8 HRM in East Asia
Ying Zhu and Malcolm Warner1 Introduction 195
2 Traditional philosophical thinking and its implications 196
3 Capitalist market economies: Japan and Taiwan 201
4 Socialist market economies: China and Vietnam 208
5 Conclusion 216
6 Discussion questions 216
7 Further reading 217
References 217
1 INTRODUCTION
Since the 1960s, East Asia has been regarded as the region with the most rapid
economic development in the world. In the context of such rapid develop-
ment, being able to find a suitable HRM model was essential for countries in
the East Asian region. Economic success in this part of the world has often been
explained in culturalist terms, at least by a number of leading writers on Asian
management (Redding, 1995). However, we believe that other factors such as
political, economic and historical influences also shape managerial thinking
and practices. In this chapter, we therefore explore the interplay between wider
cultural factors and other factors (i.e. political, economic and historical) as they
affect HRM in business organisational settings. We are aware of the diversity of
management patterns in the East Asian region and do not claim that a homo-
geneous Asian HRM model exists.