The emergence of Human Resource Management in China: Convergence, divergence and contextualization

Abstract

This article aims to use the emergence of Human Resource Management (HRM) in China to shed light on the dynamism of convergence, divergence and contextualization in the broader field. It argues that the ways used to manage people in China have diverged or converged with Western or foreign-developed theories and practices, in different institutional contexts and at different periods of time. Overlapping with this intellectual narrative, it looks at HRM in China in its contemporary historical setting, to show how theories such as the US-inspired Scientific Management and Human Relations and the Soviet model of Personnel Administration have influenced and shaped various ways of managing people. The bibliometric review of the unfolding of HRM in China presented in the article will, we argue, also shed further light on wider issues of convergence/divergence and contextualization.