A critical review of human resource management studies (1978–2007) in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

The study reviews the empirical studies on human resource management (HRM) practices in mainland China published in 26 leading international journals across the span of 30 years in the period 1978–2007. We intend to achieve three aims in this review: (1) to take an inventory of what have been done so far in the field of HRM studies in China; (2) to critically evaluate the development of Chinese HRM practices in the past 30 years; and (3) to identify research gaps for what needs to be done in the future. Along with this critical review, we also examine which research methods have been used in the empirical inquiries; where the research has been published; and who has made the most contribution in the field of Chinese HRM studies. We conclude that what is known is comparative rather than definitive, with HRM in China treated as a subset of international HRM, rather than as a mainstream issue. With a quarter of the world's population affected by an understanding of what constitutes better HRM in China, we call for a more inclusive, collaborative approach to further theorising and substantiating HRM studies by researchers inside and outside China.