free essay: investigate the human resource management pract
Chapter Four Results and Analysis
4.1 Introduction
The aim of this project is to investigate the human resource management practices of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. The research is mainly based on the primary research including interviews conducted free essaywith some SMEs in China and the direct observations of the researcher through the internship in a SME in Shanghai of China. This chapter is divided into two main sections. The first section is to present the results of research that includes two aspects. One is the interviews with directors or managers of ten SMEs in China. The results are summarized based on the questions designed in the last chapter during the process of interviews. The other is the observation of the researcher in one SME in China during the process of the internship. The second section is to analyze and discuss the findings of the research based on the research objectives that have been set up before the research. And the analysis of research findings is also related to the findings of the past studies that have been summarized in the chapter of literature review.
4.2 Presentation of Results
Two parts of research results are included this section. One is the results obtained from the interviews that have been done in ten SMEs of China. The other is research results of observation of the researcher in one SME of China.
4.2.1 Results of Interviews
Due to the restraints of time and costs, ten small and medium seized enterprises are randomly chosen and included in the sample of the research in this study. The researcher conducted interviews directly with the directors of these ten small and medium sized enterprises in the sample. They take responsibility of the management and operation of the enterprise and are very familiar with the various aspects of the management of the enterprise. Based on the notes that I take during the process of the interviews, the answers of these interviews toward interview questions are summarized in the following parts of this section.
Table 4.1 Summary of Answers of Questions 1-3
1） Do you think human resource management is important to the development of the enterprise?
Yes No No idea
3 (30%) 5 (50%) 2 (20%)
2） Does your company have set up the independent department of human resource management?
Yes No
4 (40%) 6 (60%)
3） What do you think of the current human resource management in China?
Very Effective Effective Not effective Poor
0 (0%) 1 (10%) 5 (50%) 4 (30%)
Answers of interview questions 1 to 3 are simply summarized in the table 4.1 above. As to the importance of human resource management to the development of the enterprise, only 3 of these ten interviewees thought that the human resource management is important to the development of the enterprise, and 50% of these interviewees supported the important role of the human resource management in the development of the enterprise. On the other hand, 2 of these interviewees in the research expressed that they have no idea about the importance of the human resource management to the development of the enterprise.#p#分页标题#e#
As to the question that whether the enterprise has set up the independent department of human resource management to take responsibility of the relevant affairs in human resource management, only 4 of 10 enterprises expressed that their enterprises have set up the independent department of human resource management, and other 6 of these 10 enterprises expressed that they have not set up the independent department of human resource management in the interior of their enterprises. These 6 enterprises did not set up the special human resource management department and asked other departments free essayhttp://www.ukassignment.org/daixieEssay/such as finance to take responsibility for the human resource management affaires involved with their enterprises.
As to the current human resource management in China, none of these interviewees though that the current human resource management in China is very effective, and only 1 of these ten interviewees in the sample thought that the current human resource management is effective in Chinese enterprise. In fact, most of the interviewees had a negative impression on the current human resource management of Chinese enterprises. Among other nine interviewees, five of them thought that the current human resource management in China is not effective and three of them even expressed that the current human resource management in Chinese enterprises are very poor.
Table 4.2 Summary of Answers of Questions 4-5
4） What are the differences between practices of human resource management in China and those in the western developed countries?
History Cultural Difference Degree of Attention Experiences
6 (60%) 8 (80%) 10 (100%) 9 (90%)
5） What do you think of the role of human resource management in SMEs of China?
Very important Important Not Important Not obvious
1 (10%) 3 (30%) 4 (60%) 2(20%)
Table 4.2 summarizes the answers of questions 4 to 5. As to the differences between practices of human resource management in China and those in the western developed countries, the degree of attention was looked as the most important difference between Chinese enterprises and the western enterprises because all the interviewees in the sample thought that generally the western enterprises have a higher degree of attention to the human resource management than that of the enterprises in China. As to the role of human resource management in SMEs of China, only one of these interviews thought that the role of human resource management in Chinese enterprises is very important and only 3 of them though that human resource management in Chinese enterprises is important. Moreover, 4 of these interviewees supported that human resource management in Chinese enterprises is not important and 2 of them didn’t think that human resource management have an obvious role in SMEs of China.
Table 4.3 Summary of Answers of Questions 6-9 #p#分页标题#e#
6） Do you think the current human resource management in your enterprise is effective or not?
Yes No
0 (0%) 10 (100%)
7） What are the main functions of human resource management in your company?
Recruitment Performance Appraisal Reward Management Training and Development
10 (100%) 3 (30%) 2 (20%) 1 (10%)
8） What are the main problems involved with the human resource management in your company?
