In the U.S., few electronics companies have any union representation, and employment practices are more widely varied across companies than in Japan. Therefore, USTech's employment system cannot necessarily be thought of as representative of other large U.S. semiconductor companies. We will indicate which practices are widespread and which seem to be idiosyncratic in our analysis of USTech. JapanTech's HR system relies on teamwork and group responsibility with engineers engaging in a broad range of job tasks. Their education is developed through company-based classes, mentoring, and job rotation.
Compensation reflects specific career ladders rather than company or individual performance.
Engineers participate in knowledge sharing through presentations at conferences and patent applications. Manufacturing engineers are prohibited from making unauthorized improvements in the process. The development engineers are given individual autonomy and responsibility with large monetary rewards for good performance. USTech's practices reflect educational requirements in development and fabrication, the leading edge nature of the technology under development, and the difficulty in qualifying a logic chip's characteristics after process modifications. Compared to USTech, other U.S. semiconductor companies have less strict policies of knowledge sharing, since they usually believe they have something to learn in the process.