THE ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL DISTRIBUTION OF A CEMENT MANUFACTURING COMPANY IN THE MEIJI AND TAISHO ERA

Abstract

With the resources left in Onoda Cement Company (established in 1881), this study examined the transition of a company organization in the Meiji and Taisho era. It focused especially on its hiring process and personnel distribution based on the each employee's credentials. The findings are as follows:1) After 1901, due to the complexity of the company organization, the administrative department was expanded to five different sections. One of them was the engineering office which controlled the manufacturing department.2) Shortly after the establishment of the company, the workers were assigned to two separate positions; “office worker” and “field worker.” The office workers were in charge of management and the field workers carried the labor work at the manufacturing sites.3) The field workers were categorized into “workman and so forth” and “roustabout.” Furthermore, the former was subdivided into “factory hand” who were the regular staff, “trainee” who had a possibility to be employed as regular staff in the near future , and “temporary workers” who were employed on a temporary basis. The specific qualifications were required for each position.4) The percentage of the staff in the position of “workman and so forth,” which was consisted of “factory hand” and “trainee”, was forty to fifty out of all of the field workers. The temporary workers accounted for forty to fifty percent, as well. The roustabouts accounted for ten percent. The female laborer accounted for ten to fifteen percent, but none of them was treated as regular staff.5) At the manufacturing sites, the personnel distribution was adjusted corresponding to the number of each equipment/duty that the workers handled.6) By introducing the continuous kilns (Dieztsch's one), the three eight-hour shift system was adopted. Furthermore, the personnel distribution of factory hands was determined based on both the fixed number of personnel and the present ones.