Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific, 2nd Edition

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Human Resource Management in China

Fang Lee Cooke

Introduction

Despite a history of more than 5,000 years, the People’s Republic of China (under the control of the Chinese Communist Party) has a history of just over 60 years. It is within this period that the current employment system and the current labour relations system were established, undergoing transformation since the mid-1980s as part of the radical economic reform. The assessment of the evolution of the personnel management/human resource management (HRM) practices of the country needs to be situated within this broader context of historical changes of key institutions.

In this chapter, we first review major changes in the HRM practices in China. We then examine key legislative, ...