Coping with an emerging market competition through strategy-human resource alignment: case study evidence from five leading Japanese manufacturers in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

This paper documents how PRC-based Japanese affiliates can align their human resource management (HRM) policies and practices with their business strategies based on in-depth interview surveys of the five leading Japanese manufacturers in China. In particular, using a multiple-informant research design to interview both top and human resource managers in each site, the study has attempted to clarify the strategic fit between the business strategies pursued and HRM practices adopted in China. Our interviews with top management for each affiliate revealed three types of business strategies that the PRC-based affiliates adopt to gain competitiveness in the Chinese market. Separate interviews with HR managers further clarified that affiliates' HRM efforts are aligned with the strategy each affiliate is pursuing. The findings are used to suggest several hypothesized relationships between the particular strategies pursued and the HRM practices adopted in China. Furthermore, this study has provided some important insights as to how the choice of affiliate-level business strategies in China affects the ‘hybridization’ processes of the HRM policies and practices used in the cross-national business environment.

Keywords:

• case study
• hybridization of HRM practices
• Japanese affiliates in China
• multiple-informants research design
• strategy-HR alignment

Acknowledgement

The work described in this paper was supported by (a) the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan (Project No. 19730264), (b) Competitive Earmarked Research Grants funded by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CityU 1120/02H and CityU 141007), and (c) Departmental General Research Funds of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. 4-ZZ71). The authors are grateful to all the companies and managers who participated in our survey for making this study possible.