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This article was downloaded by: [Northeastern University]On: 22 October 2014, At: 15:50Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
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In search of Confucian HRM: theory andpractice in Greater China and beyondMalcolm Warner aa Judge Business School, University of Cambridge , Cambridge, UKPublished online: 04 Oct 2010.
To cite this article: Malcolm Warner (2010) In search of Confucian HRM: theory and practice inGreater China and beyond, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21:12,2053-2078, DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2010.509616
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In search of Confucian HRM: theory and practice in Greater Chinaand beyond
Malcolm Warner*
Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
This contribution is part of a wider Symposium on people management in the heartlandof Asia. It sets out in search of what might be conceptualized as ‘Confucian humanresource management (HRM)’, in Greater China and beyond. It will cover not only thePeople’s Republic of China (PRC) but also the Overseas Chinese (Nanyang) Diaspora,namely in Hong Kong and Taiwan, among other places. It will seek to understand howfar traditional Chinese values still continue to influence the degree to which HRM hasbeen adopted. The main conclusion we come to is that the continuity of traditionalChinese values is empirically still observable in the contemporary practice of peoplemanagement but with varying degrees of emphasis.
Keywords: Confucianism; culture; globalization; Greater China; harmonious society;human resource management; HRM; People’s Republic of China; PRC; values
Introduction
This contribution is part of a wider Symposium on people management in the heartland of
Asia. It sets out in search of what might indeed be conceptualized as ‘Confucian HRM’, in
Greater China and beyond. It covers not only the People’s Republic of China (PRC) but
also the Overseas Chinese (Nanyang) Diaspora, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, amongst other
places.1 It will seek to understand how far traditional Chinese values still continue to be
influential in Asian cultural contexts in which HRM has been implemented, all said to have
been influenced by what Hofstede and Bond (1988) conceptualized as ‘Confucian
dynamism’. This dimension is interesting in that it focuses on what the researchers call
‘time orientation’ and ‘Confucian values’. It is based on their work in their Chinese Value
Survey which was originally developed in ‘Middle Kingdom’ by the Chinese Culture
Connection (1987). The essential purpose of their concept is to identify what they call the
‘time orientation of cultures’. A high score on this dimension suggests a culture’s tendency
to a ‘future-minded’ mentality. They base it, in part at least, on the work of that nation’s
most important thinker, namely, Confucius, or Kungzi in pinyin (551–479BC),2 a
significant influence too on cultural values in other parts of East Asia, such as Japan and
South Korea, amongst others.
‘Deconstructing’ Chinese culture and history is, however, not necessarily straight-
forward – as a recent scholarly contribution contends:
While the culture may be dominated by a certain ideological perspective at a certain historicalstage, for a certain domain of life, and in a certain situation, the Chinese are no strangers to
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DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2010.509616
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*Corresponding author. Email: m.warner@jbs.cam.ac.uk
The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
Vol. 21, No. 12, October 2010, 2053–2078
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alternative divergent ideologies including those taking the individualist, the relationalist, andthe collectivist perspectives. The individualist perspective views people as primarilyindependent individuals rather than members of communities, places priority on individualrights and interests, and promotes social exchanges with other individuals and communitiesfor the fulfillment and satisfaction of individuals’ rights and interests. The relationalistperspective views people as social and relational beings, that is, as members of socialcommunities rather than independent individuals, places priority on duties and obligations toother individuals and communities to which an individual is affiliated, and engages inmaintaining and enhancing the common welfare of the community. The collectivistperspective views people as either individuals or as members of communities or both, but itplaces priority on the interest and welfare of superordinate communities over either individualor subordinate communities and engages in activities that promote the common welfare ofsuperordinate communities. The classic Confucianism is probably the most typical form ofrelationalism. In theory, Confucianists seemed to advocate collectivism rather thanrelationalism. However, Confucian philosophy saw more commonality andcomplementarity between small communities and their more encompassing communities.(Chen and Lee 2008, p. 7).
The Chinese belief-system is seemingly able to synthesize what often appear to be
competing, paradoxical or even contradictory notions (see Warner 2009).
Hierarchy, perseverance and thrift, arguably among the central facets of
Confucianism, are furthermore held to be common values associated with economic
performance in Asian contexts, although there are robust critiques of this view (see Kwon
2007, for example). Confucian notions are specifically pinpointed as highly influential in
the Greater China (Nanyang) Diaspora, in locations such as Hong Kong and Taiwan,
although opinions differ as to how far this is the case (see Selmer and De Leon 2003; Chou
2003; Lin and Ho 2009).
However, another strong influence on Chinese thought and behaviour is Daoism,
which is associated with the writings of Laozi (possibly a contemporary of Confucius,
although this is not clear3); he appears not to have favoured hierarchy at all. Confucianism
may indeed be seen as proactive but Daoism focuses on what is dubbed active ‘non-
action’, the so-called wu wei, later said to have been taken up by eighteenth century
European Enlightenment economic thinkers – anticipating the concept of laissez faire4
(see Gerlach 2005). A further important influence on Chinese ways of looking at the world
but here more narrowly focusing on managing conflict has been Sun Tzu or Sunzi (possibly
as early as the sixth century BC) who wrote the famous military handbook, The Art of War
(Bingfa), now widely used as a management text not only in the East but also in the West
(see Lamond and Zheng 2010).5
What is clear, as Rarick (2009) points out, is that:
As China continues its movement towards a capitalistic economy it will be doing so under theinfluence of the great thinkers from China’s past. The Chinese approach to economic change,pioneered by Deng Xiaoping has been one of long-term thinking and gradual movementtowards capitalism, with attention paid to the losers of economic reform. This approach isconsistent with a collectivist society and one that has been guided by concerns for harmonywith authoritarian rule. Likewise, the managerial practices of present day China are influencedby the ideas of China’s early rulers, philosophers, and military strategists whose teachings areembedded in the Chinese psyche. As China becomes increasingly important to the globaleconomy, it becomes increasingly important to understand the mindset of the Chinese.(Rarick 2009, p. 1).
The discussion we now set out returns to a number of themes adumbrated in the
introduction to a previous symposium in this journal (Warner 2009). A major paradox
dealt with then was related to the diffusion and take-up of HRM in China – in that it
argued that the latter was originally a ‘Western’ concept that had in its turn been
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reinterpreted in an essentially ‘Eastern’, ‘Asian’ or even a specifically ‘Chinese’
Confucian setting. Indeed, this may also be said of a great deal of so-called Western
management more generally now found in the PRC.6 Many cross-cultural studies (for
example, Hofstede (1980) and subsequent work) as we noted, had indeed attempted to
observe and calibrate the persistence of indigenous values. Other scholars have explored
cultural factors that had influenced management in different Asian societies (see Warner
1994, 1997, 2003a, 2008; Collins, Zhu and Warner 2010). On specifics, some are very firm
about Confucianism in Hong Kong (Selmer and De Leon 2003); other less certain about
Taiwan (Chou 2003); the most recent comparative survey suggest that there is still
widespread adherence to Confucian ethics in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan but that
young people on the mainland now identify with it much less so (Lin and Ho 2009,
p. 2414). Outside the Greater Chinese (Nanyang) Diaspora, as well, there is also still a
strong influence in Japan (Jackson and Tomioka 2004) as well as in South Korea (see Dore
1987; Rowley and Paik 2009).
