Abstract
Sino‐foreign joint ventures have been the major form of foreign direct investment in China since the economic reform in late 1978. Among the many problems faced by the foreign partner of a joint venture, human resource management (HRM) is one of the most often cited. Offers a comprehensive review of the major HRM problems, namely recruitment, dismissal, remuneration, labour discipline, managerial skills, training and trade unions. In order to understand the nature of the problems better, an effort is made to trace the origin of these problems back to the former centrally planned economy and the Chinese culture. The discussion covers the entire Chinese workforce consisting of both workers and managers. Cites survey results and real life cases for illustration. In addition to analysing the problems, offers some practical solutions.