China's Managerial Revolution

The reform of Chinese management has been high on the PRC government's agenda. Since 1978, while China has been moving from a command economy to a socialist market economy, it has had to turn its economic cadres into managers as part of its "Four Modernizations" and "Open Door" reform policies. The contributors here examine in detail the "managerial revolution" now taking place in China. Special attention is given to ways in which the Dengist market-driven model has been introduced at macro- and then micro-enterprise level; the introduction of the "contract responsibility" system which has increased managers' autonomy in decision making; and the ways in which many of the old state "dinosaur" firms are being in effect "privatized", with enormous inplications for both managers and workers. The analysis centres on reform in the areas of HRM, joint-venture creation, managerial motivation, managing corporate networks and organizational learning.

Malcolm Warner is Professor and Fellow, Wolfson College and the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. Roger Bennett is a Reader in Business Studies at London Guildhall University, London. John Child is Diageo Professor of Management Studies at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge and is currently on secondment at the Hong Kong University. Bahman P. Ebrahami was until recently Assistant Professor of Management in the School of Business at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is now on the faculty of the University of Denver. Carolyn Erdener is Professor of Management at the Stuttgart Institute of Management and Technology, Germany. Daniel Z. Ding is Assistant Professor of Management at City University of Hong Kong. Paul L. Forrester is Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham. Keith Goodall is a lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and teaches on the MBA programme at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. Sally Heavens has conducted research in the Centre for International Business and Management at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. Simonetta Ilari works for a multi-national company in Hong Kong. Adrienne La Grange is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Administration at City University of Hong Kong. Ping Lan is Lecturer in the School of Marketing and International Business, Queensland University of Technology, Australia (1996). Robin S. Porter is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics and Director of the China Business and Policy Unit, Keele University, Staffordshire. Douglas N. Ross is a Professor of Management at the College of Business and Economics, Towson University, Maryland. Jan Selmer is Professor of Management at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Denis F. Simon is Director of the China Strategy Group of Arthur Andersen Associates in Beijing, PRC. Rosalie L. Tung is Ming and Stella Wong Professor of International Business at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. Verner Worm is Assistant Professor at Copenhagen Business School. Yanni Yan is Lecturer in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex.