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A retrospective and prospective analysis of HRM research in Chinese firms: Implications and directions for future study
Abstract
Based on an extensive review and analysis of 182 articles published in the field of human resource management that focus on China since its economic reform, this article discusses the major reasons for the growth in this area of research. We identify five major categories spanning research and practice, ownership type, and research method. Further, we examine issues and deficiencies in the research literature. Based on our analysis of each research category, we present a substantial series of research questions and implications for future research on HRM in China. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... Scientific analysis of, and academic debate on, Chinese FDI and its characteristics has started, with a growing number of publications in recent years (Fan Zhu, and Nyland 2012). There remains, however, a paucity of research in specific areas such as the impact of FDI from the biggest emerging country on IHRM (Cooke 2012;Cooke and Lin 2012;Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri 2008). Moreover, scholars (cf. ...
... Recent reviews, such as those of Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008), Cooke (2009) andZheng (2013), report the growth of SIHRM studies in China-based HRM literature, attempting to develop an SIHRM model and test the model for Chinese MNCs (Shen 2005;Zheng 2013). However, Shen's (2005) and Zheng's (2013) models draw heavily on the previous integrative SIHRM models (cf. ...
... There is, however, little research on the SHIRM of Chinese MNCs to unveil how Chinese MNCs link their people management to their IBS, and how this has influenced the firms' overseas behaviour (cf. Cooke 2009;Warner and Nankervis 2012;Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri 2008). This study is an effort to address these research gaps. ...
... Using the method of searching by each journal selected and screening the papers that showed up proved to be a more reliable, though very time-consuming, method than using keywords search on Proquest and Business Source Premier databases. More papers on HRM were collected in my review than were collected by Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008) who used Proquest and Business Source Premier databases to locate their papers that covered a longer period than mine (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). This is the case even when a narrower notion of HRM is used to cover the overlapping period (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) of the two studies. ...
... They did not include some of the 'softer' aspects of HRM that can, as argued by HR enthusiasts, make the most significant impact on firm's performance. Given the heightening competition and the increasing challenge of talent management faced by firms in China, the deficit of studies on SHRM represents a missed opportunity for academics as well as practitioners (see below and Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008) for more discussion). ...
... We also need studies that provide greater links with the strategy literature to explore the level of integration (or lack of it) between business strategy and HR strategy. It should be noted here that Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri's (2008) review paper also highlighted this important theme for future studies. ...
... Using the method of searching by each journal selected and screening the papers that showed up proved to be a more reliable, though very time-consuming, method than using keywords search on Proquest and Business Source Premier databases. More papers on HRM were collected in my review than were collected by Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008) who used Proquest and Business Source Premier databases to locate their papers that covered a longer period than mine (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). This is the case even when a narrower notion of HRM is used to cover the overlapping period (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) of the two studies. ...
... They did not include some of the 'softer' aspects of HRM that can, as argued by HR enthusiasts, make the most significant impact on firm's performance. Given the heightening competition and the increasing challenge of talent management faced by firms in China, the deficit of studies on SHRM represents a missed opportunity for academics as well as practitioners (see below and Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008) for more discussion). ...
... We also need studies that provide greater links with the strategy literature to explore the level of integration (or lack of it) between business strategy and HR strategy. It should be noted here that Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri's (2008) review paper also highlighted this important theme for future studies. ...
During recent years there has been a growing interest in the way patterns of employment relations are changing in China. This up-to-the-minute book reviews the policy and practice of human resource management, work and employment in China over the last fifty years at both the macro and micro level. It fills the gaps in existing literature by addressing a number of thematic issues: the growing inequality in employment public sector reform pay systems vocational training. It explores, contemplates and reveals this dynamic subject through a combination of rigorous research and first-hand interviews with Chinese practitioners, and is a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in Chinese society, Asian studies, comparative studies, human resource management, international business and employment relations.
... Using the method of searching by each journal selected and screening the papers that showed up proved to be a more reliable, though very time-consuming, method than using keywords search on Proquest and Business Source Premier databases. More papers on HRM were collected in my review than were collected by Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008) who used Proquest and Business Source Premier databases to locate their papers that covered a longer period than mine (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). This is the case even when a narrower notion of HRM is used to cover the overlapping period (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) of the two studies. ...
... They did not include some of the 'softer' aspects of HRM that can, as argued by HR enthusiasts, make the most significant impact on firm's performance. Given the heightening competition and the increasing challenge of talent management faced by firms in China, the deficit of studies on SHRM represents a missed opportunity for academics as well as practitioners (see below and Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008) for more discussion). ...
... We also need studies that provide greater links with the strategy literature to explore the level of integration (or lack of it) between business strategy and HR strategy. It should be noted here that Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri's (2008) review paper also highlighted this important theme for future studies. ...
The approach to managing human resources has changed significantly in China over the last twenty-five years as its transformation from a state planned economy to a market-oriented economy continues. By adopting a broad notion of HRM, while remaining sympathetic to the strong emphasis on relationship management in the Chinese culture, Fang Lee Cooke builds on the foundations of traditional Chinese HRM practice and brings it right up to date, including analysis of currently under-explored issues such as diversity management, talent management, new pay schemes, and performance management.
... Furthermore, many researchers have claimed that western HRM has been practised in China either with Chinese characteristics, hybridised features or a possibly increasing degree of convergence, thus reflecting the influence of foreign multinational corporations that have invested in China (Ding, Ge and Warner 2004;Zhu 2005;Warner 2008). While research on HRM in China has addressed several important questions (Zhu, Thomson and De Cieri 2008a), it is widely agreed that further research is needed. More specifically, reviews of research conducted to date have consistently identified a need for research to explore strategic integration of HRM in the Chinese context and its contribution to firm performance (Zhu et al. 2008a;Cooke 2009;Zheng and Lamond 2009). ...
... While research on HRM in China has addressed several important questions (Zhu, Thomson and De Cieri 2008a), it is widely agreed that further research is needed. More specifically, reviews of research conducted to date have consistently identified a need for research to explore strategic integration of HRM in the Chinese context and its contribution to firm performance (Zhu et al. 2008a;Cooke 2009;Zheng and Lamond 2009). ...
... Furthermore, SOE reform conducted in late 1990s and rapidly developing non-state sector have brought moves towards decentralisation, deregulation and cessation of government administration of enterprises, which has greatly reduced the government's intervention in enterprises' operations and offered enterprises discretion to run their businesses (Saich 2003(Saich , 2004. Meanwhile, technological advancement due to the rapid economic development has put pressure on firms to gain competitive advantage through effective HRM practices (Zhu et al. 2008a;Law, Song, Wong and Chen 2009). As a result of these changes and the government's endeavour to establish a modern enterprise system, enterprises are experiencing much fewer government constraints and have more autonomy to compete in the marketplace. ...
In the context of dramatic changes in China, this paper investigates the role of organisational effectiveness as a mediator in the relationship between the strategic integration of human resource management (HRM) and firm financial performance. Our study is based on the survey responses of 618 managers in state-owned and private (domestic and foreign-invested) enterprises in China. While most studies of the linkage between HRM practices and firm performance in China have measured firm financial performance or used an ad hoc combination of financial and non-financial indicators, we argue for a distinction to be made between non-financial organisational effectiveness and financial performance. As hypothesised, controlling for sector (state-owned vs. private), we find positive relationships between perceived changing business environment and strategic integration of HRM, and between strategic integration of HRM and organisational effectiveness. Our research adds an important conceptual link by showing that organisational effectiveness plays an important role as a mediator in the HRM and firm financial performance relationship and reinforces the importance of the organisational and environmental context for HRM.
... Labor Contract Law that has already formed significant changes to the management of people in PRC (Shen, 2007a). From a theoretical and practical viewpoint, PRC is an important context for studying human resource management (HRM), oft criticized for being a western concept (Shenkar, 1994;Zheng & Lamond, 2009;Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008b). The implementation of this law sees the Chinese government put in place a new set of regulations designed to address increasing labor unrest and problems with employment relations in China. ...
... While there is much research on the influence of culture and guanxi on management decision making (see for example, Wang & Nicholas, 2007), little is known about what influences management professionals and practitioners in their decision making regarding employment practices (Zheng et al., 2009;Zhu et al., 2008b). The impact of these institutional changes need to move beyond analyses of American and European multinationals in China (Zheng et al., 2009) to examining their impact on Chinese firms (thus creating a 'truer' perspective on Chinese management). ...
... PRC, owing to its unique and idiosyncratic institutional context and pressures, can be described as a region that is characterized by a highly uncertain environment (Daft, 2007) and unique institutional development (Davies & Walters, 2004;Warner, 1996). An example of this inimitable institutional landscape has been the introduction of labor relations contractual law in 2007 which had been in the making since the 1970s during the economic reforms (Shen, 2007a;Zhu et al., 2008b). In addition, analyses of China's institutional landscape highlights the nature of its transitional economy (Jiuhua Zhu, Cooper, De Cieri, Bruce Thomson, & Zhao, 2008;Le Chien & Truong, 2005;Warner et al., 2005;Ying & Warner, 2005) in which attempts to hinge its development on the global economy have factored much political and legislative interventions to promote institutional and organizational changes in its economic reform. ...
... Mayrhofer, 2012). There has been growing interest in the HRM literature in the rise of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by emerging-market MNCs, and its implications for people management (Khavul, Benson, & Datta, 2010;Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). Key questions that emerge include not only the transferability of country-of-origin HR models, but also the extent to which such firms cope in moving into an environment with different-and, in some cases, strongerregulation of labor in their country of origin (Khavul et al., 2010;Zhu et al., 2008). ...
... There has been growing interest in the HRM literature in the rise of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by emerging-market MNCs, and its implications for people management (Khavul, Benson, & Datta, 2010;Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). Key questions that emerge include not only the transferability of country-of-origin HR models, but also the extent to which such firms cope in moving into an environment with different-and, in some cases, strongerregulation of labor in their country of origin (Khavul et al., 2010;Zhu et al., 2008). An influential body of theoretical and applied literature suggests that strong rights for employees may deter FDI (Cooney, Gahan, & Mitchell, 2011). ...
