Compare HRM models of 2 or 3 different countries or continents

Résumé du document

Raymond Miles introduced the term ‘human resources' in 1965 after the evidence that human beings and human relations were changing in the company's environment. Human resources is considered as an ‘umbrella' gathering several different approaches rather than a single theory. All these approaches have in common the idea that human resources management ‘recognizes the vital role that human resources play in organization' (Schuler, 1987). In deed, ‘human resources management is a modern term for what has traditionally been referred o as personnel administration or personnel management' (Byars and Rue, 1987). In order to understand the importance of human resources management and to see how it is influenced by cultures and nations, we are going to compare two situations in two really different countries such as France and China. The cultural gap between those two countries is wide, and the way how people are managed as a factor of production differs depending on the social culture of each of these countries.

Extraits

[...] Regarding the French model that can be defined as a decentralized system where different actors have power and counter power. The society has evolved in a industrialised country environment where the legal context is high, protection of employees' interests are high and where trade unions are very powerful. The concept of meritocracy is well represented and careers' evolution are based on efficiency and seniority, but also on experience of the individual. The workers are high skilled and multi skilled thanks to a high developed learning system, the importance of formation and the possibility to be formed all along its career with internal apprenticeship programs provided by the companies themselves or by the government. [...]

[...] Individualism: measures the degree to which the interests of individuals or the groups take priority. The society in China is changing since the 1980s but the communist legacy has still an important influence, particularly in the SOEs' HRM. In deed, the Chinese culture is ‘collectivistic' (Earley, 1989), where ‘chinese individuals tend to identify themselves as a part of a specific group, team, or unit, and important distinction is made between ‘insiders' and ‘outsiders' (Bond, 1996), in comparison with France where individualism is much more important. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

[...] Convergences are not only coming from Chinese model to French one. For example, we can point out a general trend that is that the Chinese society do not wait for its government to raise standard of living; thus multiple partnerships between West European of American universities and Chinese ones show that the Chinese society want to receive training for western part of the world to take advantage of it and implement new management practices back in China. The best example to me is the increasing number of Chinese students coming to Hull and attending international business modules. [...]

[...] 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. [...]