International Journal of Business and Society, Vol. 14 No. 1, 2013, 135 - 148 INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF JOB ROTATION ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT AMONG PRODUCTION WORKERS IN JAPANESE COMPANIES Md Lazim Mohd Zin ♣ Universiti Utara Malaysia Faridahwati Mohd. Shamsudin Universiti Utara Malaysia CHANDRAKANTAN SUBRAMANIAM Universiti Utara Malaysia ♣ Corresponding author: Md Lazim Mohd Zin, School of Business Management, College of Business, Accounting Building, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia. Phone: 04-9283772. Fax: 04-9287117. E-mail: lazim@uum.edu.my. ABSTRACT The current study aims to investigate the infuence of job rotation on career development. Toward this objectives, a survey was carried out amongst 209 production workers in Japanese manufacturing companies in Malaysia. Factor analysis resulted in four distinct dimensions of job rotation namely interest, business knowledge, technical knowledge and administrative knowledge, while career development resulted as unidimension. Multiple regression results indicated that all dimensions of job rotation except business knowledge infuence career development. Implications of the fndings, potential limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed. Keywords: career development, job rotation, knowledge and skills, Japanese management style, production workers 1. INTRODUCTION The process of career development in an organisation relies on a variety of interventions due to the differences in employee career needs and varying in the career development resources available to them. The most widely used career development interventions include assessment centers, career coaching/counseling, cross-training, fexitime, job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, job sharing, sabbaticals and temporary assignments (Olorunsula, 2000; Thamhain, 1992). Numerous frms have used job rotation as a tool to motivate employees by providing task variety and enhancing employee socialization (Susan, 1996). In addition the value of job rotation has long been espoused in promoting employee learning, and career development