- INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) issues play a more vital role in today’s business practice, which increases the importance and relevance of HRM research as well. Formal HRM concept was not introduced into China from US until 1980s (Chen, Che&Yang, 2002). Facing to the rapid growth of emerging economies, China also sees an increasing need for theoretical and empirical research on management practice. Due to the short history and weak theoretical basis of HRM in China (Zhao, Feng&Liu, 2002), HRM research in China is still on its way of imitation and development. These facts form the start point of the dissertation that seeks to explore the recent empirical research of HRM in China and a comparative study with HRM researches in US.
This proposal first provides an overview of objectives and research questions of the dissertation and then summarizes how this research fits into existing literature including (1) a review of HRM research in China; (2) a review of HRM practice in China; (3) a review of recent empirical HRM researches. The methodology part follows, which covers research design, data collection and data analysis while the final part lists the limitation and possible problems.
2．LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Background
Formal HRM concept was not introduced into China from US until 1980s (Chen, Che&Yang, 2002). Facing to the rapid growth of emerging economies, China also sees an increasing need for theoretical and empirical research on management practice. Due to the short history and weak theoretical basis of HRM in China (Zhao, Feng&Liu, 2002), HRM research in China is still on its way of imitation and development.
In the last decade, four review papers have been found so far on HRM in China: Poon and Rowley (2007), Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008), Cooke (2009) and Zheng and Lamond (2009). Poon and Rowley (2007) only reviewed articles from two journals published from 2002 to 2004. But through content analysis, they have conducted a detailed study comparing topics, methodology and other aspects of HRM researches. The latter three papers have reviewed thoroughly on HRM topics covering over 30 journals and 20 years’ period. Cooke (2009) argues that Zhu,Thomson and De Cieri (2008) adopt a narrow definition of HRM which as a consequence, restrict their selection of journals from database. However, all of these review papers focus on research topics towards HRM in Mainland China and all of their reviewed articles were published in English and in foreign journals (mainly UK and US) during the year from 1978 to 2007. The mixed author and publication countries lead to their failure to conduct a comparative study, especially at a continent level.
Only one review paper has been found studying on HRM articles published in China’s key journals: Chen, Che&Yang (2002). However, Chen, Che&Yang (2002) only reviewed HRM research studies in China ten years ago during 1998-2001. Moreover, Chen, Che&Yang (2002) failed to focus on the academic articles as well as produce a comparative study. In following parts, we first introduce the start of China’s HRM research, then analyze the changes and HRM practices adopted in China, and finish with recent trends and developments.
2.2 Chinese Scholars’ Research in HRM fields
Followed the economic reform in 1978, there were a series of reform on state owned enterprises (SOEs), especially on autonomy right of firms. Also, this development led to an increased interest in management and human resources research (Poon&Rowley, 2007). Due to the open door policy and economic reform, the majority of HRM studies at earlier stage focused on both macro and micro level, especially topics covering market transition, firm structure and employment mobility (Warner, 1995; Pan, 1996).
Since the HRM concept introduced to China from the West in the middle of 1980s, there were a number of Chinese scholars started their researches and guided the HRM theories in China. Wang (1985) and Zhao (1998) studied on labor personnel management and talent management during this period. Wang (1988), Zhang (1990) and Shi (1990) tried to inject psychological theories into HRM research field, which enriched the foundation of HRM theories in China. Zhao committed himself to introduce advanced HRM concept from West to China. His researches with comparative and international perspectives mainly covered human resource development, human resource planning and training. However, most scholars only introduced western HRM concepts and theories into China rather than experimented their own research and developed their argument.
From the middle of 1990s, HRM practices were adopted in the management of enterprises and government. Zhao (2001) has conducted a survey towards the HRM situation in enterprises in China. According to this survey, more and more enterprises in China tried to improve HR functions on recruitment, training, performance and compensations. However, the reward system only focused on distribution methods because the standards of reward management and job analysis have not been established completely yet (Deng&Liu, 2007). Zhao (2009) argued that owing to the low degree of marketization, there were a lot of problems on HRM. Targeted on those problems, Chinese scholars tried to study in a deeper way. Liao (1998) and Chang (1995) mainly worked on the influence of HR law and policies and analyzed HRM at a macro level. Zhang (1996) paid attention to control and structure inside SOEs. Zhang (2002) and Shi (1998) were earlier researchers of motivation, human capital and values.
