Personnel policies in United States based Japanese hotels

by Chen, Chen-Yin.

Chen Chen-Yin (Writer) (Last Name) (First) (Initial) Personnel Policies in United States Based Japanese Hotels (Title) Hospitality and Tourism (Graduate Major) Dr. Christine J. Clements (Research Advisor) Oct. 1993 95 (Month/Year) (No. of Pages) Japan has a growing source of investment capital in the United States and this is likely to continue its share in the future, with its cumulative investment in United States hotels about $17 billion, accounting for 79.5 percent of the foreign hotel investment in 1990. With Japan becoming a powerful symbol of business success, many American companies are interested in the Japanese style of management, which believes that productivity improvement can come about with better development, utilization, and management of human resources. There is a need to understand if this management style can have an impact on the development of Japanese hotels in the United States market. The objective of this study was to understand the personnel policies utilized by the Japanese hotels in relation to hiring, compensation and other incentives, orientation and training, job security, labor turnover and retention. A survey questionnaire was designed and pre-tested for the validity and reliability of its contents. It was then mailed to the entire population of 28 personnel directors of the Japanese hotels operating in the United States. The data was reviewed and processed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for frequencies, percentages, and cross-tabulations. The findings of the study recognized how the Japanese hotels in the United States have dealt with their personnel policies. The types of management - domestic and international - were compared regarding the essential factors of personnel policies, training, hiring, communication, benefit packages, employee promotion, transfer, and layoff, as well as wage policies. The major conclusion to emerge from this study was that the personnel policies of the Japanese hotels in the United States have emphasized long-term growth over short-term profits, especially in the Japanese hotels with international management. Those Japanese chain hotels placed greatest emphasis on service quality. High quality maintenance through employee attitude and service training seemed to be perceived as a strategic weapon for increasing market share and financial performance in their United States operations. Furthermore, it is debatable if the social and cultural traditions, and the distinguishable characteristics of Japanese style personnel management, can be imported in their United States operations without going through a metamorphosis. It is impossible to import the entire Japanese-style personnel management into the IJnited States without changing some of its aspects. This study supports this argument. However, the moot question is whether the Japanese hotels can repeat their success with importing manufacturing strategies into the United States, and affect ii the U.S. hotel industry as a whole. The view that Japanese hotels are unable to compete effectively in the United States market is a considerable oversimplification. A more careful analysis reveals areas of both strengths and weaknesses as well as rising competitiveness. iii