HR Practices in China and United States

This article examines the differences in HR practices between China and the United States, focusing on recruitment methods, performance appraisal, and salary structures. It discusses the impact of cultural values on these practices and highlights the contrasting approaches taken by the two countries.

HR Practices in China and United States
The human resource function is the most vital process in the modern day organisation
than ever in the history owing to the process of globalization and is instrumental in the
success of the organisation (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017). Though there exists
numerous models of human resource management in the present day, there are huge disparity
in the way different nations implement them. United States and China are two contrasting
country in terms of their culture and values. While United States is an individualist society,
China has a collectivist culture (Hofstede Insights, 2019). Individualistic society is one
wherein more emphasis is given to the individual achievement made by a person, while in a
collectivist society more importance is given to the group success of the company one is
associated with. Similarly, the HR practices of the two country speaks volumes about its
culture. Both China and United States differs in the way they pay their employees and the
committee which hears their grievances against their employers.
Though there are similar approaches and procedures prevalent around the world for
hiring and recruiting employees, the principle used in organisations vary from one nation to
another. Thus, the methods of recruiting candidates and their prominence in United States
and China are different. The United States has two levels of skill development for its
employees. While the formal education is one of the way of developing skills, another
prominent way to gain new skills is by working on the job, alongside more experienced
people. The mentoring process of less experienced workers by seniors leads to passing down
expertise and developing new skills in individuals which enables an overall development for
the employee (Timpe and Lunkenheimer, 2015). However, such a mentoring practice is not
prevalent in China, and one will seldom find an employee with vast functional expertise in a

Chinese organisation. For instance, a financial executive will seldom know anything about
the finance department apart from the sphere of job he is currently doing. Further, American
organisation tend to give more prominence to personal interviews while recruiting, wherein
they assess the candidate’s competence and technical qualification for the job hired (SHRM,
2019). In Chinese organisation, along with the personal interview, even the employee’s test
scores are one of the major criteria for recruiting. Further, they also have a criterion to assess
the candidate’s familiarity with the Chinese culture, which is lagging in the United States
recruitment process (Corkran, 2019). Thus, the cultural values have a prominence over
Chinese human recourse practices, which is absent in the Untied States companies owing to
its ‘melting pot’ culture (Hanson, 2016).
The planning and reviewing of the performance of an organisation also has its bearing
in the difference between the two country’s culture and practices. In United States, the
managers have great burden over the performance of the company stock in the market and are
answerable to the shareholders in case it is underperforming. They feel the pressure to exhibit
positive favourable financial ratios in the reports and the short sighted vision of the
shareholders discouraged any investment that has a pay-out in the long run. Further, the
employees in America held their respective position for a short duration, thus, the short
sighted decisions made could not be made accountable to them. To the contrast, in China
majority of the companies are owned by the government and the onset of private companies
have only started recently (Stratfor, 2018), which makes the situation different from that of
the United States. In the state owned corporation the plans re prepared well in advance, both
long-term as well short-term ones. While the long term plan of five years are made by the
State Planning Commission, the short term plans are made in the lower levels. Thus, the
individual managers are not answerable to anyone about the performance of the company in
the market. Further, the emphasis in these corporations are to meet the set target and

accomplish the allocated visions, rather than to fare well in the market. In the state controlled
organisations there is no relevance of accomplishing individual goals, as the accomplishment
of the company’s targets have little or no relevance on the individual goals or aspirations.
China and United States also differ with regards to the salary structure prevalent in the
respective country. China has a salary structure where they award their employee payment on
monthly basis (Shira, 2018), while United States has a pay structure where the pay of the
employees are measured on weekly basis. For example, when one is quoting their average
salary in United States, they refer to do it on weekly basis, compared to that of China where
they quote their monthly or yearly salary. While the average wage for American workers are
$857 per week as per the 2017 statistics (The Balance Careers, 2019), the average salary in
China is recoded at 74,318 Yuan per year in the same year (Statista, 2018). The pay disparity
differs between the two nations as well. Though there exists difference in gender equality
when it comes to paying salaries, United States has tried to bridge the gap and have
somewhat comes closer when it comes to paying their female and male employees. On the
other hand, the disparity between the male and female salaries is great in China with reports
claiming that women gets paid 22 percent less compared to what their male counterpart are
getting. Further, the female workers in china feels that the pay disparity reduces their scope
of promotion opportunities by 11.5 percent (Chenglong, 2018). On the other hand, in
America, female workers earned 82% of what their male counterpart earned (Graf, Brown
and Patten, 2018). Thus, though both countries are struggling with gender equality, America
is on a better footing than China.
Culture can have a strong bearing on the way the employees of different nations work
towards their goal or objectives. The Chinese culture is highly collectivist, which emphasises
that the employees gives more importance to the group goals and works towards a common
objective, rather than their own individualistic goal. In China, most organisation have a

centralised way of working. There is a key personnel, preferable the CEO, sitting at the top
who has the vision for the company. Under him there are bunch of less important employees
working who follows the CEO’s command (Hill, 2018). On the other hand, United States has
an individualistic way of working. Employee participation is seen as a key feature in the
workplace, where the leader gives a freehand to its subordinates to participate in the decision
making related to their own sphere of work. Further, in the American way of working, more
emphasis is paid to individual achievement than group achievement (Hao, 2015). Thus,
employees tend to become more self-reliant and do more hard work to fulfil their individual
dreams. Thus, for Chinese companies, the hierarchy plays a vital role in the organisation
structure and respect is commanded to those working in the top management, while the
organisation structure of American companies are much flatter comparatively. The easy
going attitude in America instils a camaraderie kind of relationship with superiors. A worker
working in low levels in America will have comparatively easy access to the top management
and also have direct contact with his superiors, compared to his counterpart in a Chinese
organisation.
The performance appraisal method is a means to assess the accomplishment of an
employee, the department or the organisation (Your Article Library, 2019). The evaluation is
done to recognise the possible hurdles and challenges for the improvement of individual
performances. However, both China and United States differ in the way they employ the
performance appraisal tool. In United States, the prominence is more towards the result and
productivity, making it more of an organisational appraisal than individual. The standards for
the performance appraisal is placed on the salary structure in United States. On the other
hand, in China, the emphasis is placed upon the moral values and personal traits like
faithfulness and compliance, making it more of an individual appraisal than a departmental or
organisational.

To conclude, the culture between the United States and China is contrasting, which
also tends to impact or influence their employment practices. China has a collectivist society,
while United States has a more individualistic one. While China places more prominence to
the group success, in America the emphasis in more on the individual development than the
group development. In America, the natural mentoring process of employee by an expert is
more common, which is absent in the Chinese work culture. In China, the managers are held
answerable to the shareholders concern for underperforming stocks in the market, the same is
not true for Chinese organisations as they are mostly state-owned. Further, while China is
struggling with pay disparity, the issue is still pertinent in United States. Further, the
collectivist culture in China places importance to the common goal rather than their
individual ones which is true for the American culture. Thus, there is a centralised way of
working in China while in America there is a more decentralised way of working.

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