Moreover, it may also seem odd to some that Confucianism which was once associated
with backwardness by many sociologists such as Weber (1905) and his followers, may
now be seen as reconcilable with modernism (on this debate, see Habermas 1984, p. 2;
Goody 1996, p. 39; Trescott 2007, pp. 25–26). The former view saw the Confucian value
of ‘self-perfection’ of the individual as a bar to capitalism’s progress, as opposed to
developing ‘practical’ skills (see Moulder 1977). Others disagreed (for example, Vogel
1991) as they thought that cultivating one’s self may lead to ‘constructive’ learning of
work-related skills. Huan-Chang Chen (see Chen 1911), who was the first Chinese-born
student to be awarded a doctorate in Economics at Columbia University, in New York,
depicted Confucius as a promoter of economic growth and prosperity in his classic study
on the topic but there are nonetheless many ambiguities vis-a-vis the role of political
economy in the Chinese classics (see Trescott 2007, p. 65).7
In order to resolve the contradictions of contemporary Chinese society (see Chan 2001;
Cheng 2004; Lee 2007), the ideologists of Sino-Marxism have arguably given it a
Confucian face, as we recently noted (Warner 2009). By doing so, the current Chinese
leadership has tried to legitimate its single-party rule as a part of a long-standing Chinese
tradition of benevolent and enlightened government – and ensuring social order is
maintained – under the banner of the ‘Harmonious Society’, the political catchphrase of
the current President, Hu Jintao. As an observer of Chinese politics has recently claimed:
Hu’s strategy for China’s development has differed profoundly from his predecessors.Concerns about social cohesion have overcome the old model’s emphasis on economicefficiency, a more balanced regional development has replaced the previous coastaldevelopment strategy, and a people-centred rhetoric (yiren weiben) has downplayed the GDP[gross domestic product]-centred drive. (Li 2005, p. 8)8
‘Harmony’ has become a major theme in contemporary Chinese Marxist ideology, as we
shall strongly emphasize in this contribution, particularly stemming from the redefinition
of Confucianism in the twentieth century, a process said to have started in the 1920s (see
Sole-Farras 2008, p. 14ff). The historical continuity of Confucianism has been a consistent
theme in the Chinese narrative, even in recent times, with perhaps only Mao Zedong
daring to break the mould as he was explicitly anti-Confucian, but with his successors
returning to the fold soon after (2008, p. 14).
The influence of Confucius, therefore, has now again become prominent in many
aspects of Chinese public life (see Bell 2008; Makeham 2008; Warner 2008) and indeed
waxes as fast as that of Mao wanes. The main reason for this may well be closely related to
the social and economic dilemmas now facing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) such
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as reconciling modernity with traditional values, as we shall soon see. The Chinese
Communist Party (henceforth CCP or ‘Party’) now co-sponsors a form of Confucian
capitalism (see Yao 2002; Redding and Witt 2007; Warner 2009) as it seeks a new
ideological bridge ‘with Chinese characteristics’, to help cement social stability in an
economy which still manages to achieve a remarkably high rate of GDP per capita, for
example, 8.7% in 2009, in spite of the global down-turn (World Bank 2010).9 The CCP’s
policy balancing-act aims to reconcile the contradictions of the vast income and wealth
inequalities found in contemporary Chinese society, indeed now comparable with those in
the rest of Asia, with its own proclaimed social goals of ‘equity’ and ‘justice’ but at the same
time avoiding the political challenges of a Western-style ‘civil society’. China had seen
over a decade of significant ‘down-sizing’ in its state-owned industries; between 1993 and
2006, 60 million jobs were lost in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and urban collective
sector firms, among other social costs of rapid industrialization and privatization (see Hurst
2009, p. 1). A new ideology, the ‘harmonious society’ was promoted to seek to ease the
social tensions that had ensued, to keep the winners in check and to appease the losers. This
demarche may be part of a wider geo-political strategy known as the ‘Beijing Consensus’.10
The evolution of HRM
Even so, the form of people management China is now adopting is perhaps not as new as it
looks and has its origins in the past, hence we must look deeper into how management took
root in post-Imperial China.11 The diffusion of forms of so-called ‘modern’ management
in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s may here be seen as comparable with that of the rise of
‘scientific management’ in the 1920s and 1930s.
As Morgan (2003) points out:
Where do management ideas come from? How are ideas of management and organizationtransferred across borders? What is the process of their adaptation to ‘native’ traditions ofmanagement organization and practice? These questions, though focused on China during theinterwar years, are relevant to the transfer of contemporary management theory and practiceto China. Even the phrase ‘scientific management’ has been invoked as a means to improvethe competitiveness of contemporary Chinese enterprises, by no lesser than former PresidentJiang Zemin, as it was by the western management pioneers of the 1920s and 1930s.‘Scientific’ both then and now is a term loaded with value and infused with the sense ofadvanced modernity, juxtaposed with a native ‘backward tradition’ of past practices. (Morgan2003, p. 3)
Whatever the final say on the above debate, the question of ‘context’, as Child (2009)
points out, is to see which features of Chinese management are context-specific or context-
bounded (2009, p. 58) in order to better theorize about them (see Barney and Zhang 2009;
Tsui 2009; Lamond and Zheng 2010). The Chinese ‘context’ has its own unique values
and ideologies; Child (2009, p. 60) for one, places an emphasis on Chinese ‘substantive
rationality’, as expressed in Confucianism, or in later ones like the Protestant Ethic or
Communism. He sets great stress on the interplay between both the growth of Chinese
management and its ‘context’, indeed ‘co-evolution’ (including the transfer of Western
management practices) as well as ‘contextual evolution’ (2009, p. 69) an observation we
can see as highly salient to the thrust of this Symposium.
Others see little evidence yet of a specifically ‘Chinese’ theory of HRM. Lamond and
Zheng (2010, p. 8) for example argue that the principles of people management are
‘strikingly’ similar worldwide. Yet,
Differences are, however, seen to be in the emphasis on specific contents of HRM, subjectto the organisational strategy, structure and culture, rather than on the principles per se.
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For example, Chinese firms may focus more on relationship instead of resourcesmanagement as they see the latter could be expanded and enlarged as a result of betterhuman relationship management. Chinese firms are probably better known for their effectiveutilisation of cost-reduction strategies, rather than an emphasis on selective hiring, ensuringthe right people in the right position at the right time, or on performance management,ensuring rewards and recognition tied closely with performance, or on heavy investment intraining and capability building for long-term development. At the same time, the principlesof impartiality, equity, fairness/justice, organisational/employee wellbeing and participationare embedded in the ancient Chinese texts we have explored. (Lamond and Zheng 2010, p. 8;italics added).
Another recent scholarly contribution to the field (Cooke 2005) points to how such a
transfer of management ‘know-how’ from West to East in the diffusion of HRM led to the
topic attracting wide interest as an innovative field of both theory and practice in China –
as of the late 1990s. This work points to the growing literature by both Western and
Chinese experts in the field in the PRC (which a later contribution in this Symposium
articulates in detail) as well as growing numbers of HRM courses in particular, as well as
management programmes in general in Chinese universities and business schools (Cooke
2005, p. 172; Zhu 2005; Warner and Goodall 2009). Moreover, it is clear that industrial
relations and HRM concepts and practices now span Asia, albeit in their various national
guises and incarnations (see Warner 2003b; Leung and White 2004; Zhu and Fahey 2000;
Zhu, Warner and Rowley 2007).
We also argued that the implementation of a more ‘sharply’ focussed HRM
particularly in large Chinese firms had spread extensively, with its narrative unfolding
over time through the late 1990s and into the 2000s (see Goodall and Warner 1997; Zhu
2005; Rose 2009; Warner 2009). The diffusion of this specific process appears to have
paralleled the more general trend towards globalization (see Warner 2003c) particularly
enhanced when China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
2001, although HRM had already substantively appeared prior to this date.
We now set out in Table 1 the main stages of HRM’s evolution in its Chinese context.
There are three stages we select as salient, respectively, Nascent, Interim and Mature.
Each of these, we argue, is connected with a decade of institutional reform and each of
these associated with specific labour laws, as well as HR reforms. Last, we note the degree
of labour market and HRM flexibility resulting from them. Nascent HRM relates to the
earliest manifestations of a new kind of people management in the early 1980s; Interim
implies an intermediary stage, mainly concerned with the 1990s; Mature portrays the fully
recognizable implementation of the phenomenon in the 2000s. The first stage takes into
account the phasing out of the ‘iron rice bowl’ (tie fan wan) and of its accompanying
personnel management (renshi guanli). The second stage sees a mixture of the preceding
forms of people management and the emergence in its new indigenous guise of human
resource management (HRM) (renli ziyuan guanli) – albeit ‘with Chinese characteristics’
Table 1. Evolution of HRM practices in China.
Stages of HRM Period/years Labour laws Labour and HR reforms Degree of flexibility
Nascent 1980s 1986 Labour contracts Low
Interim 1990s 1992 þ 1994 Personnel þ Labour Law Medium
Mature 2000s 2008 Labour Contract Law High
Source: Warner (2010).
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( juyou Zhongguo tese). This third stage represents the implementation in the Chinese
context of what is sufficiently recognizable as contemporary HRM (see Cooke 2005; Zhu
2005; Warner 2008). Such substantive use increased over the period and is now
increasingly found today in large, ‘learning’ organizations. For a fuller description,
chronology and narrative (see Warner 2008, 2009, 2010).
