Can Western HRM learn from Eastern MNCs? The case of Taiwanese/Chinese MNCs in the UK

Abstract

"Today, a Chinese company bought IBM personal computers lock, stock and barrel. Chinese corporations have bought manufacturing, management and the brand, such as, Thomson and RCA televisions, Dirt Devil etc." (Dyson, 2005). Over the last few years, internationalisation has become a major objective for Asian companies, and it is important to study the strategies and processes that they are adopting. However, little research has been conducted so far on Taiwanese/Chinese internationalisation. The aim of this paper is to consider what Western models of HRM can learn from the practices of Taiwanese multinationals operating in the UK. Our study looks at how key characteristics in Chinese culture such as guanxi, familism, trust, and Sun-Tzu leadership affect the behaviours of expatriates. These characteristics provide a framework to investigate how Chinese expatriates adjust when working abroad, and have implications for how foreign expatriates can apply and/or adjust their human resource strategies and policies in foreign environments. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are used in order to triangulate the data. This paper concludes with a model of HRM for studying Chinese MNCs.