Only one review paper has been found so far on HRM articles published in Chinese journals: Chen, Che&Yang (2002). Chen, Che&Yang (2002) reviewed 101 academic articles published in Chinese core management journals during 1998-2001. This paper indicates that there was an increase on HRM research in academic field from 1998. Moreover, several articles adopted empirical research methods rather than discussion at theoretical level (Chen, Che&Yang, 2002). This research also reflects some problems on Chinese scholars’ research in HRM. First, though there were empirical researches, the majority of articles emphasized on HRM theories, which indicated that scholars still at the stage of understanding and importing HRM knowledge. Second, articles introduced advanced HRM thoughts and methods from West without integrating China’s own culture and practical situations. Chen, Che&Yang (2002) also noted that training was a vital part in HRM, but scholars did not pay enough attention to it. The major research topics during that time were selection and recruitment, rewards and motivation, and theoretical research. However, both Chen, Che&Yang’s (2002) research and the reviewed articles were outdated—over ten years ago.
It is undeniable that some earlier researches did touch new functions and topics in HRM field even several hot issues recently discussed by worldwide scholars. After China accessed to WTO in 2001, there was a dramatic increase of foreign direct investment. Those multinational companies not only brought their products and capital to China but also advanced management skills. HRM in China then began to feel the impact of globalization gradually. Going through the process of globalization and the changing environment, is HRM research in China different from what it was like a decade ago
2.3 HRM Practice in China
Personnel Management has a fifty years’ history in China (Cooke, 2004) and was highly centralized under command economic system before 1978. There are two major features of the Chinese command economy: central planning and public ownership (Pu,1990; Riskin, 1987; Zhu, 2005; Zhu, Thomson&De Cieri, 2008). During this time, Chinese economy was dominated by SOEs. The personnel policies and management practices of SOEs were not only influenced by collectivism culture and communist ideology (Ngo, Lau&Foley, 2008) but also strictly controlled by state (Cooke, 2004). The intervention of state and its local labor departments was at both individual and organizational level. They set up the standards of recruitment, determined the number of workers and even the organizational structure and functions (Child, 1994; Cooke, 2004). For individuals, employment was characterized by “once-in-a-lifetime” event and lifelong job security (Warner, 1996; Cooke, 2004). Emphasized on equalitarianism and job stability, “iron rice bowl” employment system (Ngo, Lau&Forey, 2008) was formed and lasted for a period of time.
Zeng and Su (2009) argued that under this economic system, only personnel management on planned wages existed at a national level rather than human resource management at organizational level. Even the concept “personnel management” at that time was different from the original one defined in West context. Personnel management in China referred to the management of cadres while it was the term “labor management” that referred to the management of workers. The over thirty years HRM development was closely related to the reform of economic system and ownership structure.
Reforms in HRM have become nationwide since the beginning of 1990s (Ngo, Lau&Foley, 2008) with the adoption of a series of regulations on labor personnel, salary distribution and social insurance system. In the following years, government continued to introduce Decisions and Articles which not only featured on reforms of economic system, modern enterprise system and labor contract but also set up the standard of minimum wage (Zeng&Su, 2009) and decentralized the employment policies into organizational level (Chow, Fung&Ngo, 1999). As results, first the reforms of HRM were systematically deepened since late 1990s. The understanding of HRM was fundamentally changed and “people-oriented” was widely accepted in China. In fact, the term “yi ren wei ben” or principle on putting people first has a history over 2,600 years which reflects a tradition of interest in personnel management (Lamond&Zheng, 2010) and this term was re-highlighted in 2003. However, Zheng and Lamond (2009) argued to some extent there are few empirical practices related to these interests under China’s context. Second, functions of HRM department have transferred from traditional personnel and administrative management to strategic HRM functions. Both government and enterprises attached much importance to HRM (Xiong&Zeng, 2008). Based on Warner’s table (2010), Table 2.1 extends and summarizes the evolutions of HRM practices in China.
TABLE 2.1 Evolutions of HRM Practices in China
| Stage of HRM | Period/Years | HR Reforms |
| Nascent | 1980s | 1986 Labor Contracts |
| Interim | 1990s | 1992 Personnel Law
1993 Market Economy System Decision* 1994 Modern Enterprises System Plan* 1994 Labor Law 1998 Re-employment Training Plan* |
| Mature | 2000s | 2001 National Standard of HRM Occupations*
2007 Employment Promotion Law* 2008 Labor Contract Law |
Source: Warner (2010)
* new added into Warner’s table
Zeng and Su (2009) pointed out that the development of HRM in China was mainly driven by open policy rather than inside reforms of enterprises. Zhao (2009) argued that the transformation was not completed and there were a lot of issues remained on HRM in China at both theoretical research level and practice level.
