‘China-focused’ human resource management? A critical analysis of a decade of journal-published research, 2008–2017

Abstract

This article seeks to provide reliable insights into current trends of ‘China-focused’ Human Resource Management (HRM) vis-à-vis the need for a more ‘contextualized’ framework. It tries to capture the status quo of the literature in the field – in terms of evaluating quality indicators (such as citation rates), author information (such as affiliations), methodological data (such as sample foci) and content-related facts (such as subject matters), amongst others. Ten SSCI-indexed journals were systematically selected for the study, as they explicitly focus on HRM and/or on Asian management issues. The findings are based on an in-depth analysis of 159 articles published between 2008 and 2017. A rich content analysis is presented to illustrate current trends. Although the results have to be treated with caution, I provide some evidence for what numerous scholars recently point out may be the case for the field of China-focused HRM: A contextual and methodological narrowing. It is hoped that the present article may add to the debate on the future of the field.

Keywords:

• Asia
• China
• contextual
• HRM
• psychology
• SSCI

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers, especially Malcolm Warner, for comments on earlier drafts of the present article and for their constructive comments which have lifted my work up to the stage of a final manuscript.

Notes

1. All bibliographic information of the articles that were included in the in-depth analysis is available upon request from the corresponding author.

2. All bibliographic information of the 27 articles published in Management and Organization Review that the author refers to in terms of the ‘single outlet analysis’ are available upon request from the corresponding author.