Society and HRM in China

Abstract

In this contribution to the Symposium, we shall look at the relationship between Society and Human Resource Management (HRM) not only in its general context but also in its Chinese setting. Our argument is that there needs to be a minimum degree of consonance between the two – if HRM is to be sufficiently underpinned by social reality. A review of how Chinese society and its organizations have changed in the last half-century and how its economy and management, including HRM, have been transformed since the post-1978 economic reforms is then set out. Our main findings are that much of the research published in this Symposium if no doubt relatively ‘representative’ of the social changes found in PRC today is, however, mostly ‘cross-sectional’ and ‘specialized’. What is missing are studies we might judge to be both ‘longitudinal’ and ’broad’ in scope. We conclude by suggesting that it is only in a wider framework that ‘people-management’ can be best understood, whether we are looking at theory or practice, both in general and vis-à-vis the PRC.

Keywords:

• China
• economy
• HRM
• PRC
• society
• values

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following colleagues and collaborators for their advice and help in the development of the ideas in this article: John Benson, John Child, Ngan Collins, Vince Edwards, Keith Goodall, Grace Lee, Sek-Hong Ng, Jane Nolan, Riccardo Peccei, Michael Poole, Chris Rowley, Shuming Zhao, Ying Zhu and many others. I also thank Gail Carter at Routledge and Penny Smith at the Cardiff Business School for their most helpful administrative assistance.