Possible characteristics of ‘Confucian HRM’
We next take the main characteristics of Confucianism and match them against those of
HRM as seen as exemplified in the Chinese ‘context’. Confucianism, for example, takes
‘harmony’ as its template for interpersonal relationships, based on a number of
behavioural rules derived from Confucian tradition, namely: guanxi (interpersonal
relations), renqing (human-centred obligations), reciprocity ( pao) and face (mianzi) (see
Warner 2003a).
The list on which we base our analysis is derived from Redding’s oft-quoted summary
(see Redding 2002, cited in Child and Warner 2003).
(1) Societal order
(2) Hierarchy
(3) Reciprocity and personalism
(4) Control
(5) Insecurity
(6) Family-based collectivism
(7) Knowledge
In Table 2, we examine how each of these values may have its HRM correlates and how
these may have positive or negative implications in terms of functionality. We have added
a plus sign where positive [þ ] and a minus sign [–] where negative. If we indicate [þ /–]
we see a degree of ambiguity, for example in the case of guanxi, where this may suggest
say, on the one hand, benign horizontal communication or on the other, a less benign form
of corruption. The emphasis on control and vertical linkages may possibly produce
problems of passive staff and over-dependence on strong leaders. This is also of course
why Confucianism is attractive to political leaders, whether in the past or the present.
How far the HRM that has emerged is truly ‘Confucian’ depends on the necessary
and sufficient conditions present and indeed we would not wish to over-simplify the
case, so we suggest caution in extending this argument. An important example of a
necessary condition for the Confucian tag, we would suggest, for example, is ‘hierarchy’
Table 2. Confucian characteristics and HRM correlates.
Confucian values HRM correlates Implications
Societal order Harmony at work þ
Hierarchy Vertical linkages þ
Reciprocity and personalism Guanxi þ /–
Control Leadership þ
Insecurity Work-ethic þ
Family-based collectivism Group þ /–
Knowledge Training þ
Source: Partly based on Redding (2002, pp. 234–235) cited in Child and Warner (2003, p. 30).
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but this is clearly not sufficient as most personnel systems are hierarchical and ‘paternalism’
is perforce found in other people management systems.12 Some writers on the subject have
seen elites in Confucian settings, for instance, acquiring ‘legitimacy’ to fulfil their functions
(see Vogel 1991, pp. 93–101). We might argue in turn that this may very well also be a
necessary condition for exercising management and particularly HRM, roles.
‘Meritocratic’ examinations for entry to the hierarchy, may, further, be a necessary
condition here. Traditions were institutionalized in the Imperial examination system as a
stepping-stone to fame and fortune and this also was, and still is, highly competitive (see
Trescott 2007, p. 25).13 Meritocracy continues to be an important element of
contemporary Chinese careers, whether in the public sector in the Civil Service or in
the private sector’s HRM ladder. Loyalty and responsiveness to group demands may be a
further need to advancement. Last, self-cultivation, perhaps even analogous to the
Protestant Ethic, may be a pre-condition for training and development. As the Analects
note, Confucius saw economic well-being as a positive virtue:
The Master observed, ‘How numerous are the people!’ Yu said, ‘Since they are thus numerous,what more shall be done for them?’ ‘Enrich them’, was the reply. ‘And when they have beenenriched, what more shall be done?’ The Master said, ‘Teach them’. (Legge 1965, transl:xiii–ix).
New generations of managers may indeed show as much obeisance to Confucian values as
those in past days; many surveys seem to suggest that they take on new norms but hold on
to core values. Such values, although they do change, may seem to many observers to be
remarkably stable around the world.14 Chinese cultural values have clearly kept a very
tight grip on those brought up on them.15
Traditional Chinese culture, however, influences teamwork in a contemporary setting
in contradictory ways. On the one hand, taking the collectivist orientation, the centrality of
relationships (guanxi) and concerns for harmony in Chinese culture (which all may well be
among the both necessary as well as possibly sufficient conditions) may ease key aspects
of teamwork – such as a common goals, task interdependence and group orientation. On
the other hand, we may find that the Confucian emphasis on rigid social hierarchy and
deference to leaders could bolster top–down control and set up strong barriers to
teamwork. From this, we may conclude that collectivism is not always conducive to
teamwork. While we may concede that even if the Chinese may be ‘collectivist’ for the
most part, members of different guanxi networks may fight with each other in the same
organization (for further details, see Goodall, Li and Warner 2007).
Discussion and implications
Is the version of HRM we have described that novel? If we look at traditional Chinese
people management under the classic Imperial bureaucracy, arguably this was of
necessity, ‘Confucian’. The Chinese established the first meritocracy – a bureaucracy
based on skill and education rather than birth, property and bloodlines. This system was
seen as the key to the success and longevity of Imperial China. Rulers and kingdoms came
and went but Chinese civilization endured, mainly as a result of the well-organized
bureaucratic system run by scholar-bureaucrats. While it may be moot to assert that China
‘invented’ bureaucracy as such, it was clearly in the forefront of organizational innovation.
The Chinese civil service dates back at least 2500 years, largely based on a template
set down by Confucius in the 6th century BC, and has had a remarkable influence on
Western bureaucracy as well as management, both in theory and practice (see Teng 1968;
Warner 1984).
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As Jonathan Spence has pointed out:
The Analects of Confucius, along with other works by Confucius’ intellectual precursors anddescendents, now gradually came to constitute a kind of canon, constantly expanded bylearned commentary. And with the increasing standardization of China’s written language andthe growth of a class of trained bureaucrats, these works were constantly copied and circulatedand gave a kind of undergirding to the shape of China’s governance across time. From this,sprang the practice of using the accumulated texts from the past as the basis for a standardexamination curriculum that could be used as a filtering device for checking the intellectualskills of candidates for bureaucratic or military appointment. (Spence 2008:1)
After 1911, Republican China embarked on a wave of institutional reforms and with it a
wide set of organizational innovations. Locally-owned as well as foreign-owned
enterprises which were mainly British, American and Japanese, inspired by international
companies installing themselves in the larger cities, especially in Shanghai, implemented
traditional and modern management structures and practices.
Personnel management (renshi guanli) blended with paternalism such that:
Many large private and state-run enterprises established personnel departments (renshibu)during the interwar years. These departments conducted most of the activities typical ofmodern personnel systems, handling recruitment, dismissal, and work assignment;administration of leave entitlements, appraisal procedures, and the discipline system; andrunning employee welfare, health, and insurance, and pension schemes. Especially well-developed were the personnel management systems on the Chinese National Railways. Therailways by the 1930s had elaborate recruitment procedures that included healthexaminations, detailed discipline systems, and generous welfare and pension schemes.Private firms also introduced elaborate personnel supervision and reporting systems, such asLu Zuofu’s Minsheng Company, the largest privately-owned transport company before theSino-Japanese War, which reportedly had twenty-seven kinds of standardized work appraisaland reporting forms. (Morgan 2003, p. 14)
In the post-1949 period in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the danwei personnel
management was also top–down and paternalistic, as its precursor had been in its Imperial
guise in earlier diverse periods. Superficially ‘Soviet’ in inspiration after 1950 (see Kaple
1994) the SOE model was nonetheless sufficiently ‘Chinese’ in many of its characteristics,
being hierarchical, collectivist and so on (Warner 1995).
After Deng’s economic reforms had fully bedded down (Schlevogt 2001; Cooke 2005;
Zhu 2005) HRM ‘with Chinese characteristics’ in time become de rigueur (see Warner
2005, 2008, 2009). Again, there were to be possible family resemblances with Confucian
traits. The re-institutionalization of professionalism, with management training and
development, for example, was given priority, replacing ‘red’ with ‘expert’ skills.16 Even
today, HRM in the public sector is a factor of significant importance, the Civil Service
being one of the largest employers in China, with over 10 million on its books17 (the
People’s Liberation Army having around three million, by comparison); the former was
recently substantively reformed with ‘modern’ recruitment, selection and assessment
introduced, with a high percentage of university graduates being hired (see Burns and
Wang 2010, p. 58ff). In 2009, for example, around three-quarters of a million candidates
took the national examination for the contemporary Civil Service for 13,500 centrally
managed jobs (see Burns and Wang 2010, p. 65ff).
