Local complexities and global uncertainties: a study of foreign ownership and human resource management in China

Drawing on qualitative data, this paper examines developments in human resource and employment policies and practices among a sample of joint venture and wholly owned foreign enterprises operating in China. The research reveals that the effects of parent company nationality and ownership form were most visible in the areas of remuneration, worker representation and aspects of employee selection. There was, however, little overt involvement of multinational parent companies in the management of human resources of their Chinese operations. The trend was towards indirect reporting relationships with regional sub-units of multinational companies rather than direct links with the parent headquarters. Overall, these intermediate sub-units were playing an important role in the integration of Chinese business units in the global management systems of multinational companies.     

The human resource barriers to managing quality in China

China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The challenge for the future is likely to be the extent to which Chinese operations can utilize modern management techniques to improve product and service quality. This paper explores some of the problems that were affecting the management of quality within two foreigninvested enterprises (FIEs) based in the Shenzhen region of China. The paper argues that the provision of new factories and machinery was not sufficient in itself to ensure the maintenance of quality standards. Quality management in the West has become synonymous with increased employee involvement and developing customer-orientated cultures (Rees, 1998). The success or otherwise of quality management initiatives therefore depends upon the co-operation and enthusiasm of employees (Wilkinson et al ., 1998; Oliver and Wilkinson, 1992). Quality management within the case companies was hampered by the prevailing work ethic and was hindered by inadequate human resource and management systems. The study highlighted poor standards of training, dissatisfaction over levels of remuneration, and poor communication within the case companies. The paper argues that the problems experienced by the companies were inextricably linked to aspects of China's historical development. This history has helped to engender employee attitudes and behaviours that are poorly understood. Models of quality management are needed which are sensitive to the Chinese operating context.     

Organising international supplier relations: An exploratory study of Western purchasing in China

This paper analyses Western purchasing in China in order to investigate the motives for sourcing, the specific requirements of the area and, in particular, the base and features of supplier relationships. It reports recent experiences of seven companies based in Finland, including two global companies, two units with foreign ownership and three Finnish SMEs. Prevalent in Chinese sourcing are long-term supplier relations, but no partnership relations have been established. The companies build their supplier relations gradually and they all emphasise a long-term viewpoint to Chinese sourcing. Commitment of the Chinese partner is a key challenge, overcoming of which would help companies to avoid and solve, e.g. quality problems. The study shows that, for the Western supply personnel, key competences and tools for bridging the psychic distance are social skills and interest in the Chinese culture.     

Human resource flexibility,organizational culture and firm performance: an investigation of multinational firms in Hong Kong

This article explores the relationships between human resource (HR) flexibility, organizational culture, and organizational performance. Drawing on previous works, we develop a conceptual model that links the constructs together. It is hypothesized that the three sub-dimensions of HR flexibility (i.e. employee skill flexibility, employee behaviour flexibility, and HR practice flexibility) affect adaptability culture, which in turn impacts HR-related and market-related outcomes. The data were collected via a questionnaire survey of HR directors/managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) in Hong Kong. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) reveal the positive effects of employee behaviour flexibility and HR practice flexibility on adaptability culture. Employee skill flexibility, however, exerts no such effect. Further, adaptability culture is found to affect both HR-related and market-related performance in a positive manner.     

Human resource management in Asian subsidiaries: comparison of French and Japanese MNCs

European and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) have expanded their activities in Asia, usually through massive mobilization of various human resources from head offices, whether expatriated or on short-term assignments, and a reliance on diverse categories of local employees. Because expatriation is costly, difficult and often limited in its results, MNCs have developed localization strategies for management positions to support their regional development. This contribution addresses such a scenario by comparing Japanese and French MNCs in eight Asian countries, based on 53 interviews across subsidiaries of 17 MNCs. We find that Japanese MNCs have not localized management positions as much as French MNCs, but they have grown more willing to do so. To compensate for the lack of local capabilities without sending more expatriates, both French and Japanese MNCs frequently send experts on short-term assignments. Finally, though human resource practices vary widely across countries, even for a given MNC, some harmonizing principles have been introduced to regional HRM strategies recently.     

Human resource management and industrial relations in multinational corporations in and from China: Challenges and new insights

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview on the state of research in the field in human resource management (HRM) issues in multinational corporations (MNCs) in and from China. We integrate previous studies from multiple disciplines to articulate the contextual importance of research on this topic, and suggest overarching themes to expand the field of research. HRM research in the intercultural, interinstitutional context of MNCs in and from China has the potential to provide contextualized insights for longstanding debates in the field such as HRM standardization versus localization and convergence versus divergence and contextual factors behind these patterns. To this end, we call for future research to center on the changing cultural, institutional, technological, and globalization context in understanding HRM and industrial relations issues in these MNCs. Practically, knowledge in this area can help global managers and top management teams in multinational organizations navigate various context complexity, foster more productive coordination and cooperation across borders, and gain legitimacy and MNCs in and from China additional competitive edge in the global marketplace.     

