Introducing Western Human Resource Management Practices To China: Shopfloor Workers' Perspectives
The management of host country employees is often portrayed as a particularly fraught dimension for multinational firms. The problems involved are considered exponentially greater when there are substantial institutional differences and 'cultural distance' between the host country and a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Asian Academy of Management (AAM)
2006
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/35939/ http://eprints.usm.my/35939/1/AAMJ_11-1-6.pdf |
| Summary: | The management of host country employees is often portrayed as a particularly fraught
dimension for multinational firms. The problems involved are considered exponentially
greater when there are substantial institutional differences and 'cultural distance'
between the host country and a firm's parent country, as is assumed to be the case for
Western firms operating in China. Based upon detailed case study research conducted at
a UK-invested firm in China between 1999 and 2003 and a comparative study of a
Chinese state-owned firm, this paper explores the veracity of such assumptions. The
findings indicate that Western human resource management practices can be
transplanted successfully and questions the degree to which foreign-invested enterprises
need to adopt 'the Chinese way of doing things'. Indeed, such practices can be innovative
in the Chinese context and provide a competitive source of differentiation for
multinationals as employees. |
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