Review Human Resource Management in Hong Kong construction industry

However, by submitting such copyright work for assessment, the author grants to the University a perpetual royalty-free licence to do all or any of those things referred to in section 16(i) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. That is, to copy the work; to issue copies to the public; to perform or show or play the work in public; to broadcast the work or to make an adaptation of the work. © 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Acknowledgement Abstract Human resource is the most important asset in any organization, especially in the construction industry, which is known to be labour-intensive. Nonetheless, this particular workforce presents complexities in its management compared to other resources. In spite of this fact, scholars give little attention to human resource management in the field of construction.

4 Long term factor - Culture 13 2. 1 Meaning of culture 13 2. 2 Organization culture 16 2. 3 Relationship between HRM and organization culture 19 2. 5 Short term factor - Behaviors 21 2. 1 Social Learning Theory 27 3. 2 Psychological Contract 27 4 Research design and methodology 30 4. 1 Research Philosophy 30 4. 1 Positivism 30 4. 2 Realism 31 4. 2 Inductive 34 4. 3 Research design 34 4. 1 Experiment 34 4. 2 Survey 34 4. 3 Case study 35 4. 2 Longitudinal 37 4. 6 Techniques and Procedures 38 4. 1 Interviewing 38 4. 7 Possible problems and potential solutions 38 4. 1Incentive of being interviewed 38 4. 4 How loyalist/eye servant behavior affect productivity 44 5. 5 Explanation of the two behaviours 44 5. 6 What organizational culture have to do with these two behaviours in terms of reward system, commitment and individual well-being under catalogue of HRM policy, autonomy, empowerment, etc 45 6. Discussion 45 6. 1 The organizational culture of Hong Kong construction industry 45 6. Some staff will just follow the policy as they always agree with their boss (Holtz and Harold, 2008), while some may only agree overtly but oppose in secret.

The management team should pay attention to the latter point as this may harm to the company compared to the effect that the workers directly not to follow the orders. The organizational culture in Hong Kong is distinct from the International world as it is a place that is east meets west (Ralston et al. It could be summed up the advantage of the two sides but it could also sum up the disadvantage of both sides. Western mindset is open to different kinds of voice and encourages the staff to share their point of view. To investigate the reality of the behind the sense, the reasons for applying HRM policy in construction should be studied. This is the first step to understand the motivation of a company to promote the HRM policy.

Without preliminary knowledge of how HRM can benefit the company, it is difficult to form policy to benefit the organization. Organization behavior needed to be understood by investing how the culture affects behaviors. Having this knowledge would help to make assumptions of the expected result of employees where the dam leaps over the kids follow (上行下效) and problems raised by to agree overtly but oppose in secret (陽奉陰違). By applying a suitable formation of the project team, every team member should be able to co-operate with each other fluently according to their ability, character, education and position (Thomas Ng, Martin Skitmore and Sharma, 2001). This can decrease the friction within the working environment on the different level of competence, working style, education background, superior/ subordinate relationship (Druker et al.

The efficiency will increase when there is a successful team building; each employee can make up for each other’s shortcomings (Aga, Noorderhaven and Vallejo, 2016). The HRM policy will absolutely obey the lawsuits and fulfill their obligation (DeNisi, Wilson and Biteman, 2014). This can prevent the company from violating any regulation and being sued by the government. Having hired the satisfied employee, HRM policy will provide on-job training for the employee to suit the company’s development, as the company believes the growth of the staff can help to develop the company (Tabassi, Ramli and Bakar, 2012). The well-trained employee will be expected as a change agent to revolutionize the policy or the system in order to prepare or adapt the change of the market (Tabassi and Bakar, 2009).

