Changes and continuities in South Korean HRM

The operating context of South Korean human resource management (HRM) has undergone radical shifts since we wrote our first piece in 1997 for a similar collection to this. This has undoubtedly influenced the practice of HRM. Therefore, the focus of this piece is to compare the current situation with the past and delineate the amount and type of such change vis-à-vis continuity in HRM. The contextual factors and issues, political and economic background, labour market situation, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and ramifications, are analysed. Then future possible scenarios and key issues are outlined.     

The post-Asian financial crisis: changes in HRM in Taiwanese enterprises

The changes in the macro-economic environment, due to the recent Asian crisis, have been an important stimulus to organizational and human resource management (HRM) changes in Taiwanese enterprises. This essay tackles these responses by looking at individual firms, using a case study approach. The pattern of organizational responses introduced in these companies has exhibited a variety of different characteristics. Most have implemented strategies towards enhancing the individual firms' competitiveness. The situation has changed since Chen's research in 1997, marked by differences between a period of economic boom and a period of economic recession. Consequently, key economic indicators and labour market conditions have changed, so HRM practices have evolved too. Generally speaking, the adoption of international standardized HRM practices is one such move that is now becoming more general in Taiwan.     

HRM in Singapore: change and continuity

This essay traces the development of human resource management (HRM) in Singapore from the mid 1990s until the present day, with particular reference to the impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In particular, it explores the changes in employment relations since the publication of Yuen (1997). National HRM concerns and strategies to maximize human capital as Singapore transforms itself and the knowledge economy is highlighted. The issue of convergence versus divergence in the management of human resources (HRs) will be touched upon. Current and future HR challenges that are most likely to impact on the country's competitiveness and economic performance are also explored.     

HRM in Thailand: Eroding Traditions

This study explores the changing HRM practices in Thailand, especially over the past decade, during which the country has undergone substantial economic growth. It begins by examining the employment practices of traditional family-owned enterprises, which differ substantially from what have become thought of as ‘best practice’ in Western firms. It then analyzes the professionalization of employment practices in large-scale, publicly held Thai corporations. The final sections of the consider the nature of employment practices in the subsidiaries of multinational firms, which play a major role in the Thai economy.     

HRM in Japanese Enterprises: Trends and Challenges

The rise in thc Western concept of HRM parallels the global success of Japanese manufacturing enterprises. HRM in these firms emphasized an internal labour market and stable relationships between all stakeholders. The global environment may now require firms to shift to a more market-oriented approach. The evidence points to peripheral changes taking place but within the overall structure of traditional Japanese management. This gradualism has important implications for Western firms adopting the HRM paradigm. The context and configuration of HRM is the essence of Japanese managerial strategy. Failure of Western firms to recognize this will mean that HRM will lack a strategic focus and be unable to produce the desired outcomes.     

HRM in Thailand: a post-1997 update

This essay updates an earlier study of human resource management (HRM) practices in Thailand, focusing specifically on HRM in the post-1997 Asian financial crisis. HRM in Thailand has undergone gradual, but significant, change, with movement away from more traditional styles of HRM and management rooted in personalism and social relationships, toward more flexible employment systems in which employment opportunities are based on merit and performance rather than connections and personal characteristics. These changes are clearly more pronounced in subsidiaries of multinational corporations, particularly those based in Western countries.     

Ethics and HRM: Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis

Despite the ongoing consideration of the ethical nature of human resource management (HRM), little research has been conducted on how morality and ethics are represented in the discourse, activities and lived experiences of human resource (HR) professionals. In this paper, we connect the thinking and lived experiences of HR professionals to an alternative ethics, rooted in the work of Bauman (Modernity and the Holocaust, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1989; Theory, Culture and Society 7:5?C38, 1990; Postmodern Ethics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1991; Approaches to Social Enquiry, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1993; Life in Fragments, Blackwell, Oxford, 1995) and Levinas (Otherwise than Being, or, Beyond Essence, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998). We argue that the study of HRM and ethics should be contextualized within the discourses used, the practices and activities of HR professionals. Through the analysis of interview data from 40 predominantly Canadian HR practitioners and managers we experiment with Bauman??s notion of ??moral impulse?? to help us understand how HRM is both a product and perpetuator of moral neutralization in organizations. We suggest that HRM as it is practiced is concerned with distancing, depersonalizing, and dissembling, and acts in support of the ??moral?? requirements of business, not of people. However, we also recognize that HR practitioners and managers are often confronted with and conflicted by actions and decisions that they are required to take, therefore opening possibilities and hope for an alternative ethical HRM.     

