China’s 1978 opendoorpolicy initiated rapid economic development, and consequently exposed
China to a flood of Western management practices. However, many elements of traditional people
management practices in China have remained steadfast against the influence of foreign management
principles. Westwood and Prosner (1997) highlight the resilience of traditional, culturally based, Chinese
people management practices. They assert that these indigenous practices are often viewed from a western
perspective as interfering with the modernization of the Chinese workplace. Wang (1990) observes that a
majority of research has focused on contrasting the cultural differences in Human Resource Management
(HRM), rather than attempting to explore ways in which Chinese and Western HRM practices might be
integrated. Given the likelihood that Chinese management may remain an enduring feature of the Chinese
workplace, further efforts must be made to appreciate the relative uniqueness of the Chinese work
environment and find ways to reconcile emerging western HRM practices with this environment in an era of
globalisation.