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On 16 December 1992, Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK Ltd started producing cars at its "transplant" factory at Derby, England. Including investment at its Merseyside engine manufacturing plant, the total inward investment into the UK was upwards of L1 billion. This largest ever investment to date by a foreign company in the UK is aimed at securing, by the mid-1990s, a sizeable portion of the rapidly-growing European car market. The UK was chosen as the location for Toyota's European manufacturing plant for reasons which immediately reveal the strategic importance of HRM in sustaining the company's operations.
The investment decision was announced in April 1989, in the middle of the UK's longest-running recession and amid general indicators of economic gloom. The fillip given to both the regional and national economy by the investment did not go unnoticed by politicians and commentators. The paradox was that, in economic terms, the UK was at that time producing economic ratios which were extremely favourable for inward investment in manufacturing. Allied to this was the fact that there had been a seemingly favourable industrial relations climate for a substantial number of years. Summarized metaphorically, ten or more years of Conservative industrial relations legislation had changed the industrial relations climate from one of sustained "trench warfare", complete with damaging battles of attrition, to one of industrial relations based, supposedly, on mutuality and consensus[1].
In 1994, Toyota maintains a high-profile HRM policy. It is more than content to let the media present the company as a paradigm "benchmark" manufacturing company complete with a new "model" workforce apparently totally committed to corporate goals. This article examines the company's HRM policies and practices after the UK plant has been in operation for approximately one year. The explanatory framework of the article will develop Guest's[2] call for testable hypotheses about the impact of HRM policy. Accordingly, Toyota's HRM policies and practices will be construed as comprising a set of four policies designed to maximize[2]:
(1) The goal of organizational integration.
(2) The goal of employee commitment.
(3) The goal of flexibility and adaptability.
(4) The goal of quality.
The extent to which Toyota UK measures up to these one year after commencing production in the UK is evaluated. Suggestions for the future direction of research into...