Ethics and HRM: A Review and Conceptual Analysis

This paper reviews and develops the ethical analysis of human resource management (HRM). Initially, the ethical perspective of HRM is differentiated from the "mainstrea" and critical perspectives of HRM. To date, the ethical analysis of HRM has taken one of two forms: the application Kantian and utilitarian ethical theories to the gestalt of HRM, and the application of theories of justice and fairness to specific HRM practices. This paper is concerned with the former, the ethical analysis of HRM in its entirety. It shows that numerous theoretical shortcomings exist, least of which is the disregard of stakeholder theory. These deficiencies are explored and, as such, the analysis is advanced. It is argued that such ethical analysis is outside the scope of the modern corporation. A third way in which ethics may be applied to HRM is suggested. Ethical concerns are used as a basis to develop minimum standards against which HRM, in its various guises and practice, may be evaluated. Yet, even when judged by these standards, HRM is seriously lacking. This begs the question, not of whether HRM is ethical, but of whether HRM can be ethical.     

Change and continuity: recent developments in HRM in the Philippines

There is a tendency in many country studies to investigate a single sector and to imply that the sector is representative of the whole. In the realm of human resource management practices, the case of the Philippines suggests this is not a helpful approach. This essay suggests that, within the Philippines, there are differences between sectors of the economy. The purpose of this paper is three-fold: to build upon Maragtas Amante's 1997 study on HRM practices in the Philippines, to demonstrate differences in HRM practices in the import substitution industrialization (ISI) and export-oriented industrialization (EOI) sectors and to highlight the changes (if any) that have taken place over the past few years. This study suggests that, over the past few decades there has been a great deal of divergence between the ISI and EOI sectors. However, recently there has been evidence that the ISI sector has been adopting HRM practices that have been more characteristic of those in the EOI sector. The reason for this change is that the regulatory protection the ISI sector once enjoyed is no longer available. In addition, the Asian Financial Crisis has contributed to the change by breaking down union resistence that had previously prevented change in the ISI sector.     

Market-focused HRM in service organizations: Satisfying internal and external customers

This paper describes how the HRM function can positively influence the satisfaction of both its internal customers, such as, line employees, and external customers. Evidence is cited for how satisfaction levels in these internal and external markets often are correlated in service organizations. The management practices apparently associated with this correlation are described, concentrating on HRM's role in creating satisfied employees who are motivated and able service providers. The importance of customizing HRM practices to fit a specific market segment is emphasized.     

Economic Restructuring and HRM in Hong Kong

This article discusses the human resource implications of' business readjustment and advances in Hong Kong as its economy is restructured into a post-industrial centre of tertiary service industries. Corporate reforms are benchmarked against Western practices of exploring flexibilities and competitiveness which emphasize labour performance and cost savings. However, job security does not appear to have been eroded, possibly betraying an Oriental importance placed upon trust and commitment between employer and employee. As a meeting-place where Eastern and Western cultural practices interface, Hong Kong probably remains economically resilient by keeping its normative and institutional permissiveness in a hybrid mix of Western and Oriental practices.     

HRM in Western Subsidiaries in Russia and Poland

Abstract

This study analyzes the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in joint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries of Western MNCs located in Russia and Poland. Different hypotheses are developed, testing whether or not MNCs are more likely to implement standardized practices in Poland and Russia. The effects on HRM practices of MNC equity share, non-financial resources provided by MNCs to the focal unit, and mode of establishment of the foreign unit are also investigated. Implications for future research and managers are discussed.     

