December 1998
Human Resource Hell
Almost every company in China ranks human resources at the top of its operational problems list. Worse, very few companies have definite answers to the challenges they face.
Human resources in China is a subject that is both poorly understood and poorly researched. It is the area where foreign investors had the least foresight about the nature and seriousness of the problems that would confront them.
Part of the problem is that human resources is such a difficult subject to talk about. It is the business equivalent of spinal neuro-surgery, where the thing you are trying to dissect has the consistency of yoghurt. In respect of this, CEQ sets itself limited targets: a review of where human resources is at based on the opinions of experienced human resource managers and consultants, and an introduction to the Chinese education system, from which so many problems derive.
Also in this issue:
Chinas stockmarkets: Q3 and early Q4 1998 in review
Waiting for Godot: ten years of Chinas bankruptcy law
Get Krugman: how the MIT guru lost the plot over China