Future Research on Human Resource Management
Asia Pac J Manag (2009) 26:197–218 DOI 10.1007/s10490-008-9103-6 PERSPECTIVES
Future research on human resource management systems in Asia
Pawan Budhwar & Yaw A. Debrah
Published online: 17 September 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract Re-emphasizing the need to examine human resource management (HRM) in context, this article builds around four themes. First, it analyses the main issues discussed in the existing literature regarding HRM in the Asian context. Second, it highlights the critical challenges facing HRM function in the region. Third, along with the analysis, it presents an agenda for future research. Fourth, it presents a framework useful for highlighting the context specific nature of Asian HRM functions and the main determinants of HRM policies and practices from a cross-national comparative perspective. Keywords HRM . Asia . Research in HRM . Cross-national HRM Considering the rapid globalization, developments in the field of HRM and a number of region-specific significant developments, there is now a greater need to examine HRM systems of Asian countries. For compositional simplicity in this article, we use “Asia” (or “Asian countries”) to refer mainly to the main emerging economies in the region (i.e., China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) often referred to as “developing Asia” by the UN and also Japan. An analysis of key achievements of the Asian region highlights a number of important facts, such as it produces more goods and services than either North America or the European Union and this trend is expected to accelerate in the years to come. Many of the important emerging economies are located in Asia (see The Economist, 2007). Further, they attract an enormous amount of foreign direct investment (FDI). For example, China was the top destination for foreign capital in 2003 with a record inflow of $55 billion, overtaking America for
Future research on human resource management systems in Asia
Pawan Budhwar & Yaw A. Debrah
Published online: 17 September 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract Re-emphasizing the need to examine human resource management (HRM) in context, this article builds around four themes. First, it analyses the main issues discussed in the existing literature regarding HRM in the Asian context. Second, it highlights the critical challenges facing HRM function in the region. Third, along with the analysis, it presents an agenda for future research. Fourth, it presents a framework useful for highlighting the context specific nature of Asian HRM functions and the main determinants of HRM policies and practices from a cross-national comparative perspective. Keywords HRM . Asia . Research in HRM . Cross-national HRM Considering the rapid globalization, developments in the field of HRM and a number of region-specific significant developments, there is now a greater need to examine HRM systems of Asian countries. For compositional simplicity in this article, we use “Asia” (or “Asian countries”) to refer mainly to the main emerging economies in the region (i.e., China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) often referred to as “developing Asia” by the UN and also Japan. An analysis of key achievements of the Asian region highlights a number of important facts, such as it produces more goods and services than either North America or the European Union and this trend is expected to accelerate in the years to come. Many of the important emerging economies are located in Asia (see The Economist, 2007). Further, they attract an enormous amount of foreign direct investment (FDI). For example, China was the top destination for foreign capital in 2003 with a record inflow of $55 billion, overtaking America for