1. Introduction
The competitive environment facing Chinese organizations has changed dramatically in the recent years, especially when the word ‘globalization’ has become more and more popular. Facing more expensive labor costs and newly emerged blue-collar labor shortages in the areas, organizations should change their strategies from low cost to product or service differential. This can create further comparative advantages for Chinese enterprises over other developing countries.
This change produces an important position for Human Resource (HR) departments in organizations. HRD have begun to receive significant attention, and HR functions are changing accordingly. New roles have emerged, and existing ones expanded. In larger corporations, HR departments have developed, necessitating the process of HR professionalization. Thus, the study of HR functions has become crucial. Examination of HR functions can help the standardization and professionalization of HR in China and therefore promote the healthy development of HR.
After tracing the changes that generally HR has undergone over the past ten years, this report will define the stage of development of HR in China by analyzing HR practices and main functions in most Chinese organizations. Also this report will list some of the challenges that Chinese HR managers are facing in the current stage.
2. Evolution of Human Resource
The changes of the term imply the evolution of the nature of human resource. At first, human resource management was called personnel management. Later, the term human resource management has become more and more popular. Till now, the term human capital becomes a hit (Tan and Torrington 2004, p. 7).
In the past decade, HR function has bec ...