The Confucian influence on today’s business schools, now largely training future
managers for the private sector in China, may also be seen as highly plausible. As noted in
a recent study of management training and development in China vis-a-vis the Imperial
Hanlin Academy model phased out in the early 1900s:
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In this way, the country [had] developed a cadre of certificated individuals with the knowledgeand skills deemed necessary to run a rather large organization: not too far removed from whatbusiness schools do today with the MBA, albeit with a different curriculum. (Goodall andWarner 2009, p. 15)
To sum up, echoing Morgan (2003, p. 20): ‘Ideas and practices are modified, adapted, and
transformed; their legacy is never entirely vanquished.’ It is thus hard to deny the influence
of Confucius, or for that matter, Sun Zi on contemporary HRM (see Lamond and Zheng
2010, p. 7). On many counts, it is not hard to see that there is an overlap between old-style
paternalism and new-style HRM, as we can see in Figure 1.
Given what we have set out above in our account of how Chinese HRM has evolved
over the last few decades, we can only call for more sophisticated analytical tools to fully
understand specifically how and precisely why it has evolved in the particular forms we
find today. We now turn to some contemporary contributions to the field and to this
Symposium.
Contributions to this symposium
The first contribution, by Liang et al., believes that Chinese scholars have a significant
contribution to make to the global research community; for this to happen, however, they
argue Chinese research has to both disciplined and assessable. The goals of this
contribution are threefold: first, to review and reflect upon what has been studied and
how – in the indigenous Chinese HRM literature; second, to help international scholars
understand a sample of contributions of Chinese HRM scholarship, and third, to provide
guidance for future research and building a global research community. With this in mind,
the authors systematically examined 186 articles published in six leading Chinese-
language journals in management and related fields including Management World, Acta
Psychologica Sinica, Economic Research Journal, Social Sciences in China, Sociological
Studies and Nankai Business Review from 2001 to 2007. Graduate assistants and the
authors independently content-analyzed these articles based on selected research topics
and sub-areas, research orientation, research design, data analysis method and so on, to
evaluate the current status of Chinese HRM research. This literature review, in the authors’
view, reflects an exciting learning experience and exceptional growth of HRM research in
(A) Confucian legacy
(B) Residual iron rice bowl (C) Contemporary hrm
A
CB
Figure 1. Overlapping people-management characteristics.
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China. The leading Chinese HRM research, on the one hand, stays close to mainstream
research, the contributors argue – while, on the other hand, maintaining independent
thinking. Major HRM subfields demonstrate similar developmental patterns. The analysis
also identifies some possible research blind-spots and gaps (HR professionalism, ethics,
technology). Balancing theory building and empirical contextualization constitutes key
elements of this literature search.
A number of indigenous studies explore ‘context-specific’ phenomena to develop local
China-specific concepts, models and theories. A key difference between comparative
study and indigenous study here is their degree of contextualization and how context is
studied. Comparative studies are usually ‘context-embedded’ in that cultural differences
are taken for granted or assumed and deductively test theories across contextual
boundaries. Indigenous studies are context-specific and contextual differences are
formally examined through grounded work. Around 72 studies, they find, are indigenous,
but they vary in their degree of novelty theory development.
The authors claim that their study makes several contributions to the international
HRM literature. First, based on an assessment of what has been studied in Chinese HRM,
the contributors are optimistic and conclude that these studies are rising rapidly in research
quality. Second, although HRM research published in the Chinese outlets has rarely been
systematically studied by scholars outside China, they feel the work is largely consistent
and comparable with the Western HRM literature. Despite the language barrier at the
current time, they strongly believe that Chinese HRM scholars have great potential to
make important contributions to the global HRM community. Finally, the study represents
the first comprehensive review of management research published in Chinese academic
journals. Similar reviews in other management fields, such as strategic management, are
also in future needed to stimulate fruitful international scholarly exchange.
Following on from this, the contribution of Kim and Gao aims to identify factors
affecting HRM practices in family firms. Specifically, it examines the impact of both firm-
level and external factors (that is, firm size and location) on the degree of formalization of
HRM. To achieve this aim, the researchers used a sample of 205 family firms in China,
notwithstanding the paucity of research on family firms, an important gap given their
significant contribution to the Chinese economy.
The researchers found that company size is significantly positively related to the
formalization of HRM, that is, the presence of a separate HR department and most HRM
dimensions. This result the researchers argue is consistent with prior literature –where
size has been a most enduring structural determinant of HRM and can be explained by
resource availability and rational organizational perspectives. Equipped with more
financial, organizational and human resources, large firms can afford to have a separate
HR department and more formal, costly HRM. In addition, as family firms experience
business growth, they face varying objectives, demands, complexities and uncertainties
that may not be handled properly by their owner/family management only. As a result,
family firms are pressured to adopt more formal HRM including the recruitment of
competent external managers with necessary technical and professional skills. In a similar
vein, Chinese family firms traditionally dependent on blood-based trust and informal
guanxi relationships, the researchers argue, may need to shift toward more formal HRM
sources as they expand. This is particularly the case, they continue, for Chinese family
firms – given the ever-present pressure for expansion in the country.
In contrast, however, they argue that they have found no ‘location effect’ on the
formalization of HRM. This absence is a surprising finding, considering the well-
documented institutional disparities between the Inland and Eastern-Coastal regions of
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the country. The finding appears to contradict institutional theory, but on closer
examination, the lack of location effect may perhaps be attributed to the constancy of
Confucian values in the minds of Chinese owner/managers and their continued influence
on HRM.
Despite clear evidence of the influences of industrialization and market ethic since the
late 1970s, fundamental Confucian values still remain constant and are changing only at a
very gradual and slow pace, they argue. It is thus difficult for organizations, especially
family firms to change their people management practices in a very short time. Confucian
traditions of familism and distrust of outsiders seem to be critical impediments to the
professionalization and formalization of HRM. The pervasive influence of Chinese
cultural heritage and institutional continuity seems to perpetuate informal HRM in
Chinese family firms. The lack of location effect thus demonstrates that the adoption and
diffusion of formal HRM practices will likely take some time to manifest itself even in the
more industrialized regions of the country, given the unique historical and cultural
heritage deeply embedded in the minds of the Chinese and Chinese firms. This difficulty in
the diffusion process may be greater for family firms because of their ‘introverted’
orientations and limited organizational capability.
This study thus arguably makes an important contribution to the literature. It helps fill
the empirical void by examining a largely neglected area, namely, family firms. More
importantly, it provides specific ‘contextualized’ understanding of Chinese HRM by
demonstrating mixed influences of traditional Confucian values and economic imperatives
underpinning the constantly changing social and economic milieux of China.
In the next contribution, Cunningham argues that, although the potential of HRM to
add value to the firm is recognized by a number of small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), too little attention has to date been paid to the study of HRM in SMEs in China.
As the importance of such firms in China’s economy has increased in recent years, the
purpose of this study is to explore the changing nature of people management on this
under-researched area.
By combining a survey approach with in-depth, semi-structured interviews, people
management among 114 SMEs in Jiangsu province, in East China, was investigated. Its
major characteristics in China’s SMEs are then identified. Problems and difficulties that
may occur during HRM take-up are in turn illustrated. Key factors influencing the nature
of people management in China’s SMEs are highlighted. People management in SMEs in
China is next compared and contrasted with Western HRM models.
The findings demonstrate that people management in SMEs in China has emerged in
the form of a new, more market-driven management model compared to the traditional
Chinese personal administration (renshi guanli) one. However, the implementation of
HRM practices is still at an initial stage of development – in comparison with Western
management concepts. Moreover, people management in China’s SMEs is not the same as
the HRM model in the West, although it is clear that there may be a slow convergence
towards Western HRM practices in SMEs in China.
While the research concludes that the influences of cultural and institutional factors,
such as the Confucian value-system, do persist in the development of people management
in SMEs, the results reveal that the effects of those factors are both mixed and complex.
On the one hand, the findings confirm that there are strong cultural and institutional factors
that limit the adoption of many features of HRM in SMEs. On the other hand, the research
indicates that to a certain extent, Chinese cultural values and national institutions do
appear to have a positive effect on people management in SMEs.
