To Whom Does This Company Belong? An Instructional Case Unit Concerning Japanese Management and Comparative Corporate Governance on the 1988 Labor Union Coup at Okuma Corporation, a Japanese Machine Tool Manufacturer

This is an instructional case unit designed to introduce students to comparative management practice and comparative corporate governance. Employee participation (management consultation) in the modern Japanese industrial enterprise is dramatically explored by presenting students with a corporate crisis in managerial prerogative faced by the 1988 enterprise labor union and labor union executive of Okuma Corporation. Okuma is global leader in machine tools manufacture, based in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. An unusual feature of the Okuma Case concerns the agent for managerial change with whom students are invited to identify: the executive of Okuma Corporation's enterprise labor union and its recourse to the firm's management council. This instructional case unit contains an instructor's manual, background information, and suggested questions.