Human Resource Management with ‘Asian’ Characteristics: A Hybrid People-Management System in East Asia

The central theme of this article is to illustrate the similarity and difference of people-management system among the key economies in East Asia. The article not only identifies what elements do exist in East Asian people-management system, but also examines other new elements being adopted into the existing system with the influences from the U.S. and Europe. The authors analyze the information on the changes of people-management system, factors causing the changes and time. The common phenomenon is that when there is a crisis, then that may provide some opportunities for drastic changes. The authors conclude the article by pointing out that HRM is in a reforming process towards hybrid people-management system in East Asia. However, this reforming process is not one-way only. A triangle-influence between East Asia, Europe and the U.S. is the reality. In addition, multi-factor are shaping the outcome of reforming people-management system in East Asia, identified as foreign influence, the State’s influence, the stage of social and economic development, and national and organizational historical path. Other economies, no matter in East Asia or other part of the worlds, may draw some lessons from this study.