Unit 4
Labour trends and human resource management
I.
Introduction
(A)
Asia-Pacific region at 2 distinct levels:
1.
Aggregate or macro-level
a)
Demographic determinants of population and
labour force growth
b)
Economies are not isolated, the labour
migration between countries and how this affects labour market dynamics
2.
Organizational or micro-level
a)
How human resources are managed within the
organization
(B)
The relationship between external and
internal labour markets is associated with features of firm’s HRM system
1.
The degree of bureaucratization and
professionalization of HRM
(C)
Characteristics of HRM systems:
1.
Supply and demand for labour and dynamism
of external labour markets
2.
Labour organization
3.
Culture
(D)
Those are associated with the complexity,
formalization and centralization of labour markets within medium/large
organizations
II.
The
labour force in Asia-Pacific: Borderless frontiers
(A)
Labour demographics
1.
The demographic transition from high high
to low birth and death rates began in Europe and North American with the
Industrial Revolution
2.
That same transition is occurring much
faster in the developing world
3.
compared with other developing regions, the
transition to low fertility began sooner in Asia and has gone further
4.
During the period 1965-80, the world
experienced a marked decline in crude death rates
a)
The decline in most economies was 30-40%
and did not vary much among regions
b)
Substantial regional variation in the
extent to which declines in birth rates held in check the potentially explosive
growth in population from the rapid mortality decrease
c)
The rate of population growth declined in
all the East Asian economies quite sharply
5.
Important implications for a country’s
labour force
a)
Changes in urbanization, the age structure
of the population and international migration
6.
Urbanization
a)
Compared with the historical experience of
developed nations, recent urbanization in developing countries
b)
Since 1970 the level of urbanization has
been rising quickly among three ASEAN countries, Indonesia, the Philippines and
Malaysia
c)
Positive relationship between the level of
economic development and level of urbanization
d)
High but the corresponding absolute
increase have also been quite sizable due to the large population base
7.
Age structural change
a)
Pronounced fertility declines and
significant mortality improvements among a number of countries in the
Asia-Pacific regions
b)
The declining dependency ratios are likely
to facilitate their developmental process
c)
Low dependency ratios are expected to
undergo a substantial increase, due to rapid rise in the proportion of the
elderly
(B)
Diversity and change
1.
The Asia-Pacific region has experienced
rapid growth since Japan’s economic take-off in the 1950s
2.
The benefits of economic growth are now
emanating out to parts of Indochina and South Asia
3.
Export to world markets of labour-intensive
manufactured products:
a)
Textiles
b)
Garments
c)
Toys
d)
Footwear
4.
Cheap labour was a significant national
resources and export-oriented industrialization was a create full employment
a)
Declines in population and labour force
growth led quickly to labour shortages
b)
Some export industries heavily dependent on
unskilled labour, Singapore and Hong Kong
5.
Limited employment of foreign workers in
the NIEs
a)
Labour shortages and rapidly rising wages
forced manufacturing industries to make further adjustments to changing
comparative advantage
b)
Relocating existing labour-intensive
production offshore was a path that taken by both Japanese and western
companies
c)
Added to domestic labour cost pressures in motivating
offshore investment in lower-wage neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and
China
6.
Multinational and local enterprises were
substitution of capital for labour
a)
The technological upgrading of previously
labour-intensive industries
b)
Shifts into higer value-added manufacturing
and services
c)
Some high-skilled labour also began to be
imported into Indonesia and China was inadequate to meet the demand generated
by rapid growth
7.
Structural change in national labour
markets in the East Asia region has largely the product of rapid economic
growth
a)
NIEs and the ASEAN countries has encouraged
firms to economize on the use of unskilled labour by moving up the
industrial-technology ladder
b)
Producing workers suitably qualified by
education, training and experience for high-skill jobs
c)
The sills shortages have also appeared throughout
the region
8.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997 also
brought a significant social impact
a)
Sharing the benefits of economic growth
through steadily improving employment prospects
b)
Deterioration in labour market conditions:
i.