... It has been argued that formal private property rights may have very limited impact on the actual regulation of labor, reflecting the fact that many countries do not have homogenous legal systems and variations in enforcement capabilities (see Cooney et al., 2011;Wood & Brewster, 2007). While firms may be challenged in coping with differing or changing legal norms, they may retain the autonomy to adjust practices in other areas not so closely regulated (Zhu et al., 2008). Indeed, it could be argued that firms may compensate for labor regulation through the usage of compensatory HR practices (see also Boselie, Farndale, & Paauwe, 2012;Brewster & Mayrhofer, 2012). ...
In this article, we explore what determines the decisions of emerging-market multinational corporations (MNCs) to invest in Africa and whether this is any different from their counterparts in mature markets, focusing on the HRM context. More specifically, we explore the effect of potential host-country wages, local capabilities, and the relative rights of owners versus workers on foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions, as well as other relevant factors such as mineral resources and corruption. We found that emerging-market MNCs were not deterred by relatively weak property owner rights (as indeed, was also the case for their counterparts from mature markets); hence, any weakening of countervailing worker rights is unlikely to unlock significant new FDI. However, emerging-market MNCs were more likely to invest in low-wage economies and did not appear to be concerned by local skills gaps; the latter would reflect the relative de facto ease with which even partially skilled expatriate labor can be imported into many African countries. At the same time, a reliance on low-wage, unskilled labor, coupled with the extensive usage of expatriates, brings with it a wide range of challenges for the HR manager, which a firm committed to cost-cutting may lack the capabilities to resolve. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... Managing a local workforce in an institutional and socio-political context like China raises significant new challenges for international human resource management (IHRM). These challenges relate to: the applicability of Western developed HRM policies and practices in emerging economies (Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008); the effectiveness of subsidiaries' HR practices in less developed markets (Lawler, Chen, Wu, Bae, & Bai, 2010;Zhu & Dowling, 2000a); HR issues in transitional economies (Bruton, Ahlstrom, & Chan, 2000;Ferreira & Alon, 2008;Zhu, Cooper, De Cieri, & Dowling, 2005); simultaneous globalized and localized pressures on HRM roles (Chen & Wilson, 2003;Farndale et al., 2010); and the embeddedness of host country HRM characteristics (Gamble, 2006;Warner, 2008). ...
... How people are managed in MNE subsidiaries has thus become a key issue discussed in studies of FDI in China (Lau & Bruton, 2008). This is not only because the inward FDI has brought technical and managerial expertise, especially HRM expertise (Zhu et al., 2008), but also because of China's complex institutional factors. These include: ownership forms (Gong, Shenkar, Luo, & Nyaw, 2005); relationship (guanxi) networks (Chen, Chen, & Xin, 2004;Luo, 2007); the legacy of the old planned system (Warner, 2009;Zhang, Nyland & Zhu, 2010); and unique culture (Adler et al., 1986;Walsh & Zhu, 2007). ...
... These include: ownership forms (Gong, Shenkar, Luo, & Nyaw, 2005); relationship (guanxi) networks (Chen, Chen, & Xin, 2004;Luo, 2007); the legacy of the old planned system (Warner, 2009;Zhang, Nyland & Zhu, 2010); and unique culture (Adler et al., 1986;Walsh & Zhu, 2007). The most commonly studied HRM activities in China include the core HRM activities of: recruitment and selection; training and development; compensation and rewards; and performance management (Zhu et al., 2008). Although the current recessionary climate in China has slowed down the high growth rates of MNEs, the dynamic competitive environment continues to present challenges for HRM (Hartmann, Feisel & Schober, 2010). ...
... Scientific analysis of, and academic debate on, Chinese FDI and its characteristics has started, with a growing number of publications in recent years (Fan Zhu, and Nyland 2012). There remains, however, a paucity of research in specific areas such as the impact of FDI from the biggest emerging country on IHRM (Cooke 2012;Cooke and Lin 2012;Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri 2008). Moreover, scholars (cf. ...
... Recent reviews, such as those of Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008), Cooke (2009) andZheng (2013), report the growth of SIHRM studies in China-based HRM literature, attempting to develop an SIHRM model and test the model for Chinese MNCs (Shen 2005;Zheng 2013). However, Shen's (2005) and Zheng's (2013) models draw heavily on the previous integrative SIHRM models (cf. ...
... There is, however, little research on the SHIRM of Chinese MNCs to unveil how Chinese MNCs link their people management to their IBS, and how this has influenced the firms' overseas behaviour (cf. Cooke 2009;Warner and Nankervis 2012;Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri 2008). This study is an effort to address these research gaps. ...
Strategic international human resource management (SIHRM) is crucial for the effective leveraging of human resources in organizations to achieve the desired business strategies. There is a rich collection of studies on western multinational corporations (MNCs) in China, but few studies that explore the SIHRM of Chinese MNCs operating overseas. This study utilizes cross-level, in-depth interviews to analyse SIHRM of three large Chinese multinationals. The paper contributes to literature by addressing two contextual SIHRM issues, namely the characteristics of the SIHRM for Chinese multinationals and how their SIHRM orientation facilitates their international investment and operation. The findings indicate that organizational transformation is the starting point for latecomers matching their international HRM strategies. Their SIHRM approaches, such as forming learning organizations, reliance on host-country nationals, reconciling both home and host-country effects and promoting 'best practices', facilitate their international operations.
... Managing a local workforce in an institutional and socio-political context like China raises significant new challenges for international human resource management (IHRM). These challenges relate to: the applicability of Western developed HRM policies and practices in emerging economies (Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008); the effectiveness of subsidiaries' HR practices in less developed markets (Lawler, Chen, Wu, Bae, & Bai, 2010;Zhu & Dowling, 2000a); HR issues in transitional economies (Bruton, Ahlstrom, & Chan, 2000;Ferreira & Alon, 2008;Zhu, Cooper, De Cieri, & Dowling, 2005); simultaneous globalized and localized pressures on HRM roles (Chen & Wilson, 2003;Farndale et al., 2010); and the embeddedness of host country HRM characteristics (Gamble, 2006;Warner, 2008). ...
... How people are managed in MNE subsidiaries has thus become a key issue discussed in studies of FDI in China (Lau & Bruton, 2008). This is not only because the inward FDI has brought technical and managerial expertise, especially HRM expertise (Zhu et al., 2008), but also because of China's complex institutional factors. These include: ownership forms (Gong, Shenkar, Luo, & Nyaw, 2005); relationship (guanxi) networks (Chen, Chen, & Xin, 2004;Luo, 2007); the legacy of the old planned system (Warner, 2009;Zhang, Nyland & Zhu, 2010); and unique culture (Adler et al., 1986;Walsh & Zhu, 2007). ...
... These include: ownership forms (Gong, Shenkar, Luo, & Nyaw, 2005); relationship (guanxi) networks (Chen, Chen, & Xin, 2004;Luo, 2007); the legacy of the old planned system (Warner, 2009;Zhang, Nyland & Zhu, 2010); and unique culture (Adler et al., 1986;Walsh & Zhu, 2007). The most commonly studied HRM activities in China include the core HRM activities of: recruitment and selection; training and development; compensation and rewards; and performance management (Zhu et al., 2008). Although the current recessionary climate in China has slowed down the high growth rates of MNEs, the dynamic competitive environment continues to present challenges for HRM (Hartmann, Feisel & Schober, 2010). ...
China's significance as a destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) is a major factor in Asia-Pacific economic growth. This paper identifies important yet unexplored matters of human resource management (HRM) in multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries in China. Specifically, the study explores the alignment issues between managers and employees with respect to their knowledge of HR practices, their experience of HR practices, and their perceived effectiveness of HR practices. Both interviews and a survey covering seven MNE subsidiaries operating in China finds a lack of alignment between managers and employees in each instance, for example, in their views of intended and actual HR practices and perceived effectiveness of these practices in the areas of performance assessment, recruitment and selection and career development. The implications of the differences for managers of MNEs operating in China are identified and discussed. The limitations of the study are acknowledged and areas for further study are also suggested.
... Since the mid-2000s, cross-fertilization between HRM and other fields such as strategy, economics, organizational psychology and sociology, has been more frequent. This has enabled HRM scholars to bring together theories from other disciplines to provide an interdisciplinary picture of what constitutes 'real' HR practices (Zhu et al., 2008) in Chinese SOEs. As indicated in Table 4, studies published since the mid-2000s have mobilized a range of theories, such as institutional theory, strategic HRM and OB theories (also see Figure 1). ...
... Second, ownership type has been absorbed into the quantitative models as a control variable because of its predicted effect on organizational performance (Zhang & Jia, 2010;Zhu et al., 2008). Akhtar et al. (2008), for instance, controlled for the impact of ownership type in their model and observed that the adoption of strategic HRM improved product performance. ...
This review study was conducted in memory of Professor David Lepak, the late Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Human Resource Management, for his contribution to the development of strategic human resource management (HRM) research and the influence of his work in strategic HRM research in the Chinese context. Drawing on 133 articles from 49 English journals, we show that Lepak and colleagues’ four major theoretical frameworks (universal and contingency perspectives of HRM, HR architecture, employee-oriented perspective of HRM and multiple dimensions of HR systems) have been the most instrumental in guiding strategic HRM research in China. We also assess the extent to which China-based studies have extended the conceptual arguments and analytical frameworks that Lepak and co-authors have put forward. By discussing some of the changes in the way businesses in China have (re)configured their business models, we draw attention to several avenues to make strategic HRM research more reflective of the societal context and relevant to practice.
... Since the mid-2000s, cross-fertilization between HRM and other fields such as strategy, economics, organizational psychology and sociology, has been more frequent. This has enabled HRM scholars to bring together theories from other disciplines to provide an interdisciplinary picture of what constitutes 'real' HR practices (Zhu et al., 2008) in Chinese SOEs. As indicated in Table 4, studies published since the mid-2000s have mobilized a range of theories, such as institutional theory, strategic HRM and OB theories (also see Figure 1). ...
... Second, ownership type has been absorbed into the quantitative models as a control variable because of its predicted effect on organizational performance (Zhang & Jia, 2010;Zhu et al., 2008). Akhtar et al. (2008), for instance, controlled for the impact of ownership type in their model and observed that the adoption of strategic HRM improved product performance. ...
