sake of being senior would

discourage the good performers and they would stop working hard. People in Pakistan

are less patient and adopting seniority based promotion than performance based can

result in a great percentage of employee turnover, hence increasing the company's

cost of recruitment, selection and training.

The percentage of the turnover can be reduced by offering competitive salary

packages and facilitating the job of the employee through the improved working

conditions. Flexi time approach is a method that can facilitate the working conditions

of a worker and can make him comfortable with his job. With the demands of the

employee fulfilled and the working environment comfortable, there remains no

logical reason for the turnover rate to be high.

Job rotation is very difficult to apply in Pakistan. As Pakistani employees tend

to be specialists than generalist, they face a lot of difficulty in this phenomenon.

However, the job rotation should be done more often in the junior management and

then the employee should be kept into his own field. The method of job rotation

currently adopted by Atlas Honda is suitable enough. The only change needed to be

made is a more frequent job rotation of the lower management.

Now we analyze the Manufacturing practices currently not followed. Just in

Time approach is almost impossible to be applicable in Pakistan, at least for another

decade. The basic reason behind this is the poor infrastructure of Pakistan. There are

no chances of a remarkable improvement in it within the near future. Hence, the

Pakistani companies need to rely on the Just in Case approach.

Long term thinking can be applied only if the tastes of the customers stay

fixed for a longer period of time, which is not possible. Customer wants change from

day to day in Pakistan and Pakistani people are generally not stable. They are always

after new technologies. So to think for a long term for Pakistani customers may not

prove fruitful.

Moving towards the cultural practices, we can see that Groupism and can be

adopted if the influence of western culture is eliminated and we follow our traditional

culture and our religious practices. But this change is difficult to implement with the

changing environment of the country.

Homogenous society cannot be brought into Pakistani culture in near future.

The only way to bring it into practice is through inter marriages, i.e. people of a

specific region should be married with the people of other regions. However, this is

easier said than done and will take decades to see Pakistan as a homogenous society.

Even then, there is a small chance of this practice being practically seen.

In order to adopt nationalism, the first step is to be taken through the higher

authorities. They need to show that they care for people and the country and set

themselves as the role models. The people on the other hand, should change their

attitudes and recognize that their work is going to benefit their country. Instead of

working and becoming an asset of other countries, why not work hard for your own

country? The attitude of the people can be changed by offering them the same living

standards they can get while working in another country. Political stability should be

maintained as it plays a vital role in developing a nationalist approach.

Harmony and Company Loyalty will take a lot of time to be practically seen

into the Pakistani system, as Pakistani people are naturally more keen towards their

personal interests and thus, less loyal to the company. Company Loyalty can be

achieved if the employees are given appreciation and a share in the credits for the

success. Such non-monetary rewards and recognition of employee's work serve as a

motivational tool for an employee's loyalty to his company.

The element of favouritism and biasness must be eliminated within the top

management and it should be ensured that only performance based rewards would be

given. Only in this way, people would be able to work together in groups and

harmony would be achieved.

In order to have uniform education, the Ministry of Education needs to set

certain rules and regulations making education to a certain level compulsory for every

Pakistani and ensure that the rules are being followed. As receiving education is never

for free, so Government should finance the education of the poor citizens of the

country who are living a hand to mouth lifestyle. People should also realize that being

educated is in their best interest as well as the interest of their country. Incentives

should be given to the educated citizens which would motivate the other people to get

education. Achieving uniform education in Pakistan too tough a task and would take a

lot of time to be achieved.

References

Kotelnikov, V. (2008). Kaizen: The Japanese strategy of continuous improvement. Retrieved April 25, 2008, fromhttp://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_kaizen_main.html

Thomas Corporation (2006). Japanese Management Techniques. Retrieved April 25, 2008, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Int-Jun/Japanese-Management-Techniques.html

Waheed, A. (2001). Modern HRM Practices: Contours, Characteristics and Relevance to Pakistan. Peshawar: Pakistan Academy for Rural Development.