Substantial retrenchments in financial
services and manufacturing sectors
ii.
Reduced the employment prospects of the new
entrants and re-employment prospects of displaced workers
iii.
Rise in underemployment occurred under the
displaced workers and unsuccessful new job seekers into the rural and urban
informal sectors
9.
2 features of economic systems amplify
their effects in the 3 economies
a)
Absence of a meaningful social safety net
i.
Republic of Korea has an unemployment
insurance system
ii.
Recent origin and offers limited coverage
and duration
b)
Social assistance are also rudimentary and
are limited to those who are incapable of work
c)
Social expectations in these countries have
been shaped by a long period of increasing employment opportunities
d)
The reversal all the more difficult to
comprehened
10.
Government responded to rising unemployment
in 3 main ways:
a)
Send home foreign workers
i.
Migrant workers were working illegally
ii.
Such as Thailand and Malaysia
iii.
Repatriation may not reduce unemployment
b)
Governments are trying to mitigate the
unemployment problem is by encouraging those with farming roots to go back to
them
i.
Indonesians government cut train fares for
those making the annual trip to their home village
c)
Introduce job-creation programmes and plan
social safety nets
i.
Coverage in return for trade unions
agreeing to a change in the law to allow lay-offs
(C)
Labour migration
1.
The Asia-Pacific regions has experienced
considerable change in the post-war period
a)
For Asia the change has been even more
radical, with a number of countries enjoying unprecedented rates of economic
over a sustained period
b)
Living standards have gone from some of the
lowest to among the highest in the world
2.
Transformation has been the increasing
spatial mobility of people across national borders
a)
International migration has a long history
in the Asia-Pacific region
b)
Towards a ‘white migrant’ policy,
opportunities for Asian migrants became much more restricted
c)
Migration to Southeast Asia occurred as
Chinese trading posts were established countries
i.
Asia in the mid-1990s supplied around 40
per cent of the annual intake of immigrants
ii.
Asia in thr post-period should be seen in
the context of global fertility and population growth
iii.
With low fertility affecting the
populations of the settler societies
3.
The migratory swithch represents but one
component in an expanding and increasingly complex international migration
system
a)
Asia seek out new opportunities and
labour-deficit areas within Asia supply
4.
Asian migration patterns
a)
Great range of migration and development
experience across the region
i.
Vietnam and China would be classed as
middle income
ii.
HK, Japan and Singapore enjoy much higher
levels of income
iii.
China and Indonesia are geographically and
demographically huge, with an enormous range of internal diversity
5.
The Philippines
a)
Emigration is the continued rapid growth rate
of the labour force
b)
The composition of emigrant flows
i.
Unskilled laborer through the skilled
technician to the white-collar service employee
ii.
Balance between the sexes with women of all
skill levels involved in migration
iii.
Product of prior American involvement and
national policy that gives migrants from the Philippines a competitive edge
6.
Indonesia
a)
Primarily made up of workers entering
menial occupations in the Middle East and Malaysia
b)
Diminishing and more migrants are going to
other Asian countries as a result of the relative slow-down in the Middle East
and the rapid growth on East and Southeast Asia
c)
Growing economy and labor shortage in
Malaysia, relatively short distance and the similarity in language, religion
and culture
d)
More skilled in Indonesia are not so
competitive as few are proficient in the English language
e)
No migrants from Indonesia with
professional expertise or technical qualifications
f)
Indonesian companies are hiring foreign
workers, especially from India and the Philippines
7.
Thailand
a)
Seek employment abroad to earn higher
income
b)
Emigrate or remain illegally in other
countries, Thai contract workers have been going abroad since the mid-1970s
c)
The major destinations of Thai contract
workers are the Middle East, Africa, ASEAN and other Asian countries
8.
Malaysia
a)
Explain its high and two-way labour
mobility include:
i.
Advanced stage of development and high wage
levels compared with immediate neighbors
ii.