Over the past two decades, there has been a proliferation of research on human resource management (HRM) in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as a result of the wide-reaching state-sector reform of the late 1980s. This article aims to provide a systematic review of literature on this topic and capture the nature of HRM in Chinese SOEs, both in research and practice. The article draws on 178 studies from 43 English academic journals over a period of 25 years (1993–2017). In analysing this literature and by taking stock of theoretical frameworks, research methods, themes and analysis of academic articles in this area, we have gained a number of insights. The study has found that the research methods used have shifted from qualitative and interpretive methodology toward quantitative and sophisticated modelling. A further insight is that there has been a relatively heavy reliance on institutional theory in the earlier studies reviewed, and since then a switch towards organizational behaviour perspectives. The level of analysis has moved from macro to micro level and thematic foci have become more diverse and complex. We highlight a number of avenues, theoretical and empirical, for future studies in this field.
... China has witnessed a rapid transformation in the ownership system from one of predominantly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to a new system with multiple ownerships including SOEs, multinational corporations (MNCs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). Different ownership structures can influence the levels of adoption of HRM practices (Zhu, Thomson, & Cieri, 2008) and prior studies in China reveal differences in the HRM practices of different ownership forms (Wang et al., 2007). However, there is emerging evidence of a convergence process at work (Yeung, Warner, & Rowley, 2008), with some arguing for the growing acceptance of a hybrid HRM model (Su & Wright, 2012). ...
... This study continues the line of enquiry developed by Su and Wright (2012) that possibly a hybrid HRM system is emerging in China, with control and commitment practices being more widely applied than high-commitment and highinvolvement work practices in Chinese firms. Third, despite the growing number of Chinabased studies on HRM practices and organizational outcomes (Zhang & Morris, 2014), the contributory effect of modern HRM practices on HR outcomes remains poorly understood (Zhu et al., 2008), particularly regarding the control and commitment HRM systems' impact on HR outcomes. S. Ma et al. 2 This paper is organized as follows: we start by presenting relevant theoretical frameworks, research evidence and hypotheses; subsequent sections describe the research design, methods and results; and we conclude by discussing the findings, the implications for management and the limitations of this study. ...
There is a growing body of literature and debate around control versus commitment human resource management (HRM) systems and their impacts on employees. However, the impacts of these constructs have not been widely examined in more emerging economies. Taking a specific sample of educated professionals working for multinational and local firms in China, this study investigated employee perceptions of control and commitment HR practices, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. A total of 311 respondents completed a structured survey questionnaire. Results revealed that those working for multinational firms reported more positive perceptions of their employers' control and commitment HR practices. In multinational firms, the use of commitment HR practices predicted lower intentions to leave. However, in domestic firms a lack of control HR practices predicted higher turnover intentions. Theoretically, the study adds to discussions about the nature and roles of these constructs, their impacts on HR outcomes and how institutional mechanisms might shape the degree of HRM homogeneity and hybridity across organizations in China. Practically, the study provides guidance to international and local firms on how to improve their HRM effectiveness to achieve a higher retention of their most talented professionals.
... In recent years, the People's Republic of China (henceforth referred to as China) has experienced serious 'labour management' conflicts with a number even leading to young workers' suicides (see Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). These have generated worldwide media headlines, as there have been large-scale strikes on the mainland in a number of cases (see BBC News, 2014;Chan, 2012;CLB, 2013). ...
... New initiatives such as self-managing management teams, job design, consultative groups, employee satisfaction surveys, formal participation in decision-making mechanisms and collective and individual voice have also been developed in many organisational settings (see Brewster, Croucher, Wood, & Brookes, 2007;Cohen & Ledford, 1991;Huang & Gamble, 2011;Looise, Torka, & Wigboldus, 2011;Wilkinson & Fay, 2011;Wilkinson et al., 2010;Zheng, Morrison, & O'Neill, 2006;Zhu et al., 2008). ...
The participation of ‘new generation’ employees in management and their satisfaction in the workplace, respectively, remain more than ever important issues in the Chinese societal context in particular, as well as having wider implications for human resource management in general. This study accordingly explores the influence of employee participation mechanisms on the satisfaction of this new generation of employees - by carrying out empirical research in the manufacturing industry in China. The main theoretical contribution aims to show that the participation of such new generation employees in management, supervision and decision-making has a significantly positive impact on their work satisfaction. Furthermore, the employees' willingness to participate (participation intention) appears to play a moderating role between actual participation on the one hand, and satisfaction on the other. Such findings, we argue, potentially apply not only in the societal context of China but might also resonate more widely across other countries in the global economy.
... Here, the mobilization of the extant HRM literature and the extension of the IR research to cover HRM practices, either as a cause of labor grievance or as preventative and remedial measures to reduce grievance, will be a productive way forward. Indeed, a growing number of studies have emerged that aim to identify the types of (strategic) HRM practices that can lead to enhanced firm performance and employee outcomes (e.g., Akhtar, Ding, & Ge, 2008;Ngo, Lau, & Foley, 2008;Wang, Bruning, & Peng, 2007; also see Cooke, 2009 andZhu, Thomson, &De Cieri, 2008 for more comprehensive reviews of research on HRM in China). ...
... Here, the mobilization of the extant HRM literature and the extension of the IR research to cover HRM practices, either as a cause of labor grievance or as preventative and remedial measures to reduce grievance, will be a productive way forward. Indeed, a growing number of studies have emerged that aim to identify the types of (strategic) HRM practices that can lead to enhanced firm performance and employee outcomes (e.g., Akhtar, Ding, & Ge, 2008;Ngo, Lau, & Foley, 2008;Wang, Bruning, & Peng, 2007; also see Cooke, 2009 andZhu, Thomson, &De Cieri, 2008 for more comprehensive reviews of research on HRM in China). ...
The transformation of industrial relations (IR) in China over the last three decades has been (partially) captured by the growing number of scholarly studies in the English language literature. Despite the major contribution of these studies in advancing our understanding of contemporary IR in China and the (changing) roles of traditional institutional actors, significant research gaps remain. This review paper argues that research on Chinese IR needs to include a broader category of IR actors, including more categories of workers than the current focus, to examine the new role of traditional actors and the role of emerging actors in shaping the IR processes and outcomes, even if their role may be episodic and spatially confined. It also argues that Chinese IR research needs to embrace a wider range of disciplinary perspectives, for example cultural perspective and human resource management, to go beyond the radical-pluralist and structuralist approaches that have often been deployed. Equally, it argues that instead of focusing primarily on conflicts as IR issues for research, we should also examine forms of collectivism, sources of bargaining power, and scope for cooperation. Finally, this paper argues for a closer link between Chinese IR research and public policy.
... It is also usual to see deep divisions according to sector, location, ownership type and employee numbers (Warner, 2004). Based on an extensive review and analysis of 182 articles published in the field of HRM, focusing on China since its economic reform, Zhu, Thomson et al. (2008) suggest that ownership has emerged as an important facet of HRM research in China, and is included as a major category in the research protocol (Zhu, Thomson et al. 2008). ...
... It is also usual to see deep divisions according to sector, location, ownership type and employee numbers (Warner, 2004). Based on an extensive review and analysis of 182 articles published in the field of HRM, focusing on China since its economic reform, Zhu, Thomson et al. (2008) suggest that ownership has emerged as an important facet of HRM research in China, and is included as a major category in the research protocol (Zhu, Thomson et al. 2008). ...
The reform of pay systems in China has received growing attention from
scholars over the past two decades. However, despite the great attention given to
the business sector in China, one significant category among the pay studies in
the Chinese public sector has been missing. In recent years, the Chinese
government has started to implement a new wave of reform in the national
payment system: performance related pay in the public service units (PSU,
“shiye danwei”), which form a cluster of public service providers operating
alongside core government and separate from other state-owned or statesponsored
organisations. Compared to the extensive discussion of public sector
pay in Western countries, there has to date been no academic research on pay
systems in the Chinese PSU sector, leaving a significant gap in our
understanding of the key changes in and challenges to its human resource
management in different organizations. This thesis conducted in-depth case
studies on the pay system reforms in six state schools and in one publishing
organization, exploring a range of research objectives which draw on the New
Economics of Personnel (NEP) theory and such motivation theories as
expectancy theory, goal-setting theory, agency theory, cognitive evaluation
theory and equity theory.
The case study results were found to be consistent with the NEP predictions. The
two cases indicate that, although the principle of linking pay to individual
performance has been well accepted by employees across PSUs, performance
related pay was better implemented and more successful in the publishing
organization than the state schools. The introduction of performance related pay
in schools does not appear to have achieved the government’s objective of
encouraging higher performance but did have other positive consequences such
as retaining teachers in rural areas and possibly balancing the teaching resource
in the longer run in addition to some unintended outcomes at the same time.
... Research on human resource management (HRM) in Mainland China has gone through three developmental stages, i.e. initiation, expansion, and maturing, since HRM research was introduced to China in the late 1980s in the last century, with a rapid growth in both theoretical and practical terms (Lamond and Zheng, 2010;Zheng and Lamond, 2009a, b;Zhu et al., 2008). In particular, the Chinese Government has paid more attention to HRM practice, whilst the Chinese firms have been experiencing a transition from industrial relations (IR) to HRM (Xiong and Zeng, 2008;Zhao, 2011). ...
... The etic approach is a process to demonstrate and share research processes and outcomes with novel contributions in the international academic platform with scientific methods, universal values, barrier-free language and normative paradigm (Zhu, 2009). It is not difficult to see, throughout the past 20 years of theoretical research process and its outcomes, that the etic approach is a basic goal and approach to HRM study in Mainland China (Lamond and Zheng, 2010;Zheng and Lamond, 2009a;Zhu et al., 2008). First, the etic approach involves introducing Western theories and methodologies of HRM research into Mainland China, which is specifically reflected in translating or adapting a variety of textbooks written by Western scholars, as well as adopting the Western research paradigms and methods. ...
