Cherrie Jiuhua Zhu

Staffing practices in transition: some empirical evidence from China

Although the reform of staffing practices in China has been discussed in the literature, the rationale behind this reform and changes in this HR activity have received insufficient attention and warrant further examination. This article reviews staffing practices during and after Maos regime, and reports the results of a survey of staffing practices in Chinese industrial enterprises. The research findings indicate that a free labour market is emerging in China, staffing practices are becoming more decentralized and selection criteria have focused more on job-specific information, such as personal ability and skills, rather than political factors. The empirical results also demonstrate that ownership form does have an impact on staffing practices. The paper concludes by arguing that staffing practices in China have revealed only some resemblance to those conducted in the Western market economies.

Which rural migrants receive social insurance in Chinese cities? Evidence from Jiangsu survey data

This article draws on a survey of internal migrant workers in China’s Jiangsu province to shed light on the characteristics of migrant workers who receive social insurance and explain why some migrants take up social insurance while others do not. Of the factors which potentially explain which migrants receive social insurance, gender, past earnings, ties to the city to which the migrant had moved, the ownership type of the enterprise in which the migrant works and residential registration status are all found to be statistically significant predictors. The article concludes with the suggestion that the high level of scepticism with respect to social protection that has been reported as being manifest among migrants is justified. There is little likelihood the majority of migrant workers who have moved to China’s towns and cities will be able to access the social insurance benefits traditionally available to those with urban registration.

A problematic transition to a strategic role: human resource management in industrial enterprises in China

The Chinese government has launched extensive reforms to encourage integration with the global economy. Our research investigates the implications for human resource management practices of the changing business environment in China, ownership of organizations, organizational strategies and strategic integration of the HR function. We conducted two surveys in major Chinese cities in 1994/5 and 2001/2, with managers of state-owned, privately owned, collectively owned and foreign-invested enterprises. Regression analyses showed that organizational strategy and organizational ownership, in contrast with earlier research, were not found to be strong predictors of HRM practices. The changing business environment in China and participation by the HR function in strategic decision-making were the strongest predictors of HRM practices. Overall, a strategic role for the HR function and implementation of ‘Western’ HRM practices are becoming more prevalent in China, although the legacy of traditional practices endures and new challenges are emerging.

Effects of socially responsible human resource management on employee organizational commitment

In this paper, we introduced the concept of socially responsible human resource management (SR-HRM) and examined the effects of perceived SR-HRM on employee organizational commitment (OC) in the Chinese context. After examining the psychometric properties of the scales, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was utilised to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that, in general, SR-HRM is positively related to OC. After demographic variables were controlled, labour-related legal compliance HRM and general corporate social responsibility facilitation HRMs have a significant positive relationship with affirmative commitment (AC), continuance commitment (CC) and normative commitment (NC). Employee-oriented HRM has a significant positive relationship with AC and NC, but not CC. The relationship between SR-HRM and AC is stronger than those between SR-HRM and CC and NC.

The effect of SHRM practices on perceived firm financial performance: Some initial evidence from Australia

Since its emergence, strategic human resource management (SHRM) has been the focus of debate over whether it exists in reality or is merely rhetoric. SHRM is often measured by the integration of the HR function in the strategic management process, the devolvement of HR practices to line managers, and the influence of these practices on firm performance. Our survey research findings indicate that strategic integration and devolvement of HRM were practised to a moderate extent in the firms sampled, and the degree of alignment of HRM with business objectives and strategies had a positive relationship with perceived firm financial performance.

Paternalistic and transactional HRM: the nature and transformation of HRM in contemporary China

Drawing on institutionalism and path dependency theory, this paper provides a conceptual framework to identify and explain the nature and transformation of Chinese human resource management (HRM). The framework is applied to case studies of three enterprises that are either state-owned or state-controlled. The paper groups HRM in contemporary China into three categories: Paternalistic; Transactional; and Differentiated with the last one involving a mix of paternalistic and transactional HRM policies and practices. The paper argues that, as Chinas economy has evolved from paternalistic socialism to market socialism in recent decades, Chinese HRM has responded, moving along the continuum from paternalistic to transactional HRM. The case studies reveal the impact on HRM practice of both the legacy of paternalistic socialism and three decades of marketization. The case study evidence clearly indicates that paternalistic HRM, common in state-owned enterprises in the pre-reform era, has evolved towards either transactional or diffe\rentiated HRM. Among the changes in HRM practice is a decline in the welfare benefits and employment security of workers, the former ‘masters of society’.

Marketization and social protection reform: emerging HRM issues in China

This paper explores the human resource issues raised by Chinas current reform of its social protection regime. We examine a number of propositions at the core of the debate surrounding the relationship between globalization and social protection. It is concluded that globalization is compelling the government of China to construct a social protection system that is compatible with a market regime; many employers are evading their responsibilities and the state has been compelled to adopt countervailing regulations that can restrain this behaviour; Chinas decision to integrate into the world economy need not have a negative impact on the overall level of social protection available in other nations; and common social protection rules are affecting firms in highly divergent ways that reflect their ownership and industrial character and their specific labour market needs.

International human resource management strategies of Chinese multinationals operating abroad

Strategic international human resource management (SIHRM) is crucial for the effective leveraging of human resources in organizations to achieve the desired business strategies. There is a rich collection of studies on western multinational corporations (MNCs) in China, but few studies that explore the SIHRM of Chinese MNCs operating overseas. This study utilizes cross-level, in-depth interviews to analyse SIHRM of three large Chinese multinationals. The paper contributes to literature by addressing two contextual SIHRM issues, namely the characteristics of the SIHRM for Chinese multinationals and how their SIHRM orientation facilitates their international investment and operation. The findings indicate that organizational transformation is the starting point for latecomers matching their international HRM strategies. Their SIHRM approaches, such as forming learning organizations, reliance on host-country nationals, reconciling both home and host-country effects and promoting ‘best practices’, facilitate their international operations.

Managing People during Economic Transition: The Development of HR Practices in China

This paper reviews the development of human resource practices in the industrial sector in China since the commencement of economic reforms in the late 1970s. It highlights the changes in the categorisation of human resources and emergence of human resource management (HRM) in China. The develop ment of HRM in Chinese industrial enterprises is discussed in terms of the five major HRM activities: staffing policies and practices, performance appraisal, compensation and welfare, training and development, and labour relations. The paper concludes with the implications of HRM development in China for human resource professionals and practitioners.

Hukou-based HRM in contemporary China: the case of Jiangsu and Shanghai

Based on case studies of 12 firms, this research documents how the hukou-based human resource management (HRM) system in contemporary China informs six human resource management functions. It is shown that the system has generated a division between urbanites as core employees and rural migrants as peripheral workers. Rural workers tend to suffer from job and wage discrimination and have less access to training, welfare benefits, social insurance, and promotion than urban-hukou holders. The hierarchical nature of this division reflects the fact that human resource management policy and practice in China is a product of the larger institutional environment and lends support to the theoretical notion of ‘socially embedded HRM’.