Plantation and modern industrial sectors
which accentuates the disparities of opportunity and income
iii.
Vulnerability to global economic
fluctuations and consequent labour surpluses and shortages
b)
Suffered high rates of emigration of
professional, technical and skilled workers in the 1980s and related to the
recession in Malaysia
c)
The liberalization of immigration policies
and perceptions of fairer economic opportunitie and better quality of life in
some receiving countries
d)
Typical Malaysian migrant has tertiary
education with a young family in a middle or senior management position
e)
Semi-skilled and unskilled workers, in the
1960s emigration from Malaysia was confined to the region, mainly Singapore
f)
There is a large group of about 100,000
Malaysians who work in Singapore
9.
Hong Kong
a)
The migration to Hong Kong of capital,
entrepreneurial talent and labour from China was critical in the transformation
from an entrepot to the industrial centre
b)
Labour came from 3 main sources:
i.
Local, even though the original source
might have been China
ii.
Direct migration from China that HK were
provided by this source between 1976 and 1981 400,000 net additions to HK
c)
Skilled migration controlled either by the
colonial administration to fill positions in the public service or mainly
British firms bringing in managerial staff
d)
HK to China and ongoing liberalization of
the Chinese economy brought a significant increase in emigration
e)
HK has increasingly taken o the
characteristics of a ‘gobal city’ with a marked trend towards a services
economy
i.
Polarized between high value white collat
activities on the one hand and low paid service occupation
ii.
The number of foreign professional
immigrants has increased considerably in recent years
10.
HK’s booming economy also attracts a large
number of illegal migrants
a)
Increasing numbers of overstayers from
other parts of Asia
b)
Immigrants caught and repatriated increased
from 10-12,000 per annum between 1981 and to 43-44,000 in 1992 and 1993
11.
Triggered regional migration as a process
complementing the transfer of trade and capital and reinforcing the processes
of regional integration
a)
Short-term workers who do not settle down
permanently in their adopted countries
12.
Effect of market forces cause labour market
increase internationalized on a global regional basis:
a)
Policy liberalizations
b)
Information flows
c)
Technological developments
III.
Management of labor in Asia-Pacific
(A)
Responding to trends in the labour supply
1.
Education and training maybe necessary
conditions for sustained economic growth
2.
Utilizing human capital in activities thay
high returns on the prior investment in education anf training growth as the
accumulation of that human capital
3.
2 conditions must be fulfilled for a
growing supply of educated labour to be
utilized in high-return activities:
a)
Rapid growth of labour demand relative to
supply and skilled labour
i.
Demographic trends and labour shortages in
many of the Asian economics
ii.
Demand tended to outstrip supply in most
cases
b)
Labour market must perform efficiently
i.
Efficient, flexible and responsive to
changing conditions
ii.
Workers are employed in jobs that their
skills are most productively utilized
4.
Shift in the aggregate supply and demand
for labour in Asia have led to rapidly rising real wages
a)
East Asia’s rate of increase in wages is
the result of slower growth of supply and more rapid growth of demand for
labour
b)
The early demographic transition also
reduced, the rate growth of new entrants into the labour force
5.
The growth rapidly, labour demand in Asia
has become increasingly skill-intensive
a)
Wage management with white collar and
technical employment increased steadily during the 1970s and the 1980s
b)
The pace of change in the occupational
structure of employment is lower in other developing regions
c)
The occupational composition of labour
demand in the Asian economies reflected increase in the abundance of education
labour
d)
East Asian exporters shifted into more
technologically sophisticated, skill-intensive goods as rapidly
e)
Rising wages of unskilled labour eroded
international competitiveness in labour-intensive manufactured goods
6.
Reluctance of Asian governments to
intervene heavily in the operation of labour markets
a)
High level of efficiency in the allocation
of labour was achieved by allowing wages
b)
Employment to be determined largely by the
interaction of those supplying and demanding labour service
c)
East Asian economies avoided the creation
of a high-wage labour elite
d)
Combination with marked increase in the
abundance of educated workers, compressed the occupational structure of waes
7.
