Abstract

Job application choice is influenced by job/organisational attributes, both traditional ones, such as salary, prospects, location, company type and newer ones, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR). To examine the varying importance of these and the impacts of location and gender for initial job applications, potential job applicants were surveyed who were about to join the jobs market based in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, often grouped together as the Greater China region. Using conjoint analysis of different job scenarios it is found that the importance of different job characteristics does vary across the region, although with no clear result regarding gender. The theoretical and practical implications of this work is discussed.

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Research indicates many women prefer being self-employed and entrepreneurs, creating value based on their personal beliefs, rather than sitting on boards as “Ornamental Directors”. Furthermore, the road to corporate boards for women has been long, tortuous, and bumpy, but needlessly so. Several theoretical explanations have been suggested for this situation, often with overlap and similarities. However, we believe that in other barriers are due to poor ‘signaling’ of success for female directors and structural issues. The messaging comes in the form of networks and nomination process bias, role model and mentor shortages, work–family balance, legal ambiguity, policies, and cognitive behavior. This leads to what we call the “Ornamental Director” syndrome.

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Asia ;  boards ;  gender ;  women

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In this introductory note, we offer an overview of how human resource management in Asian countries and corporations is evolving in the face of rapid business growth and integration into the global economy and we describe how the articles in this Special Issue contribute to new knowledge and insights regarding key issues, challenges, and evolution in the field of HRM in Asia. Dri- ven by the combined forces of rapid gross domestic product growth in many Asian economies and their further integration into the global business arena, firms in Asia are in constant flux, no matter whether they are developed economies like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan; developing economies like Malaysia and Thailand; or transitional economies like China and Vietnam. How will HRM systems in these countries evolve and transform under the combined forces of growth and globalization? We argue that HRM systems in these Asian firms most likely will evolve toward “bounded convergence.” The demands and expectations of the HR function to take on strategic roles (versus administrative roles) and address critical HR issues like attracting and retaining key talent, building talent pipelines, and creating high-performing cultures are greater than ever. We conclude with a high-level summary of the key contribution of the eight articles covered in this Special Issue.

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