跨国公司在华本土化战略及启示

针对跨国公司大举进入中国的现状,探讨了跨国公司在华经营本土化产生的原因,分析了跨国公司在中国人才、R&D、市场等方面本土化的策略,以及跨国公司本土化对我国经济发展的积极和消极的影响,提出我国企业针对跨国公司的经营本土化策略应采取的相应对策和本土化战略对中国企业国际化的启示。     

Human resource management in China revisited: introduction

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.     

The emergence of Human Resource Management in China: Convergence,divergence and contextualization

This article aims to use the emergence of Human Resource Management (HRM) in China to shed light on the dynamism of convergence, divergence and contextualization in the broader field. It argues that the ways used to manage people in China have diverged or converged with Western or foreign-developed theories and practices, in different institutional contexts and at different periods of time. Overlapping with this intellectual narrative, it looks at HRM in China in its contemporary historical setting, to show how theories such as the US-inspired Scientific Management and Human Relations and the Soviet model of Personnel Administration have influenced and shaped various ways of managing people. The bibliometric review of the unfolding of HRM in China presented in the article will, we argue, also shed further light on wider issues of convergence/divergence and contextualization.     

Human resource management and organizational strategies in German- and US-owned companies

The development of the international economy over the past twenty years has bred considerable diversity in the form and substance of employment relations (labour-management relations, human resource management practices) throughout the world. Cases of ‘social partnership’ are today found in the ‘free market’ United States economy; some companies operating in Germany's ‘social’ market economy are rejecting traditional forms of social partnership in the name of more unilateral strategies.

This paper examines (a) the extent to which ‘strategic diversity’ – variation in human resource strategies and policies – is possible within the heavily institutionalized, co-operative and codeterminative German economy, and (b) how managers perceive the effects of different kinds of HR approaches on organizational change and industrial adjustment. It is based on empirical evidence drawn from seven large chemicals companies operating in Germany – three of them US-owned firms and four German-owned.

The main conclusions are that considerable strategic diversity is possible within the German context, and that managers perceive distinct costs and benefits to specific aspects of the typically American ‘unilateral’ style and the more German ‘negotiated’ approach to structuring the relationship with human resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these trade-offs for the transferability of HR strategies across international borders, giving special attention to policies to avoid some of these potential costs.     

Quality and cost? The evolution of Walmart's business strategy and human resource policies and practices in China and their impact (1996–2017)

This study responds to calls for more in‐depth and qualitative studies, the return to a focus on external factors, and the inclusion of business strategy and industrial relations in human resource management (HRM) research, as well as more research in the retail sector in the Chinese context. We examine the coevolution of the business strategy and HR strategy of Walmart (China) in the last two decades and identify tensions in the context of intensifying competition in the Chinese retail market. We highlight the interactive effect of business and HR strategies through a historical lens. Our study reveals a shift from the original employee‐oriented win–win strategy through rent sharing between the firm and the employees to a win–lose strategy through the introduction of more cost conscious HR policies and practices. Findings of our study challenge the conventional wisdom that firms adopt either the cost or quality strategy and, along with it, the suggestion of matching the quality strategy with employee‐oriented HR policies and practices, and cost leadership with a transactional approach to HRM. We argue a cost and quality business strategy may be adopted, which requires the support of employee‐oriented, rather than cost‐oriented, HR policies and practices.     

Human resource management and the performance of Western firms in China

The study examines the relationship between human resource management and organizational performance in sixty-two manufacturing Chinese-Western joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries located in different parts of the People's Republic of China. A positive relation was found between firm performance and the extent to which firms used a 'high-performance' HRM system as well as the degree to which they engaged in the integration of HRM and firm strategy.     

Testing alternative models of human resource policy effects on trade union recognition in the Republic of Ireland

This paper tests two alternative models of human resource policy effects on the incidence of union non-recognition in a sample of over 150 organizations in the Republic of Ireland. A series of scales of human resource policy sophistication is developed, guided by the broad body of theory in the area of HRM. A conceptual model linking HRM policies to union recognition/non-recognition is also elaborated. Two alternative theoretical models of HRM policy effects are developed and estimated using logistic regression. The first of these models, the 'simple additive model', tests for the discrete effects of various areas of human resource policy on the incidence of union non-recognition. Only the management of reward systems along HRM lines is significantly associated with the incidence of non-recognition. A second model, called the 'threshold-fit model' tests for a decisive overall HRM effect on union non-recognition in organizations which implement relatively sophisticated and internally consistent sets of HRM policies. A series of policy cross-dependencies or interaction effects is also allowed for in this model. Contrary to the predictions of the theoretical literature, no empirical support is found that such HRM policy combinations prove particularly impenetrable to trade unions. Line management dominance of HRM policy is found to be a significant factor in predicting non-recognition. The possibility that this factor is indicative of sophisticated human resource management is however discounted. The apparent failure of most areas of human resource policy to depress the likelihood of union recognition in Ireland is accounted for in terms of the wider framework and traditions of industrial relations practice in that country.     