Lack of attention Lack of culture Lack of experiences Lack of professionals
10 (100%) 9 (90%) 8 (80%) 6 (60%)
9） As a SME in China, do you think your enterprise have to face more problems in human resource management compared with the large enterprises in China?
Yes No
8 (80%) 20 (20%)
Answers of interview questions 6 to 9 are summarized in the table 4.3 above. As to the current human resource management in their enterprises, none of the interviewees thought that the current human resource management in their enterprises is effective and all of them are not satisfied with the current human resource management in their enterprises.
As to the main functions of human resource management in their enterprises, all of the interviewees expressed that the recruitment is included as an important function in the human resource management of their enterprises. 3 of these interviewees expressed that the current human resource management in their enterprises has the function of performance appraisal, 2 of them expressed that the current human resource management in their enterprises has the function of reward management and motivation, and only one of them expressed that the current human resource management in their enterprises has the function of training and development.
All enterprises in the sample of our research are SMEs. As a SME in China, 80% of the interviewees in the sample supported that their enterprises have to face more problems in the field of human resource management compared with the large enterprises in China, while 20% of them thought that compared with large enterprises, their enterprises do not have to face more problems in the human resource management.
As to the main problems involved with the human resource management in their enterprises, all the interviewees supported that lack of attention is the most important problem faced by their enterprises, because human resource management is generally neglected not only by the management but also by employees. Lack of organizational culture was looked by 80% of the interviewees as the main problem involved with the human resource management in their enterprises. Besides these two main problems, lack of experiences in HRM and lack of professional employees in HRM were respectively supported by 80% and 60% of all interviewees as the important problems faced by their enterprises in the human resource management.
Table 4.4 Summary of Answers of Questions 10-12
10） Do you think it is necessary to improve the human resource management of SMEs in China?#p#分页标题#e#
Yes No
10 (100%)
0 (0%)
11） In your opinion, what is the key factor in establishing an effective human resource management in the enterprise?
Degree of attention Organizational Culture Professionals in HRM Training
9 (90%) 8 (80%) 7 (70%) 5 (50%)
12） What are your suggestions for Chinese SMEs to solve their problems of human resource management and improve their human resource management?
Improve their attention to HRM Establish a good organizational culture Learn experiences from the western enterprises Foster more professionals in HRM
10 (100%) 8 (80%) 7 (70%) 7 (70%)
Answers of interview questions 10 to 12 are summarized in the table 4.4 above. As to the necessity of improving human resource management, all the interviews in the research supported that it is necessary to improve the human resource management of SMEs in China. And they also thought that it is necessary for their enterprises to improve their practices of human resource management.
As to the key factors in establishing an effective human resource management in the enterprise, the interviews presented many different key factors. 9 of them presented that the enterprise’s degree of attention to human resource management is the key factor in establishing an effective human resource management. 8 of them looked the factor of the enterprise’s organizational culture as the key factor to establish an effective human resource management in their enterprises. Professionals in human resource management was looked by 7 of the interviewees as one of the key factors to establish an effective human resource management in their enterprises, while 7 of them also supported that training is an important factor to determine the effectiveness of the human resource management in Chinese SMEs.
Lastly, the interviewees in the research presented many suggestions for Chinese SMEs to solve these possible problems faced by them and improve their human resource management. All the interviewees in the research suggested that their enterprises should improve the attention to the importance of human resource management in the interior of the enterprise. And 8 of them suggested that their enterprises should establish a good organizational culture in the interior of the enterprise. 7 of them suggested that their enterprises should learn experiences about human resource management from the western countries and then combine these experiences in the practice of their human resource management. Moreover, 7 of these interviewees also suggested that their enterprises should foster more professionals in human resource management through education and training, because talents are the basis for human resource management.
4.2.2 Results of Internship Observation
During the process of research, I ever worked as an internship in Ken Bang Business Investigation Company, which is located in Shanghai of China. This company is one of SMEs in China and is also a good case for the author to study the research question about the current human resource management practices of SMEs in China. That is the reason for the author to choose this company for internship. During the period of internship, the researcher studied the research question about the human resource management practices of SMEs in China and research objectives through observation in daily work of the company.#p#分页标题#e#
Firstly, although the company has a certain scale of employees and revenues, the company does not have the special and independent department of human resource management. As many small and medium sized enterprises in China, this company focuses more on business rather than management. This company has set up many departments including sales department, marketing department, finance department, service department, computer and network department etc, but does not set up the department of human resource management. In this company, the department of finance takes responsibility for the affairs relating to human resource management, so I work in the department of finance but deal with the affairs of human resource management.