Purpose ‐ The purpose of this perspective article is to identify the developmental trajectory of human resource management (HRM) research in the Mainland China as well as the major research gaps to be filled in the future. In particular, the paper focuses on the current challenges as well as the emerging research trends by reviewing the literature in HRM research in the Mainland China. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The paper takes a geocentric perspective of HRM theory development to analyze the status quo as well as the emerging trends of the future HRM research in the Mainland China. Findings ‐ HRM research in the Mainland China exhibited an obvious tendency of adopting an etic approach at the early stage of research, but displaying an emerging trend toward an emic approach at a later stage. However, the current HRM research in the Mainland China, including both etic and the emic approaches, falls seriously short of meeting the high-quality standards of the international academic community. Originality/value ‐ Through analyzing the status quo of HRM research in the Mainland China, the paper identified an emerging trend toward an integration of both etic and emic approaches in which the two approaches constitute a yin-yang duality as a unity-in-opposites toward a geocentric HRM research framework with a holistic, dynamic and duality etic-emic balance.
... To qualify for inclusion, the article must follow a clearly defined review protocol which is also used in review papers on human resource management in China (e.g. Zheng and Lamond 2009;Zhu et al. 2008): ...
Career studies attract significant attention, but most of the theories and concepts were developed and tested in Western contexts. Based on a systematic review and analysis of 95 articles published in the field of careers that focus on China in the period between 1991 and 2017, this paper identifies emerging trends and outlines a profile of the current development of careers research in the Chinese context. Using a time and space analytical framework, the review evaluates the theoretical and empirical career lenses embedded in the unique Chinese cultural, institutional and organizational contexts and confirms that research on Chinese careers is significantly underdeveloped. Through a theoretical lens of Confucianism, we propose a need to consider context‐specific factors, in particular time and space, when conducting Chinese careers research, and present implications for future research on careers in China.
... In their study Helburn and Shearer (1984) pointed that "one of the most important but least understood elements of the economic system of the Peoples" Republic of China is that of human resource management'. After more than 30 years of China's reforms towards economic system and the management studies carried out in all these years on China specifically the review studies by (Li and Tsui 2002;Quer, Claver and Rienda 2007;Zhu, Thomson and De Cieri 2008) the question still remains there that how effective is human resource management in today's organizations of China. Developments in studying HR practices and their relationship to organizational performance are well known over the period. ...
The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of human resource management practices individually and as a system on organizational commitment. Data were collected from 304 respondents from banking sector of China. A questionnaire survey for this purpose was conducted in different cities of China. Correlations and multiple regression statistics analysis were used to explore the relationship between the variables involved in the study. The findings of the study provide support for the variables (selection, training, performance appraisal, promotion, performance based rewards, information sharing, job security and human resource management system) and are confirmed by the results of the previous studies. The findings of the current study support the notion that the HR practices relates to organizational commitment, individually and as a system as well. These findings provide important avenues for the banking sector of China and for the debate regarding convergence of the human resource management practices regionally as well as internationally.
... Evidently, this logic is unbounded by nationality. However, existent Chinese HRM reviews predominately take a broad brush, focusing on macro topics and organisation interest-none has highlighted employee experience, particularly employee well-being (Cooke, 2009;Warner, 2008;Zheng & Lamond, 2009b;Zhu et al., 2008). Third, the particular focus on mainland China, though presumably a weakness, would increase the pertinence of its theoretical and empirical implication. ...
Context-specific and employee-centred have emerged as two central perspectives to advance HRM research. Context-specific inquires the contextual antecedents and boundary conditions of HRM; employee-centred underlines the incorporation of employee experience, particularly employee well-being into HRM-performance models. The two perspectives extend the classic HRM-performance model into a multilevel model channelled via multiple processes. The present thesis aims to study Chinese HRM by integrating the context-specific and employee-centred perspective. It primarily consists of three papers: a systematic review on the HRM-performance link in the China-based literature (Chapter 2), a construct clarification on employee well-being (Chapter 3), and an empirical study on the detrimental effect of guanxi HRM (Chapter 4).
By synthesising 52 survey studies, the review (Chapter 2) shows that the Chinese literature is following the West to embrace the context-specific and employee-centred perspective, but the former is less extensively addressed than the latter. This review contributes to the literature by providing a research map on empirical Chinese HRM research focusing on the context-specific and employee-centred perspective. Building on extant well-being models, the second paper (Chapter 3) substantiates employee well-being as an equilibrium of multiple dimensions: hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, individual and social well-being, and positive and negative affect. The qualitative and quantitative analyses based on a survey of 544 Chinese employees support the propositions except for the distinction between individual and social well-being. Drawing on basic psychological needs theory, the third paper (Chapter 4) postulates that guanxi HRM creates a detrimental environment that would frustrate employees’ basic psychological needs, and it would undermine employee well-being in sequence; reflecting on the Chinese context, it proposes that the value of perseverance would moderate the process from need frustration to employee well-being. The results based on a survey of 321 Chinese employees support the hypotheses except for the moderating effect of perseverance when employee well-being is operationalised as emotional exhaustion.
The thesis contributes to the literature by integrating the context-specific and employee-centred perspective to study HRM in China. It has generated a research map on HRM-performance link, clarified the conceptualisation of employee well-being, and delineated the detrimental effect of guanxi HRM. The exploration invites researchers to contribute to the global HRM research base by addressing the context and paying due attention to employee well-being in China.
... We collected journal articles published in English by the end of 2017, including those on Early Views of the journal. Focusing on English journal articles for review is an established practice of review papers in the HRM field in general and in the Chinese context specifically (e.g., Cooke, 2009;Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). We acknowledge upfront that the focus on English literature has resulted in excluding scholarly studies published in other languages, notably Chinese, and therefore the contributions of these studies have not been included in this analysis (see also 4.1 for limitations). ...
There has been considerable research attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in relation to human resource management (HRM) in the Chinese context in the last decade. This systematic review of extant literature of CSR–HRM in the Chinese context is thus undertaken with the aim of identifying what we know, what the gaps are in this field of research, and what their relevance is to theory and practice. It reveals a number of limitations in the emerging body of CSR–HRM research in the Chinese context. We call for more context-driven and interdisciplinary and multi-level research oriented to organizational problem-solving, to make our CSR–HRM studies more legitimate and relevant for businesses and societies. We also call for a more in-depth and refined approach to research design, in order to better understand organizational CSR–HRM practices, workplace environments, and related outcomes. Research on CSR–HRM in Chinese firms also needs to be situated in the international context with broader implications, because Chinese firms do not operate in isolation. Rather, they are governed, directly and indirectly, by international institutions and seek to influence global governance at the same time, with HRM implications. Finally, research on CSR–HRM in the Chinese context needs to be framed in a broader framework and to assess real-life issues and impacts.
... We believe that knowledge is a key resource that organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, need to develop Benevene et al., 2017;Zhu, Thomson, & Cieri, 2008) and not only with in their own organization but about the environment they operate in. For China and the BRI project this means tapping into not only structural capital as can be seen in the vast undertaking of infrastructure development but also into relational capital to strengthen trade relationships and human capital to gain knowledge, skills, and abilities within their workforce to sustain competitive advantage. ...
China's Belt‐and‐Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most ambitious trade and development projects in history which intends to link Chinese multinational enterprises (CMNEs) to the Asian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe through two trade routes, land and sea. The project involves infrastructure development, human knowledge, and international relations to develop trade relationships. Increased competition along the two routes will see other governments taking initiatives to protect the business community in their nations; thus, adding barriers that must be overcome by CMNEs. The success of CMNEs in the BRI relies on the three components—structural, human, and relational—which are the three components of intellectual capital (IC). Through the use of IC CMNEs can assess their strengths and weaknesses. It will be the understanding of these strengths and weaknesses which will drive the success or failure of CMNEs.
... In the past decade, research on human resource management has grown rapidly in China. A 2008 overview of human resource management in China by Zhu et al. (2008) found 460 articles covering a 26-year period from 1979 to 2005. When that online search was repeated for the 11-year period of 2006-2016, the number increased to 870. ...
Purpose
Considering the importance of China as a global economic power and the emphasis placed on human resources in a knowledge economy, the findings of no less than 30 articles on diversity management in that country seem inadequate given the growing importance of diversity in the workplace. Analysis of those articles reveals that most of the research focuses on firms located on the eastern coast. Moreover, while cataloging the types of industry and ownership covered provides a broad overview, specific industries and ownership types require further examination.
Methodology
Searches were conducted in both English and Chinese databases using the keyword search phrase of “diversity management and China”. The criteria for including an article were as follows: 1) an emphasis on diversity management within the business environment; 2) a focus on applications of diversity management within the People’s Republic of China, thus excluding Taiwan; and 3) a research-based or conceptual orientation. The search was further limited by using the “abstract” as a limiter under the assumption that if the concepts were important, the author(s) would have used that terminology in the abstract.
Findings
Gender emerged as a major concern along with residential status; racial and ethnic differences, on the other hand, cultural and/or other influences on diversity management received limited attention. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used by the various authors, but exploratory methods such as grounded theory saw minimal use. With the little research done on diversity management in China, it is difficult to assess whether or Chinese firms are fully using its available workforce. China must embrace diversity management practices with a view to achieving competitive advantages as well as equality and harmony in the workplace.
Originality/value
This is one of the first published reviews of articles from both Chinese and English databases that delves into the issue of diversity management in China.
... Guanxi is often perceived as a barrier to implementing purely Western-based transaction-oriented human resource practices (Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). Our findings show that China's guanxi culture is essential to transforming work-related capabilities into performance outcomes. ...
Employee relationships with supervisors can be based upon both work-focused activities and outcomes, as exemplified by leader–member exchange (LMX), and personal, non-work activities, as exemplified by Chinese guanxi. The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG) and LMX in the relationship between the work-related human and social capital of employees and supervisors’ ratings of their job performance. Data were collected from 372 employees and 127 supervisors in a range of companies in China. The study demonstrates how human and social capital might play differing roles in influencing SSG and LMX. In particular, LMX partially mediated the relationship between human capital and job performance, and the relationship between social capital and job performance was fully mediated by SSG and LMX. The findings enrich understanding of how personal capabilities influence work and non-work relationships and assessments of job performance. The unique content of the Chinese construct of guanxi has implications for research and practice in modern organizations where the barriers between work and non-work are permeable and relationships include affective attachment as well as instrumental considerations.
... Similarly, Zhu and Warner (2004) discussed government reform policy, highlighted the increasingly complex challenges facing HR management and the implications for further HR management practices at the enterprise level in China. According to Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008), the most common studies in Chinese enterprises included core theme of human resource management activities like performance management, recruitment, and selection, compensation and rewards, training and development, etc. Moreover, the transformation of human resource management has systematically and significantly intensified, which induced vitality of the development of HRM in Chinese society (Xiong & Zeng, 2008). ...
