This research note presents a brief and preliminaryoverview of the outcomes of tworecent surveys in the UK, in comparison withthe results of a similar survey carried out inJapan, at a simple level of analysis. Thesesurveys are part of the global comparativeproject initiated at the Institute of IndustrialResearch at Keio Gijuku University in Japanearlier in the 1990s. The research aims toidentify the career development patterns andworking environment that encourage scientistsand engineers employed in research anddevelopment. Given the increasing strategicimportance of R&D for industry to maintain acompetitive edge in today's global market, it isthe quality of the people who work in R&Dthat is crucial. According to a UK industrialist,'investment, technology and scale of operationscan be copied, but not the quality of theemployees". Clearly, how the R&D personnelare managed becomes a strategic issue.The original Keio survey focuse d on Japanwas mounted in 1994. This probably reflectedthe underlying anxiety in Japan that the JapaneseR&D communities lacked creativity, andthis would hamper the Japanese industry'sglobal competitiveness in the long-term. Asher technological capability had caught upwith the West, it would be crucial for her to beat the forefront of scientific and technologicaladvance by creating her own original ideasand making new discoveries rather than improvingon the existing technologies. The secand stage of the research shifted its focus on tothe international study, and in 1997 a newsurvey was mounted in Japan. Using a revisedquestionnaire that could be used to facilitateinternational comparison, the suvey was replicatedin other countries including the UK. Theinternational project now targets some tencountries worldwide.
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