Most Japanese workers answer "company employee" when they are asked to state their occupation. This is because one's career in Japan is developed within an organization by practices such as . on-the-job training, job-rotation, transfers, promotion' and sending out-and-back. Japanese organizations have been successful in maintaining organizational flexibility and adaptability in the face of a changing environment. Another characteristic of the Japanese labour market is a stable non-rewarding remuneration system, called the "nenko" wage system, which is based on education, years of service, age, and sex. However, Japanese workers today are not satisfied with the present system, and want to have more rewarding systems. What I would like to emphasize is that rewarding systems which are popular in most of the world except Japan, are not conductive to developing organizational flexibility. I suggest another non-rewarding remuneration system based on non-job characteristics. Job characteristics should be accounted for only when jobs are disliked by workers. Even a flat rate may serve this purpose if another way cannot be found. It will become more and more nonsensical to try to measure a worker's individual productivity.
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