The organization commitment between staff and company will strengthen the bonding between each other, which is expected to increase the satisfaction of employee by preparing different training such as leadership training (Kilby and McCabe, 2008). The management on performance will affect the career path of the employee, which not only rely on human resource management team but also the project team (Crawshaw and Game, 2014). The HRM policy includes a promotion system to test if the employee can fulfill the requirement of the senior position or not (K. Human Resources Management can be described as the upgrade of personnel management, just like the relationship between windows XP and windows 7. The scope of work of personnel management can be divided into eight works: Job analysis; Job evaluation; Employment; Training or development; Rating; Promotion; Compensation and providing service and benefits (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1993).

According to the mentioned eight scopes of works, personnel manager need to cover the area of work force requirements of all department in the company by evaluating and analyzing the needs and the budgets of the department in order to recruit the suitable candidate for department’s selection (Beach, 2007) (Armstrong, 1998). Having selected the suitable employee for the company, the candidate will be trained to work properly through new employee orientation in order to help the employee to be familiar with the company (Deb, 2009). When the employee has worked for the company for a long time or his/her ability has achieved a standard level, personnel manager will consider the promotion of the employee after the rating of employee’s ability (Klingner, Nalbandian and Llorens, 2015).

Personnel management is to design job for one single position, which only considers if the candidates can fulfill the requirement of the job description. Meanwhile, HRM will not only consider the ability of the candidate but also if the candidate can match with the working team with some different index like culture, workload or way of communication. This will help to match the potential candidates with the working team to improve the efficiency. Personnel management will only have orientation for the new staff to know about how the company works but no further training or development will be provided. However, this is not enough for employee nowadays. According to fig. 4a, The Harvard Framework for HRM is introduced. Four policy areas can apply Harvard Framework: Employee influence; Human resource flows; Reward systems; Work systems.

Employee influence determines the involvement of employee, including the empowerment of management team, the authority given to frontline staff, the responsibility sharing between employee and employer. When employees have a big part of involvement under the above section, ‘co-determination’ can be achieved. An intrinsically example can be enriching the skills of employee by in house training to upgrade their working ability and help them to enlarge their potential with different job design. Reward management directly controls the relationship between the company and the employee. HRM outcomes will be immediately affected by HRM policy. This means a commitments between company and employee. Enhance the commitment of the company to an employee can enhance the loyalty of employee to company as well (Bal, Kooij and De Jong, 2013).

1a - The culture level and interactions between each level Artifacts and creations are something visible, touchable, and audible. For example, workplace environment, dress code. It is easily to obtain the record but hard to understand the interpretation. It can be analyzed to know who involves in, when it is happening, how the phenomenon occurs and what kind of behavior among those group, but hard to know why they have such a belief. For example, it is clear that iPhone manufacturers can make their customers become its fans (who), since the invention of iPhone (when), with user friendly interface (how) which makes people willing to wait outside apple store for several days for buying an iphone (what). Culture can be different on the same case.

Hofstede has a more solid view of point on culture. He believes different culture will lead to different behavior or interpretations. For instance, thumbs up is always meaning ‘approval’, ‘doing good’ in major western country, but in Thailand, it represents ‘condemnation’. Base on this point of view to elaborate, culture can be different from different people by nature or personality. Fig. 1b - Human mental programming From the above point of view to extend, culture not only affect individual’s behavior but it also have the effect among the groups as every people (individual). Culture will be share by different people in social environment among groups or society and being agreed or not. People will program their human mental (refer to figure 3.

1b) when they are in different groups in order to help them suit the corresponding culture. Culture can be learnt from normal social environment 3. Different culture will lead to different behavior or interpretations 4. Culture is formed by social organizations 5. Culture is not only constructed by social but also by psychological 2. 2 Organization culture Having learnt the basic knowledge about culture, it is essential to learn about organization culture. The latest version was updated to six dimensions in 2010. The research result was extended to used for investigating national culture as well. The six dimensions of cultural values are Power distance index (PDI); Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV); Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS); Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI); Long-term orientation vs. Power centralization will focus on some specific groups.

