英语论文网

An International Investigation of Problem-Solving Performance in the Semiconductor Industry

Melissa M. Appleyard, Clair Brown, and Linda Sattler
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 humanresource (HR) system (i.e., practices that structure work, develop skills, and rewardperformance) and knowledge system (i.e., information access, sharing andcontrol) are related to the problem-solving performance of engineers. Because of theshort product market life cycles in the semiconductor industry, expeditious problemsolving is an important performance goal. Therefore, this article examines the performanceof engineers in terms of the time it takes them to solve problems in thecontext of their firms’ HR and knowledge systems. It was anticipated during thisstudy that externally oriented organizational systems, which support individual careerperformance and mobility (an externally oriented HR system) and the use ofprivate knowledge sources (an externally oriented knowledge system), would beassociated with superior performance in terms of problem-solving speed. The findingssupport this hypothesis and demonstrate the importance of externally orientedHR systems and at the same time suggest the surprising insignificance of the orientationof the knowledge systems. These findings are applicable to engineers in thesample from the United States, whereas the findings for the Korean and Japaneseengineers are inconclusive. International variation is found where the U.S. engineerswork under the most externally oriented and the Japanese engineers under the leastexternally oriented systems, and the Korean engineers fall in between. The findingsof this article suggest that when constructing a work environment for new productdevelopment, managers should take into account how the underlying components oftheir organizational systems contribute to an internal or external focus, and howthis orientation may influence performance.
Introduction
How should firms structure their human resource(HR) and knowledge systems to supportknowledge acquisition and problemsolving by their engineers responsible for new productdevelopment? Companies creating new productsin industries with short product generations relentlesslycombine new internal knowledge with externalknowledge to keep pace with the industry (Dosi andMarengo, 1994; Iansiti, 1998; Tyre and von Hippel,
1997). In the electronics industry, the value of knowledgespecific to a product generation depreciatesrapidly (Irwin and Klenow, 1994; Teece, 2000,
The authors are grateful to colleagues in UC at Berkeley’s Competitive
Semiconductor Manufacturing Center. In particular, thanks toNeil Berglund, Ben Campbell, B. Y. Cheon, Michael Flynn, DaveHodges, Kiyoo Itoh, Erling Larsen, Rob Leachman, David Mowery,
Greg Pinsonnealt, Dan Rascher, and John Schuler. Insightful commentsfrom the journal’s editor and two anonymousreviewers are appreciated,as well as helpful suggestions from participants in Darden’s
Emerging Research Seminar. Thanks to B. Y. Cheon for assisting withthe translation and distribution of the survey in Korea. The authors arealso grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Portland State University’sSchool of Business Administration Foundation, ITEC/COEat Doshisha University, the Darden Foundation, and the Batten Institute
for funding and to the Institute of Industri本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。