Diversity Management and Human Resource Management: Personnel System Reform and Working Practice Flexibility

The current socioeconomic environment requires Japanese companies to adopt diversity management as a method of human resource management, not only by accepting greater diversity of personnel but also by providing them opportunities to excel in the workplace, which will subsequently lead to better business performance. Based on a review of prior research, we hypothesize that doing so requires companies to establish workplace management practices that facilitate incorporating personnel with diverse qualities and values while simultaneously eliminating full-time work with regular overtime hours assigned; to be flexible in terms of working hours and place of employment; and to reform their human resources systems.

To verify our hypothesis, we analyzed specific factors related to diversity management that are commonly used as explanations for performance levels of personnel as explanatory variables, through conducting individual questionnaires targeting white-collar, full-time workers who held university degrees or a higher level of academic qualification. Our analysis model used performance levels of diverse personnel as a dependent variable and the following seven explanatory variables: a personnel system geared to diversity management (i.e., a non-seniority system based personnel management and self-directed career management), diversity and inclusion policies, measures to promote women's careers, efforts to eliminate long work hours, flexibility in work hours and place of employment, the means to provide managers with better work-life balance, and workplace culture respectful of diversity.