Introducing Western Human Resource Management Practices To China: Shopfloor Workers' Perspectives

• Main Author: Gamble, Jos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asian Academy of Management (AAM) 2006
• Subjects: HD28-70 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/35939/1/AAMJ_11-1-6.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/35939/; http://web.usm.my/aamj/11.1.2006/AAMJ%2011-1-6.pdf
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

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.