Reassessing human resource management ‘with Chinese characteristics’: An overview

This introductory essay provides an overview, as well as a reassessment, of current theory, practice and ongoing research in human resource management ‘with Chinese characteristics’. As the People's Republic of China (PRC) has become inexorably linked to the international economy and increasingly faces the challenges of globalization, its enterprises and people-management have had to adapt to this new, fast-changing environment. The contributions summarized and commented upon here attempt to explain how this has been achieved. They are all based on empirical on-site investigations by specialists in the field and deal with such HRM-related topics as: cross-national comparisons, devolution of HR practices, HRM regional modelling, human capital, globalization, organizational commitment, psychological capital, psychological contracts, supervisors and co-workers, work behaviour, work-family conflicts and the like. The contributors are drawn from a variety of backgrounds and university affiliations in Australia, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, PRC, UK and the US.