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Japanese Foreign Direct Investment: Varieties of Capitalism, Employment Practices and Worker Resistance in Poland

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Japanese Foreign Direct Investment: Varieties of Capitalism, Employment Practices and Worker Resistance in Poland JAPANESE FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM, EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES AND WORKER RESISTANCE IN POLAND Maciej Bancarzewski Submitted to the University of Hertfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2015 ii ABSTRACT This research contributes to an understanding of Japanese Foreign Investment (JFDI) in Poland, by using a Variety of Capitalism approach and drawing on literature from employment relations. It examines firstly, the extent to which Japanese production and managerial institutions and practices can be transplanted to different economic and cultural environments; and secondly, the character of workers’ response towards these practices, in the context of JFDI in Poland. It draws on primary data drawn from interviews conducted with the managers and workers in five firms in a Japanese electronics manufacturing cluster in Toruń, Northern Poland, as well as the policy makers, researchers and journalists on a regional level. First, the transfer of Japanese management ‘style’ is considered in terms of recruitment, training practices, issues of monitoring and discipline and quality assurance policies. This study reveals that the transfer of Japanese typical practices is of minor importance to Japanese corporations based in Poland, and the character of these practices in the Polish workplace is peripheral. However, the subordination of labour is brought by the precarisation of employment, rather than the implementation of Japanese quality policies. Second, the focus of the research is on the response of workers and finds that they did not remain passive actors in this process and resisted the adapted form of Japanisation in Poland. Although the role of formal trade unions was limited, the data pointed to other forms of resistance, both conventional and novel, from sabotage, absenteeism, humour to insubordination and the use of blogging sites. In the context of the researched labour process, the empirical findings point to markers of collectivism in all forms of worker resistance and hence identified that the collective worker not only has not disappeared from both the labour process debate and the workplace itself, but, even if not evidently, is present through the resistance to management practices and control. Key words: Varieties of Capitalism, FDI, Japanisation, Poland, employment relations, management transfer, workers’ resistance, collectivism iii DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Maciej Albert Bancarzewski, declare that this dissertation entitled Japanese Foreign Direct Investment: Varieties of Capitalism, Employment Practices and Worker Resistance in Poland and the work presented in it are my own. I confirm that: This work was done wholly while in candidature for a Ph.D. at the University of Hertfordshire; Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this dissertation is entirely my own work; I have acknowledged all main sources of help. Maciej Albert Bancarzewski, 10th February 2015 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank my Ph.D. supervisors Professor Jane Hardy and Doctor Graham Hollinshead. It has been an honour to be your student, and I am grateful for all you support, motivation and, especially, your patience during all my crises of confidence and wrong theoretical turns. Words will never express my gratitude for your help and guidance. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to The University of Hertfordshire who sponsored my studies. My thanks also go to all the workers and managers at Crystal Park who found time to talk to me and share their experience and opinions. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Ela for her constant support and patience throughout this project. Thank you. v CONTENTS List of abbreviations and acronyms......................................................................................ix List of tables............................................................................................................................xv List of figures.........................................................................................................................xvi List of maps...........................................................................................................................xvii Chapter One: Introduction.....................................................................................................2 1.1 Motivation and context.........................................................................................................2 1.2 The wider context of foreign direct investment and Japanisation........................................7 1.3 Research questions ..............................................................................................................8 1.4 Empirical focus ..................................................................................................................10 1.5 Conceptual framework .......................................................................................................13 1.6 Methodology...................................................................................................................... 14 1.7 Structure of the thesis ........................................................................................................ 15 Chapter Two: National and regional patterns of Japanese Foreign Investment in Poland......................................................................................................................................17 2.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................17 2.2 The overview of the Japanese outward investment............................................................17 2.3 Japanese foreign direct investment in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)................ ..23 2.4 Japan’s economic presence in Poland.............................................................................. ..25 2.5 Japanese investment in Toruń, Kujawy-Pomerania Province.......................................... ..32 2.6 Conclusions........................................................................................................................43 Chapter Three: Japanese and Polish Varieties of Capitalism.............................................45 3.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................45 3.2 Economic transformation in Poland...................................................................................46 3.2.1 Economy....................................................................................................................47 vi 3.3 Varieties of Capitalism: conceptual framework..................................................................52 3.4 Polish and Japanese varieties of capitalism.........................................................................57 3.4.1 Poland........................................................................................................................59 3.4.2 Japan..........................................................................................................................63 3.5 Polish and Japanese employment relations........................................................................66 3.5.1 Poland........................................................................................................................67 3.5.2 Japan..........................................................................................................................84 3.6 The critique of Varieties of Capitalism Approach...............................................................91 3.7 Conclusions........................................................................................................................92 Chapter Four: Foreign Direct Investment and workplace institutions as contradictory and contested terrains............................................................................................................94 4.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................94 4.2 Conceptual underpinnings..................................................................................................95 4.2.1 Labour Process Theory..............................................................................................95 4.2.2 Resistance..................................................................................................................99 4.3 The phenomenon of Japanisation.....................................................................................105 4.4 Global transfer of Japanese managerial practices............................................................109 4.5 Conclusions......................................................................................................................117 Chapter Five: Methodology.................................................................................................120 5.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................120 5.2 Choice of research methods..............................................................................................121
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