Document Type
Paper Series
Publication Date
5-1997
No.
006-967
Abstract
This study examines the employment system of Japanese multinational retailing corporations in Hong Kong through two case companies - Morioka and Okadaya. The human resource management (HRM) practices – recruitment and selection, remuneration, and training and development - of the companies are studied. The different HRM practices applied to different groups of employees within each case company are compared using an employment systems model. The employment system is structured and mu1ti-layered. The development of the structured employment system is then analysed in relation to the cultural and sectoral factors. It is shown that the cultural characteristics of the Japanese parent companies can only explain the ethnocentric management approach used in which Japanese personnel are employed in the internal labour marker (ILM) and local employees are employed outside the ILM. Economic and labour market conditions in both parent and host countries and sectoral characteristics have also contributed to the stratification of the employment system among the local employees. The implications of this study are that the long-term development of Japanese multinational retailers will be weakened if the structured employment system persists
Recommended Citation
Wong, M. M. L. (1997). A study of employment system of Japanese multinational retailers in Hong Kong (HKIBS Working Paper Series 006-967). Retrieved from Lingnan University website: http://commons.ln.edu.hk/hkibswp/79
Comments
HKIBS Working Paper Series 006-967
(The paper is later published in International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol.8 Issue 5, 1997)