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The study concludes that a ‘relative convergence’ with Western HRM practice, if
perhaps one that is strongly influenced by unique ‘Chinese characteristics’, will be the
future trend of development of people management in SMEs in China. In addition, various
HRM models, which combine features of ‘East’ and ‘West’, are likely to emerge in due
course. This study, the author claims, may lead to a better understanding of the nature of
people management in SMEs in China and helps fill some of the gaps in the analysis
of such management in China. It offers insights which managers, policy makers and Chinese
government can use to construct and reform the supporting system for SMEs. Since, in the
presence of cultural disparities, organizational practices and their effectiveness may differ
from those in the West, the findings of the study may contribute not only to the development
of SMEs, but also to the debate on possible convergence or continuation of differences in
management practice worldwide.
Following this, in the next contribution, Wong et al., note the degree to which previous
studies have shown that the concept of guanxi is important for research in Chinese
management, HRM and business activity. However, they point out that the concept and
nature of guanxi in the context of China are not yet clearly defined because it has various
related meanings in Chinese society. The Chinese word guanxi consists of guan and xi;
guan in the past meant a ‘gate’ or a ‘pass’; xi means’ belongingness’ and extends into
‘relationships’, such as ‘kinship’.
The subject of subordinate–supervisor guanxi in the workplace, the contributors
argue, has as yet not been extensively investigated. This study sets out to describe and
analyze the ‘construct’ in Chinese joint ventures. The authors outline a model they believe
links the construct of trust in supervisors – with subordinate–supervisor guanxi, together
with antecedents of trust in organizations. The proposed model considers guanxi as an
antecedent of trust in the supervisor; procedural justice and job security are also seen as
antecedents of trust in organizations. It further compares how trust in the supervisor and
trust in the organization affect the turnover intentions of workers. A data-set consisting of
292 employees in joint ventures in Southern China was used to test the hypotheses.
The results of the LISREL analysis support the proposed model, the authors claim.
Trust in the organization was found to have a stronger effect on employees’ turnover
intention than trust in supervisors. The role of subordinate–supervisor guanxi at work in
Chinese joint ventures was seen as a critical factor. The findings of the present study, the
authors think, provide practical implications for managing Chinese employees in joint
ventures.
Again, this study attempts to bring together both theoretical and practical contributions
to the existing literature, and it also contains some implications for future research. First, it
claims it enhances understanding of the role of Chinese employees’ guanxi with their
supervisor. In particular, it seeks to be the first study that examines the relationships
among subordinate–supervisor guanxi, employees’ trust and turnover intention in the
Chinese context. By doing so, one can understand more about how social relationships
after work affect employees’ job attitude and work behaviour. These should not be
neglected in the future study of organizational behaviour in China. Practically speaking,
knowing how the subordinate–supervisor guanxi could affect trust in supervisors, and
how procedural justice and job security could affect trust in organizations, managements
would be better able to take appropriate actions to improve human relations at work.
A higher level of trust in supervisors was seen as experienced when employees had
better subordinate–supervisor guanxi. Given these findings, the researchers claim that
management should encourage the development of such guanxi to achieve the desirable
outcomes.
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The research demonstrates that, the influence of the traditional work culture of guanxi,
as well as Chinese employees’ values vis-a-vis trust in the workplace, are core HRM
concepts in the study of work behaviour. Although these findings have yet to be cross-
validated by larger samples in different organizational settings, results of this study clearly
reveal that the concepts of guanxi and trust in supervisor deserve further research. Future
efforts should explore their effects on other employee outcomes, such as job satisfaction,
work commitment and organizational behaviour that were not examined in the present
study.
Next, Shen et al.’s contribution investigates the relationship between the perceived
human resource diversity management (HRDM) and organizational citizenship behaviour
(OCB) in China. The authors emphasize that workforce diversity can generate both
advantages and disadvantages for organizations. The key to capitalizing on the advantages
and minimizing disadvantages of workforce diversity, they argue, is to effectively manage
diversity, in which HRM plays an important role. However, there is a lack of research
investigating how diversity has been managed through HRM or the effects of HRDM on
employees. Furthermore, past studies have focused on employment equal opportunity and
affirmative action, the issue of making use of diversity has been largely neglected.
The predominant diversity issues vary significantly across cultures and national
boundaries. In the Chinese context, household registration status (hukou) is seen as the
most important diversity issue. Residential household registration status differentiates
rural peasants from urbanites and has been the focus of the debate on HRM practices.
Focusing on the differences in the HRM practices directed at both migrant and urban
workers, the research seeks to develop a better understanding of how HRDM affects
employee attitude and behaviour – in the Chinese context.
The study finds that perceived HRDM is positively related to OCB. However, different
HRM functions have varied effects on the latter. In particular, compensation diversity
management is the strongest predictor of OCB. Similarly, recruitment and selection
diversity management is significantly associated with it. However, training and
development diversity management and performance appraisal diversity management
are not positively related to OCB. The study points out that these findings should be
interpreted in relation to the Chinese context in which rigorous performance appraisal and
the lack of training and development opportunities are not the major causes of widespread
labour disputes. In comparison, compensation and recruitment and selection-related issues
have resulted in a large number of such disputes. As a result of the economic reform, job
insecurity and not getting paid or unfair payment have been dominant concerns of Chinese
workers. The findings of this study provide support to past research which indicates that
compensation management and recruitment and selection diversity management are the
two salient HR functions in China.
This authors claim their work to be the first attempt to investigate the relationship
between the perceived HRDM and OCB. It seeks to add to the knowledge base of HRM
and diversity management in general and to HRM and diversity management in China, in
particular. The findings of this study may help to better understand how diversity
management, particularly diversity management in HRM, influence employees’ attitudes
and behaviour, and eventually contribute to better organizational performance. While it
argues that perceived effective HRDM is generally positively related to OCB, it cautiously
points out that its findings are specifically applicable to the so-called ‘Confucian HRM’.
The findings regarding the relationship between particular HRDM functions and OCB,
it cautions, may not be generalizable to Western economies where employment and
compensation are highly regulated and the focus of HR diversity management may be
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different. The relationship between diversity management in particular HR areas and OCB
may vary significantly across national and cultural boundaries. The researchers conclude
that the HR functional areas which diverse employees in a particular country consider
important and which determine the focus of diversity management, are likely to be
significantly associated with OCB. This argument, the authors conclude, therefore opens
up avenues for further research.
Next, Li and Sheldon in their contribution focus on the training dimension of HRM in
the workplace. Their research deals with how skill shortages constrain China’s
development and where these most obviously are obstacles to growth in those areas of
advanced manufacturing where foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) are clustered. This
study represents a new approach to HRM in China on two grounds. First, it explores how
employers see and respond to challenges in accessing and retaining sufficient skilled
workers amid localized skill shortages. Second, it has an explicit local labour market
focus: the large, successful Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) specializing in FIE
manufacturing.
The contribution addresses three research questions. First, how do employers perceive
and respond to the effectiveness of China’s vocational education and training (VET)
system? Second, what are employers doing to provide formal training for skilled workers
and how do they perceive its effectiveness? Third, what are SIP employers’ experiences of
employee poaching by labour market competitors?
The authors find that skills that are locally in short supply are largely transferable.
Employer responses through workplace training and collaborative programs with VET
schools also generate transferable skills. Conceptually, investment in transferable skills
implies a heightened poaching threat and intensification of firms’ training dilemma. This
suggests that, despite investing in training, employers cannot depend on Confucian values
of loyalty and mutual obligations to inhibit employees from taking advantage of external
labour market opportunities. Employers see the VET system as a crucial source of skilled
workers but most perceive deficiencies in its effectiveness. Some purposefully respond
through collaborative programmes that encourage VET schools to furnish graduates with
required skills. These choices reflect employers’ motivations and capacity to invest in
localized institutional relationships and suggest a particular hybrid form of HRM ‘with
Chinese characteristics’.
Second, most employers establish formal training systems for skilled workers. In
general, this focuses on technical skills and is operations-oriented, as is common in China.
Employers appear committed to this training despite those workers’ skills not being
unique. Severe, chronic skills shortages make those skills more valuable than would
normally be the case. Further, exposure to poaching does not significantly constrain
employers from providing transferable training.
Third, poaching is pervasive, suggesting that inter-firm competitive HRM strategies
overwhelm the expression of the Confucian value of harmony, even where this concerns
near neighbours. This greatly influences employers’ choices to adopt preventive or
defensive approaches like making training contracts, providing seniority-based pay and
not providing training certificates.
