The Management of Human Resources in the Asia Pacific: Into the 21st Century**

Auszug

---

The Management of Human Resources in the Asia Pacific: Into the 21st Century**

Introduction

With the tenth anniversary of the contagion of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the time is ripe to look at the recent position of human resources (HR) and their management in the Asia Pacific region. This part of the world economy has grown significantly in the last few decades and now has enormous economic importance, both as an exporter and an importer. Both Napoleon and Marx predicted the 'rise' of Asia and events have borne out their forecasts. Globalization has transformed the Asian economy and linked it to international markets, more closely than ever, through the adhesion of most of the component States in Asia Pacific to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China signing in late 2001. This step has made it easier for them to enter foreign markets, encouraging them to reduce trade barriers and literally open their doors to Western influences, amongst which those relating to new forms of people management has been a major innovation. Such reforms have proved necessary because people have become such an important focus of concern. Since 1980, the world's effective supply of labour has quadrupled, with Asia accounting for half of this growth (see IMF Global Outlook 2007). Indeed: 'East Asia contributed about half of the increase, due to a marked rise in working-age population and rising trade openness, while South Asia and the former Eastern bloc countries accounted for smaller increases' (IMF 2007: 162). This has been an almost unprecedented phenomenon with enormous implications for HR both in the region and outside it.

Given the high savings ratio in these countries and the huge inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) which has poured in, significantly high rates of economic growth have been forthcoming. A 'tidal wave' of exports has led to low-cost manufacturing goods entering Western markets and damping down inflation in many of the advanced economies. Cheap goods have compensated for the negative employment effects in Western countries by cushioning real wages but at the cost of a huge t...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---