Understanding Chinese non‐managerial employees' response to western HRM: changes in turnover intention

Abstract

Chinese lower‐level employees' perspective on western‐style HRM is neglected. Partly remedying this gap, we report changes in non‐managerial employees' feelings as they move from employment in Chinese‐owned enterprises to that in Anglo‐American‐invested multinational corporations (MNCs). We investigate the employees' appreciation of their enterprise and three work aspects linked both to their enterprise HRM environment and to Chinese cultural emphases. Our findings show that increases in pride in enterprise and in feeling responsible for own work correlate significantly with increased intention to stay, but increases in feeling involved in enterprise decision‐making do not. This suggests that Chinese non‐managerial employees appreciate western‐style HRM practices that resonate with their cultural values but not otherwise. Further, this suggests that Chinese cultural emphases on mianzi, collectivism and power distance remain important for non‐managerial employees and that Chinese MNC unit managers, when introducing HRM practices, need to take account of possible differences in outlook between them and their subordinates.