2.4 Why Empirical Researches
Recently, four review papers can be found on HRM in China: Poon and Rowley (2007), Zhu, Thomson, and De Cieri (2008), Cooke (2009) and Zheng and Lamond (2009). But they only reviewed articles published in foreign journals during 1998 to 2007. Moreover, Poon and Rowley (2007) provided a comparative study of only two journals. Besides, none of other three review papers analyzed at a comparative perspective. These four papers all focus on reviewing empirical researches. Figure 1 shows a systematic approach of empirical research.
The gap between HRM theories and HRM practice is so-called a “disconnect” by Buckley and et al. (1998), which also reflects the disconnection between HRM research accomplishments and HRM practitioner needs. Donald Hambrick (1994) pointed out scholars had little influence on HRM practices in firms. Buckley and et al. (1998) conducted a survey to 113 human resource managers and the research demonstrated that “HRM practitioners are relatively familiar with research performed in this area, but they fail to see many practical implications of it”. The result of Terpstra and et al.’s (1996) research indicated that managers preferred HR practitioners’ information rather than HR scholars’ information. Academic scholars are trained to generate knowledge rather than solve organizational problems and their major goals are publication and tenure (Buckley et al., 1998). However, the performance and profit of companies are more related to academic research information (Terpstra et al., 1996;Zhao, 2001). Thus, to fix the disconnect of HRM theory and practice is emerging. From Figure 2.1, a link can be found from theory to practical data collection (e.g. observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc.) in empirical research.
FIGURE 2.1 Process of Empirical Research
Source: Flynn et al. (1990)
It is important for scholars to start from the existing theoretical foundations and then collect the first hand data to analyze today’s HRM practices. Whether this research is at an individual or organizational level and also the data collecting methods will all have effect on the final result of researches.
2.5 Build a Comparative Perspective
The majority of HRM theories and methods adopted in China come from West, especially US. The differences between Chinese culture and American culture restrict the implementation of HRM models and practice in China (Chen, Che&Yang, 2002). Contextualization within a national culture was first identified by Brewster (1995, 2007) and Brewster and Hegewisch (1994) who have developed one European model of HRM (Figure 2.2). Quinn and Cameron (2005) have already found how culture factor influences HRM practice outside western countries. It is essential to learn from West, however, it is more important to build localized HRM theories and practice suit to China’s transformation and development. Lamond and Zheng (2010) argued that though there are different cultural and institutional factors between China and West countries, the main principles of HRM remain similar. The differences, however, should draw on specific contents of HRM, such as organizational strategies, organizational culture and structure. From their researches, Lamond and Zheng (2010) pointed out that Chinese companies emphasize more on relationship (i.e.“guanxi”) rather than resource management because they regard latter as an expanded and enlarged result of relationship management. Furthermore, Chinese firms focus on cost-reduction strategies instead of effective HRM strategies (e.g. selection, performance management, training and development, etc.).
FIGURE 2.2 European’s HRM Model
Source: Brewster and Hegewisch (1994, p.6)
Compared with the European model’s clear links between corporate strategy and HRM strategy and HRM practice, China’s model is more complex and embedded in Chinese own context. Lamond and Zheng (2010) have summarized HRM in China as human relationship management and developed China’s model in Figure 2.3. Inside the organizations, there is no clearly direct links from organizational strategies to HRM strategies then to HRM practices. All sectors seem to connect but just cross functions and lead to disorganization. Moreover, the relationship between employees and employers based on formal contracts rather than understanding of the strategic nature and group’s dynamics. At the same time, this human relationship management is influenced by the principles of equity, fairness and organizational well-being from traditional Chinese culture (Lamond&Zheng, 2010). For outside environment, Chinese firms are embedded into complex political, economic, social and technological circumstances. The central idea “getting work done” is more a reminder of the purpose of HRM and at least serving as a guide of HR activities.
