TIAN BAO GARMENT FACTORY: HRM in Chinese Private Enterprises
By Peter Xu Lu. In Ozbilgin, M. (2005). International human resource management: Theory and practice. New York: Palgrave.
With the rapid development of private business, China is undergoing two major transitional phases: from a command economy to a market- based ojie, and from a rural, agricultural society to an urban industrialized one. Accordingly, China is experiencing significant changes in its economic-social-political environment, which this old oriental country has never experienced in its history of over 5,000 years. Chinese private enterprises are, obviously, the first to be affected by the impact of these economic and social changes.
All these unprecedented transitions in China are creating a great demand for knowledge on this new emerging economic force — Chinese private enterprises. However, due to an apparent lack of empirical insights, our current understanding on the management of Chinese private enterprises has failed to catch up with dramatic developments in China’s private sector as well as its economy and society.
Nowadays, more and more ‘Western investors are coming to China to seek investment opportunities. Due to the complexity of the business environment in China, joint-venture investment has become one of the most efficient ways to enter the Chinese market. No doubt, dynamic Chinese private enterprises are the most ideal cooperative partners to be sought after by Western investors. However, the management of Chinese private enterprises remains mysterious and, in many respects, confusing to Westerners (Blackman 1997; Pye 1982; Tung 1996, 1997). These problems have been sharpened by the fact that, until recently, there has been scant academic attention to the management of contemporary Chinese private enterprises. It is within this framework that the author has conducted an empirical research on the management of such companies, focusing on their unique HRM systems.