Strategic Human Resource Management at Haier (B)

Haier became an example of the rise of China as a powerhouse on the global stage when the organisation transformed itself from an ailing socialist enterprise to a thriving multinational (Everatt, D. In Case Study A p.1). This article provides some insight into the success of Haiers strategic human resource management practices by revealing how the organisationadapted its innovative Chinese performance management strategies in order to translate local success into a western marketbased economy, the USA. Research reveals that prior to 1978, Chinese Communist policy suppressed private enterprise in favour of State Owned Enterprises (SOAs) (Liao, C. p. 91). Since then, a series of economic reforms has seen a dynamic growth in private enterprise that has outgrown strict prohibition through to stages of accommodation and encouragement (Liao, C. p.91). Haier took advantage of such reform in China to develop a profitable business that they decided could be transposed to the US, thus establishing a $30 million factory in South Carolina in 2001. At the time, the US economy was experiencing a short recession, triggering a massive relaxation of fiscal and monetary policy (Sussan, A.P. Kooros, S.K. p.1). In this climate, Haier set out with the intention of becoming the second General Electric (Zhanming, L. in Larcon, J.p.14).
More of this article can be found at blog.brendanfoley.me