Secondly, this company is a SME and also a private enterprise. The boss and the management of the company do not pay attention to the human resource management. They only care about the business of the company, and don’t pay attention to the aspects of management in the enterprise. They even don’t know the detailed functions of human resource management in the enterprise, and don’t know the importance of human resource management to their enterprise. In their opinions, the business is the most important to the development of a company. In order to continue to develop to become a large company from a small company, they believe that the company has to invest most of the resources in sales and marketing to continue to increase its sales revenue and the scale in the market. The management of the company knows the gap between the Chinese enterprises and the Western enterprises in human resource management and also knows that the enterprises in Western countries have advanced experiences in human resource management. The boss of the company prefers to learning the advanced experiences in marketing or sales from the western enterprises rather learning experiences of management to enhance the human resource management of the company.
Thirdly, although I can take part in the human resource management affairs relating to the company, the only thing related to the human resource management in this company is recruitment and selection. Generally the human resource management of a company should include many aspects such as recruitment and selection, motivation, reward management, training and development, performance appraisal and employee relations. But in this company, recruitment and selection is the only thing related to the human resource management. My work during the period of internship is mainly to publicize the information of recruitment for the company, receive the applications from all the applicants, select the suitable applicants that meet the requirements of the company to the detailed position and then arrange the interviews for them. Besides recruitment and selection, the human resource management of this company does not include any other aspect. This company does not have performance appraisal toward the employees, reward management, and training and development to the employees.#p#分页标题#e#
Fourthly, this company does not have its organizational culture. All employees of this company just work in this company together and it seems that they do not feel them belong to this company. The company does not pay attention to the human resource management so that it also does not know the importance of human resource to the company. Lack of a good organizational culture makes this company can not maintain and keep its employees and make them feel that they work in a big family. Without the belonging based on organizational culture, it is difficult for the company to effectively manage their human resource in the company. During the period of working in this company, I did not feel the organizational culture of the company, and did not feel the belongings of other employees toward the company either.
Lastly, there is lack of professional employees in human resource management in this company. Although the company has to involve in some affairs of the human resource management such as recruitment and selection, the company does not have professional employees in this aspect. None of employees in this company has the education background or professional background of the human resource management. So in this company, the affairs of human resource management have to be dealt with by the employees with other background rather than human resource management. This to a large extent has the negative influence on the effectiveness of the human resource management in the company. On the one hand, the company does not realize the importance of professionals in human resource management and doe not want to recruit the relevant professional talents in human resource management from the exterior. On the other hand, the company does not foster its own professional employees in human resource management through the training. In fact, this company does not provide any training to its employees and it is very harmful to the development of the employees in this company.
4.3 Findings, Analysis and Discussion
Based on the results from data collection in the research, the findings of the research should be analyzed and discussed relating to research objectives of the study. In this research, the aim of the project is to investigate the current human resource management practices of the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. Based on this research aim, there are four main research objectives that are included during the process of the research. The first research objective is to review the relevant literature about human resource management practices in SMEs especially SMEs of China. This has been done in the chapter two of literature review to review the past studies focusing on this research area about the human resource management practices of Chinese SMEs and summarized the key findings from these past studies. These findings are the basis for the further research in our study, and the findings of this research are analyzed compared with the findings summarized from the past studies.
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4.3.1 The status quo of human resource management in China’s SMEs
Compared with the long history of human resource management in the enterprises of the western countries, the emergence and development of human resource management in China just has a short history. Although the concept and practices of human resource management have been gradually accepted by more and more enterprises in China, it is still a new thing to most of enterprises in China. Especially for many SMEs in China, there are not familiar with the human resource management compared with some large enterprises in China.
Firstly, the findings of the research showed that there is lack of attention to the human resource management in most of Chinese SMEs. With the encouragement of the government, SMEs in China have experienced very rapid growth and play an increasingly important role in national economy of China. But most of Chinese SMEs do not pay attention to the development of the human resource management practices and realize the importance of the human resource management to the development of SMEs. To most of SMEs in China, the business operation is the core of the enterprise. Sales and marketing, rather than human resource management, is looked by most Chinese SMEs as the most important factor to determine the success and failure of the enterprise in the market. But in fact, the human resource management is a key factor to influence the long-term development of the enterprise, especially for SMEs. It was found in the research of Kasturi et al. (2006) that the attitude of the firm’s owner(s) towards its employees is a major determinant of the firm’s profitability, and on the other hand, the effect of human resource management philosophy on productivity is smaller, albeit still highly significant. Moreover, the findings of the research also suggested that at least for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the developing countries, HRM systems architecture is the guiding principle that affects a firm’s performance.
