This edited work attempts to ‘make sense’ of recent developments in the field of Human Resource Management in the People’s Republic of China. It attempts to see how the paradoxes and contradictions engendered by contemporary Chinese society are being resolved in the enterprises and workplaces of the Middle Kingdom. The book starts with an overview of the literature, then follows with a selection of micro-oriented, concerned with topics like recruitment and retention, then macro-oriented empirical studies, a number of the latter dealing with strategic as well as performance issues, with last, those comparing sets of societal cultural values. It attempts a synthesis of what has emerged from recent research on the ‘harmonious society’. These contributions from authors based in universities in eight countries, in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, United Kingdom and USA, cover a wide range of research on HRM, from the micro- to the macro-. Six of them teach and/or research at campuses on the Mainland. Their empirical, field-based research covers the last half-decade and presents a robust picture of both what practitioners have adopted and how researchers have tried to ‘make sense’ of what they have investigated. This book was based on a special issue of Intl Journal of Human Resource Management.

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the similarities and differences of contemporary human resource management systems, processes and practices in the two increasingly important economic great powers in Asia. It covers the full range of human resource management activities, including recruitment, retention, performance management, renumeration, and career development, discusses changing industrial relations systems, and sets the subject in its historical, social and cultural contexts. It examines newly emerging strategies, and asssesses the extent to which human resource management systems in the two countries are coverging or diverging.

This book explores the diversity and dynamism of China’s workplaces and of the wider labour market experiences of its workforce. Drawing on the authors’ extensive recent research, it considers a diverse range of issues and types of workplaces. These changes include: the continuing spread of market-oriented human resource management across public and private sector organisations; greater employment rights for workers; local diversity in regulatory control alongside the governmental priority of a ‘harmonious society’; persistent shortages of skilled labour co-existing with vast underemployment amongst the unskilled; uneven access to education and training across regions; and changes in union behaviour and influence. Unlike other studies - which tend to assume changes to management, work and employment are relatively uniform across modernising parts of the economy - this book conveys the rich variety among contemporary China’s local labour markets by looking at them, and the institutions that influence them, from the bottom-up. It focuses on other under-explored but emerging phenomena such as family-owned firms, the role of private services businesses, and the emergence of employer associations.

This volume looks at the relationship between society and human resource management (HRM) in China. In doing so it asks how representative the latter is of the former. The contributors argue that there needs to be a minimum degree of consonance between these two variables if HRM is to be sufficiently underpinned by social reality. It is only in a wider framework that ‘people-management’ in general – and in China in particular – can be fully understood, whether through theory or through practice. Society and HRM in China explores the changes in Chinese society over the last century and then goes on to analyse how these changes have shaped China’s HRM. Arguably, HRM did not emerge from the void; it was shaped by the societal culture from which it sprung and the economic forces influencing its institutions and organizations. However, there is very little academic literature about the relationship between contemporary Chinese society and its HRM which isn’t extremely specific. As such, much of the research in this collection is not only relatively representative but also highly cross-sectional. The contributions are all drawn from experts in the field across the disciplines, hailing from a diverse range of national origins and educational institutions. They cover a wide range of topics, approaches and emphases. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.

This symposium explores Chinese people-management as an academic subject, looking at where it is currently going and the likely direction of its progress. After the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China saw the introduction of Human Resource Management (HRM). This book discusses the specific issues which are relevant to its evolution in China, in particular whether there is a dominant ‘paradigm’ in the field and whether there might be a new one in the making. It looks at the possibility of a ‘theory of Chinese management’ or ‘Chinese theory of management’. This comprehensive volume covers a wide range of topics, including charismatic leadership, employee commitment, creativity, ‘guanxi’, job security, knowledge-generation, mentorship, national identity and organizational innovation, all in the context of Chinese HRM. The contributors are experts in their respective fields of management, organizational behaviour, psychology, sociology and related disciplines, and cover a wide range of themes, models and specialisms. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.

China has become one of the fastest-growing economies ever seen in the world in recent times. In the last three decades, China has transformed itself from a command economy to a market one, albeit a nominally socialist one, and its management systems have been reformed accordingly. In the light of these changes, Malcolm Warner, one of the leading authorities on management in China, explores the past, present and future of Chinese management. The first part of the work examines the history of management practices in the ‘Middle Kingdom’, outlining the influence of traditional Chinese values, especially the Confucian inheritance, and the legacy of the imperial bureaucracy with its meritocratic examination system, as well as the role of industrialization and the influx of foreign-owned businesses in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century. It next goes on to consider the current state of China’s management, showing how a new breed of manager has evolved since the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in the late 1970s and 1980s. The resulting impact of this strategy which has continued into the 1990s and the 2000s, up to the present day, is then examined. The final part of the book concludes with reflections on how management in China is likely to develop in the near future, especially on how far it will converge with global practices or to what degree an indigenous form of management 'with Chinese characteristics' will prevail.

Whither Chinese management? The Middle Kingdom has come a long way since the economic reforms were introduced after 1978. As ownership has opened up and has become more fragmented, the state-owned firms no longer dominate the scene, nor does their management model. Managing has also become more complex and diversified, as well as more professional. This book asks what the next steps are likely to be and will assess the current directions in which Chinese managers are developing, as its economy slows down in the face of global uncertainty. It aims to update previous works in the field covering business and management in these countries. It covers a wide range of topics, including banking, competition, employee satisfaction, expatriates, industrial relations, HRM, organization, SMEs, social responsibility, strategic sourcing, trust and so on. The book also asks in which future directions management may be moving in this important part of the international economy. The authors are all experts in their fields and are all based in universities and business schools in countries such as Australia and the UK, among others. The work is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students in business administration especially those on MBA programmes, as well as those studying development economics, management studies and related courses, including lecturers in those subjects. This book was published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.