FIGURE 2.3 China’s HRM Model
Source: Lamond&Zheng (2010)
The models presented here not only indicate different aspects of Chinese and Western but also inform comparative approaches will be discussed through this dissertation. On the one hand, scholars should focus on localize western HRM theories. On the other hand, though China has its own unique political and cultural environment, it should not be separated from other western countries and firms due to the process of globalization. A decade ago, Chinese scholars focused on introducing western HRM theories; a decade later, is there any change on HRM theories and more important, on HRM practices Do Chinese scholars adopt the same approach as western scholars when conduct empirical researches in HRM
- METHODOLOGY
3.1 Method and Research Themes
The field of HRM is related to the study of people while this HRM research directly focusing on research itself. To address this subject requires researchers to gain a wide understanding, collect a broad range of academic articles on HRM topics and then generate statistical findings to further analyze the current situation of HRM research. The qualitative studies which concerned with understanding of HRM will promote an inductive approach to address the subject. Moreover, qualitative studies often analyze how the social world and individuals build up and use the meanings, categories and concepts (Bryman, 2004).
However, Gill and Johnson (2005) argue that since philosophical concepts sometimes do not transfer to real research settings, researchers need to consider different caution when studying the terminology. Bryman (2004) argues that a multi-strategy using both qualitative and quantitative approaches will strengthen the research. Webb et al (1966) and Denzin (1970) also support this view who think a multi-angled research combing contrasting and complementary methods will enrich the understanding and findings. The figure and data from quantitative studies cover a number of topics while qualitative studies can deepen the understanding of relationships between variables. However, for researchers who seek to understand the detailed variables and the relationships between them, qualitative approach is useful. Whether to select qualitative, quantitative or combining both of the two approaches, the most important is to link it to the purpose of the research and address research questions efficiently.
3.2 Purposes of Dissertation
From the very beginning that Chinese scholars introduced HRM theories from US to the later independent studies related to China’s own culture and situation, the objectives of this dissertation are to take a critical evaluation of China’s HRM research (empirical research) in recent five years, and identify the research gaps and trends between China and US. This research is meaningful and timely since none of reviews so far on HRM in China conducted a comparative study of publications in American and Chinese journals. As presented in literature review, there has been several review papers on the topic of empirical studies on Chinese firms regardless of the origins of the authors and journals, and one review paper ten years ago concerning academic articles published in China’s journals. The purpose in reporting the similarities and differences of publications is not to suggest the best way of either country’s researches but to provide an approach to learn from other’s path in HRM research.
3.3 Selecting Methods
For the aims of this dissertation, the research is based on a number of articles published in both China’s and America’s journals and is an integrative literature review. Torraco (2005) describe literature review as “a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way”. In this study, we also add a comparative way to further analyze the reviewed articles. Qualitative methods and content analysis are dominated to address the research questions accompanied with quantitative methods summarizing and analyzing the number of articles provide a clear comparison between China’s and America’s researches. The process mainly followed the qualitative analysis strategy introduced by Miles and Huberman (1994): collection, reduction, displays and conclusions.
The collection stage includes selecting proper journals and articles. Due to the lack of HRM-focused journals in China during the earlier time, the review paper of Chen, Che&Yang (2002) following the core management journal list of Peking University and added several core psychology journals as the whole resource to select from for proper articles. This dissertation is based on one leading HRM journal published in China and the other leading HRM journal in US. The journal Human Resource Development of China (HRDC) belongs to Chinese Association of Human Resource Development (CHRD) which was founded in 1988 by the national development and reform association. Furthermore, HRDC is the only national level key journal in professional HRM field in China nowadays. The wide range of authors gives HRDC a wide range of topic focusing on the latest research of HRM and the link between theories and practices. With respect to the journal in US, Human Resource Management (JHRM) is selected. JHRM is published on behalf of Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest association devoted to HRM. Like HRDC, JHRM also covering a broad spectrum of contemporary HRM and the wide range of readers require the latest and new approaches in this field.
The access to CNKI database and Wiley online library allow to go through all the papers published in these two journals. Three criteria are set up for further selection of articles:
- The article must be academic;
- The article must be empirical;
- The article must be published between 2007 and 2011.
CHRD is monthly journal and JHRM is seasonally. The number of articles published between 2007 and 2011 in CHRD is 1,019 while in JHRM is 305. The period 2007 to 2011 has been selected because the financial crisis started to sweep the world from US in 2007. As a consequence this crisis brought remarkable changes and affected firms’ policies and HR practices while at this time China has risen as an important emerging market. First removal of non-academic articles mainly focuses on reference and research methods. To identify empirical researches, a followed search on titles, abstracts and keywords of articles with a variety of terms including ‘empirical’, ‘interview’, ‘case study’, ‘survey’, ‘questionnaire’. Moreover, according to Cooke (2009), the difference between empirical and review papers is the former involved first-hand empirical data collection while the latter collected data from secondary sources. Thus, 96 articles of CHRD and 132 articles of JHRM are selected and included in this research.
