1. An International Investigation of Problem-Solving Performance in the Semiconductor Industry
- Author
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Appleyard, Melissa M., Brown, Clair, and Sattler, Linda
- Subjects
Product development -- Investigations ,Problem solving -- Investigations ,Semiconductor industry -- Investigations ,Human resource departments -- Computer programs ,Human resource departments -- Investigations ,Time to market ,Company legal issue ,Human resources management software ,Semiconductor industry ,Business ,Business, general - Abstract
To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2006.00189.x Byline: Melissa M. Appleyard, Clair Brown, Linda Sattler Abstract: Using a unique survey of engineers in major semiconductor companies located in Japan, South Korea, and the United States, this article analyzes how a firm's human resource (HR) system (i.e., practices that structure work, develop skills, and reward performance) and knowledge system (i.e., information access, sharing and control) are related to the problem-solving performance of engineers. Because of the short product market life cycles in the semiconductor industry, expeditious problem solving is an important performance goal. Therefore, this article examines the performance of engineers in terms of the time it takes them to solve problems in the context of their firms' HR and knowledge systems. It was anticipated during this study that externally oriented organizational systems, which support individual career performance and mobility (an externally oriented HR system) and the use of private knowledge sources (an externally oriented knowledge system), would be associated with superior performance in terms of problem-solving speed. The findings support this hypothesis and demonstrate the importance of externally oriented HR systems and at the same time suggest the surprising insignificance of the orientation of the knowledge systems. These findings are applicable to engineers in the sample from the United States, whereas the findings for the Korean and Japanese engineers are inconclusive. International variation is found where the U.S. engineers work under the most externally oriented and the Japanese engineers under the least externally oriented systems, and the Korean engineers fall in between. The findings of this article suggest that when constructing a work environment for new product development, managers should take into account how the underlying components of their organizational systems contribute to an internal or external focus, and how this orientation may influence performance. Article note: Address correspondence to: Melissa M. Appleyard, School of Business Administration, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751. Tel: (503) 725-9581. Fax: (503) 725-5850. E-mail: MelissaA@sba.pdx.edu.
- Published
- 2006