Japanese Firms in U.S. Are Americanizing : Survey: Companies in the Southland are dropping management style of their homeland in effort to stem turnover.

High turnover among Americans working for Japanese-owned companies in the Southland and growing demands by those employees for a bigger voice in management is increasingly prompting Japanese employers to adopt U.S. management practices, according to a recent study.

Japanese companies “are swinging to the other side of the pendulum by Americanizing their management style,” said Dennis Laurie, a former Arco Corp. executive who spent four years researching Americans working for Japanese companies in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Laurie, who recently obtained a doctoral degree from Claremont University’s Drucker School of Management, will be a lecturer this fall in international management at UC Irvine.

Laurie’s research is based on a survey of 245 U.S. white-collar workers--ranging from secretaries and accountants to chief operating officers--at 26 major Japanese companies with local operations. The survey, completed earlier this year, included such companies as NEC Corp., Sumitomo Bank and Toyota Motor Corp. U.S.A.

Laurie found that some Japanese companies have begun requiring new employees to sign employment agreements stipulating the company’s right to lay off employees “at will.” He said these agreements are part of an effort by Japanese employers to make it clear to U.S. workers that the lifetime employment practices followed in Japan do not necessarily apply in the United States.

The survey also found that Japanese companies have largely abandoned promotions by seniority for U.S. workers--a practice still widely followed in Japan. Instead, they’re shifting to U.S.-style promotions based on merit, according to Laurie.

The shift in Japanese management practices is a bid to stem the high turnover rate among U.S. workers, Laurie said. Many Japanese companies have also come under increasing pressure from employees and civil rights groups to hire and promote more women and minorities.

“Because the level of performance they’re getting from their American employees under the Japanese management style has not reached a satisfactory level by Japanese standards,” Laurie said, “Japanese companies are forced to alter their management style to accommodate American cultural mores.”

According to the Japan External Trade Organization, Japanese companies employ 400,000 Americans nationwide, or less than 1% of the nation’s 118 million workers.

Laurie discussed his findings at a seminar on Americans and Japanese in the workplace, sponsored by U.S. Japan Business News and Egon Zehnder International, a Los Angeles consulting firm.

The survey shows a departure from management practices generally followed by Japanese companies a decade ago, when most ran their U.S. operations the same way they did their parent firms in Japan, said Dennis Aigner, dean of the UCI’s School of Management.

Laurie’s study found that decision-making by consensus, while practiced widely among U.S. blue-collar employees at Japanese companies, is not often applied to white-collar workers. Despite that, the survey showed that 74% of the U.S. workers said said they are either happy or very happy with their jobs.

Cypress-based Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. is trying to address that problem this year by starting an employee exchange program, in which a U.S. mid-level manager will switch jobs with a Tokyo employee for a year or two, said Gloria J. Franklin, a Mitsubishi executive.

Laurie said the move by Japanese companies to Americanize their operations could prove to be a mistake.

“The Japanese system and culture has a lot to offer, and their success is clearly demonstrated in Japan’s economic power today,” he said.

The survey will be the basis for a book that Laurie is writing on Japanese companies doing business in the United States, to be published by New York-based Harper Collins next year.

Japanese Management American-Style How happy are Americans who work in white-collar jobs for Japanese companies in this country?Seventy-four percent hold favoragle or very favorable opinions of their job situations, according to a survey of Southland white-collar workers. Neutural: 18% Very unfavorable: 1% Unfavorable: 7% Very Favorable: 19% Favorable: 55% Women and Minorities “Minorities and women have considerable opportunities with the firm.” Current Japanese Firm: 2.7 Previous American Firm: 3.3 5.0-Definitely yes 4.0-yes 3.0-Neutral 2.0-No 1.0-Definitely not Lifetime Employment “We have not had layoffs and employment is generally understood to be for life.” Current Japanese Firm: 2.7 Previous American Firm: 2.1 5.0-Definitely yes 4.0-yes 3.0-Neutral 2.0-No 1.0-Definitely not Note: Bars represent the average response of those surveyed. Source: “Yankee Samurai” by Dennis Laurie