ABSTRACT
The center piece of China’s economic reform beginning in 1978 is enterprise reform, of which the key is to address the issue of ownership, especially those of state-owned enterprises. Without enterprise reform, it would be impossible to introduce the concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM) to China. Thus, the role of different enterprise ownership as a result of enterprise reform impacting on the strategic choice of HRM policies and practices at the firm level in China cannot be undermined. The chapter deals with an examination of the existing literature that analyzes the relationship between SHRM and enterprise reform, especially with reference to the reform’s core outcome on generating enterprises with different ownership in China since 1978. Li Keqiang compared human resource practices among multinational enterprises in some industries in order to illustrate the impact of government policy control on the choices of foreign-owned firms’ business strategies and employment practices.