论知识经济条件下的人力资源会计

本文以知识经济为出发点,探讨了知识经济与人力资源会计的关系,进而简要分析了我国实施人力资源会计的必要性和进行人力资本价值衡量的现实意义,并进一步探讨了人力资源会计在企业人力资本价值衡量中的应用。     

Human resource management in relation to generic strategies: a comparison of chemical and food&drink companies in the Netherlands and Great Britain

In this paper, specific personnel policies and their relationship to generic strategies are examined in the light of the concept of human resource management (HRM). Since data from twelve Dutch and eight British companies in the food&drink and chemical industries reveal that the implementation of HRM components is subject to a societal effect–and thus HRM has a different meaning in Dutch companies than in their British counterparts–a typology of HRM at a more strategic level is proposed to facilitate the analysis of the relationship between HRM and generic strategies. Although in the majority of cases the HRM policy supports the generic strategy pursued, many problems and paradoxes remain in the analysis of an HRM–strategy fit.     

Human resource management in the public sector

This article charts the currents in public sector reform and examines how contemporary HRM articulates to the change agenda pursued in the public sector. It notes the differences between the traditional bureaucratic model and the new management approach of public sector operation and activity. It explores how the institutional, policy and organizational changes delivered a new paradigm of managing members of public service organizations.     

How work-related capabilities influence job performance: a relational perspective

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.     

Human Capital Externalities in Western Germany

Abstract

Using panel data and employing instrumental variables we show that regional wage differences across German regions are partly attributable to localized human capital externalities. This finding is stable across different indicators for regional aggregate education and robust to agglomeration, wage curve, price level and amenity effects. A comparison of our results with Moretti's findings for the USA suggests that national labour market institutions influence the distribution of wage gains from aggregate regional education among workers of different educational backgrounds. An analysis by sector reveals that human capital externalities are generally more pronounced in manufacturing than in the service sector.

Externalités des ressources humaines en Allemagne de l'Ouest

Résumé En utilisant des données pluridimensionnelles et en faisant usage de variables instrumentales, nous sommes en mesure de démontrer que les différences salariales régionales dans les différentes régions d'Allemagne sont attribuables, en partie, à des externalités en ressources humaines localisées. Cette conclusion est stable dans les différents indices pour l’éducation globale à l’échelon régional, et solide sur le plan de l'agglomération, des courbes salariales, des niveaux de prix, et des facteurs d'agrément. Une comparaison entre nos résultats et les conclusions de Moretti, pour les États-Unis, indique que les institutions nationales du marché du travail influent sur la distribution des gains salariaux découlant de l’éducation régionale globale parmi des travailleurs provenant de différents milieux éducatifs. Une analyse par secteur révèle que les externalités de ressources humaines sont généralement plus prononcées dans le secteur industriel que dans le secteur tertiaire.

Factores exógenos del capital humano en Alemania Occidental

Resumen Utilizando datos de panel y empleando variables instrumentales, demostramos que las diferencias salariales interregionales alemanas pueden atribuirse en parte a factores exógenos de capital humano confinados. Esta conclusión es estable entre los diferentes indicadores del acumulado regional de educación y consistente ante los efectos de la aglomeración, curva salarial, nivel de precios y servicios públicos. Una comparación de nuestros resultados con las conclusiones de Moretti relativas a los EE.UU., sugiere que las instituciones asociadas con el mercado laboral nacional ejercen influencia sobre la distribución de las ganancias salariales del acumulado de educación regional entre los trabajadores de los diferentes niveles de estudio. Un análisis por sector revela que los factores exógenos de capital humano son, en términos generales, más pronunciados en el sector de producción que en el de servicios.

     

Human resource management and industrial relations in Italy

Evolution of industrial relations and human resource management in Italy in the last decade is analysed through qualitative case studies, quantitative surveys and a combination of qualitative/quantitative data originating from network researches.

In the 1980s, complementary industrial relations/human resource management in Italy were based on the trade-off between employment security, work flexibility and industrial adjustment. In the 1990s this complementarity is under pressure from a second restructuring process (and privatization) of Italian enterprises.

The last surveys underline that the basic features of industrial relations were not altered, but the data confirm the critical importance of the relationship between industrial relations and human resource management and also the fragility of this balance.     

Human Resources Management Practices in China

Abstract

Based on a survey of 308 firms in China, this paper compares the human resource management practices of Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) with the Sino-foreign joint ventures (SFJVs) formed between TVEs and foreign firms. Systematic differences in employment practices are found in recruiting, educational qualifications of top management, training, benefits, and the role of unions in enterprise management. These differences are consistent with the predictions of institutional theory. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and management of enterprises in China.