Strategy to Build a World-Class Pdc for Hi Tech Systems

Peter Hanson’s Strategy to Build a World-Class

PDC for Hi Tech Systems in China

China is now developing in a rapid speed, playing an important role in various markets. For Hi Tech Systems, one of the most innovative firms in its industry, its urgent to expand its influence in China market. With the experience of the existing HI Tech Systems organization in mainland China, the building of a new product development center(PDC) in Shanghai would be easier, while the process is still far from being easy. The difference of national culture, organizational and institutional context between China and the Western world make it more challenging. This essay will firstly analyze the global HR approach Hi Tech Systems and the PDC in China is adopting. Then, the various HR practices adopted by Peter Hanson, the head of PDC in China, as well as the recommended improvements to better conduct its HR practice will be discussed in detail.

The PDCs of Hi Tech Systems are running in a quite dispersed and interdependent mode. Each mature PDC has a variety of competencies and is able to develop an entire new product. They are highly locally adapted in terms of technologies and standards, but the collaboration is also significant. A typical research program involves all PDCs’ joint work with a core PDC for the purpose of local variation and knowledge sharing. In addition, Peter Hanson has his employees from different other PDCs to get connected. Overall, this strategies have revealed a transnational HR approach.

In the process of recruitment and selection, there are apparent transnational practices.

One part of Peter Hanson’s strategy is to get people from different PDCs when choosing the management group. By this way, they are easily able to reach into the other PDCs. Then, they can get informed of others’ information, gain trust and credibility in a collaboration process. This is important since they have just started up and are lack of experience. This strategy brings feasibility of a stable development to the young beginner in Shanghai. This is consistent with theory of transnational HR approach, where the subunits are interdependent, with lots of coordination and integration and the relationship between local HR functions is interdependent.

In addition, Peter Hanson has great degree of independence in choosing the managers group. He can look for people by himself and there is no established policy for people management within the global production organization. He was only told to draw on the HR department of HI Tech Systems in China. This is consistent with the transnational approach theory that the role of headquarter HQ is only a coordinator to guard the organization culture, with small and limited HR function.

For about their research work, there are lots of joint work and collaboration.

In the process of a typical research program, one ‘core’ PDC works on the key components of a new product. While all the other units are also involved for the purpose of local adaptation. This is a typical practice of a transnational mode. In the process of development, multiple units join together, share knowledge and make different contributions to integrate worldwide operations. Transfer occurs not just from HQ to subunits but also from subunits to HQ and between subunits. Though the PDC in Shanghai that Peter Hanson is heading is not yet capable enough to work as a core in a research, this will be a future trend when the young starter is mature enough. Peter Hanson has always been making preparations for this considering the many expatriates from other PDCs he employed for connection built.

They have a good balance of local adaptation and consistency in the process of product research. The responsibility of each PDC resides with the global business lines and local user interface. There is a global PDC management group and when one project has been established in the peripheral PDCs, they have to report to the global head. For Peter Hanson’s team, they are responsible for the Chinese user interface platform and when they are full-grown, they can eventually have the capacity to build new products in China. But they report to the Global PDC management and the Hi Tech Systems China country management. This shows the transnational method of a good balance between the two methods--internal consistency and local differentiation.

When it comes to the conclusion, Peter Hanson is adopting a transnational approach to lead Chinese product development center (PDC). The relationship of their local HR function with others’ is interdependent, with lots of coordination and integration while the function of the headquarter HQ is limited. They conduct product research work jointly with lots of information sharing and local adaptation and report to the global PDC in the same time, with the two principles of consistency and local adaptation balanced well.

However, building a new PDC in China where the national culture is significantly different from the western world can never be easy. There are also some practice Peter Hanson adopted need to rethink.

Firstly, the selection and recruitment method should be more local adapted.

Peter Hanson collaborated closely with Hi Tech Systems’ Hr department in the process of recruitment. In the segment of candidates’ interview, Hi Tech Systems used ‘The Space Shuttle’ method to assess the applicants. The western way of assessment based on hypothetical cases may work well in other countries’ PDCs, but not in China. For the Chinese employers, whose thinking can be linear and problem-oriented because of the different means, culture, and systems of education, the normal recruitment and selection practices used in western Hi Tech Systems should be more locally adapted.

Because Chinese culture tends to be less direct than Western cultures, firms can make use of multiple interviews in China to better assess a candidate’s ability. Firms can also ask two interviewers, one Chinese and someone from the West to balance both Western and Chinese views of the candidate(Zhou, 2006, p.37.).

In the recruitment process in China, guanxi--a popular informal recruitment channel should be taken into consideration.Having a good relationship with employees is particularly important in China and a close guanxi can facilitate the management development process in the organisation and can create ties and loyalty between employers and employees (Bjorkman and Lu, 1999)