- Research Design
The selected articles are all downloaded and coded. The categories of coding are generated to address the research questions above and the purposes of this research. Each article is coded by journal name, author, year of publication and publication country. Each article is content analyzed to assess different topics, research strategy and methods.
- The Topics of HRM
Chen, Che&Yang (2002) divided the HRM topics into eight categories in their review paper: quality of talents and selection, rewards and motivation, theoretical research, performance appraisal, training and development, foreign theories’ assessment, employee loyalty and turnover. For the development of HRM researches and practices, this study has added new categories. Cooke (2009) also supports a broader notion of HRM to further investigate the context effect.
- Level of Analysis
Three levels of analysis are defined based on different research targets and purpose: individuals, groups, and organizations. Individual level emphasizes on employees or managers themselves while organization level emphasizes on macro business issues, firms’ policies and strategies. Moreover, group level is defined to separate topics focusing on specific types of group people.
- Research Methods
The research strategies of each article are coded into usual categories: qualitative methods, quantitative methods and a mix use of both methods. In this study, we analyze empirical researches. Followed Flynn et al. (1990), we define different designs of empirical researches into four types: single/multiple case studies, field experiment, surveys and mixed methods. And five ways to collect research data: questionnaires, interviews, outside observation, participant observation and mixed tools.
- Cross-country Comparison
A cross-country comparison is defined as more than one country involved in data collection and hypotheses testing with a comparative perspective. This dimension is added to have a better understanding of today’s international context and to justice the content of both China and US based journals.
4．FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Empirical Researches
In total, 96 empirical studies are found in CHRD published between 2007 and 2011 and 132 pieces of articles in JHRM. Compared each year’s number (see Figure 4.1), there are no such differences in 2007 (CHRD: 16, JHRM: 17), 2009 (CHRD: 20, JHRM: 23), and 2011 (CHRD: 23, JHRM: 24). However, it is the year 2008 and 2010 that makes differences.
FIGURE 4.1 The Number of Empirical Studies in five years
For the year 2010, since JHRM has changed in 2009 from published every season to every two month, which on the other side increases the number of articles in 2010. Thus, year 2008 should be highlighted that JHRM published 29 empirical articles occupied 50.9% of total 57 articles that year. It is also the year that we mentioned before US went through a tough time due to the financial crisis. With respect to CHRD, the number of empirical articles published displays a slightly increase during the five year period.
Flynn et al. (1990) have discussed the factors that influence researchers in undertaking empirical studies. The main reason is that empirical studies require researchers’ financial and time resources to access and visit the sites and then collect data. For instance, when researchers conduct survey, they need time to design reliable questionnaires and obtain access to collect data. Furthermore, mailings and telephone contacts also required time. Without enough number of respondents, the credibility of research will be challenged. Sometimes, to ask for participating in data collecting process related to ethic issues as well, which need time to reach agreements. Thus, traditional mathematical formulation and simulation researches are not only save time and money but also much “safer” (Chase, 1980), especially published in many research-oriented academic journals. However, Chase (1980) states that, “ . . . we cannot avoid some high-risk research if we are to capture the critical characteristics.” The other reason for few empirical studies may lies in the fact that some HRM researchers do not realize that empirical researches can produce reliable insights to HRM research issues, when conducted using existing data collection methods and statistical analysis techniques.
4.2 Research Topics
A wide range of HRM topics have been covered in the published articles. Based on the classifications from researches of Cooke (2009) and Zheng and Lamond (2009), finally 13 topics are broadly examined to survey the 228 empirical studies in the span of five years’ inquiry (see Table 4.2).
