Human Resource Management Strategies in the Chinese Multinational Corporations: Ideology, Institutions, and Culture

Abstract

With the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) having inextricably been interconnected with the international economy and with the increasing footprints of the Chinese firms globally, management styles too needed to be evolved accordingly. The generic literature on internationalization of firms does not account for the ideological and institutional aspects specific to China and thus does not do justice to the way the Chinese Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have evolved. Unlike most Western MNCs, the Chinese MNCs keep their roots, in letter and spirit, as they expand internationally. That said, increasing global engagement means they somehow need to align and absorb globally recognized human resource management (HRM) practices. Differences in terms of industries, provincial regulations, national priorities as expressed in the communist party policies, etc., could also be observed. In this literature review, various key aspects of global human resource management that are applicable to the Chinese MNCs are presented.