The main findings suggest that the study of HRM in China needs to re-direct its focus to
include local labour markets and, in particular, how firm-level HRM strategy might engage
with the local labour market, in tandem with internal initiatives. Fuller understanding of
local labour market, dynamics helps explain interactions between firms and their local
context and which factors enable or constrain firm-level HRM. To the degree that uneven
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development in industry and therefore HRM in China is localized, a local labour market
approach geographically contextualizes HRM with Chinese characteristics.
Thus, SIP employers, among that growing minority of employers in China with more
advanced and innovative HRM approaches, positively respond to these challenges and
actively adapt to their local environment. These adaptations focus simultaneously on the
local external as well as internal labour markets. These FIEs strategically seek to redress
skills shortages they themselves help generate through SIP’s investment boom.
After this, Tam and Chui’s institutional approach to job training in a Hong Kong
Chinese context emphasizes the ways institutional factors affect employees’ chances of
receiving job training from employers. Most empirical studies that apply institutional
theories are about European countries; non-European cases are relatively understudied.
The authors extend the application of one of the institutional theories, namely, the
employment regimes theory, to the Hong Kong case to examine the provision of job
training by employers.
Since the ‘1997 Handover’, Hong Kong has experienced the ‘Asian Financial Crisis’
and the recent ‘Financial Tsunami’. While the local workforce has faced uncertainties in
the labour market and their job prospects, employers also have had to meet many
challenges in managing their employment relations with their employees. The financial
crisis and tsunami may have adversely affected the business operations and fortunes of
employers and thereby may have led them to cut back job training provision to employees.
By applying the institutional approach to analyse primary survey data, the researchers
noted that the patterns of job training provision by employers in Hong Kong are
fundamentally shaped by such factors highlighted by the employment regime theory:
while firm size, public and private sector distinction and the presence of unions affected
significantly employees’ job training chances, contract and part-time employees did not
differ significantly from full-time permanent employees.
With regard to the specificity and intensity of the training provided to private sector
employees, the authors noted in the few cases where employees in the private sector were
provided with job training, the training programmes were relatively short in terms of time
duration and were not firm- or job-specific. These patterns of job training provision by
employers are in stark contrast to the Confucian normative values which advocate life-
long learning, constant renewal of one’s knowledge and paternalistic management style of
employers who should look after the welfare of their employees (particularly
disadvantaged employees) ‘like a father who looks after his offspring’. When Hong
Kong employers arranged job training provision for their workforce, they favoured higher-
ranking, better educated and longer-serving employees. The researchers argue that these
patterns of job training provision are results of the institutional relationships between
Hong Kong’s employers in the private sector; generally unorganized labour in the
territory’s industrialization era; the role of organized labour in electoral politics vis-a-vis
local workplaces after the ‘1997 Handover’; and the passive stance of the government in
regulations of employment relations in both the colonial era and the post-handover period.
Because of these historical and institutional factors, training provision to employees by
employers is both minimal and marginal to the overall business operation. The authors
conclude by discussing the theoretical implications on the institutional approach to
employment relations and on Confucian values in human resource management. The
conclusions emphatically have significant consequences for labour policy.
Next, Han et al. aim to investigate the mechanism of employee participation in decision
making (EPDM) in a Taiwanese context that makes employees seek positive cognition and
attitude, thus contributing to extra-role behaviour. Employees who participate in decision
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making, they argue, may be able to satisfy their ‘humanistic’ needs, such as personnel
growth, benefits of job-based democracy and promotion of organizational efficiency, all of
which can strengthen the relational ties of employees within organizations. That is,
employees who have organizational rights, they argue, also have obligations or
responsibilities back to the organization, thus increasing employees’ motivation to invest
in the organization. The EPDM mechanism makes employees think they are closely
connected to organizational goals and feel they fairly have substantial discretion to handle
their own job without monitor, thus extending a degree of control over the organization. It
has also been argued that employees who have control of the organization may experience
ownership of the organization, thus invoking psychological ownership.
Employees who perceive they have ownership of the organization regard them-
selves as important members and then commit themselves. Organizational identity,
psychological ownership and perceived insider status, they argue, are all dimensions
which lead to a sense of belonging. Employees may develop commitment on the basis of
being positively attracted by the sense of belonging. Consequently, when the employees’
sense of belonging is stronger, they have increased willingness to remain in the
organization, and employees with a strong sense of belonging are more committed to their
organizations.
Psychological ownership may thus be positively related to organizational
commitment, which can evoke altruistic spirit, contributing to extra-role behaviour,
such as knowledge-sharing behaviour. Knowledge-sharing in turn contributes to the
creation and utilization of knowledge; therefore, high-tech organizations always carefully
negotiate with internal power relations in order to make tacit knowledge shared and
produce innovation. Based on previous research, researchers have not yet investigated the
relationships among EPDM, psychological ownership, organizational commitment and
knowledge-sharing, revealing an important research gap. Statistical analysis of a large
sample in selected high technical and knowledge-intensive companies in Taiwan was
undertaken. The theory-driven approach and structural equation modelling were the main
methodologies employed. Results showed that employee participation in decision making
had a positive association with psychological ownership. Psychological ownership in turn
was positively related to organizational commitment. A positive relationship also existed
between organizational commitment and knowledge sharing. Commitment mediated the
relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge-sharing behaviour. Based
on the analytical results, this study demonstrates, the authors argue, that employee
participation in decision making may enhance employee knowledge sharing behaviour
through psychological ownership and organizational commitment.
EPDM can be adopted by high-tech organizations to make employees produce
psychological ownership and organizational commitment, thus sharing tacit knowledge
contributing to innovation. Furthermore, since frontline employees frequently interact
with multiple stakeholders in daily operations, frontline employees who participate in
decision making have higher willingness to share new ideas, new information, new
knowledge which are captured from daily interaction and are helpful for the company.
In conclusion, the mechanism of EPDM is consistent with the philosophy of
Confucianism, which, the authors recognize, is concerned with employees’ ‘humanistic’
needs, achievements and interests, and contributes to employees’ positive cognitions,
attitudes and behaviour.
After this, Chien et al.’s contribution seeks to show how Research and Development
(R&D) professionals in another Taiwanese setting have been viewed as a key factor in
strengthening the competitive advantage of high-tech organizations. Therefore, it is
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critical, they argue, to understand how to motivate them. According to agency theory,
organizations (principals) can motivate R&D professionals (agents) by outcome-based
contracts, such as performance-based pay. However, there is little research that discusses
whether this might effectively align organizational and R&D professionals’ interests.
Since job performance is conceptualized as those actions and behaviour that are under the
control of individuals – and which contribute to the goals of their organizations – it would
be an important criterion in this alignment. For this reason, the first purpose of this
research is to assess the effectiveness of performance-based pay by discussing the
relationship between performance-based pay and R&D professionals’ job performance in
the HRM setting.
Compensation agreements made between organizations and their employees must
be based on organizational justice, they argue, and this cannot be ignored when applying
job performance as the indicator in discussing the effectiveness of performance-based pay.
The relationship between compensation and job performance has been proved; however,
only few studies have directly probed into this topic in Confucianism societies. This
implies that, in such societies, how R&D professionals’ judgements on organizational
justice affect the effectiveness of performance-based pay is still an unsolved puzzle.
Therefore, the second object of this research is to reframe the influence of organizational
justice according to the attributes of Confucianism.
Owing to its high rank (ranked number 2 out of 22 sampled countries) in the Chinese
Culture Connection survey (1987), Taiwan can be treated as a typical Confucian society.
Thus, the researchers used R&D professionals in Taiwanese high-tech organizations to test
the hypotheses in the contribution. According to the results, the researchers found that
performance-based pay could be positively related to job performance. Specifically, when
these professionals perceive that their organizations apply performance-based pay as
motivation, they will have better task and contextual performance. Accordingly, they infer
that performance-based pay could not only efficiently reduce an organization’s monitoring
cost on its R&D professionals, but also enhance its competitive advantages by effectively
improving job performance.
In addition, the contributors also tested the direct influence of R&D professionals’
perceptions of procedural justice on their job performance and on the interaction between
performance-based pay and procedural justice. By examining direct influence, they found
that procedural justice is positively related to task performance. Specifically, only when
R&D professionals perceive that procedures used to determine inducement distribution
are fair, will the degree of task performance increase. In addition, the interaction between
performance-based pay and procedural justice positively affects both task and contextual
performance. That is, R&D professionals who perceive a high degree of procedural justice
are more likely to respond to perceived performance-based pay with high task and
contextual performance.
