HU MAN RELATIONS AT SONY inhis biography, Made i pene in Japan, Mi 1 Morita says: loyees, to be cere arta ets fest @ Japanese n Mager In to dover Jovelop a healthy relationship with his Woeiness in his. or her eer working life at Sony, ena he stressed to 10 decide personal employees that each employee hy ally whether to spend the reat of his‘ her est of his oF her management writers som Maser ie let sae at een oe me temporary relationship ae are important, Morita sknawiedges, but they SStabish only 3 Feige repens epee ae argo is experience with American Ironically, Morita's em) phasis on loyalty was partly inspired by hi res in the United States in an faanagers and employees. 1 anager and employees nary da son ied man em Soto keep pace ith the remarkable demand fo ee serguctes wera was stunned by Ameria ealeaguc' blunt advice about 3 prion aloes Wiovia was equally surprised wien on advice pou sued into his office one day and announced he was ‘quitting to take a job with a competitor; who had offered him double ie cer. = reel Spey Msn er Jor—espeiy the eo ating on te soy conc from Morita’s Philosophy. ‘The company has adopted PEOPLE AS RESOURCES Jurces Management in Japan. ‘though Japanese law still Sony has long been a leader in human reso Sony American concepts as the five-day, 40-hou’ ‘work week, ever Se oer maximum of 48 hours, and the average 0 ‘Jopanese manufacturing remains 43 hours sar eek. Moreover, Sony was one of the frst Faas jose firms to close its factories for one week ae veccimmer to allow all its employees to De off ‘work at the same time. In addition, the Japanese a different view of recruits. Morita urges managers 1p te ao cies rough stones and the manageria! Jo8 Hoses of building a strong and sturdy wall out reerts Tough stones. The Japanese idea) is * etfs and smaoth managerial recruits so that trey Otros 4 cohesive part of the company. Janances Pe apanies, at feast the large ones. also nave become attitude toward dealing with empovrs compaclining industries. Most companies offer humaning and most workers eagerly accept lovers iy; workers are retrained when thelr particular jobs become obsolete. system enforces strategy. By focusing on ers a sense of commit ‘Sony has been able to stent people t man resource policies accommodate Sony's Over) oui amployees. sony develops among its wor vice of this employee commitment, 's and to motivate highly compet Clearly, Akio Monta’s hu! the shared fate of management 2 {ithe overall goals of the firm. Partly beca Jey competitive in terms of wages and benefit: continue to innovate. esources rather than as costs, companies like Sony are writing the book ry and practice. or the Sony Family By focusing on people as Fr on future management theo! On-Site for Dining F' Sometimes human resource management can involve something as seemingly unrelatet on ing facility. As more and more ‘companies consolidate thet the benefits of ‘on-site dining are providing an on-site corporate Prices into single, fow-rent, SUP increasingly apparent: ‘urban developments, Scanned with CamScanner‘at Sony, on-site dinin 9 percolve ax Employees eat In, they ter 0 as more th antler an moraly a ptoaant atl f facilities Manageme exchange wo _ tating axperience. “whe or acl cnet gene © exchanga work nay exuinned S04 Ut van atten ’ ‘xporate svvlens, “thy contin th worklay an a dora a r added Casanova, Oneaite dint reply curtalls lunch hour abuses, xed setting, outside the wor More eis In turn, ea” ease work 0c ig encourages. Intra-company MO viferent departments. Such le faces to attach to the more addition, on-site: Denne nvaite dining brings amptoyoes togather In a eeanipa a that they can thave the opportunity to bot reitionshire nnd onhance produetilty, Alun, We ot asroreteo BY oralzg| topetner Peoria of alae positions fron Soe with wiomn they, work to internal communication by alvi peor aanagement and staff. “I have to visit ev tity of our company, and to try to At Sony, on-site dining also holps to st it appoint to tinow ol crnptoyecoy ry est ae mow covery single Cruplovens’ sald Morita, “This became more aye Tore difficult as we ora, butt try. Ten ssible to really know the more than forty thousand people who work for us the sifice all Es encourage all of our mi Jers to know everybod' d not to sit behind a desk in ‘all day.” The dining facility thus helps to Strengthen work-related relationships. considered socializing According to Morita, a company is a sort of family. When he wa CEO, he Ach omployees an integral part of his day. “It was not just part of my job, X like those people. They are family...” house dining, Sony was able to increase cmploye® productivity and morale and promote its family oriented culture, “We lve policy that here we are in the world We deal with promemployees as members of the Sony familys 2, Hed colleagues,” explained Morita. “We prought management people, including engineer ee ronyo and fet them work with us and trained erowgand treated then just like members of OW Ss Maty, all of whom wear the same Jackers and cat inesur one-class cafeteria. This way they got to understand that people ‘should not be treated differently...We urged t Yor fait down with their office people ‘and share the facilities.” For Morita, it is not h iegement; itis respect for one’s famllY- eas are the basis for wh mm Peters proposes as a news sinre realistic pact between employey and employee: themselves to doing Thole best to help the company meet its goals, and in return, the company ‘will give employees an opportunity to develop and Horr Vici stills, Of course, thoy are free to feave ‘and sell these skills to orPther employee but ideally, the ‘gpportunity to keep Tearning and to do ‘good work will keep them productivity with the company ant loyalty and their By providing in: a. he management 6! uuman resource man Indeed, Morita’s id increase both their Norio Ohga, Sony's ‘mployees. Michael P- ese or For example, mitment to e highest ranking non-Japar in his developmen ime and the care to de certain decisions: passed on to many Sony executives: wn that he shares Morita's com nt subsidiary and the company's nurturing role i They took the ti ‘tood why they ma phy has been ident and CEO has prove! 'd of Sony's entertainmen ‘atively recounts Morita and Ohga’s ‘hey saw something In me- 20 years ago. They spent time ‘making sure I underst This philoso! current presi Schulhof, hea executive, appre: whatever reason, me their philosophy: QUESTIONS: T What are the core HRM concepts, policies and values of Sony? 2 Japanese HRM policies with US? 3. pom site dining for Sony & other companies? 4 MRM values with Pakistani firms? Can pakistani firms apply How do you compare What re the benefits of How do you compare Sony's them and how? Scanned with CamScanner