‘Making sense’ of HRM in China: setting the scene1

 1. This contribution is based in part on an earlier version of a paper originally given in Summer 2008 at the Business School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China which has been substantially added to, extended and up-dated. These latter processes were significantly deepened and enriched by exchanges with academics at the Management School, Zhejiang University and other Business Schools in universities in Hong Kong SAR, later in Winter 2008–2009. I should like to thank the following colleagues and collaborators for their advice and help in the development of the ideas in this essay: Syed Akhtar; John Child; Ngan Collins; Daniel Z. Ding; Vince Edwards; Keith Goodall; Grace Lee; Sek-Hong Ng; Jane Nolan; Peter Nolan; Riccardo Peccei; Michael Poole; Chris Rowley; Shuming Zhao; Ying Zhu; Zhong-Ming Wang; and many others. I must also thank Penny Smith at the Cardiff Business School for her most helpful administrative assistance.

Abstract

This contribution, as a part of a wider symposium, sets out to ‘make sense’ of Chinese human resource management (HRM) as it has evolved over the past three decades, by discussing seven paradoxes of its emergence over the past decades. The paradox categories discussed include: Western/Eastern; capitalist/socialist; ideological/non-ideological; advanced/transitional; global/glocal; multinational/national; and last, individualistic/collectivistic. The essay concludes that a number of the paradoxes appear to be stronger than others – even if there is more convergence in some categories than in others, due to the ongoing dynamic changes which are occurring in China's economy and society. But it is clear that their characteristics are still in flux, some relatively, some absolutely.

Keywords:

• China
• contradiction
• globalization
• human resource management
• paradox
• transitional economy

Notes

 1. This contribution is based in part on an earlier version of a paper originally given in Summer 2008 at the Business School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China which has been substantially added to, extended and up-dated. These latter processes were significantly deepened and enriched by exchanges with academics at the Management School, Zhejiang University and other Business Schools in universities in Hong Kong SAR, later in Winter 2008–2009. I should like to thank the following colleagues and collaborators for their advice and help in the development of the ideas in this essay: Syed Akhtar; John Child; Ngan Collins; Daniel Z. Ding; Vince Edwards; Keith Goodall; Grace Lee; Sek-Hong Ng; Jane Nolan; Peter Nolan; Riccardo Peccei; Michael Poole; Chris Rowley; Shuming Zhao; Ying Zhu; Zhong-Ming Wang; and many others. I must also thank Penny Smith at the Cardiff Business School for her most helpful administrative assistance.

 2. The work of the late Joseph Needham, a brilliant polymath Cambridge scientist, respected as much in China as in the West, was instrumental in unveiling the massive contribution the Middle Kingdom made to science and technology over the millennia, in his multi-volume work on the subject (see Needham 1954–2004, in 24 volumes, abridged by Ronan 1978–2005, into 5 volumes). A recent biography by Winchester (2008) provides a readable overview of his life and work. The ‘Needham question’ is, given the early impetus, why modern science did not develop in China but later in Europe and the West (see Finlay 2000).

 3. This phenomenon is probably because the reformers had not quite worked out a strategy in the late 1970s as to how to go about changing the system (see Child 1994) and had experimented with piece-meal innovations, ‘crossing the river by feeling [for] the stones’.

 4. As we made clear before (see Warner 2008): ‘Personnel was viewed as a word left over from the planned economy era, more a reminder of something related to administrative regulations… Maybe for the same reason [he continues] a report early released by the Development Research Centre (DRC) of the State Council indicates that most Chinese enterprises have renamed their personnel department as the human resource department. The wording change, though slight, clearly reveals that Chinese enterprises were undergoing changes in their personnel concepts. One expert, Ma Shuping, from the DRC's enterprise research section noted that: ‘In comparison, human resources is [sic] of much more meaning than personnel and it clearly spells that people should be treated as a kind of resource, instead of simply as an administrative subject’ (People's Daily, 20 May 2004, p. 1).

 5. Further steps were needed to achieve accommodation with the outside world. This strategy, in time, led to China joining international bodies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the International Labour Organization (ILO). It was part of a wider geo-political strategy of China's ‘peaceful rise’, which in time became known as ‘peaceful development’. To achieve this goal, it needed the tools to do the job. China had ‘to adopt the prevailing international norms of rational management, meritocracy, rule of law and adaptation to replace the old system of irrational management, virtuocracy and seniority, rule of man and rigidity’ (Wang 2007, p. 18). With regard to globalization, it continues, most Chinese policymakers need to recognize it as ‘inevitable and potentially beneficial to China’ (2007, p. 18). Citing the contemporary Chinese philosopher Li Zehou, whose message was mixing ‘Western essence with Chinese function’ (xiti zhongyong), following an earlier tradition originating from the fin de siècle steps to come to terms with the West, this view argued that modernization has even been identified with Westernization as one of its intrinsic elements. However, conservatives who were less keen, sought to limit its influence to the economic sphere; they do not want to see Chinese ‘values’ compromised by its implementation (Wang 2007, p. 19).

 6. But even in such cases, whatever the variation HRM was often focussed on short-term problems rather than long-term strategic issues. Why this was the case has never been quite clear. Whether this was due to the pragmatic nature of people-management reforms is not obvious. A knowledgeable scholar in the field, for example, bemoans the lack of research that systematically explores in detail a range of topics, both shorter and wider in focus, such as appraisal, compensation, planning and staffing (Zhu 2005, p. 34). Much further research has yet to be done in this vein, we may conclude, although some is already ongoing (see in particular contributions to this symposium).

