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The effect of corporate governance on firms’ decent work policies in Japan
Author(s) -
Kubo Katsuyuki
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1111/1744-7941.12176
Subject(s) - corporate governance , work (physics) , business , equity (law) , human resources , globalization , human resource management , job security , accounting , finance , economics , market economy , management , political science , mechanical engineering , law , engineering
It is often argued that globalization of financial markets leads to change in firms’ human resource practices and employees’ well‐being. To examine the effect of corporate governance on employees’ well‐being, we examine the determinants of firm policies on decent work. Decent work was proposed as a goal by the International Labour Organization, and includes such dimensions as ‘work in conditions of freedom’, ‘equity in work’ and ‘security in work’. We develop a scoring system for firms’ policies on decent work using data on 1258 of Japan's listed firms in 2015. Using this unique dataset, we examine the effect of foreign ownership and outside director ratio on these scores. There is a positive relationship between these corporate mechanisms and firms’ policies. It is suggested that decent work may be promoted by a change in corporate governance.