Abstract
In Hong Kong, human resources (HR) practice has reached a point of professionalization not yet apparent in other parts of China creating opportunities for best practice diffusion across rapidly developing cities, provinces, and regions. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the strategic and cultural legitimacy of human resource management (HRM) in Hong Kong from the perspective of the occupation’s status as an emerging profession. Combining established theory on professions with documented insights from normative associational ideals, this paper derives four major sources of HR professionalization, which it entitles strategy, communication, administration, and discipline. Assuming that tasks performed by the most senior, qualified and experienced practitioners hold greatest empirical sway over the prospect of occupational association, this study finds that a combination of strategic and communication practices emerge as the two most likely routes to HR professionalization. Based on survey responses from a representative sample of 172 certified practitioners, the findings support the notion of HR as a strategic asset, raising important implications for the professional status of the occupation within an Asian management context. Copyright © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1139-1160 |
Journal | Asia Pacific Journal of Management |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 03 Dec 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2018 |
Citation
Higgins, P., & Lo, M.-F. (2018). The strategic and cultural legitimacy of HR professionalization in Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 35(4), 1139-1160. doi: 10.1007/s10490-017-9547-7Keywords
- Cultural assets
- Strategic assets
- Hong Kong
- Human resource management
- Professionalization