The contributors’ findings suggest that performance-based pay could enhance R&D
professionals’ job performance and procedural justice could be conducive to the
effectiveness of performance-based pay. However, the influential patterns on R&D
professionals’ task and contextual performance seem to be different. First, performance-
based pay is marginally associated with task performance when the moderating effect of
procedural justice is not considered. This indicates that R&D professionals’ procedural
justice is an important contextual factor for the effects of performance-based pay. Second,
the significant association between procedural justice and task performance reveals that
procedural justice is also a critical antecedent for task performance. In other words,
procedural justice could facilitate the effectiveness of performance-based pay by directly
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improving R&D professionals’ task performance as well as fostering the quality of their
exchange relationship with the high-tech organizations and their HRM. This finding is
different from prior research which suggested that procedural fairness would directly
affect employee citizenship behaviour. For this reason, the authors suggest that, in the
Confucian-influenced societies, HR professionals should first formulate R&D
professionals’ perceptions of procedural justice and then apply performance-based pay
in order to efficiently and effectively enhance R&D professionals’ task performance.
Next, the contribution by Cooke compares the patterns of women’s employment in
four major Asian economies: China, Japan, South Korea and India. The first three
countries are culturally fairly homogeneous countries where Confucian values still prevail,
whereas India is far more diverse in its religious and racial spread and influence. But all
four countries share a fundamentally similar cultural value of male dominance and son
preference that determines the position of daughters in the family and the nature of
marriage, which further influences the nature and outcome of women’s employment.
Drawing on the analytical frameworks developed by scholars on comparative employment
and HRM studies, an interdisciplinary approach is adopted throughout to explain the
various forces at play that shape the education, employment and financial outcomes of
women in these four societies. The comparison reveals a common historical trend of
women’s disadvantages, although progress has been made in each country to varying
degrees. Institutional structures, persistent patriarchal gender norms and stereotypes, and
ineffective representation limit women’s bargaining power in the labour market and hold
down their financial reward as well as career progression. However, the various
institutional and cultural factors are not played out to the same strength and each
employment system contains unique features. In Japan, married women are kept at the
lower end of the job ladder and form the peripheral part of the labour force. In Korea and
China, women have been disproportionately selected for redundancy and laid-off workers
are often pushed into informal employment with reduced incomes and job security, a
phenomenon that is apparently widespread in a number of countries. In India, the
intersection of gender, ethnicity, caste and religion has been accountable for women’s
unemployment or being employed in the unorganized sector.
This comparison provides a dynamic account of the changing level of influence of
traditional and new actors in employment relations and HRM, including their behaviour and
relative power over other actors against a context of global economy. The similarities and
differences displayed in gender inequality in employment and career advancement across
the four countries reveal, at least in part, the interplay of institutional, socio-cultural and
political economic forces that shape these inequalities in each country. A level of gender
equality can be gained, often temporarily, where a key actor in employment relations is able
to advance women workers’ interests and rights, and where labour market conditions favour
women’s participation.
The study highlights the paradox of how strong state intervention is possible and
indeed needed to achieve a level of gender equality in patriarchal societies on the one
hand, and how the intervening power of the state may be circumvented in Asian countries
where globalization has had profound impact on the nation’s economy on the other. It
argues that globalization and marketization have had a negative impact on gender equality
in part because of the inability of women workers to enforce their rights and in part
because of the disinterest of other employment relations actors, notably the trade unions, to
represent their interest. As has been seen, the exploitation of gender division has been a
crucial labour strategy in Japan and Korea, and in China marketization has led to the
erosion of gender equality previously achieved. One key conclusion is that, in societies
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where patriarchal social orders remain influential and the representational function of
women workers remains weak, strong and continuous state intervention is vital to achieve
a level of gender equality, as proved by the case in China. Unfortunately, globalized
competition and export-oriented economic growth, at least in Japan, Korea and China,
may tend to erode the determination and ability of the state to intervene and afford more
power to employers.
Last, the contribution of Yamazaki and Kayes compared predictors of job satisfaction
across three Asian countries, namely China, Japan and Malaysia, by surveying 600
managers from these countries who worked for a leading Japanese retail firm, AEON Co.
Ltd, as it strategically expanded across Asia. Learning, they argue, is a particularly critical
area for HRM in developing countries because of the need to adapt and learn. Therefore,
the authors viewed employee adaptation to the host company culture of AEON through the
lens of experiential learning theory and learning style. The study also suggested that
learning style is a stronger predictor of job satisfaction than culture and ethnicity, but not
as strong as some control variables such as language skills.
This study provides insight into the interplay between Chinese culture, as represented
in a sample of Chinese workers working in a Japanese multi-national company (MNC),
and Malaysian and Japanese managers working in the same organization. From the data,
the authors were able to draw conclusions about how Chinese culture compares with other
nearby Asian cultures in terms of work satisfaction and learning style.
First, the authors tracked a Chinese sample on a widely used measure of HRM practice,
work satisfaction. Learning-style measures reveal that research may be overstating the
degree to which there is a shared understanding among Chinese managers about what
it means to be a manager. In other words, rather than an overarching definition of
Confucianism, it is necessary to seek a more nuanced and local understanding of its values.
Accepting learning-style as a measure of within culture differences, it is possible to
conclude that there is still much to learn about the ‘within-culture’ differences related to
Confucian culture. The relevance for this issue is that variations in interpretations
and application of Confucian (or for that matter, Daoist) values is largely understudied
in HRM.
Second, even more revealing may be the importance of learning-style differences
across cultures. Results showed that Japanese managers preferred learning through feeling
and reflecting; Chinese managers preferred learning through thinking and reflecting; and
Malaysian managers preferred learning through thinking and acting. Furthermore, Chinese
managers showed more balance as learners, whereas Malaysian managers were
comparatively in the middle and Japanese managers exhibited the most specialization in
their learning orientation. This finding links the study to Confucianism as the basis of
Chinese culture and takes a step towards an empirical understanding of ‘Confucian
capitalism’ more specifically, because learning style provides an indication of the nature
of the culture. The balance in learning style confirms a cultural tendency towards
managing contradictions by effectively balancing both sides of language. It is not simply
happenstance that the learning-style measure used for this study utilizes polarizing terms
(for example, action vs reflection, thinking vs feeling), designed to reflect paradoxical
thinking inherent in Confucian cultures.
Thus, the authors claim that learning-style empirically captures the degree to which a
culture ‘manages contradiction’ and the results show that the Chinese managers manage
contradiction more than the other cultures in this study. While the authors argue that
learning-style represents ‘Confucian’ aspects, the outcome of job satisfaction represents a
‘capitalist’ perspective – pointing to an individualistic notion of work as its own reward
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that has emerged as principle of motivation. Work satisfaction has been widely used, they
continue, as an indicator of successful HRM practices in the MNC being advanced,
Western and individualistic. Taken together, the measures of learning style and work
satisfaction, the authors conclude, provide the basis to launch further study into the notion
of ‘Confucian capitalism’.
Evaluation of contributions
The contributors to the Symposium, we may thus argue, cover a wide gamut of themes,
models and methodologies. They also work in many distant locations, ranging from
universities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, to the UK and the USA; they
further bring to bear on their work, a set of diverse perspectives. In looking at the themes of
their contributions to this Symposium, we can see a wide range of concepts represented
(see Table 3).
Confucianism can, a priori, be linked to HRM in a number of ways; first, it can directly
affect it; or second, it can act indirectly on either institutions or intervening variables (or
both); or last, it can have no effect at all. In the interdisciplinary contributions considered
above, we see rather limited evidence of impact in the first option, most of the
consequences in the second and hardly any in the last. The possible impacts range from
contributors judging them as relatively strong to relatively weak respectively, in this
middle category of options. Some see closer links to Chinese traditional culture, and even
Confucian values, than others.
The contribution dealing with the study of Chinese-language HRM journals in the
PRC, for example, finds that only a minority of research reported deals with ‘context’. The
study of family-firms, as well as the one on SMEs is relatively positive. The latter research
concludes that the influences of cultural and institutional factors, such as the Confucian
value-system, do persist in the development of people management in SMEs. Again, the
study which deals with guanxi in Chinese subordinate–supervisor relations is very
positive in its findings, while the one on organizational citizenship cautiously points out
that its findings are indeed specifically applicable to the so-called ‘Confucian HRM’.
