Trevor’s Work took Takamiya’s original study, in which he had participated, a step further after Takamiya’s death. Together with Michael White, he expanded the scope to three U.K.-based Japanese manufacturing companies and one U.K.-based German company. Although this later study observed White-collar workers in the nonmanufacturing sector, it did not draw direct comparisons with British companies. This discussion is thus confined to the manufacturing sector. The primary data for the study derived from comprehensive, take-home questionnaire that asked the same questions of employees at the Japanese, U.K., U.s., and German firms.
The observation that Japanese corporate efficiency relates to production hits the mark. But Trevor’s study did not ask how production boosts efficiency; it, too, overlooked worker’ skills. This is perhaps because the companies surveyed had not been in operation long enough for the formation of intellectual skills. The authors, however, did not even explore the requirements for the formation of intellectual skills: compensation and merit rating system that provide the incentives to acquire such skills. Lacking appropriate compensation, neither workers’ interest in production nor such arrangements, the authors felt no need to make in-depth observations of production or workshop practices.