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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

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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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