Human Resources

INTRODUCTION

In this essay , a comparative analysis of Asian and western HRM Culture and practices is carried out . The essay details the Asian culture and practices with examples from various countries . Then the western HRM practices are discussed and the limitations are also discussed . The essay concludes by comparing both the practices and the pros and cons are arrived

Services are increasingly important . In developed countries such as the USA services , as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product , have grown from 58 percent in 1960 to 71 percent in 1997 . Similar

changes have occurred in ASEAN countries and Australia . In Australia for example , services account for some 62 percent of GDP and more than 72 percent of civilian employment . This is comparable with other European and North countries including Canada , France , Sweden , the UK and the USA (Ross , Bamber Whitehouse 1998 Dolvik 2001 . The decline of agriculture and manufacturing and the growth of the service sector represents one of the greatest changes in the structure of employment in the 20th century and raises important questions about the changing nature of work , human resource management and industrial relations in the `new economy

- World Bank 1999

Despite the importance of services , most experiments in management , work organization , and employment relations are derived from manufacturing The dominant organizational model in the twentieth century was the mass production system based on dedicated technology , routine repetitive jobs , minimal training and conflict in union-management relations . More recent innovations in organizational behavior have also been based on the experiences of manufacturing in terms of quality management , team working , multi-skilling , management union cooperation and so on . It is commonly assumed that manufacturing models are a dominant paradigm and can be applied to all work settings

- Appelbaum Batt 1994

In some important respects , though , work in the service sector is different from manufacturing . Many jobs in the service sector are part time or casual in nature , filled by women and youth and poorly unionized . This contrasts sharply with manufacturing employment that is typically dominated by men in fulltime jobs , and strong unions . Further unlike manufacturing , many services are intangible and do not involve a physical object that can be stored . In many cases , both consumer and producer must be present for service delivery to occur (Allan Timo 2000 ) and thus service work has a strong relational and emotional component (Macdonald Sirianni 1996 :5 . Indeed , it has been argued that the emotive and personal relationship between workers and customers represents a critical distinguishing feature of service work (Frenkel et al 1999 Leidner 1996 . This interpersonal component has been described as `emotional labour (Hochschild 1983 ) or a component of the `personality market , as C . Wright Mills observed in the 1950s (Mills 1951

These differences raise some important questions about understanding the nature of work and employment relations in the service economy . The varied collection of articles addresses a range of issues about service sector work and employment . For example , the article by Johnson Lucas examines the nature of youth...