In terms of the relationships between headquarters and their subsidiaries,
headquarters human resources departments of the researched American firms make
performance appraisal/promotion systems that are strongly reflected by their
company’s vision/mission statements. The same performance appraisal/promotion
systems are basically applied for all employees worldwide. Some Japanese human
resources directors or general managers of the subsidiaries point out that the
appraisal systems can be utilized worldwide because the appraisal systems of the
American firms are much simpler than the appraisal systems of typical Japanese
firms. At the A5 firm, which executes rigid human resources management, the
same performance appraisal/promotion systems are applied for all of the employees
worldwide. The A3 firm employs the exact same performance management system
worldwide, only making difference in language based on the location of the
subsidiary. All appraisals are summarized and then translated back into English.
The performance appraisal systems of the A4 firm consist of
management-by-objectives and competency appraisal systems. The
competency-based appraisal systems are sufficiently affected by the A4 firm’s
vision/principle. While the performance appraisal/promotion systems are partially
modified by each business unit, the performance appraisal/promotion systems are applied for all employees within the business unit. The headquarters human
resources department of the A4 firm invites all human resources directors of the
subsidiaries and offers the directors training programs for the use of the appraisal
systems. At the A2 firm, a performance appraisal system is applied for all
senior-level managers than (including) general managers worldwide. One hundred
and fifty higher managers among 3,000 Japanese employees at the AS2 subsidiary
are evaluated by the performance appraisal system.