Multi-skilling, Delegation and Continuous Process Improvement: A Comparative Analysis of US-Japanese Work Organizations

This paper focuses on the stylized differences in work organizations and labour market practices between the United States and Japan concerning multi-skilling, delegation, continuous process improvement, human capital accumulation and labour turnover. It presents a model that addresses interconnections among three key features of work organizations (multi-skilling, delegation and continuous process improvement), and examines ways in which they are related to labour market practices. It analyses strategic interactions among firms concerning their choices of work organization, and shows that strategic complementarity arising from labour market externality can yield the multiplicity of equilibria that provides a systematic explanation for the differences. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2005.