 7. The Summit sponsors were Caliper and ADP (China Economic Review 2009, p. 1).

 8. As Chinese sources have pointed out: ‘Rising unemployment rather than economic slowdown appears to be the biggest challenge for the Chinese economy this year, according to economists. According to a report by China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center, over 90 percent of the 100 economists surveyed expressed the view that the growing number of jobless is the top challenge for the economy, followed by economic slowdown and social instability’ (China Daily, 7 February 2009, p. 1).

 9. A well-known example is the ‘paradox of virtue’ in early Confucian thought, where virtue can only be acquired where the individual is not actively seeking it (see Slingerland 2003, p. 6)

10. Western critics of HRM abound in the literature on the subject – (see for example Payne and Wayland 1999).

11. Again, as Wilken and Sinclair put it: ‘Global marketers have long been perplexed with the question of how to make global branding work. Historically, this issue generally pivots around whether, in what situations, and to what extent advertising across national and regional borders should be “standardized”, or alternatively, “localized”, that is, made specific to each market… glocalization” – an amalgam of global strategy and local adaptation – continues to be the dominant global marketing approach’ (Wilken and Sinclair 2007, p. 1).

12. See Hofstede's research (1980 and subsequent studies) re the range of scores for countries on the invidualistic-collectivistic scale.

13. See the contribution by Lin and Ho later in this symposium.

14. The Chinese government is currently setting up large numbers of ‘Confucius Institute’ sites around the world (see Bell 2008).

15. Earlier work includes Shenkar and von Glinow (1994). More recently, Faure and Fang (2008) picked eight paradoxes which to some degree overlapped with my own but are in fact quite different:

•	guanxi vs. professionalism;
•	importance of face vs. self-expression and directness;
•	thrift vs. materialism and ostentatious consumption;
•	family and group orientation vs. individuation;
•	aversion to law vs. respect for legal practices;
•	respect for etiquette, age and hierarchy vs. respect for simplicity, creativity and competence;
•	long-term vs. short-term orientation; and
•	traditional creeds vs. modern approaches.

16. See Tung and Baumann's contribution in this collection.

17. Traditionally, the Chinese concept of mao-dun (literally meaning ‘spear-shield’ from a story dating back to the 3rd century BC in the ancient tome, Han Feizi) is said to be similar in meaning to what we understand as ‘contradiction’ as referring to matters mutually opposed or logically incompatible, as well as zixiang maodun, meaning self-contradictory (see Chen and Sarostra 1997, p. 4). In post-1949 China, the usage of mao-dun was expanded, especially by Mao (1957) himself, to cover all ‘dynamic relationships of interaction in terms of differences, problems or difficulties, and antagonism in interpersonal or group situations’ (see Chen and Sarostra 1997, p. 4).

18. Any hope that the 2008 Beijing Olympics heralded a move to an expansion of civil liberties and greater freedom of expression was dashed by the crack-down by the authorities on dissident opinion before and after the event. The authors and signatories of ‘Charter 08’ have been subject to various forms of sanctions by the authorities (see Link 2009).

19. As one expert (Cooke 2005) puts it, [there is] ‘an absence of debate among academics and practitioners in China as to what HRM means in the Chinese context… academics have yet to come up with more rigorous analyses, informed by empirical studies, on the appropriateness of theories in guiding practices in organizations’ (2005, pp. 205–206). These reflections do cloud a clear understanding of where we are going in assessing how far HRM has ‘taken over’ the status quo ex ante.

20. Indeed, as a recent commentator has noted: ‘Western thought is noted for its strengths in categorization and analysis; Eastern, or Chinese thought, is noted for its integrative and encompassing nature… [we can]… enrich Western thinking and the existing body of paradox literature by proposing the idea of paradoxical integration, a concept derived from the Chinese middle way philosophy’ (Chen 2002, p. 179).

21. Data shortly to be published highlights another paradox in the Chinese case. While the Chinese are becoming richer, they do not appear to be getting happier – in reality, they seem to becoming more unhappy, according to this research. This paradox may well have a great deal to teach other fast-growing societies about the dilemmas of inequality (see Brockmann, Delhey, Welzel and Hao 2009).

22. Premier Wen Jiabao also announced a 3-year programme of health reforms amounting to US$124 billion in early 2009. Concurrently, the China Institute for Reform and Development, a prominent think-tank, has just published a 171-page report entitled The International Financial Crisis Challenges Reforms in China. It sees ‘the economic crisis as the biggest problem the country has faced in the 30-year history of its reform-and-opening policy (and it has faced some big ones, not least the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 and the SOE restructuring which threw millions out of work)’ (see The Economist 2009b).

23. The spectre of widespread social disturbances has been prominent in the minds of the Chinese leadership for some time, particularly during the Beijing Olympics year 2008 but few officially published statistics on public disorder ‘incidents’ have appeared since 2007 when they presented details for the preceding year (Mainland Affairs Council 2007).

24. This phrase has been coined by the present writer in the course of preparing this contribution. To date, I have found no references as yet in the literature, scholarly- or media-based citing this phrase but this does not mean the search has been totally exhaustive.