In today's business environment, the need to establish a positive climate is increasingly critical for organizational growth and performance. In that particular scenario, employee relations climate (ERC) is an important aspect that creates a social atmosphere, which reflects high involvement and employee-centered culture, in response, employees feel comfortable and makes a valuable addition toward organizational performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of employee relations climate between the bundle of strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices and organization performance in Chinese banking sector. Given the tough competition in the service industry, it is increasingly significant for the banking sector to understand employee relations climate, and how HR practices affect performance of the organization and employee relations climate that best fulfill the needs of the organization. To test these relationships, we have conducted a survey of Chinese banks, situated in Shanghai zone. For data collection, senior employees were invited to respond a survey questionnaire. To examine the hypothesis and measurement validity, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and SEM technique via AMOS 18.0 were used. The results of this study indicate that the bundle of strategic human resource management has a positive significant relationship with operational performance. Also, employee relations climate mediates the relationship between strategic human resource management and organizational performance. Cross-sectional data, restricted target sample (i.e. employees of banks), and restricted target zone (i.e. Shanghai) are limitations of the study. Second, the authors did not identify in detail dimensions of organization performance. Finally, the hypothesized relationship checked in specific sector i.e. banking sector.
... For example, the high level of resistance by Chinese managers to adopting sophisticated performance metrics may be attributed to Chinese labor market factors and cultural norms (Cooke & Huang, 2011). Arguably, HRM practices in China are still too recent to be able to claim a paradigm shift away from Western models (Warner, 2012;Zhu, Thomson, & Cieri, 2008). We believe that our study can offer some important insight into Chinese managers' HRM practices in Africa by exploring organizational-level factors. ...
... Zhao & Du, 2012). Indeed, recent surveys or overviews of the field, do not even list locality or space as a level or topic of analysis (Cooke, 2009;Poon & Rowley, 2007;Warner, 2009;Zheng & Lamond, 2009;Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). The same has been true even of recent special issues in IJHRM, for example in 2011 on 'Society and HRM in China', and in 2012 on 'Whither Chinese HRM'. ...
Through critical literature review, we introduce the special issue’s focus, ‘HRM in China: Differences within the country’. Researchers have, in practice, neglected to sufficiently contextualize HRM in China in order to identify, address and explain these differences. This has occurred despite continual calls for better contextualization, a theme common across other, overlapping fields: management in China; organizational behaviour; and HRM in general. A major impediment has been an unwillingness to contextualize beyond the organization or, perhaps the industry. This reflects dominant theoretical preferences in North America that produce literature-led research agendas and ‘outside-in’ research on China. In effect, academic pressures and the resulting literature also shape research approaches to contextualizing HRM in China. In seeking to promote phenomena-led research with ‘inside-out’ orientations, we highlight two important contextual conceptions of ‘differences’: diversity within China, especially where related to space and place; and rising evidence of expressed differences of interests within China’s labour markets. The rest of the article provides summary overviews of this special issue’s other seven articles, focusing on the phenomena they examine, the contexts they work with, the disciplines they embrace and the research designs/methods they employ. We conclude with suggestions for further research.
... Divergence is nowhere mentioned and instead the paradigms are distinguished by size and elasticity of HRM differences. Likewise, Apospori, Nikandrou, Brewster, and Papelexandris (2008) speak of persistent differences in terms of "differential clustering" of countries while writers on the transition of socialist countries in eastern Europe and China to a capitalist system typically conclude these systems are a mix of convergence but with sustained unique features (Zeng, Chen, & Su, 2014), such as "HRM with Chinese characteristics" (Zhu, Thomson, & De Cieri, 2008). ...
This paper advances theory development in international and comparative HRM regarding convergence–divergence trends in HRM systems and practices across nations. Shortcomings in existing theory, such as universal versus contextual paradigms, are identified and critiqued, as are ambiguities in existing definitions and measures of HRM convergence and divergence. The paper then presents new ways of defining and measuring HRM convergence–divergence and a new theory perspective for explaining and predicting these trends. The new theory perspective involves incorporating economic principles of international trade and economic geography to explain the effect of global competition on the cross-national pattern of industry, firm, and production location and consequent patterns in HRM practice. On balance, economic theory predicts globalization likely leads to HRM divergence over time.
... Over the past two decades, HRM in China has received increasing scholarly attention due to China's importance in today's global economy and its potential as an ideal research context for developing new perspectives of HRM (Kim & Wright 2011;Leung 2012;Tsui 2006). Earlier studies of Chinese HRM were primarily concerned with the marketization and Westernization of Chinese HR functions (Warner 1996;Zhu et al. 2008). Yet, scholars have begun to recognize the country's growing diversity (Sheldon et al. 2011(Sheldon et al. , 2014Sheldon & Li 2013). ...
We explore how Chinese firms vary in the extent to which they use illegal overtime (working hours beyond the statutory limit) in the face of emerging institutional pressure against such practices. Over the past three decades, local as well as foreign-owned firms in China have extensively exploited the practice of illegal overtime. This is now being challenged by a changing environment that emphasizes the rule of law. Yet, not all Chinese companies are equally responsive to this emerging reality. While some companies are cautious about violating overtime regulations, others still ignore the law, relying heavily on illegal overtime.
We explain such variances by drawing on recent developments in institutional theory literature that highlight the institutionalization process as a mechanism to elicit varied, rather than unified, organizational reactions. Using data from 182 electronic parts firms in China, we found that firms’ use of illegal overtime is affected both by organizations’ inner constituents who generate internal institutional pressures (HR personnel, labor unions, and migrant workers), and organizational characteristics that magnify external institutional pressures (geographic location, company size, and foreign ownership).
... Moreover, there may be significant institutional differences between emerging markets and advanced economies as illustrated in, for example, the varying function of labour union exhortations to foreign firms to understand the 'rules of the game' (Xing, Liu, Tarba and Cooper, 2014). Furthermore, rapid employee turnover in emerging markets can create instability in the composition of a small SME workforce, and raise concerns over the continual need to recruit and select qualified employees (Warner, 2012;Zhu, Thomson, & Cieri, 2008). However, as a general rule, expanding economic activity in high growth emerging markets means that talented individuals have little difficulty in securing employment (Tymon, Stumpf, & Doh, 2010). ...
The human resource (HR) practices involved in global talent management continue to advance and evolve. A majority of talent management commentary is from multinational corporation (MNC) perspectives. However, the less commented small- to-medium-sized enterprise (SME) also confronts challenges grounded in economic (i.e. resources, finance), organisational (i.e. size, scope and structure) and consequent behavioural rationales (i.e. mindsets and stances). This paper establishes and examines a number of propositions which consider how these factors impact on an advanced economy SME’s talent management in emerging economy collaborations. An interpretive qualitative methodology is employed using interviews conducted within two cases – SME and an MNC comparator case. The SME case is used as the driving force of the paper and its theoretical focus and findings. The MNC is used to develop issues as a comparator case. The findings show SME economic and organisational drivers producing behavioural dynamics in relation to mimesis of planned actions yet informal serendipitous responses in reality; a predilection for the proximate and familiar; design conigurations of short-term expatriate visits and inpatriates; cumulating in ongoing inpatriate acculturisation and re-acculturation oscillation. Consequently, the implication is that the SME needs a HR practices encompassing resignation to the situation, flexibility and resilience in order to survive and progress.
... First, this paper, which deals with the relationship between a model of Chinese harmony and the measures of OCB and job satisfaction from Western theories, responds to recent calls for developing context-sensitive indigenous models and analyzing the country-specific implications (Tsui 2007;Whetten 2009). More specifically, this article fills a research gap that calls for introducing valid measures on the effect of cultural diversity on HRM in China because existing Western theoretical HR models do not always consider differences between Eastern and Western cultures, and the dynamic nature of the Chinese cultural context has not been explored fully yet (Stone and Stone-Romero 2007;Zhu, Thomson and Cieri 2008). Therefore, we contribute to the HRM literature by offering a useful theoretical foundation for future research that seeks to probe into the effect of China's harmonyoriented culture on HR practices. ...
From the divergence perspective in human resource management (HRM), this paper develops an indigenous framework exploring the mechanisms between the prominent cultural characteristic of harmony originating from Confucian ideology, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as well as job satisfaction in the Chinese context. By employing structural equation modeling, our findings demonstrate that the degree of harmony is positively related to employees' OCB and job satisfaction, and that job satisfaction positively mediates the relationship between the degree of harmony and OCB. This research – that examines the relationships between Chinese harmony grounding in an art-based view and employees' display of OCB derived from Western theories – is a response to the recent calls for introducing valid context-specific measures and considering the cultural impact on individual behaviors in HRM. This study suggests that firms in China may encourage employee OCB and job satisfaction by boosting harmonious level at workplace. It provides a useful guideline for multinational enterprises eager to effectively manage Chinese employees, and enriches non-Chinese managers' understanding of the values of harmony in China.
... For example, the high level of resistance by Chinese managers to adopting sophisticated performance metrics may be attributed to Chinese labor market factors and cultural norms (Cooke & Huang, 2011). Arguably, HRM practices in China are still too recent to be able to claim a paradigm shift away from Western models (Warner, 2012;Zhu, Thomson, & Cieri, 2008). We believe that our study can offer some important insight into Chinese managers' HRM practices in Africa by exploring organizational-level factors. ...
The present paper addresses the important inter-organizational relationship between Chinese firms and local unions by investigating Chinese managers’ HRM practices in managing African employees. We utilize the storytelling research method to obtain a nuanced understanding of this little-understood, yet important phenomenon. Our data was collected through in-depth narrative interviews with 32 Chinese managers (both senior and middle) with three to eight years of professional experience in African countries from 21 Chinese firms (both state-owned and privately owned). We found that Chinese managers’ crossvergence HRM practices are a blend of divergent local contextual factors and convergent cultural factors. Our findings reveal that the cultural proximity between African “Ubuntu” and Chinese Confucianism can significantly influence Chinese firm-local union inter-organizational relationship in managing African employees of Chinese firms. The crossvergence of Chinese managers’ HRM practices can gradually affect the work behaviors of African employees over time. The paper identifies importance of the cross-cultural training and mutual learning between Chinese managers and African employees to enhance mutual understanding against the backdrop of Chinese firms entering Africa countries. Our study contributes to the better understanding of HRM practices of emerging market multinational corporations, and has important practical implications for managing African employees.
