Introducing Western Human ResourceudManagement Practices To China:udShopfloor Workers' Perspectives

摘要

The management of host country employees is often portrayed as a particularly fraughtuddimension for multinational firms. The problems involved are considered exponentiallyudgreater when there are substantial institutional differences and 'cultural distance'udbetween the host country and a firm's parent country, as is assumed to be the case forudWestern firms operating in China. Based upon detailed case study research conducted atuda UK-invested firm in China between 1999 and 2003 and a comparative study of audChinese state-owned firm, this paper explores the veracity of such assumptions. Theudfindings indicate that Western human resource management practices can beudtransplanted successfully and questions the degree to which foreign-invested enterprisesudneed to adopt 'the Chinese way of doing things'. Indeed, such practices can be innovativeudin the Chinese context and provide a competitive source of differentiation forudmultinationals as employees.