- When a Japanese automobile company buys an American plant, the American liaison must mediate the clash of work attitudes between the foreign management and native labor.
- Hunt Stevenson works for a large automobile manufacturer that has just been bought out by a large Japanese corporation. Suddenly finding himself having to justify his own job, he's forced to choose between redundancy or the seemingly inhuman Japanese work ethic that the new owners have brought with them.—Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>
- In a town in rural Pennsylvania, the automobile factory has been shut down for nine months, leaving the town economically distressed. A Japanese company, Assan Motors, has purchased the factory, but will need to be convinced that it is worth reopening. Hunt Stevenson goes to Japan to make a presentation to Assan's management, and the result is that Assan sends a management team to America and the factory is reopened, although the workers will earn a substantially lower wage than they had before the factory had originally closed. However, Hunt is a hero for having convinced management to reopen.
The culture clash is severe, as Japanese management demands far more regimentation and output than the workers are used to, and unpaid overtime is expected when output falls short of productivity standards. Management has little regard for the workers and the quality of their lives, focusing on productivity alone. The workers become agitated and their relationship with management becomes adversarial. Acting as employee liaison, Hunt tries to smooth things over, but is unable, and when a worker intentionally knocks over one of the Japanese managers during a company baseball game, the situation appears beyond repair.
Japanese management sees little point in keeping the factory open until Hunt contends that he can match the production of a Japanese factory in its best month, meaning 15,000 completed automobiles. Amused by this contention, Japanese management agrees that once this output is reached, the factory would remain open and wages would return to the levels operating before the original closing of the factory. Otherwise, the factory would close once again and the workers would receive nothing.
Hunt advises the workers of this deal, but his announcement is met with incredulity, and to appease them, he falsely relates that a lesser raise would still be earned once this output exceeded 13,000 automobiles. The workers give this a shot, but despite working long hours and on weekends, they conclude that the goal of 15,000 is unattainable, and decide to go for the raise that would come once 13,000 automobiles were completed. After attaining this goal, the workers walk out on management when a dispute arises. Now, Hunt must come clean, and tell his town that he made a deal for 15,000 automobiles, and that failure would result in no raises, which would devastate the town's local economy. Hunt has now gone from hero to goat, and his co-workers are furious.
However, they finally put their noses to the grindstone and put their differences with the Japanese managers aside as the senior executive from Japan is coming to check on the state of the factory. When the strict executive comes by, they have fallen slightly short of their 15,000 goal, but the Japanese executive is nonetheless impressed by the team spirit he sees in the factory. Liking the way that the Americans and Japanese are now working together, he decides to keep the factory open, and give the full raises, and the stage is set for an era of understanding among all those working at the factory. The management agrees to be partially less demanding on their requirements and pay the employees better while the workers agree to be more cooperative.
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