Training too is perceived as influenced by Confucian values in China, but not in Hong
Kong. The role of women workers in China, Japan and Korea is also seen as influenced by
Confucian values. The last contribution on learning styles in China, Japan and Malaysia
remains relatively ambiguous in its judgement.
Looking at the above analytically, we can see that some of the themes studied may be
seen as relating to a vertical dimension of what we conceptualized as Confucian HRM,
Table 3. Selected themes in contributions to this Symposium (in alphabetic order).
Chinese HRM literatureConfucian HRMConnections (Guanxi)Employee participationFamily firmsJob trainingLearning and job satisfactionLocal labour marketsOrganizational citizenshipSmall and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)Performance-based payWomen’s participation in employment
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others to a horizontal one, or even to a depth vector. The first set might include those
dealing with values such as hierarchy; the latter with others such as guanxi; the third, with
yet others such as learning. Using this three-dimensional perspective, it might even be
possible to model and empirically score this in future research.
Conclusions
To sum up, in this contribution we have conjectured that contemporary Chinese HRM
narrative appears to co-exist with both Sino-Marxism as well as ‘Confucian’ values, an
apparent paradox, although the evidence is not as yet wholly clear-cut. We would also not
want to over-simplify the argument, but we have seen that traditional values are to be
found with varying degrees of emphasis, ranging from relatively strong to relatively weak,
in the empirical research on organizations and their respective forms of ‘harmonious’
people management featured in this Symposium.18
As Sole-Farras (2008) points out, however:
To speak of harmony in a context in which unequal economic development makes socialrelations ever more tense, by increasing differences within the population, may seemingenuous. However, the concept of harmony is not conjunctural in Chinese culture. Inmedium- and long-term processes, it is not irrelevant to make clear what the underlyingcultural currents are. That the CCP has placed the concept of ‘harmonious society’ as a keypoint in its political project, apart from other considerations that may well be conjunctural, is arecognition and a reminder that harmony is an essential part of Chinese culture. At the sametime, this gesture converts the CCP into a transmission channel for traditional Chinesethought, in mild competition at present with New Confucianism. Therefore, it is important tomonitor and analyze the evolution of elements of traditional Chinese thought, such asharmony, in Chinese society’s transition process. (2008, p. 23).
We will thus no doubt hear more about this ‘harmonious society’, as guided by the
Party/state at the macro-level, over the coming years (see Zhu, Feng and Warner 2009) and
its accompanying recent labour and employment legislation (see Brown 2010) and what
we believe we have plausibly conceptualized, caveats notwithstanding, as ‘Confucian
HRM’ at the micro-level.19 Again, the degree of harmony maybe brought into question by
the recent wave of strikes in the summer of 2010 (see Chan 2010; Cai 2010; CLB 2010).
As we noted in a previous paper (Warner 2009) – after the pre-reform ‘thesis’ and the
reform ‘antithesis’, the new post-reform ‘synthesis’ which has emerged nonetheless
clearly has Confucian family resemblances (see Chen 2008).
Whether this is a ‘Chinese’ model of HRM, or a ‘dynamic’ contextual model (see
Child 2009, p. 69) perhaps ‘with Chinese characteristics’, such as the Confucian-
influenced variety as we have sketched out above, is as yet unclear.20 The marriage of the
Confucian inheritance with the forces of Sino-Marxism is no doubt one of convenience
rather than of principle, but is no less pragmatic for that (see Rowley and Warner 2010).
With such parentage, a new kind of Confucian ‘soft power’ seems likely to emerge in the
workplace.
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank the following colleagues and collaborators for their advice and help in thedevelopment 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. Imust also thank Penny Smith at the Cardiff Business School for her most helpful administrativeassistance.
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Notes
1. Greater China usually refers to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Singapore.The Overseas Chinese may be found in a worldwide Diaspora in many parts of East and South-East Asia, North America and so on (see Warner 2003a).
2. Confucius was according to Chinese tradition, the founder of the Ru School of Chinesethought. His teachings are to be found in the Lunyu or Analects, which deal with the’ ideal’individual and how he/she should interact with others as well as relate to the forms of societyand government around them. For further detail on the contemporary upsurge in interest inConfucianism in today’s PRC, see Bell’s recent book on the topic (2008).
3. Laozi is associated with Daoist thought which may be seen as essentially philosophical and orreligious in nature, although followers may have been unconcerned with these labels. The Daois a literally a ‘Road’, sometimes known as the ‘Way’.
4. Wu-wei is hard to define, perhaps best seen as ‘natural ‘or ‘effortless’ action and through wu-wei humans can ultimately find immortality. All this, however, is at a higher level than thepursuit of laissez-faire in its economic and political context (see Gerlach 2005).
5. Lamond and Zheng (2010) also studied the writings of Guanzi, Hanfeizi, Xunzi and Yanzi intheir search for principles of management and HRM which might be of use to the contemporaryreader.
6. This observation relates to the tag ‘with Chinese characteristics’ which as been attached to awide range of Chinese management since 1979 (see Barney and Zhang 2009; Child 2009; Tsui2009).
7. Trescott (2007, p. 26) suggests that Confucianism could be used to justify both the status quo orgoing further, active government intervention.
8. This ‘safety-valve’ approach has alternatively been labelled ‘Consultative Leninism’ anddescribed as the ‘rule by law’ rather than the rule of law (Tsang 2009, p. 865ff).
9. The World Bank forecast was 9.5% growth for 2010 (cited in China Daily, 17 March 2010;People’s Daily 2010; World Bank 2010). Against this positive ‘light’ side, the yang of theDaoist duality, we find the ‘dark’ side, the yin of high social costs incurred by the Chineseworking-class in the allegedly poor working conditions in the factories producing the low-costexports to Western markets, as described in numerous accounts. The high rate of recentlypublicized workplace suicides among young workers in Shenzen has been cited as anconsequence of the latter phenomenon, according to critics of such relentless industrialization,as has been the recent apparent up-surge of strike action (see CLB 2010).
10. See Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, Yasheng Huang’s (2010) observations;he has written extensively on the debate between the ‘Beijing Consensus’ and the ‘WashingtonConsensus’.
11. See the work of Stephen Morgan, a sinologist/business historian, formerly at the University ofMelbourne, now at Nottingham, on the emergence of Chinese management in the twentiethcentury which has been very influential on the line of thinking of this essay. For furtherpublications by this author, see Morgan (2003).
12. On the role of paternalism in firms in Greater China, see Yao (2002) as well as Redding andWitt (2007).
13. A national examination occurs each year for university entrance in China, a major and nerve-wracking event for many; over 9.5 million examinees sat it in 2009. It is called the NationalCollege Entrance Examination (gaokao). Based on the current education system in China, theresults of the two-day exam very much determines the future of any ambitious student in China.The score achieved in the exam will decide whether you can enter higher education andwhether in a top university.
14. Others may see them as more fluid (see Lin and Ho 2009, p. 2411) with Confucianism havingpossibly weakened in both mainland China and Hong Kong but for different reasons, in theformer because of Communism and in the latter because of Westernization.
15. For further details on this point, see the discussion in Goodall et al. (2007).16. On the question of who is on the one hand, ‘red’ or on the other, ‘expert’, see Schurman (1966)
one of the best studies of the emergence of post-1949 management available.17. In addition, one should add to this the number of local and provincial government officials,
state officials and others, the total amounting to over 100 million. Among other parts of theeconomy, the public sectors are still key ones in China. These consist of government
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departments, Party departments, state-owned non-profit units and government-led socialassociations, among others (see Yu 2006).
18. See the other 11 papers presented in this Symposium, as well as those in the previous SpecialIssue (Warner 2009).
19. According to Zheng and Lamond (2009) writing on the contemporary relevance of ancientChinese writings on management, Huang Rujin, a professor from the Chinese Academy ofSocial Sciences, ‘has recently proposed a he-he . . . model (the first ‘he’ here means ‘harmony’,the second ‘he’ means ‘unity’), or the direct translation to ‘a harmoniously unifyingmanagement model’. Huang’s (2008) proposed model is based on the ancient Chinesephilosophers’ thinking that emphasizes benevolence, harmony and unity to help ruling thestate’.
20. Huang (2010) questions whether there is a unique Chinese model of development and byimplication, management.
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