... The first factor is host-location characteristics such as the degree of economic transformation (e.g., emerging versus co-ordinated economies), political orientation (e.g., influence of labour unions, trade associations, and labour legislation), as well as laws and institutional frameworks that guide the relationship between an organisation and its external environment (Zhu et al. 2008;Farndale et al. 2010). a large research stream has also investigated the implications of national/social culture (Tung and Verbeke 2010). ...
This article develops a conceptual framework to assist in determining the value to be gained from long-term international assignments.
By integrating several streams of research, we present a new framework of expatriate return on investment (ROI) for global firms, which both builds on frameworks offered by other scholars and is informed by recent developments and emerging directions in global mobility research and practice. In doing so, we identify relevant questions to guide future research and draw implications of the framework for theory, research, and practice.
China’s engagement in sub-Saharan Africa has long been a contentious topic in media articles and academic studies. Still, existing empirical studies from and for emerging and developing countries are inadequate. The research methodology taken is an explorative qualitative case study approach following the hermeneutical research paradigm. The studied Chinese SOE is a group company of a Chinese central SOE. In-depth information was collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. The findings of this study show that the dual-track International Human Resource Management (IHRM) system of Chinese SOEs and the “best fit” IHRM practices like the employment of local HR managers has cultural-crossvergence features. The strategic alignment of IHRM with business goals and the upgrading of HRM functions and roles and the training of line managers to improve their social and cultural embeddedness in sub-Saharan Africa are crucial for architecting and achieving further cultural-crossvergence/hybridization of IHRM. From a cross-cultural lens, political, economic ideologies, and social, cultural values bring about complicated influences on IHRM systems. It was found that cultural knowledge sharing via internal and external stakeholder engagement and the intercultural interactions between Chinese expatriates with host country employees appear to contribute to sustainable long-term overseas development guided by recent Chinese SOEs’ business strategies. As the cultural-crossvergence theory suggests cultural similarities and differences of Confucianism in Chinese culture and Ubuntu philosophy in sub-Saharan African culture may challenge Chinese SOEs to transform towards more culturally sensitive entities in near future.
Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has been an important strand of research in the HRM field for over three decades, and has attracted heated debates in recent years. One main critique of the state of SHRM research is its increasing detachment from HRM practice, in the pursuit of more theoretical rigor and methodological sophistication. Our review article has two main tasks. First, we review SHRM research published in two leading HRM journals—Human Resource Management and Human Resource Management Journal—in the light of the criticisms on SHRM research and use this as a backdrop of our second task. Second, we critically examine SHRM research conducted in the Chinese context by drawing on a systematic review on extant literature. In doing so, we draw on a wider range of HRM journals such as Human Resource Management Review, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, and so forth. We find that while the trend of psychologization in SHRM research is gathering pace, the range of theoretical perspectives mobilized to inform the studies is actually expanding. We call for SHRM research to be more contextualized and more practical phenomenon‐driven SHRM research. We indicate several avenues for future research, using China as an example.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how institutional factors determine the adoption of employee empowerment practices by multinational enterprises (MNEs) subsidiaries in China.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the effects of MNE subsidiaries’ external and internal institutional factors on the degree of employee empowerment practices adopted by these subsidiaries. Using hierarchical regression analysis, hypotheses were tested with a sample of 99 MNE subsidiaries operating in China.
Findings
The results show that both the informal institutions of the host country and the subsidiary’s characteristics play an important role in shaping the degree of empowerment practices adopted by MNE subsidiaries in China.
Originality/value
Employee empowerment practices have been increasingly used by MNEs to leverage human resources for organizational competitive advantage. Although a large body of work has studied a bundle of HRM practices as a whole adopted in MNE subsidiaries, there is a paucity of research on the specific empowerment practices in MNE subsidiaries. This research fills this important gap in the literature by investigating the institutional forces that influence the empowerment practices in MNE subsidiaries in China.
Since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001, Chinese overseas investment has shown a significant and consistent increase despite the global financial crisis. The rise of Chinese OFDI in Europe is particular interesting. By investing in Europe, China partly aims to catch up with global market leaders, tapping into foreign markets for high-value brand assets, technological competencies and other intangibles. This chapter provides an overview of the findings of academic research on international management in Chinese firms. The knowledge of managerial behaviour of Chinese investors in Europe is limited and the impact of their investment unclear. Three important themes emerge from the reviewed literature on Chinese management: First, in contrast to Western MNCs, Chinese companies take a ‘light-touch approach’ with their European subsidiaries. The second theme is that Chinese MNCs tend to send abroad a large number of Chinese expatriates who tend to be inexperienced internationally. This international inexperience of Chinese managers causes unintended home-country effects. A third theme is that Chinese companies are very diverse, depending on sector, size, geographical origin, and ownership type.
While the profound and rapid changes currently occurring in China may influence and differentiate how work values are structured by employees working in different sectors, limited efforts have been made to address this issue. Drawing on institutional theory and the social psychological perspective, this study collects and analyzes data from Chinese public organization employees, to compare the work values of employees from the state sector, public sector, and state‐owned enterprise. The results reveal some noteworthy patterns in employee work values in each sector, and interesting similarities and differences in employee work values across sectors. This study contributes to the knowledge on employee work values in China by uncovering their characteristics in the broad institutional and organizational context. It also provides practical implications for the three sectors in China and for other developing and transition economies. It is possible and relevant to differentiate work value orientations among employees of the state sector, public sector and state‐owned enterprise (SOE). State sector employees were found to value prestigious work more than public sector and SOE employees. Public sector employees were found to value work that was consistent with their moral values more than state sector and SOE employees. SOE employees were found to be motivated more extrinsically at a general level than state sector and public sector employees. There were a number of commonalities in work values found for employees across sectors.
There is a growing body of literature on multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the extent to which they diffuse or transfer their human resource management (HRM) practices in foreign subsidiaries. Much of the research, however, examines the HRM practices of multinational enterprises from developed countries operating in developing countries rather than vice versa. This study investigates the transfer of HRM practices in Indian information technology MNEs with subsidiaries in Australia and draws on data collected through interviews with senior subsidiary managers. The findings indicate that contrary to what is suggested in the existing literature, Indian IT MNEs do not operate using a polycentric HR model but behave in a manner similar to Western MNEs. They adopt a hybridisation approach using headquarter(HQ)-local practices that merge home-country policies with locally responsive HRM practices to suit their Australian subsidiary context. This article discusses the implications of this finding for theory and practice in EMNEs.
Many Chinese companies operating their business in overseas, namely Chinese MNCs, face the challenges of cross-cultural management. Adequate “hard” and “soft” HRM policies and practices could enable them to overcome these problems. Using case studies of Chinese companies operating in Australia, this chapter focuses on identifying problems, developing adequate policies and implementing them in a culturally appropriate manner. Companies from a transitional economy, such as China, operating in a developed economy, such as Australia, confront new challenges, particularly in the areas of new labour market environment and relevant labour laws and regulations. It is crucial for these “foreign” companies to be familiar with such new institutional and economic environments and be able to adopt and adapt new ways of doing business and managing their workforce. The outcome of the case study analysis could be useful for other companies to learn both positive and negative lessons, and this is particularly relevant to those companies from transition economies operating in developed economies.
This chapter draws on various theoretical frameworks, such as labour economics, human resource management, strategic management, labour migration, and cross-cultural management, to explain the historic evolution and current state of talent management policies and practices in China, the largest transitional economy in the world. The chapter argues for a unique talent management model in which both Chinese government and Chinese culture play important roles. Although human resource management remains a support function for most companies (especially the state-owned enterprises) in China, the talent management landscape is quickly changing. Strategic considerations have been incorporated in the human resource management and talent management practices, especially among the multinational corporations and even in some large state-owned enterprises. The chapter also highlights the unique challenges being faced by Chinese managers and foreign entrepreneurs and points out future opportunities in global talent management in China and beyond.
Chinese mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice has witnessed a series of reforms since the 1980s, with considerable impact on human resource management (HRM) practices, acquisition types and working conditions. This study examines the sociocultural integration in M&A and HRM involvement in the acquisition of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by privately owned enterprises in China using qualitative data from three M&A case studies. The research explores issues relating to firm ownership structure, party committee, leadership and value orientation using a comparative perspective to highlight the role of various factors in shaping the sociocultural integration process in M&A. The authors deploy identity theory to elucidate leaders' identity work in linking HRM activities, existing or emerging, that underpin this integration process. The findings shed important light on the influence of SOEs in private Chinese firms' M&A endeavours and the role of leaders' identity work and HRM involvement from a microfoundational perspective.
Strategic human resource management is an emerging field of study in the transitional economy of China. The purpose of this study is to identify the current status of strategic human resource management research in the context of mainland China, and offer recommendations for future research. This study reviewed recently published articles (between 1992 and 2008) in major academic journals in both English and Chinese, focusing on the most important topic of strategic human resource management: the relations between human resource management and firm performance. This study finds that China-based strategic human resource management research has actively participated in major theoretical debates in the literature, and that China-based studies have extended previous models by identifying additional moderating and mediating variables. We recommend future research in this area be more responsive to emerging methodological concerns of the field, and pay more attention to China-specific issues that may have significant organizational consequences.
This research investigates the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational performance, and the mediating effect of employee outcomes. The paper is based on a sample of 168 firms of six ownership types and in various business sectors operating in China. The results of data analysis support the hypotheses. Organizational performance is positively predicted by HPWS and employee outcomes, and employee outcomes positively mediate the relationship between HPWS and organizational performance. This paper supports the theory that HPWS positively impacts organizational performance and explains the mechanisms through which HPWS enhances organizational performance. It also responds to the long-standing call for stressing the importance of employee-related factors in the HRM–performance linkage.
