as: using the strength of industrial unions to protect members from being
unfairly dismissed by companies during the economic down-turn; increasing
membership by providing support for employees working in small and
medium enterprises; creating dialogue with management through partnership
and cooperation with management; providing training for laid-off employees
and helping them to be re-employed, while reducing the problem of mismatch
between the job and the employee’s skills.
TaiwanThe Taiwanese management system is rooted in the traditional Chinese culture
and values and includes predominantly small-sized family businesses, coupled
with strong family control and an extensive subcontracting business network
(Chen, 1995). In the first half of the twentieth century, Taiwan was colonised
by Japan and the Japanese influence was widespread, including its manage-
ment system. Taiwan gradually developed large businesses in the capital-intensive
sector owned and/or controlled by the state under the Nationalist government
since the late 1940s (Lee, 1995).
Generally speaking, the characteristics of the Taiwanese management
system can be summarised as: obvious hierarchies, paternalist beliefs and prac-
tices with an emphasis on personal loyalty and commitment, the emphasis on
the moral superiority and greater rationality of leaders, and the importance of
personal connections and contacts (so-called guanxi) in business operation and
individual life (Chen, 1995). Those characteristics are rooted in Confucianism,
which emphasises hierarchy, harmony, and the tendency to cultivate indivi-
duals into a family- and group-oriented and socially dependent being.
Export expansion period and technology-intensive
industry expansion period
Different stages of economic development are accompanied by different
management patterns. In Taiwan, for instance, economic development since
the 1960s can be divided into two stages: the export expansion period between
1961 and 1980 and the technology-intensive industries’ expansion period from
1981 to recent years (Lee, 1995; Zhu et al., 2000). HRM in Taiwan also changed
during the two periods.
The main characteristics of HRM during the export expansion period can
be identified as follows:
1 Recruitment: recruiting blue-collar workers relied heavily on informal
channels, i.e. employee referral and company network. For recruitment
of white-collar workers, formal channels were preferred to informal
ones. Since most of the middle- and high-ranking management posi-
tions were filled either by the owners’ family members or by internal
promotions, little recruiting activity took place (Lee, 1995: 92).
204 International Human Resource Management