Reduced the incentive for educated workers
to conduct a lengthy search for a relatively high-wage job rather than fill a
job slot at lower occupational level
a)
Provide an incentive to workers in
low-income employment
b)
The government to provide more high-wage
jobs than justified by the derived demand for labour
c)
Workers accept flexibility of wages rather
than decline in real earnings
d)
Government intervened in labour markets, primarily
for political reasons, suppress the activities of industry-or economy-wide
unions and ensure that wage bargains were set at the enterprise level
8.
The benefits of maintaining wages at market
clearing levels were considerable
a)
Retained earnings accounted for higher
proportion of investment finance, reducing reliance on underdeveloped capital
markets
b)
Greater competitiveness in international
markets, the faster rates of growth of output, employment and earnings
(B)
Labour-management relations
1.
Employment relationship cannot be regarded
as simply an exchange of labour for pay
a)
Power relationship which the employer has
the formal authority to direct effort towards specific goals
b)
The employment relationship goes beyond
money to include a number of secondary issues
i.
Working conditions
ii.
The length of the workings day
iii.
Vacation time
iv.
Measures of participation
2.
Union (mixture of movement and
organization)
a)
Meet workers’ individual needs, protecting
them from exploitation and negotiating improved wages and conditions
b)
Collective purpose that extends to a
political role
c)
Trade unions offer an alternative focus for
employee commitment and power base that can clash with the prerogatives of
management
3.
Trade unions have attempted to replace
individual bargaining with collective bargaining increase employee bargaining
power
a)
Counter employers’ attempts to create
competition between workers
b)
This requires solidarity between union
members
c)
Union goals are to obtain standardized
wages conditions at the best possible level
d)
Employers have preferred to del with
employees on an individual basis
4.
Large organizations in free-market
countries have attempted to move away from traditional mechanisms
a)
Focus has switched to individual rather
than collective bargaining
b)
Anglo and European nations take place
through:
i.
Personal contacts, allowing employers to
offer pay increase to staff willing to accept such contracts but not to workers
wishing to remain as union members
ii.
Organizational change method, managers
cascade information throughout the organization by means of a series of
meetings and collect ideas and criticisms t be funneled upwards
iii.
Quality circles, emphasizing direct
dialogue between staff and line management on the subject of improving
procedures
5.
Resisted the introduction of change methods
a)
Depend on staff and management talking
directly to each other
b)
Main source of union power as the filter of
information and innovation
c)
Reduced to the primary subjects of pay,
holidays and discipline, removing the unions form the discussion of procedures
IV.
Human
resource management (HRM)
(A)
HRM is a distinctive approach to manage
people
1.
People management based on the belief that
human resources are uniquely important to sustained business success
2.
HRM is aimed at recruiting capable,
flexible and committed people, managing and rewarding their performance and
developing key competencies
3.
The stress is on people as human resources
4.
The Harvard approach
a)
Element of mutually in all businesses
b)
Employees are significant stakeholders in
an organization
c)
Needs and concern, along with other groups
such as shareholders and customers
5.
The Harvard model address 4 strategic
policy areas:
a)
Human resources flows, managing the
movement and performance of people:
i.
Effective recruitment programmes and
selection techniques
ii.
Placing them in the most appropriate jobs,
appraising their performance and promoting the better employees
iii.
Terminating the employment of those no
longer required, deemed unsuitable or achieving retirement age
iv.
Must ensure the right mix and number of
staff in the organization
b)
Reward system
i.
Pay and benefits designed to attract
ii.
Motivate and keep employment
c)
Employee influence
i.
Controlling levels of authority
ii.
Power
iii.
Decision-making
d)
Work systems, defining and designing jobs
i.
Arrangement of people
ii.
Information and technology provides the
most productive and efficient results
6.