For example, elderly will be respected and feared by teens, and teens are required to obey to elderly under teacher-centered education. In the workplace, subordinates are instructed to follow orders instead of being consulted, no defense is accepted even for power abusing from superiors. Corruption and scandals are frequent and being covered up. Autocratic government controls co-optation, individuals are willing to believe in leadership to lead them and their beliefs are general influenced by official authority. Employee are educated and required to follow and the ‘I’ word is avoided. In Hong Kong, the score of 25 reflects Hong Kong is a collectivism society. Even Hong Kong was the colony of England, the common law protect resident have the right of privacy and free wills to speak out their mind under the restriction of law.

However, Hong Kong people would like to join in groups and their personal relationship will prevail over ability, task and company. Open conflicts are also avoided to maintain the harmony of the society. In Hong Kong, the score of 57 represents that this is a comparatively masculinity society. It is taken for granted that Hong Kong is a place driven by success oriented rather than providing sympathy for the weakness. It is hard to see the balance of family life and working. Work life balance for Hong Kong is the worst among Asia. Even student will work hard for the exam scores in order to fight for better ranking. Lots of employees afraid losing their job and suffering from different stress. 71 students commit suicide since 2013, and even the son of Hong Kong deputy education minister commit suicide.

Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO): This index represents the willingness of a distract to maintain and protect its own past and link it to present and develop to the future. It was named as ‘Confucianism’ by Chinese scholars and renamed by Hofstede for better understanding. restraint (IND): This index represents the level people paying effort to control their desire of that distract. This index is the latest index added since 2010. It seems like the index of LTO but actually it is related to ‘happiness’. Indulgence is defined as citizens enjoy their life by nature and satisfying their desire freely. Meanwhile restraint is defined as citizens were required to follow restriction according to norms. All these evidences point out that Hong Kong is a restrained city.

3 Relationship between HRM and organization culture HRM is the policy that can directly affect employee in the company, which have a positive effect on the organizational culture. The more effective of organizational culture, the higher competitiveness the company own. (Barbars & Dubkēvičs, 2010). It was pointed out by Jackson and Schuler in 1995 that the relationship between HRM and organizational cannot be separated (Jackson and Schuler, 1995). It is expected that using HRM policy properly can make positive change on employee’s belief, value and attitude. The attitude of an employee can be reflected by their behavior. Osibanjo and Adeniji revealed in 2013 that the relationship between HRM and organization culture started from the recruitment process (Osibanjo and Adeniji, 2013). The HRM policy helps to select candidates who agree the belief, value and practice of the company, which is a policy to consolidate the organization culture by reducing labour turnover.

If the policy can influence the behavior of the employee, it will bring positive results with value added for the company. Organization culture is an important internal factor that can affect the organization, which is controllable, should be focus by HR team to influence the in-house staff. Thornhill, Lewis, Millmore, and Saunders in 2000 confirmed that organization could be changed or affected by a series of HR strategies. HR can setup criteria to select candidates who fit it their organization culture during recruitment process. For those existing staff, HR team can change the organization culture by internal training, designed reward system to strength the culture and alter their behavior. If the above strategies are not working, there is a need of partly restructure of the company or downsizing the workforce.

From the definition of the above paragraph, people who refuse to fulfill others request, even when the request is reasonable, can be categorized as non-compliance. To elaborate, behavior of non-compliance is refusing to fulfill others request when they can refuse, or not to behave upon request internationally in order not to fulfill other’s expectation. 2 Conformity and Nonconformity Conformity is slightly different to compliance mentioned in the above paragraph. Compliance usually refers to comply a unique or specified target, but conformity do not have such a specific target to give command. "Conformity is the most general concept and refers to any change in behavior caused by another person or group; the individual acted in some way because of influence from others.

For example, when everyone is laughing, he or she will not think that it is weird not to laugh with the groups. Social norms do not work on these objects. They can be described as self-sufficient, which treats independent more important than being in a group. The value of ‘being themselves’ is higher than sense of belonging. They will not try to be part of a group to force themselves to change. Complying with the above statement, the position, the social status and power distance of both parties must not be equal. According to “Milgram’s Obedience Experiments”, around 65% of the participants administered 450-volt shock in the experiment according to the instruction given by the experimenter. This reflects few people will resist the power of authority.

