WORK AND EMPLOYMENT IN A GLOBALIZED ERA: AN ASIA PACIFIC FOCUS
STUDIES IN ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS 1369-7153
Editors: Robert Fitzgerald, Chris Rowley and Paul Stewart
Management in China: The Experience of Foreign Businesses
Edited by Roger Strange
Greater China: Political Economy, Inward Investment and Business Culture
Edited by Chris Rowley and Mark Lewis
Beyond Japanese Management: The End of Modern Times?
Edited by Paul Stewart
Human Resource Management in the Asia Pacific Region: Convergence Questioned
Edited by Chris Rowley
Korean Businesses: Internal and External Industrialization
Edited by Chris Rowley and Johngseok Bae
Chinas Managerial Revolution
Edited by Malcolm Warner
Managed in Hong Kong: Adaptive Systems, Entrepreneurship and Human Resources
Edited by Chris Rowley and Robert Fitzgerald
Globalization and Labour in the Asia Pacific Region
Edited by Chris Rowley and John Benson
Work and Employment in a Globalized Era
An Asia Pacific Focus
Editors
Yaw A. Debrah and Ian G. Smith
Cardiff Business School, University of Wales
First published in 2001 by
FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
This edition published 2013 by Routledge
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711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 2001 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
ISBN 0 7146 5135 4 (cloth)
ISBN 0 7146 8162 8 (paper)
ISSN 1369-7153
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Work and employment in a globalized era : an Asia Pacific focus / editors, Yaw A. Debrah, Ian G. Smith
p. cm. (Studies in Asia Pacific business, ISSN 1369-7153)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7146-5135-4 ISBN 0-7146-8162-8
1. Labour marketPacific Area. 2. Labour marketAustralia. 3. Industrial relations Pacific Area. 4. Personnel managementPacific Area. 5. International economic integration. I. Debrah, Yaw A., 1956 II. Smith, Ian G. III. Title. IV. Series.
HD5850.43.A6 W67 2001
331.12095dc21
00-012259
This group of studies first appeared in a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review [ISSN 1360-2381], Vol.7, No.1 (Autumn 2000) published by Frank Cass and Co. Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Contents
YAW A. DEBRAH and IAN G. SMITH |
PETER WARING, DUNCAN MACDONALD and JOHN BURGESS |
PETER HOLLAND, LINDSAY NELSON and CATHY FISHER |
BERNARD McKENNA |
DIANNE LEWIS, ERICA FRENCH and THIPAPHONE PHETMANY |
JULIA RICHARDSON |
STEVE McKENNA |
PAWAN BUDHWAR and KHAIRUL FADZIL |
YOKO SANO |
Globalization, Economic Development and the Reliance on Guanxi as a Job Search Strategy for Chinese Students | CHENG SOO MAY |
IAN G. SMITH and YAW A. DEBRAH |
Introduction: Globalization and the Workplace in Pacific Asia
YAW A. DEBRAH and IAN G. SMITH
The economic successes, in the 1980s and early 1990s, of the East Asian Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) of Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan (the four tiger economies), Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand (the three dragon economies), China and Japan, set off debates in both Australia and New Zealand on the need to extend the export market into Asia to enjoy the benefits of its booming economies. After much soul searching both Australia and New Zealand realized the benefits of tying their economic futures to that of East Asia and, as a result, are now key economic players in East Asia. In fact, some Australian and New Zealand companies have established subsidiaries in East Asia. Equally, some companies from East Asia have followed the Japanese example of setting up subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand and, indeed, in other countries in the region.
For many years the economic boom fostered more economic integration in the region but, towards the end of the 1990s, East Asia was suddenly thrust into a recession. This economic bust has had negative effects not only on the economies of the region but also the global economy. This was, perhaps, inevitable in view of the interlinkages in global capitalism. Beginning in an ASEAN country, the financial crisis triggered by the devaluation of the Thai baht, in 1997, soon produced a powerful domino effect in the Asian markets and, like a tidal wave, soon engulfed Japan and South Korea. Asian economic observers have suggested that the Asian financial crisis was mainly due to the regions excessive reliance on export demand and volatile foreign capital (Montagnon, 1999). Similarly, Kelly and Olds (1999) attributed the cause of the crisis not to domestic regulatory imperfections but rather to the level of globalization to which Asian economies have exposed themselves. On the links between the Asian economic crisis and the global economy, Wagstyl (1998:I) similarly comments that:
If the business world needed a reminder that globalization brings risks as well as rewards, it has come in the shape of the economic crisis in East Asia. The region, which has acted as an engine of global growth for decades, has slowed suddenly, shaking almost everybody on board.
As the Asian financial crisis unfolded, the world witnessed the far-reaching effects of economic globalization. In a sense, the financial crisis was a rude reminder of the downside of economic globalization; the dangers involved in the increasing integration of the global economy. Economic globalization here implies the growing interdependence of regional and national economies. This involves the increasing importance of regional and global trading arrangements, more influential roles for international financial institutions and MNCs, and the rapid acceleration in global financial transactions (Wiseman, 1998).
Before the Asian crisis, the Asia Pacific region was often described as a miracle economy flourishing in the Pacific Century (Islam and Chowdhury, 1997). The crisis dented such confident proclamations, but recent months have witnessed a flurry of economic activity in the region, which now appears to be experiencing both a resurgence and expansion of global corporate activity and, hence, a reassertion of its global influence. Indeed the current importance of the Asia-Pacific region to global business cannot be overemphasized. On this issue, Lehmann (1998:2) comments that without East Asia, globalization cannot take place. He further asserts that globalization ultimately entails having a presence in the Asia-Pacific region as well as in Europe and North America.
In spite of this realization, very little empirical research has been conducted on the broad HRM, employment and workplace implications of economic globalization in the Asia-Pacific region: existing research having focused mainly on the globalization of Japanese companies and other western MNCs operating in the region. Such an approach ignores the increasingly important globalizing activities of MNCs from the emerging Asian economies. In an interesting analysis of economic globalization of business firms from emerging economies, Yeung (1999) shows that MNCs from Asian countries have become global players in international business and have created employment in many countries. These MNCs, together with other companies in the region, have significant impacts on work and employment and are reshaping employment relations.
