摘要:英国硕士论文-英國碩士論文范文-Foreign firms in China: modelling HRM in a toy manufacturing corporation-University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK
other strand of literature on foreign firms in China focuses mainly on their
management of the labour process and employment practices: these firms are oftenbranded as ‘sweatshops’ operating in a mass production mode and characterised bypoor working conditions and work intensification (e g Zhu and Campbell, 1995; Xu,2000; Chan, 2001; Smith and Ngai, 2003). These are typically factories that produce toys,
shoes and clothes for the world market. They are staffed by predominantly migrant(female) rural workers who have few formal educational qualifications and little
b a rgaining power. The large rural population is notoriously under-employed, andhence migrates to towns and cities in search of employment. This segment of the labourmarket is the least protected by legislation, and hence the most vulnerable toexploitation by MNCs and other enterprises (Cooke and Rubery, 2002). Theseemployees usually work excessively long hours and live in poor conditions indormitories on site, a system considered akin to slave labour. While some argue thatMNCs provide much needed investment and employment for often weak economies
such as China by introducing new technologies and management systems, opponentsof this view often claim that MNCs are merely exploiting the weak and unpro t e c t e dlabour force in these less developed countries. They are often accused of driving downa l ready poor labour standards in their search for even cheaper labour that is achieved
at the cost of reduced labour protection. This so-called ‘race to the bottom’ is thought tooccur because MNCs relocate their production to ‘cheaper’ countries, which results indeveloping countries lowering further their already poor standards in order to keep the
labour cheap, thereby attracting more investment (Lee, 1997). The ethical dimension ofHRM practised by these firms operating in a ‘boundaryless’ world is there f o re
v i g o rously questioned by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Western media and
academics (e g Legge, 2000).
While these two strands of literature have provided considerable insight into the
two opposing realities of HRM and work processes in MNCs and JVs in China, there
remain significant gaps in our knowledge as to how HR and employment practices are
shaped in these firms – and, importantly, why. For example, in the first set of literature ,
detailed case studies of wholly foreign-owned enterprises with establishments
exclusively in China remain rare. This category differs from MNCs in that the firms are
not influenced by the parent company or by subsidiaries in other countries for the
transfer of best practices, or constrained by the need for a coherent worldwide
corporate
strategy. They also differ from JVs because they are not subject to the dire c tinfluence of management practices from Chinese partners. How, then, are the HRpractices in these firms shaped? To what extent are the HR practices of these ‘free’ fir m sinfluenced indirectly by China’s societal system (e g cultural, legislative, political,economic and labour market factors)? On the other hand, do all firms that massproduce goods for export, using what Smith and Ngai (2003: 1) called ‘the dormitorylabour system’, operate in a Tayloristic sweatshop mode with strained labourmanagementrelations as described in the second strand of literature? If not, how are
their HR and employment practices shaped? What are the driving forces and
p re s s u res? To wha
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