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Strategic human resource management and its impact on performance – do Chinese organizations adopt appropriate HRM policies?

Strategic human resource management and its impact on performance – do Chinese organizations... This paper aims to separately consider studies from the three major economies, the USA, Europe and China, to illustrate differences and similarities. A comparison of these three clusters allows the author to conclude that the US human resource management (HRM) model was adopted by European and, subsequently, Chinese organizations through the mechanism of mimetic isomorphism. In addition, the majority of studies have confirmed that certain HR procedures have a positive impact on organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe essay reviews and reappraises existing empirical studies in the field of HRM and organizational performance.FindingsAs European organizations adopted HRM configurations and the notion that HR should play a more strategic role from US organizations, the review suggests that Chinese organizations are now imitating US and European HRM. In all summarized studies, there is robust empirical evidence that the HR function is able to directly add value and improve organizational performance.Originality/valueThe study compares Chinese to Western HR functions and examines the effectiveness of strategic HRM by evaluating the existing research. At a minimum, in response to the title of the manuscript and the question, “do Chinese organizations adopt appropriate HRM policies?”, the general answer is yes. Given the mechanism of mimetic isomorphism, it can be assumed that Chinese organizations adopt the most efficient HR configurations from Western organizations. The summarized studies also support the prediction that subsidiaries of Western multinational organizations accelerate the development of the Chinese HR functions. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management Emerald Publishing

Strategic human resource management and its impact on performance – do Chinese organizations adopt appropriate HRM policies?

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
2040-8005
DOI
10.1108/jchrm-07-2017-0017
Publisher site
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Abstract

This paper aims to separately consider studies from the three major economies, the USA, Europe and China, to illustrate differences and similarities. A comparison of these three clusters allows the author to conclude that the US human resource management (HRM) model was adopted by European and, subsequently, Chinese organizations through the mechanism of mimetic isomorphism. In addition, the majority of studies have confirmed that certain HR procedures have a positive impact on organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe essay reviews and reappraises existing empirical studies in the field of HRM and organizational performance.FindingsAs European organizations adopted HRM configurations and the notion that HR should play a more strategic role from US organizations, the review suggests that Chinese organizations are now imitating US and European HRM. In all summarized studies, there is robust empirical evidence that the HR function is able to directly add value and improve organizational performance.Originality/valueThe study compares Chinese to Western HR functions and examines the effectiveness of strategic HRM by evaluating the existing research. At a minimum, in response to the title of the manuscript and the question, “do Chinese organizations adopt appropriate HRM policies?”, the general answer is yes. Given the mechanism of mimetic isomorphism, it can be assumed that Chinese organizations adopt the most efficient HR configurations from Western organizations. The summarized studies also support the prediction that subsidiaries of Western multinational organizations accelerate the development of the Chinese HR functions.

Journal

Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management – Emerald Publishing

Published: Oct 18, 2018

Keywords: Organizational performance; Human resource management

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