Policies result in the ‘Four C’
a)
Commitment of employees to the
organization’s mission and values
b)
Congruence, linking human resource
objectives with the organization’s goal
c)
Competence, developing an appropriate
mixture of skills, abilities and knowledge
d)
Cost-effectiveness, delivering performance
in a competitive manner
7.
The Harvard model is Strongly influenced by
behavioral research and theory and stands in the tradition of ‘human relations’
a)
Not demonstrate enthusiasm and commitment
comply
b)
Decision-making is channeled through top
managers, emphasis on participation throughout the organization
(B)
Planning
1.
HRM planning can defined as a process that
anticipates and maps out the consequences of business strategy on an
organization’s human resource requirements
2.
Human resources planning is closely linked
to the strategic planning process that ensure that the enterprises has the
necessary people to follow the strategic plan
3.
Plan is likely to include:
a)
Jobs which come into being, be ceased, or
be changed
b)
Possibilities for redeployment and
retraining
c)
Changes in management and supervision
d)
Training requirement
e)
Programmes for requirements
f)
Implications for employee relations
g)
Feedback mechanism for company objectives
h)
Methods for dealing with HR problems such
as the inability to obtain sufficient technically skilled workers
4.
HRM implies that planning has to go beyond
simply anticipating employment numbers, into the softer areas of employee
attitudes, behavior and commitment
5.
Critical to HR development, performance
assessment and the management of change
6.
Information need to gathered through some
form of human resource audit which linked to a conventional of organization’s
human capital:
a)
Strengths, such as existing skills,
individual expertise and unused talent
b)
Weaknesses, including inadequate skills,
talent which are missing in the workforce because they are too expensive and
inflexible people
c)
Opportunities, such as developed in
existing staff and talent which can be bought from the external job market
d)
Threats, including the risk of talent being
lost to competitors
7.
The majority of large organization use some
form of resource planning, often this is poorly done and insufficiently linked
to corporate strategy
a)
Chwee-Huat (Singapore)
i.
Dependency on foreign workers
ii.
Ageing workforce
iii.
Impact of companies relocating their
labour-intensive industries to other countries
iv.
Problems related to privatization of
government-linked companies
(C)
Recruitment and selection
1.
Recruiting is the process of attracting job
candidates who have the abilities and attitude to help the organization achieve
its objectives
a)
Natural follow-up to human resource
planning
b)
Focus attention on recruiting these people
c)
2.
The ways for recruitment:
a)
Advertisement
b)
Opening through company publications and
bulletin boards
c)
Encourage present employees to tell their
friends and relatives about job openings
3.
Exploring longer-term solutions to the
dearth of management talent
a)
Education and recurrent training
b)
Example of Vietnam
4.
The selection process begins
a)
Enterprise chooses the applications who
best meet the criteria for the available positions
b)
Ensure the best available candidates are
selected, an organization must compare the applicants against the criteria
established for job
c)
Having 5 basic categories:
i.
Education
ii.
Experience
iii.
Physical characteristics
iv.
Personal characteristics
v.
Personality types
d)
The organization must use selection
instruments that are both valid and reliable
(D)
Retention and development
1.
The retention of managerial staff is a critical
problem in a number of Asian countries
a)
Job-hopping is rife in HK and sectors in
Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia
b)
The problem of retention is linked to 2
major factors:
i.
Scarcity
ii.
Volatile short-term political situation of
some environments, which undermines incentives that stress loyalty to the firm
2.
Process which managers obtain the skills,
experience and attitudes that they need to become or remain successful leaders
3.
The reasons for using management
development, many of which parallel the reasons for employee training
a)
Reducing or preventing managerial
obsolescence by keeping the individual up-to-date in the field
b)
Increasing the manager’s overall
effectiveness
c)
Increasing the manager’s overall
satisfaction with the job
4.
3 main causes of obsolescence:
a)
Inability to keep up with technological
changes in the field
b)
Individuals to positions for which they are
unqualified
c)
Managers get older they find it difficult
to keep up with the latest developments in their field
5.
