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The strategic and cultural legitimacy of HR professionalization in Hong Kong

journal contribution
posted on 2023-07-26, 14:57 authored by Paul Higgins, Man-fung Lo
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.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

35

Issue number

4

Page range

1139-1160

Publication title

Asia Pacific Journal of Management

ISSN

1572-9958

Publisher

Springer

Language

  • other

Legacy posted date

2020-03-30

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

ARCHIVED Lord Ashcroft International Business School (until September 2018)

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