Secondly, the findings of the research indicated that most of China SMEs do not think that the human resource management plays an important role in the interior of the enterprise and they think that it is not necessary to set up the independent department of the human resource management in their enterprises. Most of SMEs in China do not believe that the human resource management can bring benefits to the development of their enterprises, and most of them do not have the special department of human resource management and ask other departments such as finance department to deal with the human resource management affairs for the enterprise. This finding is supported by Zhao (2008). In the new century, the competition between enterprises has been more and more intense and the core of the competition is focused on the competition of human resources. It is more and more important for enterprises to have a good human resource management in order to succeed in the market. It was found by Zhao (2008) that most of enterprises especially SMEs in China have not realized the important role of human resources in the development of their enterprises and the importance of managing human resources to the competition of enterprises in the market. The research suggested that upon the background of network, verbalization, diversification and globalization, small and medium sized enterprises in China should make necessary changes in many aspects such as goals, ideas and ways of human resource management in the future in order to survive in the intense competition.#p#分页标题#e#
But on the other hand, the finding of Karami et al (2008) supported the importance of human resource management. The findings of Karami et al. (2008) showed that increasing the core competencies of the firm, in particular in HR, is the key element to the success of the firm. Moreover, it was posed that the growing involvement of the HR in the development and implementation of business strategy will lead to the increased effectiveness of the organization and the industry as a whole. Lastly, in order to increase firm performance and to benefit from HR capabilities, it was recommended that practitioners and SME CEOs should increase the involvement of their HR specialists in the processes of strategic management in their firms.
Thirdly, the findings showed that there are obvious differences in the human resource management practices, and the differences are mainly realized in four aspects of history, cultural differences, degree of attention and experiences. This finding is also supported by research evidence of Cunningham and Rowley (2007). Cunningham and Rowley (2007) did a research to emphasise the development, importance and pressure on the under researched area of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and human resource management (HRM) and provide a review and research agenda especially relating to the debate on convergence vis-à-vis divergence. This research examined recent research papers that are discussed and possible convergence and the pressures on HRM and its practice in Chinese SMEs. In this research, key elements in Chinese HRM are highlighted and four main dimensions of HRM are compared in terms of Western and Chinese characteristics and their cultural impacts and problems based on a conceptual framework to locate influences on Chinese HRM. The findings of the research indicated that the continuing influences on HRM suggest that a distinctly Chinese HRM approach combining Western practice with Chinese characteristics may be one way for SMEs in China to develop, and it is central to a better understanding of Chinese SMEs and helps fill some of the gap in the analysis of HRM in Chinese SMEs.
Lastly, the findings of the research also indicated that the current human resource management is not effective in Chinese SMEs. For most of SMEs in China, their human resource management is not effective enough to support the operation and management of the whole enterprise and other departments of the enterprise. Harris (2000) considered evidence from a recent survey of small businesses, which examined their main employment concerns and the sources of advice they use on employment relations matters. The survey’s findings illustrate the particular challenge increased employment rights presents to the smaller organisation. It identifies a need for more intensive support tailored to the specific circumstances of individual firms in developing proactive approaches to human resourcing which not only comply with but also reflect the spirit of the legislation.
On the other hand, the human resource management in most of Chinese SMEs does not have the perfect functions and most of them just have the function of recruitment and selection with their human resource management. Human resource management generally should include many functions such as recruitment and selection, motivation, performance appraisal, reward management, training and development, and employee relations. But because most of Chinese enterprises do not pay attention to the human resource management and realize the other important functions of the human resource management, so the human resource management is mainly just used as a simple tool for recruitment and selection in most SMEs of China. This finding is similar to the findings of the research of Jin (2008). Jin (2008) did a research to investigate human resource management of Chinese SMEs on a new vision of globalization. China is gradually involving in world economic system upon the background of economic globalization, and globalization has brought many impacts on many SMEs in China. Human resource management is particularly important to SMEs compared with the large enterprises, but it was found in the research that Chinese SMEs have shortages in many aspects of human resource management such as bias ideas of HRM, inefficient development of human resource and lack of scientific system of human resource management.#p#分页标题#e#
4.3.2 Problems involved with the implementation and development of human resource management in China’s SMEs
SMEs have to face more problems including problems of human resource management. The findings of this research indicated that SMEs in China have to face more problems in the human resource management compared with the large enterprises in China. This was also found by the research of Szamosi et al (2004). In that research, it was found that compared with the large enterprises, SMEs have many disadvantages in resources, talents, governmental support, strength, funds etc. so that SMEs have to deal with more problems during the process of developing and implementing the practice of human resource management. Large enterprises have more resources to invest in human resource management, and can attract more professionals in human resource management to work in their enterprises. So they generally have advantages in human resource management than SMEs and can face few problems during the process of implementing the practice of human resource management.