Rebellious used to be the opposite of obedience, which intentionally not to follow orders from people who is higher status, like parents, supervisor. Unlike the people who is obedience, which will follow orders without hesitate, people who are rebellious will work against authority. 3 Hypothesis The hypothesis of the employee being a loyalist where the dam leaps over the kids follow when they need to blend into the working environment. Usually, this phenomenon occurs when the staff is new to the company and at the junior position without any power of authority. However, when the junior staff become mature and accumulate enough experience, they may agree overtly but oppose in secret in order to benefit from them or even earn them profit behind the scene.

This may occur when they find if they do or not to do some behavior that neglects the rules without punishment and get a reward, this will encourage the employee to continue their role of eye-servant. Literature review 3. Therefore, the HRM departments are required to move with speed to reorganize the people in order to meet the changes. In addition to the changes, the construction industry HRM is highly influenced by the projects and contractual factors involved in their daily undertakings. The HRM department in every department plays an important part in nurturing organizational behavior (Malkani and Kambekar, 2013, p358). The need for direct supervision of the construction workers is highly influenced by the type of the organizational behavior encouraged by the HRM among other leaders in the organization.

An employee would assume responsibility and become loyal to an organization depending on how their perceptions of the organization (Wilkinson, Johnstone and Townsend, 2012, p508). Therefore, the HRM departments acquire the service of casual workers. In such circumstances, the HRM departments are usually under pressure to ensure that the casual employees have the knowledge and skills to carry out their particular duties (Kilby and McCabe, 2008 p108). The HRM must train, coach and align the new employees to enable them to carry out their duties accordingly. However, the employees would want to work in secure and healthy environment. Security, health, and safety have been of great concern to construction employees and other stakeholders. The HRM departments have found the need to reduce employee turnover rate as a way of reducing costs involved in recruiting, training and settling new employees.

Kilby and McCabe (2008 p106) argue that reduction of such costs is a great step in achieving better profit margins in the organizations. Valuable people to an organization are influenced by the HRM. As noted by Dainty and Loosemore (2012, p226) equitable treatment of employees in organization is an important aspect in maintaining valuable HRM especially in such labor intensive sectors such as the construction industry. It is part of the best practices in HRM contributing significantly to sustainability of the industry. The HRM has been critical role in this case for it devises the methods and approaches to performance management (Ehnert et al. , 2015, p89). The performance management system has been attached with employee recognition and rewarding system in various industries. Moreover, the remuneration of the employees has a substantial impact on employees’ loyalty (Stankeviciute and Savaneviciene, 2014, p838).

Poor remuneration has been castigated for influencing employee loyalty negatively. Therefore, some motivation would do well in maintaining the loyalty of the employees and their responsibility as well. The HRM bears the responsibility of the strategizing on how to carry out employee motivation (Stankeviciute and Savaneviciene, 2014, p839). One of the key things to ensure in employee motivation in the construction industry is through securing the places of work and providing the necessary machinery to aid in their work. Employees are usually motivated when they are assigned duties and responsibilities that they have sufficient knowledge and skills. This requires employee alignment; a responsibility of the HRM. The HRM department in the construction industry and others has a responsibility of ensuring that the employees have a clear knowledge of what is required of them.

In this case, the department has to come up with strategies to handle issues created by role ambiguity (Muncherji, Gopalakrishnan and Dhar, 2009, p87). Avoiding role ambiguity in the construction companies creates efficiency in execution of the strategic plans. Moreover, it is a way of ensuring better performance. An employee would be in a better position to carry out their work if they had a better understanding of the goals and objectives of the organization. This concept is defined as reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 1978). When applying social learning theory, staff will directly learn from their workmate directly by direct reinforcement and indirectly learn by the reward system. Their behavior will decide for their reward. If employees fail in getting a positive reward, this means their behavior is not encouraging and vice versa.

