Editors:
Professor Malcolm Warner, University of Cambridge, [email protected]; and Professor Ying Zhu, University of South Australia, [email protected]
These ‘new generation’ employees have grown up with Deng Xiaoping’s post-1979 reforms and have had direct experience of a market-oriented economy, of ongoing globalization and of new information technology in the decades after. With the better economic and material conditions, as well as the different educational and social environments which have followed, these younger workers have seen many new ways of doing things introduced in the workplace in the course of these changes.
They have in fact shown a greater willingness to accept ‘the new’ and indeed want to change ‘the old’ ways than their parents’ cohorts, being more eager to participate in decision-making, as well as to express their opinions regarding governance in general, and management in particular. However, the ‘reality’ of management practices at many workplaces is still based on the ‘old practices’ left over from the old command-economy, as well as on traditional, paternalistic modes of managerial thinking.
Today, enterprises around the world are finding that it is increasingly challenging to meet these new generational demands and expectations. Therefore, it is timely to investigate what has happened in the workplace in China in particular, as to such generational changes in the workforce and, consequently, the evolving management systems and practices now to be found in the PRC.
The Editors of this APBR Special Issue of 2018 (one an existing APBR Co-Editor and the other a Guest Editor) invite submissions that explore some of the following areas and research questions, which are set out below, although other relevant areas may be considered:
| • | What are the new generation employees’ expectations and preferences towards involvement and participation, perspectives on leadership, commitments to job and organization, and factors for job satisfaction? | ||||
| • | What are the similarities and differences between the previous generation and new generation employees regarding their workplace behaviour? | ||||
| • | How do ownership and location factors influence the generational differences in their interpretations and responses to management practices, including HRM? | ||||
| • | What are the kind of innovations in the management systems in general, and HRM systems/practices in particular, that accommodate the new generation’s preferences and characteristics? | ||||
| • | How is the new generation employees’ desire for greater participation influenced by their exposure to both traditional Chinese cultures and foreign (i.e., Western vs. Japanese/Korean) influences? | ||||
| • | How do new technologies enable the new generation employees in obtaining knowledge and information and consequently influence their wellbeing and industrial democracy at workplace? | ||||
| • | What have been the new theory-driven responses by Chinese academics and others to the above? | ||||
Authors should submit an electronic copy of their manuscript as a Word file via email attachment (contact details of Editors above). Please see the Asia Pacific Business Review’s official website regarding style requirements and required headings: http://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/
Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words and include: title; aims/rationale; hypotheses; methodology (if appropriate); potential and actual findings; implications/conclusions.