There are four main problems to be found involved with the implementation and development of human resource management in Chinese SMEs in this research.
Firstly, the findings of the research showed that lack of attention is the most important problem faced by their enterprises, because human resource management is generally neglected not only by the management but also by employees. There is lack of atmosphere of the human resource management in most enterprises including SMEs of China. Not only the management of the SMEs do not attach importance to the human resource management, but also the employees of the enterprise do not pay attention to human resource management because most of them don’t know and understand well of human resource management and its role and functions in the enterprise.
This finding is supported by findings of Zhang and Zhang (2008). They also did a study to investigate the current practices of human resource managements of Chinese SMEs. The authors thought that human resource management plays a core position in modern enterprise management. But due to the speciality of growth and development, SMEs generally have many problems in the aspect of human resource management, and this to a large extent has become one of the important factors to negatively affect the development of SMEs, especially in the developing countries such as China. The research found out three main problems involved with the current human resource management of Chinese SMEs including lack of enough importance toward human resource management and lack of enough atmospheres in the interior of the enterprise.
Secondly, the research findings indicated that lack of a good organizational culture is another important problem faced by Chinese SMEs in developing and implementing human resource management in their enterprises. Most of SMEs in China do not pay attention to the establishment and management of organizational culture. Many of Chinese SMEs do not have organizational culture and employees do not have the strong belonging (commitment?) to their enterprises. Because of lack of organizational culture, the management of SMEs in China don’t realize the importance of human capital to the growth of their enterprises and either do not realize the importance of managing human resource to the long-term development of their enterprises.#p#分页标题#e#
The research Peng (2007) directed focused on the bottleneck problem of human resource management of Chinese SMEs. Similar to the finding of some past studies, the author also thought that as one of the important forces in national economy of China, the existence and development of SMEs in China has be negatively affected by some problems in their human resource management. But different from the findings of some past studies, the author found that the basic factor leading to the bottleneck problem of human resource management for SMEs is their organizational structure and cultural. In most of SMEs in China, the department of human resource management does not have an important position in organizational structure. And lack of good organizational culture makes it difficult for most of SMEs to realize the importance of human capital to the development of their enterprise.
Thirdly, the findings of the research showed that lack of experiences in human resource management is also an important problem faced by Chinese enterprises. It has been found in the previous findings of this research that there are many differences between the practices of human resource management in China and in the western countries, and experience in human resource management is one of the important differences for Chinese SMEs and the western enterprises.
Liu (2008) did a research to focus on the dilemma of SMEs in China on the aspect of human resource management and present recommendations for Chinese SMEs to solve their dilemma. It was found in the research that SMEs have become the important forces to drive the development of China’s national economy and society, but the development of SMEs is not stable. The shortage in human resource management has become the important factor to restrict the development of SMEs, especially in the period of quick expansion for the enterprise.
Lastly, lack of professionals in human resource management was also found in the research as an important problem for SMEs in China. The history of the development of human resource management in China is short and the education of human resource management is also very weak. This leads to the fact that it is difficult for the enterprise in China to recruit the excellent professionals in human resource management to help improve the performance of the enterprise in managing human resource. It is the problem that is not only faced by SMEs but also faced by the large enterprises in China.
This finding is supported by the research of Zhang and Zhang (2008) that investigated the current practices of human resource managements of Chinese SMEs. They found three main problems faced by the current Chinese SMEs in the human resource management, and lack of the relevant talents in human resource management is the important problem among these three problems because the talents are the basis for the development and perfect of human resource management and it costs time and resources for the enterprise to foster the excellent professionals in human resource management.#p#分页标题#e#
4.3.3 Suggestions that can be recommended for China’s SMEs to solve these problems relating to their HRM practices
Based on the main problems involved with the current practices of human resource management for SMEs in China, the findings of the research also presented recommendations for Chinese SMEs to solve these problems and improve their performance in human resource management.
Firstly, the findings of the research suggested that Chinese SMEs should improve their attention to human resource management. If the enterprise wants to achieve a good effect in human resource management and enjoy the benefits from human resource management, they should first realize the importance of human resource management. When the enterprises pay attention to human resource management, they will invest more resources in the development of human resource management in their enterprises and try to continue to improve it. It is very important for the long term development of human resource management in the interior of an enterprise.
