Comparison of HRM models in two different countries: France and China

Résumé du document

For years, Sweden has been considered as a well being country, with a high quality of living, safe, environmentalist, peaceful and very democratic where citizens take part in the development of their society. Swedish society, however seems to be in mutation for some decades, due to globalization, markets liberlization, new technologies of information and communication and individualization. This mutation affects the whole society, but does this mutation affects the Swedish democracy? This topic is interesting, but very broad, and that is why I am going to approach it by a definition of democracy. After defining the concept of democracy, I will speak about Swedish society and the changes it has undergone in the recent years, and then, speak about the political crisis, linked to the democratic representation. Firstly, it is necessary to define the concept of democracy because speaking about it requires before all, to identifiy this notion. Democracy originares from Greek 'Demos Cratos' which means 'popular power'. Democracy can be understood as the rule of the majority. In a country, democracy can be seen as a popular self government, as said by Lincoln, 'the government of the people, by the people, and for the people'. But in concrete terms, the whole population cannot directly decide and govern, that is why we usually speak about relative democracy. Relative democracy is a representative one. But who are these representatives? Are they really competent? This is one vision of democracy. I will focus on the representative democracy in Sweden to know if it is in good health.

Extraits

[...] There are a lot of regulations fostering employees' interest protection and preventing for job redundancy. Masculinity and Femininity: respectively favours achievement, acquisition of material possession, conflict, and competition in the workplace or social relationships, quality of life, and sensitivity. Chinese case scores a medium ratio because of the particularity of this culture. In effect, both masculinity and femininity are represented in the Chinese culture. Non-adversial relationship, win-win outcomes in bargaining and well-intentioned treatment of others gives a certain femininity aspect to this society. [...]

[...] In china, the first appearance of HR was called in companies the ‘personal department'. This centralized management method switched to a modern HRM model around the 1980s after the Mao Zedong‘s death in 1976. The weight of ‘state-owned enterprises' (SOEs) has been and is still very important in HRM even if China, after a long period of planned economy and communism, is switching to a market based view and a ‘open door' policy. In October 2005, the ‘Labor Contract Law of the Peoples Republic of China' emphasizes the protection of employees' interests. [...]

[...] However, a strong divergence will still remain thanks to the Confucian legacy of the Chinese culture and differences (Miller, 1984). Even if Chinese model is converging to the West European one, an hybridization phenomenon of the both models could define more accurately the changes that are occurring in Chinese and French HRM policies and management practices. An increasing development of globalization accompanied with a cultural evolution will probably lead to the creation of a Chinese model that will maybe influence in return the ‘West European model' or at least compete with it. [...]

[...] Byars, L.L., Rue, L.W Human resource management, 7th Edition, New York, Mc Graw Hill Irwin Child, J., A foreign perspective on the management of people in China. International Journal of Human Resource Management : 93-107. Ding, D.Z., Warner, M., Re-inventing' China's industrial relations at enterprise level: An empirical field-study in four major cities. In: Industrial Relations Journal 243-260. Economist, China's Economy - They Couldn't Keep It Down, Economist June 1:17-20. Gao, G., Ting-Toomey, S., & Gudykunst, W. B., Chinese communication processes. P. 280-293 in M. [...]

[...] Multi-national companies invest and plan to invest massively in China. This trend is fostered by the ‘open door' policy implemented by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. The influence of foreign companies is strong on Chinese HRM model. Thus, Airbus plan to invest in China to build its assembly chain, taking advantage of the cost-reduction opportunity. However, this situation is possible only because China is at the stage of development, but the late membership in the World Trade Organisation since the 11th December 2001 will change this situation. [...]