The reward system may not truly reveal the rules of the company but show the reality to the staff. This can encourage staff to be the loyalist of the company as they can get what they want by doing their best. However, when staff invests a lot into the job but the reward given by the company is less than their expectation, will lead to a breach of Psychological Contract, which will reflect on low satisfaction, commitment and comparative negative working attitude. The behavior of employee will change to compensate the loss lead by expectation disconfirmation. When the situation comes to the worst, betray behavior will occur, for example, turnover (Mai et al. (Fig 2. Valid knowledge can be found through verified data.

Phenomena will be observed to generate some law, for example, laws generated by physicist. Existing theories will be used to build up hypotheses, which can be tested to confirm the reality. The fact will be focused rather than investigating an impression. Meanwhile the research cannot be the part of research and should be independent from the process of collecting data, which means they are not allowed to affect the data intentionally. Interpretivism found that the reality is social constructed with multiple reasons. Focus will be target on the specific, unique target unlike the Positivism who will focus on the average, representative target. Interpretivism can be used to explain the different and uniqueness of individual human. For example, meaning of social role can be investigated under Interpretivism.

Some scholars agree that Interpretivism is suitable to investigate the organizational behavior or human resource management because of the complex and unique circumstances. The researchers use different means of method intentionally and unintentionally. For example, by use of language, inherent concept, labeling. The Subjectivism believe the world is contributed by everyone single human in the world under social constructionism, and a more extreme case believes the world one true world but everyone have different level of experience in the same world, which makes there are multiple realities for different people to understand. 6 Pragmatism When some scholars are debating the research philosophy, Positivism or the Interpretivism, is more suitable to choose, Pragmatism already found the most important in a research is the research question itself.

Pragmatism agrees that mixed methods, which means by using qualitative research data and quantitative research data at the same times is acceptable and appropriate. Typically, it is constructed with structural theories that claim to remove subjectivity of the researcher and therefore assuming that one can understand human behavior by adjusting structural forces. In other words, interpretive research sets its focus on disclosing practices that make meaning, at the same time illustrating how those practices build up to generate outcomes that can be observed. In this approach, researchers cannot discover any objective reality in contrast to positivist’s assumption. 9 Radical humanist Radical humanist is a personality who has the concern of releasing societal restrictions that limit potential of humanity. Radical humanists view the current prevailing ideologies to be separating individuals from what are their true selves.

The researcher collects a variety of information and data for the purpose of conforming or rejecting the hypothesis to determine an issue. When using a deductive approach during the research, the researcher employs various steps that entail identification of theory, development of hypothesis, observing through information and data and finally confirmation. This simply means that the theory used in deductive approach already exists and it is just applied in the research by the researcher. For instance, a research based on cross-cultural management will require application of any cultural theory by the researcher. 2 Inductive This is a research approach where a theory is built through observing specific occasions and seeking to come up with a generalization concerning the observable facts under investigation (Wilson, 2010, p.

While using this strategy, the researcher starts by deciding the values of independent variables to the research, and then develops a treatment conditions that correspond to the decided values. When an experiment is being constructed, various aspects are supposed to be remembered. The researcher should plan so that the experiment is smoothly carried out for the results to resemble the real world in appropriate manner. 2 Survey This is an approach where the researcher collects information from individuals’ sample by supplying them with the questions then they respond to the questions. According to Ponto, (2015, p. In this approach, a group of individuals identify a specific problem, try to solve it out and examine is their efforts were successful. If they are not satisfied, they try it again using different angle of approach.

The twin goal of action research is first to study the system then to collaborate with the system’s members to change it towards a common desirable direction. To accomplish the twin goal, the researcher has to collaborate with the client. 5 Grounded theory The grounded theory simply involves data collection and analysis. Generally, in archival research, data is collected from already existing sources. This creates a contrast with empirical research where the researcher determines the research hypothesis and area of interest prior to the collection of data. An illustration of archival research is where a psychologist examines records from a mental institution from 1900s with aim of determining the commonness of depressive symptom found in that time’s patient. This research uses survey as part of its research design.