Motivation to Manage in China: Implications for Strategic HRM

Since 1979, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has made tremendous economic progress. As a result, China and its management practices have received increasing research attention. Human resource management practices in China have been extensively explored elsewhere. Unfortunately, little research has dealt with the concept of hierarchical role motivation theory; its main construct, motivation to manage; and its potential implications for strategic human resource practices in the PRC. The study reported here is an attempt to fill this void.     

HRM in Hong Kong since 1997

A diverse set of human resource management (HRM) practices became institutionalized during Hong Kong's industrialization from the 1950s through the 1970s within the context of an open economy, a government disinclined to intervene in business decisions or the labour market and a weak trade union movement. Economic restructuring, labour market changes and rising labour costs during the 1980s and 1990s pressured employers to find more effective ways of using their human resources. We focus on how the economic downturn following the Asian Financial Crisis has impacted on employment practices including employment security, compensation, skill formation, work reorganization and employment relations. We discuss changes in the public as well as private sector and argue that reforms in the former are loosening the rigidities of its highly structured internal labour market system. Public sector employment practices are thus likely to converge increasingly with the ‘best practices’ of private sector and overseas government HRM systems.     

Ethical Analyses of HRM: A Review and Research Agenda

The very idea of human resource management raises ethical considerations: What does it mean to us as humans for human beings to be managed as resources? Intriguingly, the field of ethics and HRM remains underdeveloped. Current approaches to HRM fail to place ethical considerations as their central warrant. This article, building on Greenwood (J Bus Ethics 36(3):261–279, 2002), argues for a deeper analysis of ethical issues in HRM, indeed for a differentiated ethical perspective of HRM that sets normative deliberations as its prime task. By identifying a distinct ethical approach to HRM that is unashamedly normative and socio-politically embedded, two objectives can be achieved. First, mainstream and critical approaches will be challenged to take ethical issues in HRM more seriously. Second, a dedicated forward-looking research agenda for the ethical analysis of HRM will be advanced.     

Current Ethical Issues in Polish HRM

Contemporary HRM was introduced into Poland by the arrival of international corporations with their professional systems of Human Resource Management, which emphasizes ethical personnel management. This research is based on data collected from a questionnaire and interview of 40 women and men professional graduates of the 2004 Weekend MBA Program at Poznan University of Economics eliciting their perceptions of ethical issues in Polish HRM. The present Polish economic situation, with 19% unemployment, precipitates many ethical challenges. The questionnaire and interviews resulted in 217 observations and specific examples of ethical HRM issues. Examples fall in two broad categories and five specific Human Resource areas. The broad external categories are: (1) History and cultural attitudes and (2) Exploitation of the current unemployment situation. Historical and cultural attitudes influence attitudes toward work; company discipline; property and ownership; law and social expectations at work. The history of personnel departments in Socialistic Poland explains many of these attitudes. The five specific categories are: (1) Ethical issues in recruitment; (2) Ethical issues in hiring (Discrimination issues); (3) Ethical issues in performance appraisals and promotions; (4) Abuse of authority (including sexual harassment), and (5) “Mobbing”. Ethical issues in these categories include correlation with appropriate Polish Labor and Penal Laws. This research reveals some HRM ethical challenges unique to Polish HRM. The research emphasizes professional HRM and ethical expectations, which are now being recognized and accepted as a strategic component of Polish management Brother Leo V. Ryan, CSV is Professor of Management – Emeritus and former Dean, College of Commerce, De Paul University. He is a Fellow, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, holds honorary degrees from Seton Hall University and Illinois Benedictine University and was a Fulbright Professor in Poland (1993–1995). He is past president, Society for Business Ethics. He is co-author or co-editor of Human Action in Business (1996); Etyka Biznesu (1997); From Autarcy to Market – Polish Economics and Politics (1998); Students Focus on Ethics (2000); Praxiology and Pragmatism (2002) and Poland: A Transformational Analysis (2003). He has been an annual Visiting Professor, Poznan University of Economics, Poznan, Poland since November 1999.