Based on a sample of 324 firms in China, the relationship between Western human resource management (HRM) systems and firm performance is examined. The results show that the degree of adoption of Western HRM practices made no statistically significant difference between Chinese and foreign firms and also generally supports the hypothesis that Western HRM systems are positively associated with firm performance in a Chinese context. In addition, the proposed “motivation and support” HRM system appeared to have stronger and more significant relationships than the “skill and development” HRM system. The underlying reasons were identified and some managerial implications for both Chinese and foreign firms were drawn. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Due to the rapid improvement of information technologies (ITs), they have been applied in the area of human resources management (HRM), which is called a human resources information system (HRIS). An effective HRIS should be able to handle complicated personnel data to assist the implementation of new policies and managerial strategies in an organisation. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to apply an artificial neural network (ANN), which is capable of learning and recalling and has been widely used in the areas of engineering, for top managers to select potential employees for the position of manager. The case study results show that the proposed system is well able to learn the data collected from the top managers and the test results are very promising. Also, the proposed system has been implemented in the Web in order to fit the requirements of the electronic era.
Since the 1980s, the People's Republic of China has embarked on a path of economic transformation that has led to profound changes in organizations. Based on work histories of a sample of urban residents drawn from 14 Chinese cities in six provinces, we assess the extent and direction of organizational transformation by analyzing changes in promotion patterns between the prereform era (1949-1979) and the reform era (1980-1994). We begin with Walder's dual-path model and examine distinctive mechanisms for promotion along two institutionalized-administrative and professional-career lines. We enrich Walder's model by considering the impact of macropolitical processes on career dynamics and the effect of emerging market mechanisms on different organizational sectors. Our findings show that there have been both continuity and significant changes in the criteria and opportunities of promotion in Chinese organizations across the two periods. In the reform era, more educated managers who were recently recruited into the organizations had the highest probability of being promoted. There were also significant variations in promotion patterns across career lines and organizational sectors, reflecting the impacts of both institutional persistence and emerging market forces.
This paper deals with management, industrial training and human resources develop ment in six Chinese business corporations, in both heavy and light industrial contexts in the post-Cultural Revolution period. It covers organization, training, apprenticeship, promotion, grading and rewards. It concludes that greater professionalism and specialization now characterize Chinese firms, partly based on structural responses from before the Cultural Revolution, but also partly based on the needs of the new economic reforms of the 1980s.
The forces of globalization and the wave of economic reform in the People's Republic of China have led to government policies to downsize state-owned enterprises and support a competitive labour market. Chinese workers who have been laid off ( xiagang ) are leaving the 'iron rice-bowl' security of the socialist state. Unemployment produces personal challenges for laid-off workers and human resource policy challenges for the government. For workers, xiagang and unemployment status mean they must cope with the unfamiliar challenges of job search and the threat of economic hardship. But how unemployment influences workers' lives is strikingly diverse in its impacts. Distinctly different patterns emerge for workers depending on: 1) their position in the social structure and stage of life, 2) their available skills and coping resources, and 3) their experience of economic and psychological distress. The present study reports survey responses of a sample of 2,412 laid-off Chinese workers in seven cities in China and identifies three distinct sub-groups of unemployed workers: 1) 'Survivors': more confident and better educated workers, 2) 'The Worried Young': distressed younger workers with few coping resources, and 3) 'The Discouraged Old': older workers with less education looking towards retirement. Each of these groups of workers views their circumstances and life prospects in quite different ways. Our results are examined in the context of the literature on social change and the life course. Our findings also suggest different human resource policies for each of these groups of workers.
The role of training and its impact on company performance is studied in different types of enterprises in a transitional economy. A sample of manufacturing enterprises is drawn, using China as a case study. The findings indicate that training is perceived to be relatively important in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). Training objectives have three major dimensions, namely enhancing working relationships, tackling skill deficiencies and skills development. SOEs tend to focus more on skill development, while non-SOEs emphasize both enhancing working relationships and skills improvement. Comparing the expectations of training and the perceived achievement of training objectives, the gap is seen to be small within all types of enterprises, and training effectiveness is perceived to be similar. The production function estimation shows that there is a positive relationship between training expenditures and enterprise productivity.
List of Tables - List of Figures - Acknowledgements - List of Abbreviations - Preface - PART 1: SHAPING THE IRON-RICE BOWL - Setting the Scene - The Iron Rice-Bowl: The Early Days - Labour-Management Relations - Economic Reforms and their Implications for Labour - PART 2: 'OLD WINE, NEW BOTTLES?' - Labour Reforms at City-Level: Background - Selected Case-Studies at Enterprise-level - The 'Three Systems Reforms' - PART 3: BEYOND THE IRON-RICE BOWL - Discussion - Human Resource Management 'With Chinese Characteristics'? - Conclusions - Appendices - Endnotes - References - Index
Historically, Chinese state enterprises have operated as semienclosed communities, more akin to the army than to firms in market economies (Walder, 1986). As well as producing goods or services for sale they have also provided either free or at low prices a wide range of services to their current and retired employees, and often to their families as well. Prominent amongst these have been housing, in-and out-patient medical treatment, schooling for children and (in some cases) even public utilities. The cash wage has traditionally been just one component of a package with array of benefits in kind (see Hu, 1996). The extended social role of Chinese state enterprises binds much of the urban labour force to their respective work units (danwei) for not merely their working lives but also retirement (Walder, 1986). This role is increasingly perceived as a major barrier in the restructuring of state enterprises, including the closure of the ones with a slim chance of survival. Besides, faced with a dramatic worsening of their financial position in recent years, many state enterprises have defaulted on their social obligations, such as pensions to their retirees, and have laid off their employees in large numbers. As result, the urban labour force no longer perceives employment in a state enterprise as a secure guarantee of income for life complemented with generous benefits in kind; it offers, in Chinese parlance, neither an ‘iron rice-bowl’ nor an ‘iron chair’ (see Chapter 2).
The Chinese public personnel system, established since the early 1950s, is facing greater and greater challenge. The reform movement, launched in the early 1980s tends to open up the closed personnel system, decentralize personnel power, eliminate equalitarianism in remuneration, and rationalize personnel management. This paper will first analyze the previous Chinese personnel system, while outlining the main trends of the reform in the Chinese personnel system, and then will recommend ways to improve the current situation.
Enhancing our understanding of HRM in the Chinese industrial sector, this book explores the emerging role of HRM in China's industrial enterprises. A significant contribution to the theory of HRM, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers of Business and Management, HRM and Asian Business.
The human resource management (HRM) practices associated with local professionals and managerial-level employees in international joint ventures are analyzed in a study of 63 Chinese-Western joint ventures. Over all, the HRM practices more closely resemble those of the foreign parent company, than those of local companies. Institutionalization theory as well as the bargaining power perspective were instrumental in explaining the degree to which the HRM practices in the joint ventures were similar to those of the foreign parent company.
As human resources play a crucial role in international transfer of technology (ITT), adequate training of personnel on both sides of the arrangement–the technology supplying (TS) and the technology receiving (TR) organization–becomes necessary. Developing the required skills and competence for a successful ITT requires not only the knowledge and teaching ability of the TS but also the knowledge and willingness of the TR to learn. Many of the problems encountered in training are due to inadequate identification and analysis of the training needs and attributes of the training environment. This paper discusses the pivotal role of human resources in ITT and uses the experience of Swedish firms in China, through joint venture and licensing operations, both to conceptualize training and to highlight some of the crucial issues that practitioners need to look into in connection with identification and analysis of human resource training for ITT. Evidence identified planning, sharing the responsibility for training, appropriateness of training, motivation and experience, location, education prior to training, importance of R&D staff and post-training problems to be among the major issues.
The ways that Chinese industrial enterprises motivate their workers can be analyzed according to the paradigm advanced by Katz and Kahn [1978]: rule enforcement, external rewards, and internalized motivation. Firms that intend to set up manufacturing operations in China should be knowledgeable about the nonmaterial incentives in order to put them to good use.
Although recent research has begun to touch upon the organizational commitment of Chinese employees, most studies have been limited to the transposition of Western methodology to a Chinese context. This paper examines two groups of Chinese employees, those working in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and those working in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), and compares the organizational commitment of each group. In order to reflect Chinese characteristics more accurately, the present study used a questionnaire incorporating items drawn from previous Chinese and Western studies. The various multidimensional structures of organizational commitment put forward by both Eastern and Western researchers to date have been re-examined using a sample of 1,232 industrial employees. Results indicate that a five-factor component model, including affective commitment, active continuance commitment, passive continuance commitment, normative commitment and value commitment, fits the data best. The key findings of this study are that SOE employees have higher levels of active continuance commitment and passive continuance commitment, and a lower level of value commitment, than employees of FIEs. It can be inferred from these differences that, in contemplating appropriate measures designed to foster the commitment levels of Chinese employees, management should recognize that the measures required to achieve such a goal will vary according to form of economic ownership (SOEs vs. FIEs). Implications for human resource management in both SOEs and FIEs are discussed.
Despite the quantitative and qualitative significance of the public sector in China, insufficient studies have been carried out to advance our knowledge of its pay policy and practice and any changes that may have taken place in the wake of the market economy. This paper provides an overview of the three major reforms in China's public-sector pay in the last five decades and assesses its likely impact on public-sector employees' income in relation to that of workers in enterprises. It focuses on the role of the state in the pay determination process, factors influencing the wage distribution, changes in pay structure and grading systems and causes for earning differentials. It reveals a very different approach to pay determination from those more familiarly seen in the UK and indeed Europe and the US. The exploration of the conflicts and tensions characteristic of the public-sector pay system in China will enhance our understanding of the pressures and dilemmas facing different governments.
This study tested a perspective of strategic human resource management (SHRM) and compared human resource practices among multinational enterprises (MNEs) in two industries in China. Specifically, empirical data from firms in China's soft-drinks and electronics industries were analysed. The results supported a number of basic assumptions of the SHRM model, such as those regarding the relationship among firm environments, firm strategy, firm human resource practices and firm performance.
The Chinese government has launched extensive reforms to encourage integration with the global economy. Our research investigates the implications for human resource management practices of the changing business environment in China, ownership of organizations, organizational strategies and strategic integration of the HR function. We conducted two surveys in major Chinese cities in 1994/5 and 2001/2, with managers of state-owned, privately owned, collectively owned and foreign-invested enterprises. Regression analyses showed that organizational strategy and organizational ownership, in contrast with earlier research, were not found to be strong predictors of HRM practices. The changing business environment in China and participation by the HR function in strategic decision-making were the strongest predictors of HRM practices. Overall, a strategic role for the HR function and implementation of ‘Western' HRM practices are becoming more prevalent in China, although the legacy of traditional practices endures and new challenges are emerging.
