Training,Continuous Improvement,and Human Relations: The U.S. TWI Programs and the Japanese Management Style

Miyata K. , “Daikyuji MTP kaitei o oete.” Sangyo Kunren, 1 (1991): 106–118; Miyata K. , personal communication.

Zipser A.R. , “Japan's Feudalism Yields in Industry,” The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 1951.

Training Within Industry Service, The Training Within Industry Report: 1940–1945 (Washington, D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945).

Ibid.

Act of August 29, 1916, 39 Stat., 650.

Training Within Industry Service, The Training Within Industry Report: 1940–1945 (Washington, D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945), p. 5.

Dietz J.W. , Learning by Doing (Summit, NJ: J.W. Dietz, 1970), p. 14.

Ibid., cover page.

Training Within Industry Service, The Training Within Industry Report: 1940–1945 (Washington, D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945), p. 36.

Training Within Industry Service, Training Within Industry Materials (Washington D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945), JIT Manual, p. 5.

Ibid., p. 10.

Ibid., p. 11.

Training Within Industry Service, Training Within Industry Materials (Washington D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training. 1945), JMT Manual, p. 6.

Clark N.M. , “Why Suggestion Systems Fail,” System (September 1919), pp. 404–407.

Training Within Industry Service, Training Within Industry Materials (Washington D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training. 1945), JIT Manual, p. 33.

Ibid.

Training Within Industry Service, The Training Within Industry Report: 1940–1945 (Washington, D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945), p. 231.

Ibid., p. 204.

Training Within Industry Service, Training Within Industry Materials (Washington D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945), JRT Manual, p. 17.

Training Within Industry Service, The Training Within Industry Report: 1940–1945 (Washington, D.C.: War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, 1945).

Ibid., p. 94.

Ibid., p. 92.

Ibid.

Dietz , op. cit.; Fortune Magazine (April 1951), p. 119.

Dietz , op. cit.

Ibid., pp. 74–75.

Moore J. , Japanese Workers and the Struggle for Power 1945–1947 (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983).

Park S. , US. Labor Policy in Postwar Japan (Berlin: EXpress Edition, 1985), p. 95.

Ibid.; Training Within Industry Inc., Final Report Upon Completion of Contract to June 4, 1951 with the Department of the Army (Cleveland, OH: 1951).

Ibid.

This is the estimate of Mr. Kondo Eiichiro, one of the graduates of Mr. Mellen's Master Institutes in Japan, who subsequently became regarded as the leading Japanese authority on TWI. It was communicated to the authors by the Secretary General of the Japan Employment Problem Association, which is discussed further in the next paragraph of the article. TWI Inc. explored the possibility of continuing its work in Japan on a private basis, but chose not to for several reasons. First, the customary rates for corporate training programs were too low for a Japanese division of TWI Inc. to be profitable. Furthermore, it was not clear that the Japanese authorities would allow TWI Inc. to remit earnings to the United States. Finally, TWI Inc. found that many Japanese felt strongly that TWI was too important to be controlled by foreigners, and were urging the government to take charge of the programs. This was, in fact, what happened.

JITA is also in charge of the Civil Communication Section (CCS) course for top management, which set the stage for the Japanese quality control movement and the later visits of American quality control experts such as W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. The story of this course—one also developed by the American occupation forces—has been thoroughly documented in Hopper K. , “Creating Japan's New Industrial Management: The Americans as Teachers,” Human Resource Management (Summer 1982), pp. 13–34. It was an American member of the CCS staff, for example, who is believed to have first advised Japanese industry to adopt statistical quality control. The CCS course was last taught in 1974, although it is still honored by being listed first in the present-day JITA catalog.

Sugiyama T . The Improvement Book: Creating the Problem-Free Workplace (Cambridge. MA: Productivity Press, 1989), p. 71.

Nemoto M. , Total Quality Control for Management (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1987), see e.g., p. 156.

Haynes P. , “A Job for Life,” survey in The Economist. March 2, 1991.

Noda N. , “How Japan Absorbed American Management Methods,” in Modern Japanese Management (London: Management Publications Limited. 1969), p. 53.

Japan Human Relations Association, The Idea Book: Improvement through Total Employee Involvement (Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press. 1988), p. 202.

Nemoto , op. cit., p. 4.

International Economic Services, Ltd., Report on Training Within Industry in Japan (Tokyo: 1951).

Zipser A.R. , op. cit.

Training Within Industry Inc., Final Report Upon Completion of Contract to June 4, 1951 with the Department of the Army (Cleveland, OH: 1951).

Zipser , op. cit.

Interestingly, Jack Greenland, a former TWI Inc. employee told us that the reason his company went to Japan was the lack of demand for its services in the United States.