TABLE 4.2 HRM Topics Researched
| CHRD | JHRM | |||
| HRM Topics | Number | % | Number | % |
| 1. Employment/Industrial relations, trade unions, labor market | 12 | 12.5% | 6 | 4.5% |
| 2. Staffing, recruitment and selection | 4 | 4.2% | 8 | 6.1% |
| 3. Training and development, competencies, career | 21 | 21.9% | 8 | 6.1% |
| 4. Strategic HRM, high-performance | 1 | 1% | 12 | 9.1% |
| 5. General HRM functions, traditional aspects of HR practices | 7 | 7.3% | 9 | 6.8% |
| 6. International HRM, assignments, expatriate management | 2 | 2.1% | 16 | 12.1% |
| 7. Compensation, rewards, wages, pay | 7 | 7.3% | 3 | 2.3% |
| 8. Performance evaluation | 9 | 9.4% | 13 | 9.8% |
| 9. Employee motivation, commitment, engagement, satisfaction, turnover | 13 | 13.5% | 19 | 14.4% |
| 10. Organizational behavior, structure, culture | 4 | 4.2% | 10 | 7.6% |
| 11. Quality of work, security and health, work-life balance, pressure | 10 | 10.4% | 10 | 7.6% |
| 12. Ethics, corporate social responsibility, discrimination | 4 | 4.2% | 6 | 4.5% |
| 13. Learning organization, knowledge transfer and management | 2 | 2.1% | 12 | 9.1% |
- Employment/Industrial relations, trade unions, labor market
12.5% of Chinese empirical articles concern the issues on employment relations between employers and employees, industrial relations including trade unions, and labor market reform, which almost three times the percentage of US articles 4.5%. Though contractual labor relations were introduced in China after the first economic reform in 1970s, however, China has not enacted Employment Promotion Law and new Labor Contract Law until 2007. Tsang (2008) still argues that indeed employers and employees still wait for the implementation of key aspects of the law and make more effective influence. Since the development of HRM in China was mainly driven by policies instead of enterprises reform. As a consequence of new regulations’ announcement, researchers attempt to collect data and conduct studies analyzing and assessing the effect after implementation. Moreover, Cooke (2009) states that a change in economy will soon result in an according change in employment relations and shifting bargaining power between workers and employers. These changes and tensions have been captured by the reviewed empirical articles in this study.
Among the total 18 articles in this topic, only one paper published in CHRD specific on trade union issues (i.e. Zhao, 2011). Unlike other industrial countries, the role of trade unions in China is subtle, which operate as the Chinese Communist Party’s spokesman in assisting the implementation of economic reform (Zheng, Morrison&O’Neil, 2006) and building a harmonious society (Warner, 2007) rather than representing workers’ interests as what they traditionally do. This unique position of trade unions arouses some scholars’ interests. However, in JHRM, the six articles in this category mainly concern outsourcing and intermediaries in labor market (e.g. Nesheim, Olsen&Kalleberg, 2007; Lievens&Corte, 2008), which shows that agencies become an important third party in labor market besides government.
- Staffing, recruitment and selection
Only 4%-6% researches lie in this category. Compared with the reviewed paper by Chen, Che&Yang (2002) ten years ago over 30% reviewed articles concerning this topic, there is a dramatic decease. However, since there was no HRM themed journal at that time, most of the 30% articles come from psychological journals, which focus more on how personalities influence individuals’ work, what traits should be considered and how to reduce subjective factors during selection process.
Recent years’ studies, instead of concerning individual candidates or recruiters Chinese scholars emphasize on a macro level, such as firm policies, recruitment and selection systems, and planning (e.g. Yang&Han, 2008; Gao, 2008; Si, Meng, Ji&Yu, 2011). They concern how to attract talent and skilled employees and how these strategies link to organizations’ performance while scholars in US journal concern more on the diversity of workforce (e.g. Finkelstein, Demuth&Sweeney, 2007).
- Training and development, competencies, career
21 articles are found and a percentage of 21.9% indicate that this is the most popular topic discussed among Chinese researchers. One reason is that this category covering a wide range of management levels as well as the finding of literature.
- Strategic HRM (SHRM), high-performance
This is the least discussed topic in CHRD with none articles specifically on strategic HRM. Daft (2007) explains from an institutional perspective that in a high uncertainty environment such as China, HRM is defined as a fluid concept. Thus, scholars in this field should more emphasize on how organizations making strategic HRM choices to respond to outside changing environment (Goodstein, 1994). However, the unique institutional framework in China to most extent strengthens HRM practices and on the other side distracts scholars’ interest.
Unlike CHRD, SHRM is a popular topic in JHRM recent years—total 12 articles and half of them published in 2008. They are all performance-oriented and highly concern how SHRM practices link to organizational performance. For instance, research by Wei, Liu, Zhang and Chiu (2008) is a typical study on how SHRM is adopted and implemented within firms and what impact can it lead to organizational processes and outcomes. Among these studies, SHRM under specific context of countries and ownership forms (e.g. Chow, Huang&Liu, 2008; Cooke&Saini, 2010) were predominant, which indicate the main concern of scholars in US journal is..