This is because the survey has been established as the best strategy to conduct research over a wide area. Similarly, the method involves the integration of qualitative and quantitative data in manners that emphasize the benefits of employing both research approaches for the purpose of illuminating and advancing the understanding of the phenomenon of interest (Watkins and Gioia, 2015, p. All mixed methods therefore imply forms of data integration. 3 Multi-methods This is the exercise of using two or more different research methods within the same research program instead of confining the research to employ a single method. The multi-method is not restricted to the combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches as it is in mixed method. The method is rather open to full multiplicity of possible combinations of methodologies.

The similar study is conducted in situation where a researcher wants to analyze features that evolve in a given population. The study design is mostly used in social science where researcher examines a single study sample for the whole year or month before coming up with conclusions of the study. It is not easy to conduct a longitudinal study successfully since some sample participants can be deceased or relocate to other regions before the researcher completes carrying out the study. Therefore, this research involves a longitudinal study. 6 Techniques and Procedures 4. 1Incentive of being interviewed From the previous part, the writer mentioned that having a suitable target to interview with a solid appointment is a potential problem. It is because Hong Kong is the longest working hour city among the world, which means the leisure time of Hong Kong people is less than another city.

It is difficult to ask a volunteer to help with the research. In order to encourage the interviewee to accept the interview, the interviewer will let the interviewee decide the place and time for the interview in order to decrease the effect of time limit lead by the long working hour. The result of analysis and recommendation of the research will also be sent to the interviewee for their reference on the management area. 1 Data generation techniques The study used personal interviews to collect data from the participants. Frens (2013) indicated that interviews are research instruments used to gather data from a small number of populations (p 141). Considering the small size of the sample population, the interviews were used because of their confidentiality and time saving nature.

Before conducting the actual research, a pilot study was carried out to make necessary adjustments before collection of data. The aim of conducting the pilot study was to check if the selected data collection instruments would be clear to the respondents in order to make required adjustments and ensure that the results are not flowed. Analysis 5. 1 Need for Human Resource Management comparing with personnel management in the construction industry and benefit to the industry All the interviewees, apart from one respondent reported that the construction industry requires human resource management compared with personnel management. According to the first respondent from the management team, the industry requires more of human resource management because it helps to evaluate HR policies, team building as well as monitoring of the progress.

It was discovered that while HRM is proactive, personnel management is more reactive and only focuses on payroll. Similarly, most of the respondents, especially from the operations team claimed that personnel management considers employees more of machines even as human resource management attends to individual workers’ needs. The industry could do away with the personnel management and invest more in the HRM to enhance productivity and reduce expenses. The findings on the benefits of Human Resource Management can be summarized as shown in the pyramid below: Figure: Benefits of Human Resource Management to the construction industry in Hong Kong The above findings are in line with the literature reviewed when comparing human resource management and personnel management. It was mentioned in the background information that human resource management is a modern approach to management that focuses on the team, treats people as resources fulfills employees’ achievement goals and orients with training and development.

In other words, HRM empowers employees. On the other hand, it was mentioned that personnel management is a traditional approach that focuses on personnel, treats people as machines and orients without offering training. In this case, the interviewee was referring to what was introduced in the Harvard Framework for Human Resource Management, specifically the reward systems part of the framework’s four policy areas. Even though the respondent did not specify the source of her motivation, the study tentatively considered some of the elements of the reward system that include but not limited to the pay scale, welfare given to employee, motivation of work. To achieve this kind of motivation, succeed, the above system should work with ‘four Cs’: Commitment; Competence; Congruence and Cost effectiveness as mentioned before.

Another manager cited “responsibility” as the reason why her workers perform with no supervision. He said, “My staff usually works under minimal supervision. Finally, the last manager made it clear that his employees work under supervision. They have established a guide to instruct, observe and monitor their workforce closely. This means that his team cannot perform without this kind of observation. These findings prove Holtz and Harold (2008)’s theory that members of staff are not “robots” who will follow all the instructions blindly with questioning. That is why some employees will work without supervision while others will show some resistance in their actions hence require close supervision. That is why some respondents cited their upbringing for their loyalist behaviors while Chinese were considered eye servants.