Obsolescence hits some organizations harder
than others
a)
Companies in high-technology industries and
a large percentage of managers are near retirement
b)
Individuals with higher levels of education
and strong work ethic motivation are least likely to become obsolete
6.
The ways to retain staff:
a)
Establish the perception that personnel
policies are fair
b)
Reward people within their cultural norms
c)
Generate a sense of belonging to the group
d)
Consistent long-term human resources policy
7.
Definitions of fairness
a)
Perception that one is justly treated in
relation to one’s peers, vary from country to country
b)
Respect that due to one’s rank and
expectation of a kind of paternalistic benevolence than in terms of western egalitarianism
8.
Personnel prefer to be rewarded on the
basis of behavior (Loyalty and honesty) rather than on quantifiable performance
criteria
9.
Growing competitive pressure many companies
face is causing new pressures for the HRM function
a)
South Korea’s Samsung Group announced a
human resource scheme called the New Management Programme
b)
Recruit more women and devolve greater decision-making
powers to local level managers
c)
The policies are seen to improve
organizational efficiency, many employees are feeling more stressed with
greater dissatisfaction about the ability to balance work and family life
d)
Less satisfaction with management and
nature of communication and consultation
e)
Human resource managers in managing
individuals’ expectations and experiences in the workplace
10.
Employee development has become a concern
to a number of government in the Asia-Pacific region
a)
Stepped in to facilitate market transitions
b)
HK as a example, experienced an economic
transformation from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy that
impacted on the demand for manual labour
c)
Employee Retraining Board was set up to
provide employees’ retraining programmes (ERP) for unemployed manual workers
(E)
Training
1.
Process of altering employee behavior and
attitudes in a way that increase the probability of goal attainment
2.
Learning is the acquisition of skills,
knowledge and abilities that result in a relatively permanent change in
behaviour
3.
Devote considerable resources to training
and developing employees
4.
Cooperating with their host governments to
develop school curricula that produce skilled workers
5.
Some secondary education emphasized
qualities need to excel in a factory environment which discipline and
memorization
6.
Management must be prepared to:
a)
Make it clear that training has a high
priority
b)
Reward those who train their people
c)
Actively participate in training programmes
to keep abreast of the latest developments in their own areas of expertise
7.
Some ways for organization anticipates and
plans for the types of training that will keep the workforce up-to-date:
a)
Human resources management in the strategic
planning process
b)
Affect what management expects of the
employees, including technological, social/psychological, economic, political
and intellectual trends
c)
Resist the tendency to use training just to
handle immediate, short-term problems
d)
Set a regular, criterion-based planning and
review process which build a pool of potentially promotable individuals
e)
Encourage input from those who will be
trained, in designing and implementing training programmes
f)
Conduct human resource audits to measure
the organizational climate
8.
Some organizations try to keep up-to-date
records on employee training needs
a)
Rely on periodic assessments for
discovering who needs training
b)
Given subordinates the most effective
on-the-job training
c)
Conducting needs analysis surveys which analysis
questionnaires or procedures
(F)
Termination
1.
Focus on HRM is based on successful,
growing companies
a)
Managers expected to implement redundancies
and closures as a result of strategic decision
b)
The emphasis on job security as a
prerequisite for an effective human resource strategy, the reality in
free-market economies demands planning for redundancies
c)
Managers in charge of redundancy programmes
typically focus on target numbers, with little or no though about the quality
of the staff leaving the business
d)
Retention strategies for key staff are even
more during periods of redundancy
e)
Globalization is affecting the likely basis
for termination, which emphasized group harmony and age norms, the ‘new HR
policy’ emphasizes a performance-based system
V.
Implication
of HRM and labour for organizational development strategies
1.
Sophistication and importance of people
management is greater in larger organization
a)
In small companies the owners deal with all
management functions
b)
Professional standards these activities are
often inadequately handled, the quality of the employment relationships can be
high
c)
Owners and employees may work closely on a
personal level
d)
Larger organizations employ highly trained
human resources practitioners using advanced selection, assessment and reward
techniques
e)
The principles of comprehensiveness,
coherence, control and communication which might result in remote and
conflict-ridden relationships developing between people at different levels
within the organization
2.
