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-A

S.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.

Applicability at
Japanese Atlas Honda Pakistan
Management Practice Totally Partially Not at all
Employment Practices
Lifetime Employment
Core & Periphery Employees
Seniority Based Pay & Promotion
Low Turnover Rate
Enterprise Union
Selection and Continuous Training
Service Overtime
Satie System
Job Rotation
Single Status

Manufacturing Practices
Total Quality Control
Quality Control Circles
Statistical Process Control
Just In Time
Flexible Production
Kaizen
Zero Defect
Ringi
Team Effort
Long Term Thinking
Suggestion System
Puntuality and Absenteeism

Cultural Practices
Groupism
Confucian ethics
Homogeneous Society
Nationalism
Company Loyalty
Harmony
Company Song and Morning Exercise
Informal Communication and Control
Better than the Best
Uniform Education
 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, from
http://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.