Labor resources are the main asset for the success and competitiveness of any organization. The rapid development of technological progress led to an increase in demand for more skilled human resources and to a necessity in successfully managing employees. Human resource management (HRM) is the process of hiring and developing labor resources, the main purpose of which is to make effective use of these resources. Armstrong and Taylor (2007) consider HRM “a philosophy about the ways in which people should be dealt with at work, which is underpinned by a number of theories relating to the behavior of people and organizations” (p. 1). According to Armstrong and Taylor (2007), HRM involves the application of politics and practices in the fields of employee resourcing, their learning, organizational development, performance in purpose to reach the well-being of employees (p. 1). Undoubtedly, correct management of human resources contributes to the success of organizations, so determining the most successful HRM strategies is an important task. As different countries tend to have distinct characteristics of HRM practices and implementation, comparing HRM strategies of two countries with similar onset conditions can be useful to determine the most successful strategy. China and Vietnam can be particularly interesting and well-suited for such a comparison. China and Vietnam have similar historical, cultural, and economic background, which influenced their HRM practices, but China’s HRM is much more successful, because, unlike Vietnam, China found an effective way to solve the problem of graduate unemployment.
Conforming to Yuan (2013), Chinese cultural traditions, as well as historical and social factors had an inevitable impact on the process of the formation of the HRM system in China, but this system was also influenced by Western HRM dimensions. Management in China decided to implement a strategical change process within the Chinese context (Warner, 2013, p. 3). Massive migration from the countryside to the cities has been very common in China over the last three decades. This fact led to many economic and social changes. Chinese workers were directed to places of work by local labor bureaus. After the 1978s economic reforms, a labor market appeared, and job choices became possible. Education reached high level of popularity and quality after launching these economic reforms (Schwägermann, Mayer, & Yi, 2016, p. 335). The 1978 economic reforms led to the market-oriented economy, which caused significant changes in employment relations in China. The Chinese government allowed state-oriented enterprises to go bankrupt and the government’s role has changed from major employer to an employment relations regulator. Chinese multinational companies are characterized by their unique employment practices, such as subsidiary employment practice, which was improved by subsidiaries. Subsidiary managers paid more attention to corporate strategies than to local strategies. Subsidiary employment practices differ because of the political economy approach, the main idea of which is that these employment practices are influenced by the labor market pressure (Zheng, 2013, p. 7). In fact, companies in China had similar employment practices, but management did not use them for the same purpose.
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HRM in modern China faces a number of challenges. On the one side, China organizations nowadays have a problem with selecting potential employees from people, who have just finished universities; the main difficulty is that graduates lack skills and qualifications. On the other side, in China, there is the developed school-enterprise collaboration training for skilled personnel. The purpose of this effective training is to reach high-skilled labor resources, but the training is available only in specialist colleges. Specialist college training is specific and differs from undergraduate education. In the opinion of Li, Jin, Jiang, and Park (2014), the specialist college education gives particular specific skills, which are relevant for a particular kind of work (p. 188). Furthermore, personal and moral characteristics of employees (for example, industriousness and loyalty, etc.) currently have become essential for Chinese managers. China has reached development of management practices, which could conform to organizational needs. In fact, China has achieved more mature stage of human resource management in contrast to Vietnam (Warner, 2013).
As for Vietnam, currently, a shortage of labor is observed in this country. For this reason, recruiting skilled employees for technical and management positions has become increasingly problematic. According to Thi Tuyet Tran (2014), graduate employability in Vietnam is considered to be one of the main issues. University students are not suitably qualified and prepared for work in this country. Consequently, expansion of employment opportunities for graduates is the main problem requiring a correct solution. In general, Vietnamese economy and education system are characterized by their underdevelopment. Vietnamese collectivist culture – the culture that emphasizes the priority of interests and needs of a group of people over needs and desires of an individual – plays an important role in the unemployment problem. Obviously, universities, students, and employers need to make changes in this area. Moreover, some factors, such as the lack of confidence and professional skills among the vast majority of Vietnamese students, have a negative impact on their successful employment. Taking into consideration limited connection with the employment market, solving this problem can be insuperable, especially in the short term (Tran, 2014, p. 8). However, investigating all the opportunities may lead to a better understanding and help to find a favorable solution to this issue. One of the most successful ideas how to solve Vietnamese students’ problems with unemployment is to create a collaboration with enterprises, to inform Vietnamese students about the employment market, and to elaborate an appropriate career development service for them. These solutions will also help students to present and use their skills in a more successful direction (Tran, 2014, p. 9).
Considering similarities in HRM systems between China and Vietnam, these countries are both associated with their economic past and similar culture, which has had a great impact on their human resource management approaches. Even today, collectivist values still dominate in China and Vietnam. Both countries had similar lifetime-employment systems. The culture had an influence on societal values and continues to play a significant role on HRM in both China and Vietnam till now.
Monitoring the economic development of these two countries, despite their similarity, there are considerable differences between them such as their approaches to the education of their graduates. In contrast to Vietnam, which employment management needs radical changes, China attempted to provide training skilled human resources, but only for specialist colleges. This strategy of China proved to be rather effective. The application of this successful solution of graduate unemployment problem is the main reason why, currently, Chinese HRM is on a more mature level than Vietnamese management practices, and why Vietnam lags behind China in human resource management.
- Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice: Building sustainable organizational performance improvement (13th ed.). London, Philadelphia, New Delhi: Kogan Page.
- Li, S., Jin, Q., Jiang, X., & Park, J. H. (2014). Frontier and future development of information technology in medicine and education: ITME 2013. Dordrecht: Springer.
- Schwägermann, H., Mayer, P., & Yi, D. (2016). Handbook event market China. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH.
- Tran, T. T. (2014). Graduate employability in Vietnam: A loose relationship between higher education and employment market. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing.
- Yuan, L. (2013). Traditional Chinese thinking on HRM practices: Heritage and transformation in China. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
