Human resources management

Part of the organizational “software” depicted in the previous chapter concerns the management of human resources management (HRM), often depicted as being the least “Westernized” of any of the elements of Southeast Asian business practice. HRM in the host markets of Southeast Asia is undergoing colossal change in the new economic environment. The majority of MNCs are increasingly holding their staff accountable for how value within the organization is actually created. For years it seemed that operations within the region had been managed “willy-nilly” (as one executive put it) – with even the branch units of the world’s foremost multinationals being run as, essentially, “glorified greengrocers,” the personal fiefdoms of their managers.