Zhang and Zhang (2008) presented three recommendations in the research for Chinese SMEs to better manage their human resources. The most important recommendation among these recommendations is to enhance the importance of both the enterprise and the employee to human resource management. In the research, their findings emphasized that it is not enough to just enhance the attention of the enterprise’s management to human resource management, and it is very important for the enterprise to make their employees realize the importance of human resource management to the development of the enterprises. The findings of Liu (2008) also suggested that Chinese SMEs should pay more attention to their human resource management in order to solve the current dilemma in human resource management.
Secondly, it was recommended in the research that Chinese SMEs should establish a good organizational culture in the interior of the enterprise. A good organizational culture not only can realize the attention of the enterprises to their employees but also can make the employees have belongs to the enterprise.
Liu (2008) suggested that Chinese SMEs should try to constitute the scientific plan of training and construct good organizational atmosphere in the interior of the enterprise, and this is a key factor for the enterprises to improve effectiveness of their human resource management. Zhang and Zhang (2008) also found that lack of organizational culture is the general situation in Chinese SMEs and is also the important problem to influence the human resource management of Chinese SMEs. So they suggested that it is important for Chinese SMEs to establish a good organizational culture in the interior of the enterprise in order to solve their problems in managing human resource.
Thirdly, another recommendation in this research is for Chinese SMEs to learn experiences from the Western enterprises. As we all know, the western enterprises have more experiences in human resource management compared with Chinese enterprises especially SMEs, so their advanced experiences may be very helpful for Chinese SMEs to achieve a good human resource management. But this recommendation should consider the differences between China and the western countries in many aspects such as the society, culture, and market environment and so on. Cunningham and Rowley (2007) suggested that a distinctly Chinese HRM approach combining western practice with Chinese characteristics may be one way for SMEs in China to develop, and it is central to a better understanding of Chinese SMEs and helps fill some of the gap in the analysis of HRM in Chinese SMEs.#p#分页标题#e#
Lastly, the findings of the research suggested that Chinese SMEs should foster more excellent professionals in human resource management, because it is very important for them to improve the performance in managing human resource. The research evidence of Jin (2008) supported that in order to face the challenges of globalization, the findings of the research indicated that Chinese SMEs must gradually perfect their human resource management. It was suggested that Chinese SMEs should change their ideas about human resource management, pay attention to the training of employees, establish the effective system of motivation, and foster the good culture of the enterprise.
Zhang and Zhang (2008) also suggested that foster more professional talents in human resource management. On the one hand, the enterprises can try to recruit excellent talents in human resource management. On the other hand, the enterprises can try to foster their own professionals in this aspect through the long-term training and development.
4.4 Conclusion
This chapter presents the results from the research and analyzes findings of the research in terms of research objectives and findings summarized from the literature.
As to the status quo of human resource management in China’s SMEs, firstly the findings of the research showed that there is lack of attention to the human resource management in most of Chinese SMEs. Secondly, the findings of the research indicated that most of China SMEs do not think that the human resource management plays an important role in the interior of the enterprise and they think that it is not necessary to set up the independent department of the human resource management in their enterprises. Thirdly, the findings showed that there are obvious differences in the human resource management practices, and the differences are mainly realized in four aspects of history, cultural differences, degree of attention and experiences. Lastly, the findings of the research also indicated that the current human resource management is not effective in Chinese SMEs, and the human resource management in most of Chinese SMEs does not have the perfect functions.
As to problems involved with the implementation and development of human resource management in China’s SMEs, the findings of the research indicated that firstly lack of attention is the most important problem faced by their enterprises, because human resource management is generally neglected not only by the management but also by employees; secondly lack of a good organizational culture is another important problem faced by Chinese SMEs in developing and implementing human resource management in their enterprises; thirdly lack of experiences in human resource management is also an important problem faced by Chinese enterprises; lastly lack of professionals in human resource management was also found in the research as an important problem for SMEs in China.
As to suggestions that can be recommended for China’s SMEs to solve these problems relating to their HRM practices, it was suggested in the research that Chinese SMEs should first improve their attention to human resource management; secondly establish a good organizational culture in the interior of the enterprise; thirdly, learn experiences from the western enterprises to combine in practices of human resource management; lastly foster more excellent professionals in human resource management.#p#分页标题#e#
Chapter Five Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Review of Research Findings
The aim of this project is to investigate the human resource management practices of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. There are four main research objectives in this research. The first is to review the relevant literature about human resource management practices in SMEs; the second is to investigate the status quo of human resource management in China’s SMEs; the third is to find out problems involved with the implementation and development of human resource management in China’s SMEs; and the last is to present suggestions that can be recommended for China’s SMEs to solve these problems relating to their HRM practices.
