Ethical Characteristics of Human Resources Management in Chinese Enterprises.

People and Organisations: Principles and Practice in Global Contexts

Ethical Characteristics of Human Resources

Management in Chinese Enterprises.

Based on employee manuals of 160 companies, A Chinese paper conducts a content analysis to identify the characteristics and differences of HRME in various types of firms and different industries. Results indicate that the status quo of HRME in Chinese firms is far from being satisfactory due to the lack of ethical care, unfair and nontransparent employee appraisal procedures and outcomes. The results also show that there are significant differences in the five dimensions of HRME among state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, joint ventures, and foreign companies. It is also found that there is no significant interaction effect between enterprise ownership type and industry on HRME. (Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2010)

Introduction

In recent years, a series of business scandals have occurred consecutively, including the Sudan Red scandal, Clenbuterol scandal, Fuyang milk powder scandal and Sanlu milk powder scandal, reflecting the lack of business ethics in many firms in China. In contrast, business ethics has long become an area of western managerial research, along with the widespread application of rules and ideas of business ethics to HR management practices in firms of all sizes. This study aims to conduct a systematic comparison of ethical characteristics of HR management among different types of firms in China, identify their merits and demerits, and provide necessary guidance for enhancing ethical HR management in Chinese firms. Moreover, a growing number of textbooks have described and discussed ethics problems in HR management, which, to a certain degree, shows that the ethical principles in HR management have been accepted by practitioners. Following this trend, many Western researchers have explored the embodiments of HRME, including recruitment, compensation and incentives, downsizing practice, training and career development (Buckley, Beu, Frink, Howard, Berkson, Mobbs and Ferris, 2001). For example, Deckop (2006) categorized ethical issues of HR management into 14 types, including social responsibility, human resource strategy, performance management, employee training, employee motivation, supervisor-subordinate relationship, sexual harassment, and fair compensation.

Conclusion and Discussion

Based on the results of this research, They have found there are significant differences in HRME and its five dimensions among SOEs, private enterprises, joint ventures, and foreign firms, while there are no significant differences among enterprises of different types and industries. No interaction is found between enterprise type and industry on HRME. According to the above results, businesses in China pay little attention to the development of HRME: About 30% sampled firms failed to open to the public their employee manuals, disciplinary procedure and rules, and salary system; only less than 20% sample enterprises have paid due attention to some specific aspects of HRME, including corporate social responsibility, work safety training, right to know, employee ethics evaluation, avoidance of prejudice, employee privacy, exit interview, proper procedure of employee performance appraisal, and special allowance.

The results of this study show that there is a significant difference in the degree of HRME among different types of enterprises. Our results also suggest that there is a growing tendency for private enterprises to learn from foreign firms in the practice and construction of HRME. For example, a considerable percentage of private enterprises used to view integrity as their core values and employees as mere “instruments” now start to pay more respect to their employees, encourage staff innovation, emphasize staff development, help staff improve performance via proper appraisal procedures, etc. Possible reasons behind this attitude shift might be:

(1) Under the context of globalization, Chinese enterprises need to learn from their peer enterprises in developed economics.

(2) Chinese enterprises are now more aware of the positive impact of better HR management on enterprise development in the long run. As the degree of HRME in foreign firms are usually much higher than that of in Chinese enterprises, many domestic enterprises choose to learn from their peers in developed countries

References

Baucus M S, Baucus D A (1997). Paying the piper: An empirical examination of longer-term

financial consequences of illegal corporate behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 40:

129–151

Boist M, Liang X G (1992). The nature of managerial work in the Chinese enterprise reform: A

study of six directors. Organization Studies, 13: 161–184

Buckley M R, Beu D S, Frink D D, Howard J L, Berkson H, Mobbs T A, Ferris G R (2001).

Ethical issues in human resources systems. Human Resource Management Review, 11:

11–29

Dachler H P, Enderle G (1989). Epistemological and ethical considerations in conceptualizing

and implementing human resource management. Journal of Business Ethics, 8: 597–606

Deckop J R (2006). Human Resource Management Ethics. Greenwich, CT: Information Age

Publishing

Freund E M (2001). Falling flat: The challenge of corporatizing China’s state industry. In: Lee

P N S, Lo C W H (eds.), Remaking China’s Public Management. Westport, CT: Quorum

Books, 167–182

Fryxell G E, Lo C W H (2001). Organizational membership and environmental ethics: A

comparison of managers in state-owned enterprises, collectives, private enterprises and joint

ventures in China. World Development, 29(11): 1941–1956

Kolk A, Van Tulder R (2004). Ethics in international business: Multinational approaches to

child labor. Journal of World Business, 39: 49–60