Large businesses have to be prganized in a
deliberate, formal way with groups of workers reporting to individual managers
or supervisors
a)
With a formal structure that to be clearer
division between specialist functions, including that designated to look after aspects
of people management
b)
Typically HR managers are closely involoved
in the effective distribution of people and development of management
structures
c)
Focus
on matching human resources to strategic objectives
d)
Larger organizations display some degree of
specialization, centralization and hierarchy
3.
Diffusion of HRM ideas has led to a move
away from the centralized HRM departments
a)
Line managers have become more involved in
activities such as selection, recruitment and performance appraisal
b)
Division of work between various aspects of
people management
c)
Senior management take responsibility for
human resources strategy
d)
Line managers assume operational
responsibility for their people
e)
Human resource specialists provide specific
services ranging from administration to selection programmes and counseling
4.
Organizational structures can be regarded
as people management systems
a)
Simple hierarchies along traditional lines
to complex networks
b)
Based on informal working relationships
c)
Structures are power and control system
that constrain or facilitate the freedom of employees to act and make decisions
d)
Organizational structures can be classified
into a number of types, including functional, divisional, matrix, federations
and networks
5.
HRM is conducted in a variety of ways due
to these constraints and because strategic decisions taken to meet organizational
goals
6.
Flexibility is required from employees and
managers to meet increasingly competitive circumstances
VI.
Outlook
for the future
1.
Labour factor continue to be central to
economic growth and development in the region
a)
Predictions that intelligent machines ad
information systems will displace labour seems to be grossly exaggerated
b)
Low-cost, labour-intensive activities such
as data capture and entry
c)
Companies in the high wage economics have
devolved
d)
Higher-skilled, knowledge-intensive
activities, skilled labour continues to be the key resource
2.
Demand for relatively low-skilled and
low-cost labour
a)
Such as Asia-Pacific
i.
China, suppliers of labour for
manufacturing activities
ii.
India, demanding low cost clerical labour
iii.
Japan, HK, Singapore and Taiwan pursued a
strategy of upskilling and more into higher value-adding activities
b)
Relied on attracting highly skilled
personnel for abroad, both within and beyond the Asia-Pacific region
3.
Demographic trends within the region
a)
Continue to rely on imported labour
i.
Maintain attractive working and living
environments for globally mobile personnel
ii.
NIEs strive to ensure the continuing
movement of labour within the region
4.
Changing age structure of their populations
a)
Sizeable growth of the number of aged
within their populations by the year 2025
b)
Declining birth rates and improved health
mean that this trend is one that will affect all economies
5.
Growth of long-term unemployed,
particularly those with limited the skills
a)
The secondary school years coincided with
the Cultural Revolution, when many urban youngsters were sent to the country
for a decade
b)
They represent perhaps the most intractable
ageing problem anywhere in the world
c)
Shanghai (China, most intractable ageing
problem anywhere in the world
6.
Integration of labour markets within the
Asia-Pacific region
a)
Foreign direct investment and technology
transfer within the region has been mirrored by labour migration
b)
Recipients of migrant workers who have moved from the rest of
developing Asia
c)
Governments face a difficult task balancing
political/social sensitivities with the commercial realities of labour needs as
Asia
7.
Convergence in HRM practices
a)
Trend away from collective towards personal
contracts
b)
More Western organizations are adopting
Japanese-style quality circles and team working
c)
Foreign investment between Asia and other
major triad blocs has resulted in a transplantation of practices and structures
d)
Maintain the three ‘pillars’ of employment
i.
Applied to small core of regular employees,
Japanese companies have dismissed employees in the past
ii.
Honda, Fujitsu and Sony move to a wage
system of ‘annual salary’
e)
More organizations around the world begin
to implement so-called ‘best practices’
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