The research is mainly based on the primary research including interviews conducted with some SMEs in China and the direct observations of the researcher through the internship in a SME in Shanghai of China. But the research also use the secondary data that are collected from the public sources including the published book and journal article, online database and some websites. The findings of the research are based on results from interviews with ten Chinese SMEs and the direct observation of the researcher in a SME in Shanghai of China.
During the period of internship, the researcher studied the research question about the human resource management practices of SMEs in China and research objectives through observation in daily work of the company. Firstly, although the company has a certain scale of employees and revenues, the company does not have the special and independent department of human resource management. Secondly, this company is a SME and also a private enterprise. The boss and the management of the company do not pay attention to the human resource management. They only care about the business of the company, and don’t pay attention to the aspects of management in the enterprise. Thirdly, although I can take part in the human resource management affairs relating to the company, the only thing related to the human resource management in this company is recruitment and selection. Fourthly, this company does not have its organizational culture. All employees of this company just work in this company together and it seems that they do not feel them belong to this company. Lastly, there is lack of professional employees in human resource management in this company. Although the company has to involve in some affairs of the human resource management such as recruitment and selection, the company does not have professional employees in this aspect.
Based on the results from data collection in the research, the findings of the research are analyzed and discussed relating to research objectives of the study. The first research objective is to investigate the status quo of human resource management in China’s SMEs. Firstly, the findings of the research showed that there is lack of attention to the human resource management in most of Chinese SMEs. With the encouragement of the government, SMEs in China have experienced very rapid growth and play an increasingly important role in national economy of China. But most of Chinese SMEs do not pay attention to the development of the human resource management practices and realize the importance of the human resource management to the development of SMEs. To most of SMEs in China, the business operation is the core of the enterprise. Sales and marketing, rather than human resource management, is looked by most Chinese SMEs as the most important factor to determine the success and failure of the enterprise in the market. But in fact, the human resource management is a key factor to influence the long-term development of the enterprise, especially for SMEs. It was found in the research of Kasturi et al (2006) that the attitude of the firm’s owner(s) towards its employees is a major determinant of the firm’s profitability, and on the other hand, the effect of human resource management philosophy on productivity is smaller, albeit still highly significant. Moreover, the findings of the research also suggested that at least for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the developing countries, HRM systems architecture is the guiding principle that affects a firm’s performance.#p#分页标题#e#
Secondly, the findings of the research indicated that most of China SMEs do not think that the human resource management plays an important role in the interior of the enterprise and they think that it is not necessary to set up the independent department of the human resource management in their enterprises. Most of SMEs in China do not believe that the human resource management can bring benefits to the development of their enterprises, and most of them do not have the special department of human resource management and ask other departments such as finance department to deal with the human resource management affairs for the enterprise. It was found by Zhao (2008) that most of enterprises especially SMEs in China have not realized the important role of human resources in the development of their enterprises and the importance of managing human resources to the competition of enterprises in the market.
Thirdly, the findings showed that there are obvious differences in the human resource management practices, and the differences are mainly realized in four aspects of history, cultural differences, degree of attention and experiences.
Lastly, the findings of the research also indicated that the current human resource management is not effective in Chinese SMEs. For most of SMEs in China, their human resource management is not effective enough to support the operation and management of the whole enterprise and other departments of the enterprise. On the other hand, the human resource management in most of Chinese SMEs does not have the perfect functions and most of them just have the function of recruitment and selection with their human resource management. Human resource management generally should include many functions such as recruitment and selection, motivation, performance appraisal, reward management, training and development, and employee relations. But because most of Chinese enterprises do not pay attention to the human resource management and realize the other important functions of the human resource management, so the human resource management is mainly just used as a simple tool for recruitment and selection in most SMEs of China.
The second research objective is to find out problems involved with the implementation and development of human resource management in China’s SMEs. SMEs have to face more problems including problems of human resource management. The findings of this research indicated that SMEs in China have to face more problems in the human resource management compared with the large enterprises in China. There are four main problems to be found involved with the implementation and development of human resource management in Chinese SMEs in this research.
Secondly, the research findings indicated that lack of a good organizational culture is another important problem faced by Chinese SMEs in developing and implementing human resource management in their enterprises. Most of SMEs in China do not pay attention to the establishment of organizational culture. Many of Chinese SMEs do not have organizational culture and employees do not have the strong belonging to their enterprises. Because of lack of organizational culture, the management of SMEs in China don’t realize the importance of human capital to the growth of their enterprises and either do not realize the importance of managing human resource to the long-term development of their enterprises.
