Conflicts

1. Stress-related illnesses
In 2007 in Cannon Denmark appeared a stress related illness problem which resulted from the
changes in the organization and increasing pressure to perform. Another cause could be the fact
that the Denmark government strengthened the anti-smoking legislation in the same period and
the companies were forced to make changes as well in order to respect the legislation.
Because it caused many problems for the managers, human resources and increased the
workload for other employees, Cannon Denmark started to develop a policy to reduce stress in
the workplace but soon realized that it was not enough and started to examine the European and
global Canon policies as well.

2. Employees not allowed to sit down during working hours

In Japan, Canon Electronics Inc. forced its employees to stand during their work and demanded
that they walk at a specific pace because the representative director of Canon Electronics
believed that by forcing employees to stand, not only saved money but increased productivity
and enhanced employee relationships. It is fair to assume that people feel under pressure when
they are not allowed to sit down during working hours and as the Canon Denmark case showed,
work related stress has a negative effect on the working process and focusing on preventing
stressful situations is crucial. Also, it is important that good practices from one company to be
applied to the whole group.
It is unclear on how or even if this case was addressed because of the authors difficulty to
understand the Japanese language and by Canons avoidance to issue an official report it also
points to a lack of transparency in reporting of this issue.

CSR policies post-conflicts

The main focus of this case study is on the comparison of Canons sustainability reporting on
employee maters between the years 2007 and 2010
Since founding, Canon promoted Health First as one of its Guiding principles but in 2007 it
became very clear in their sustainability report that they shifted from reactive to proactive on
the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases through lifestyle checks and tests performed during
periodic medical examinations and focusing more on cholesterol and smoking rates.
- They believe that its better to prevent than treat the problems
The main focus in 2007 was stress management due to the Canon Denmark case, and was seen
as an opportunity to develop a new action based policy that covered :
- Work-life balance
- Aging workforce
- Health and safety
- Stress management
- Respect and tolerance
- Smoking, alcohol and substance abuse
- Nutrition and exercise
Also, Canon implemented no overtime day hoping it will contribute to the work-life balance,
and their in-house ratio of 80% adherence to prescribed working hours on no overtime days
was achieved in 2009 when the number of overtime hours worked per employee was down by
approximately 100 hours than the year before.
The data registered until 2010 regarding cholesterol and smoking rates show that the targets
have been exceeded.
Starting with 2010, Canon continued to focus on active encouragement for healthy work and life
balance but with emphasis on education, development and performance and introduced in 2011
seminars for managers in China and Vietnam and intercultural training seminars at operational
sites in Europe. Overall, three quarters of employees were satisfied because Canon met their
needs.