Zheng&Lamond’s (2009) findings also show that SHRM and high-performance HRM practices have attract researchers’ attention recent years since there is a demand for HRM professionals and practitioners to illustrate the effective HRM functions in solid terms and how it contribute to organizational performance (Lawler, Boudreau and Mohrman, 2006; Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007).
- General HRM functions, traditional aspects of HR practices
This category includes a wide range of general and traditional aspects of HR functions and practices. And most papers cover more than one aspect of HR functions such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and employment relations. CHRD and JHRM have not show a lot of difference in the number and percentage of articles. SEPCIFIC TOPICS
- International HRM, assignments, expatriate management, localization
This is also a small category with only 2 articles in CHRD. However, in JHRM it becomes the second most frequent research topic among scholars recent years.
- Compensation, rewards, wages, pay
- Performance evaluation
- Employee motivation, commitment, engagement, satisfaction, turnover
This is a popular topic for both CHRD and JHRM covering employees’ attitudes towards firms and managers and the related consequences.
- Organizational behavior, structure, reform, culture
Articles in this category investigate HRM more at an organizational level concerning organizational culture and the reform of organizational structure.
- Quality of work, security and health, work-life balance, pressure
- Ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR), discrimination, deviant behavior
The number of articles published in JHRM focusing this topic is slightly more than that of articles in CHRD (CHRD: 4; JHRM: 6). However, researchers in CHRD emphasize on CSR(EXTEND) at an organizational level while scholars in JHRM concern the diversity of workforce and the unfair or unequal problems relate to it more at an individual level.
- Learning organization, knowledge transfer and management
Scholars in JHRM show a much bigger interest in this topic compared with the scholars in CHRD (CHRD: 2, JHRM: 12).
4.3 Level of Analysis
TABLE 4.2 Level of Analysis by Journals
| CHRD | JHRM | |||
| Level of Analysis | Number | % | Number | % |
| Individual level | 46 | 47.9% | 75 | 56.8% |
| Group level | 19 | 19.8% | 7 | 5.3% |
| Organization level | 31 | 32.3% | 50 | 37.9% |
4.4 Research Strategy
TABLE 4.4 Research Strategies by Journals
| CHRD | JHRM | |||
| Research Strategy | Number | % | Number | % |
| Qualitative | 33 | 34.4% | 32 | 24.2% |
| Quantitative | 55 | 57.3% | 92 | 69.7% |
| Both | 8 | 8.3% | 8 | 6.1% |
4.5 Research Design
TABLE 4.5 Research Design by Journals
| CHRD | JHRM | |||
| Research Design | Number | % | Number | % |
| Survey | 63 | 65.6% | 92 | 69.7% |
| Case Study | 19 | 19.8% | 24 | 18.2% |
| Field Experiment | 5 | 5.2% | 9 | 6.8% |
| Mix | 9 | 9.4% | 7 | 5.3% |
4.6 Data Collection Methods
TABLE 4.6 Data Collection Tools by Journals
| CHRD | JHRM | |||
| Data Collection Tools | Number | % | Number | % |
| Questionnaires | 52 | 54.2% | 76 | 57.6% |
| Interviews | 5 | 5.2% | 25 | 18.9% |
| Outside observation | 13 | 13.5% | 9 | 6.8% |
| Participant observation | 3 | 3.1% | 11 | 8.3% |
| Mix | 23 | 24.0% | 11 | 8.3% |
4.7 Cross Country Comparison
5．DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.X LIMITATIONS
This review is mainly restricted by the criteria set up before the selection of articles, including the emphasis on the latest and empirical HRM researches. Besides, the narrow search parameters and selected database may fail to find out relevant articles. Similarly, this review is limited due to the limited number of articles and journals.
Second, the time constraints. The available dissertation time is less than the ideal time for an in-depth study. All the four review papers mentioned before are worked out by more than one author. They reviewed articles separately. I need to review more than two hundred articles by my own. This also leads to another problem that my review may be subjective and effected by my pre-established views and assumptions on China’s HRM research due to my knowledge and experience.
Third, I choose empirical researches to see how HRM theories implemented into practice in China. However, the lack of work experience limits my further understanding and deeper analysis on my research questions.
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