Thirdly, the findings of the research showed that lack of experiences in human resource management is also an important problem faced by Chinese enterprises. It has been found in the previous findings of this research that there are many differences between the practices of human resource management in China and in the western countries, and experience in human resource management is one of the important differences for Chinese SMEs and the western enterprises.
Lastly, lack of professionals in human resource management was also found in the research as an important problem for SMEs in China. The history of the development of human resource management in China is short and the education of human resource management is also very weak. This leads to the fact that it is difficult for the enterprise in China to recruit the excellent professionals in human resource management to help improve the performance of the enterprise in managing human resource. It is the problem that is not only faced by SMEs but also faced by the large enterprises in China.
The last research objective is to present suggestions that can be recommended for China’s SMEs to solve these problems relating to their HRM practices. Based on the main problems involved with the current practices of human resource management for SMEs in China, the findings of the research also presented recommendations for Chinese SMEs to solve these problems and improve their performance in human resource management.
Firstly, the findings of the research suggested that Chinese SMEs should improve their attention to human resource management. If the enterprise wants to achieve a good effect in human resource management and enjoy the benefits from human resource management, they should first realize the importance of human resource management. When the enterprises pay attention to human resource management, they will invest more resources in the development of human resource management in their enterprises and try to continue to improve it. It is very important for the long term development of human resource management in the interior of an enterprise.
Secondly, it was recommended in the research that Chinese SMEs should establish a good organizational culture in the interior of the enterprise. A good organizational culture not only can realize the attention of the enterprises to their employees but also can make the employees have belongs to the enterprise. Liu (2008) suggested that Chinese SMEs should try to constitute the scientific plan of training and construct good organizational atmosphere in the interior of the enterprise, and this is a key factor for the enterprises to improve effectiveness of their human resource management. Zhang and Zhang (2008) also found that lack of organizational culture is the general situation in Chinese SMEs and is also the important problem to influence the human resource management of Chinese SMEs. So they suggested that it is important for Chinese SMEs to establish a good organizational culture in the interior of the enterprise in order to solve their problems in managing human resource.#p#分页标题#e#
Thirdly, another recommendation in this research is for Chinese SMEs to learn experiences from the western enterprises. As we all know, the western enterprises have more experiences in human resource management compared with Chinese enterprises especially SMEs, so their advanced experiences may be very helpful for Chinese SMEs to achieve a good human resource management. But this recommendation should consider the differences between China and the western countries in many aspects such as the society, culture, and market environment and so on. Cunningham and Rowley (2007) suggested that a distinctly Chinese HRM approach combining western practice with Chinese characteristics may be one way for SMEs in China to develop, and it is central to a better understanding of Chinese SMEs and helps fill some of the gap in the analysis of HRM in Chinese SMEs.
Lastly, the findings of the research suggested that Chinese SMEs should foster more excellent professionals in human resource management, because it is very important for them to improve the performance in managing human resource. The research evidence of Jin (2008) supported that in order to face the challenges of globalization, the findings of the research indicated that Chinese SMEs must gradually perfect their human resource management. It was suggested that Chinese SMEs should change their ideas about human resource management, pay attention to the training of employees, establish the effective system of motivation, and foster the good culture of the enterprise.
5.2 Limitations
There are several limitations involved with the project. Firstly the research topic of investigating the current human resource management practices of Chinese SMEs may be too big for the researcher to conduct an in-depth investigation and analysis. Secondly, due to the limitations of time and resources, it is impossible for the researcher to include all SMEs of China in the sample of the research, and only ten SMEs were chosen from these SMEs as the representatives in the research. But these ten SMEs may not represent the situations of all the SMEs in China, and problems of human resource management faced by them may be different from problems faced by other SMEs in China. Thirdly, both the primary data and the secondary data are collected and used in this research. Bias may exist during the process of data collection and this may have a negative effect on the accuracy of research findings.
5.3 Recommendations for Further Research
This research just simply investigates the human resource management practices of Chinese SMEs. Based on the findings of this research, there are some recommendations for further research focusing on this research area. Firstly, because it was found that there are many differences between practices of human resource management in China and in the western countries, so the further research could be undertaken to critically compare and contrast the practices of human resource management in China and those in the western countries. Secondly, because it was found that SMEs have to face more problems involved with human resource management compared with the large enterprises in China, so further research could be undertaken to compare practices of human resource management in SMEs and large enterprises in China. Thirdly, because the#p#分页标题#e#free essayhttp://www.ukthesis.org/daixieEssay/research topic is too big for the research to conduct an in-depth investigation, so the further research could be undertaken to focus on SMEs in a special industry to do an in-depth investigation and analysis.