Management problems appear to be the most important and the most difficult problems that China faces in its development over the remainder of this century. Technical and/or non-management problems in each of the four modernization areas: agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense appear to be secondary. How successful the People's Republic of China is in becoming a powerful, modern socialist state by year 2,000 depends on how effective and efficient it is in resolving these management challenges.
The paper advances understanding of the conceptual and definitional difficulties confronting human resource management as an emergent field. It then raises the seminal question as to whether it is possible to discuss the notion of HRM as having specific theoretical and operational meaning in the Chinese context. After ranging across a wide spectrum of political as well as empirical evidence, including case studies, the author concludes that to presume HRM is effectively embedded as Chinese practice is very premature, despite optimism that there is a convergent course set between Western HRM practices and Chinese management.
Critics have argued that the field of human resource management (HRM) lacks a coherent theoreticalframework. This article attempts to further the theoretical development of SHRM through discussing six theoretical models (behavioral perspective, cybernetic models, agencyltransaction cost theory, resource-based view of the firm, power/resource dependence models, and institutional theory) that are usefulfor understanding both strategic and non-strategic determinants of HR practices. Finally, the implications of a stronger theoretical approach to SHRM research and practice are discussed.
This study examined the effects of an organization's contextual variables on the choice of human resource management (HRM) practices to secure, nurture, reward and retain managerial employees. The contextual variables included organizational characteristics (ownership, age and size), on the one hand, and its competitive strategies (innovation, quality and cost) and the strategic role of the human resource function, on the other. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of general managers and human resource directors from 326 joint ventures and state-owned enterprises located in Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou, three major cities in China. Using structural equation analysis, we examined both the direct and indirect effects of the contextual variables on HRM practices. The indirect effects were measured through the strategic role of the human resource function. Results indicated that ownership and the strategic role of the human resource function were key variables in explaining an organization's choice of HRM practices. Age and size of the organization had limited effects. Compared with cost and quality strategies, the innovation strategy affected HRM practices, both directly and indirectly, indicating the increasing dynamism of the Chinese economy in its move towards a market orientation.
In the West, there is growing awareness that connections can be pivotal to a firm's success in gaining competitive advantage in the global arena. This paper compares Western networking with guanxi (connections) prevalent in Confucian societies. Guanxi are built between and among people. Hence the effective deployment of human resources is critical to the success of building such relationships. Data from forty West European multinationals with operations in China were collected. Where relevant, these were compared with the findings of Hong Kong firms in China. Specifically, the paper examined (1) how large European multinationals perceive the characteristics of guanxi ; (2) the importance of guanxi for market entry and long-term success in China; and (3) how guanxi is built and maintained by European companies in China. While the European companies have been able to establish a presence in China, their moderate level of satisfaction with performance there may be attributable to their inability to build very strong and appropriate guanxi with the relevant authorities. This may stem from their use of expatriates to staff senior management positions and insistence upon sole or majority-equity ownership to allow for maximum control. The implications for international human resource management are discussed.
This study investigated influences on employee satisfaction with HRM systems and affective organizational commitment in a Sino-German joint venture and a state-owned enterprise in China. Employees in the joint venture were found to be significantly more satisfied with their organization’s HRM practices than were employees in the state-owned enterprise. In turn, employee satisfaction with HRM practices was found to have a more significant influence on affective commitment in the joint venture than in the state-owned enterprise. The Chinese human-heartedness cultural value was found to be an antecedent of employee affective commitment but influenced satisfaction of employees in regards to only some of the HRM practices in a state-owned enterprise. Implications for strategic HRM theory and changes in Chinese HRM systems are discussed.
Based on a survey of 244 township and village enterprises in two different regions in China, this paper compares the human resource management practices in these organizations. The study tries to identify what practices are used most frequently in hiring, training, performance appraisal and compensation decisions. It explores the effectiveness of these HR practices and identifies the specific practices that are most related to organizational effectiveness, and employee job satisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future study and management of enterprises in China.
Preface Introduction PART ONE: ANCIENT AUTHORITY AND WELFARE Authority and Welfare in the Ancient Confucian Texts Kang Youwei Liang Qichao PART TWO: REVOLUTIONARY AUTHORITY AND WELFARE Sun Yatsen Mao Zedong Deng Xiaoping PART THREE: NEW AUTHORITY AND WELFARE The 'New Authoritarian' Debates of the Late 1980s The Impact of Tiananmen Conclusion Notes and References Bibliography Index
Performance Appraisal (PA) is a western management concept that is meant to improve individual and, concomitantly, organisational performance. Although performance appraisal systems have come under a plethora of criticisms, they continue to be a platform of human resource management systems. This study focused on the practices in state-owned coalmines in China. In contrast to the majority of previous studies on PA practices in China, and as a result of increasing pressure from intensified market competition, Chinese state-owned enterprises were found to be utilising modern PA measures as effective tools to enhance their management efficiency and productivity. This paper describes the implementation of performance appraisal in the state-owned coal sector, indicating some interesting variations upon western practices, and provides valuable insight into the significant changes occurring in PA in China.
Purpose
– This paper examines the challenges facing China's employment relations after its WTO accession and consequently, the implications for further reform.
Design/methodology/approach
– Theoretical questions are considered in relation to the debate on globalization vs the nation‐state over political, economic and social issues. By examining the challenges from both internal and external sources, the paper investigates the impact on the employment relations system at both macro‐ and micro‐levels.
Findings
– The major finding of this paper is that the current system of employment relations system in China is in the process of transformation towards a “hybrid” model combining authoritarianism and neo‐corporatism.
Originality/value
– This paper provides the most recent analysis on the impact of WTO accession on the changing pattern of employment relations in China. It helps people who are interested in transitional economy in general and in China in particular to have a better understanding about the transformation of employment relations system under the influence of different forces.
Substantial effort has been devoted to exploring the transfer of human resource management practices within multinational companies. Particular attention has been paid to countries with ‘strong’ HRM traditions, to transfers between economically developed countries and to firms in the manufacturing sector. This paper addresses the transfer of a British-owned retail firm's HRM practices from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. From a variety of perspectives the expectation might be that the transfer of parent-country practices in this instance would be limited: HRM has not been considered a particular strength of UK firms; retail firms operate in a multi-domestic context directly serving local customers rather than as part of an integrated international production network; and there is a high cultural distance between the UK and China. When this multinational retailer entered the China market the express intention was to replicate as nearly as possible the management style of its UK stores. This paper examines the extent to which the firm's parent-country HRM practices, which the company increasingly considers as a key source of competitive advantage, have in fact been transferred to the Chinese stores. The paper seeks to provide fresh insights on the phenomenon of transfer by adopting a qualitative case study approach. This study also focuses on shopfloor employees' perspectives rather than purely the view of managerial staff, as has tended to be the case. Several aspects of HRM transfer are explored briefly: communication with the workforce, work pattern, age composition of the workforce, reward system, training, and employee representation. Attention then focuses on the transfer of the firm's relatively flat organizational structure to a country which is perceived to place a high value on hierarchy, and where hierarchies tend to be quite rigid and clearly demarcated. This provides useful insights into the nature of the transfer process. It is suggested that structural dimensions such as the country of origin, the degree of international production integration and the nature of product markets appear to have less utility in explaining the transfer of HRM practices than institutional and cultural features of the host-country environment and, above all, specific firm-level practices and the presence of expatriates in key management roles.
In a survey of local employees in joint venture hotels in China, perceived interactional justice was found to be predictive of job attitudes, and perceived salary fairness in comparison with expatriate managers explained additional variance in job attitudes. Compared to previous results, local employees now perceived their pay as much more unfair when compared with that of expatriate managers. In addition to perceived justice, perceived managerial practices of expatriate managers and incentives received were also predictive of job attitudes of local employees. Consistent with previous results, employees working with overseas Chinese and Japanese managers reported less positive job attitudes than those working with Western and other Asian managers. These differences were related to neither perceived differences in managerial practices or managerial experiences of the expatriate managers nor perceived differences in incentives received. The justice framework provides the best explanation for these results.
This study examined three factors leading to a firm's adoption of strategic human resource management (SHRM): market orientation, HRM importance and HRM competency. Using a sample of firms from China, empirical results showed that the three factors are significantly related to a firm's adoption of SHRM. Given the transitional nature of the Chinese economy, the moderating effects of ownership types and firm size were also investigated. However, the moderating effects were not as strong as predicted. Managerial implications and directions for future research of SHRM in an emerging economy context are discussed.
This introduction attempts to provide an overview of the Special Issue of the IJHRM on 'Human Resource Management in China Revisited'. It deals first with the economic background of the recent changes in the PRC from 1978 to the present day, exploring the change from a command economy to a more market-led one, as well as the demise of 'iron rice bowl' policy dominated by a model to Soviet-inspired personnel management in favour of one gradually being characterized by possibly Japanese-/Western-influenced human resource management (HRM), albeit with 'Chinese characteristics'. It then introduces the main debates in the field before summing up, at some length, the empirical contributions based on 'state of the art' field research contained in the papers submitted. Last, it deals with the comparative setting of the contributions on China vis-à-vis the national HRM systems of Japan and South Korea.
Deng Xiaoping's open-door economic policy provides an opportunity for international economic cooperation and development. Our study attempts to investigate how conflicts between Chinese workers and foreign investors as manifested in human resources management arise, evolve and get resolved in Sino–foreign joint ventures. It hypothesizes that conflicts as such can be functional or dysfunctional and that both partners believe that it is in their best interest to resolve the conflicts. The conflict resolution process witnesses all parties engaging in a process of purposeful learning and unlearning and creating a new sinified corporate culture that best suits the evolving business culture and social milieu in China today – as China experiments with the idea of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. The guiding conceptual framework of our study is that of convergence theory. We argue that the socio-economic and cultural convergence between China and the West has produced a common hybrid of cross-cultural innovations in China or, in a global perspective, ‘alternative cultural globalization’. This hybridizing convergence is best exemplified by the gradual localization and sinification of the Western corporate culture in Sino–foreign enterprises in China today.