According to one respondent, she works with no supervision when offered everything she requires to accomplish her tasks. Again, this point is in line with Harvard framework for human resource management, which stipulates both situational factors and situational interests as the main considerations for employee behavior. Therefore, providing everything that employees need to allow them work without supervision is a situational factor that motivates them as indicated by Noon (1992). This way, they will stick to the mission and vision of the company. According to Breckler, Olson and Wiggins (2006), “conformity encompasses compliance and obedience, because it refers to any behavior that occurs as a result of others' influence - no matter what the nature of the influence" (p. Employees conform to loyal or eye servant behaviors due to the prevailing workplace conditions that drive the two distinctive behaviors.

5 Explanation of the two behaviours The respondents explained loyalists and eye servants in various ways. One significant explanation was that loyalists are “true to their feelings. ” They work with minimal supervision and if they do not agree with you, they will overtly but politely inform you. According to the sentiments of these authors, the target of obedience always related to orders given from someone who is higher status. Complying with the above statement, the behavior of the eye servants could be clearly explained that the position, the social status and power distance of both parties must not be equal for them to obey or disobey in the limelight. 6 What organizational culture have to do with these two behaviours in terms of reward system, commitment and individual well-being under catalogue of HRM policy, autonomy, empowerment, etc Organizational culture has a lot to do with the two behaviours as shown by the respondents.

In a culture where employees are rewarded handsomely, loyalty tends to be higher. However, some of the workers do not feel the presence of these rewards or sanctions. It seems like a westernized, modern city but actually full of unspoken norms especially in Hong Kong construction industry (King and Lee, 1988). Traditional Confucian-derived values are deeply in mind with a significant weighting for Hong Kong people, such as courtesy of etiquette, solidarity for family. Bosses own absolute power which means employees can only ‘always agree with their boss’ (Brockner et al. Working late in the office and treating it as the second home to show the hardworking of the staff is the norm (Welford and Mahtani, 2004); keeping distance with co-workers avoiding the exchange of personal information to protect themselves from being trapped (Pelled and Xin, 1997).

These kinds of unique working norms become the Hong Kong working culture in the construction industry. Due to collectivism, subordinates even cannot show their negative feeling to prevent the superiors from knowing about the fact; otherwise, the superiors may criticize those subordinates who do not agree. 2 Stand alone-Complex The figure above shows the importance of human resource management as shown from the findings of the study. It shows that the human resource department is responsible for creating a long-term culture. Studies have suggested that human resource practitioners have various levers used to develop, sustain and even change organizational culture (Guest, 1987, p. However, the HR faces the challenge of using the instruments appropriately. Finally, human resource can foster culture through training and development in which employee are trained to think and behave in the most desirable manner.

Those who succeed by exhibiting the required behavior can be given additional opportunities to develop themselves and assume positions of greater responsibility. This way, the human resource management will have an influence on corporate culture if it supports those with desirable characteristics. This culture determines the behavior of employees. About this, culture may be discussed under two categories; organizational, also known as corporate culture and what this study will refer to as ethnocentric culture. On the other hand, collectivist employees may integrate themselves full into the organization, hence exhibiting their loyalty. Therefore, most loyalist employees tend to be collectivists. Similarly, masculine dimension shows that employees tend to behave like their leaders, just as it was established by the study. Employees tend to compete if their leaders are competitive, and tend to care if their leaders are caring.

As far as uncertainty avoidance is concerned, employees will not be comfortable with any extremes in the organization. This way, the company will adjust eye servant behaviors into loyalist behaviors. There should be commitment by both the employees and the employers to improve the profile and attitude toward their duties through performance management. The system must also attend to employee behaviors rather than work objectives alone. By doing so, the system allows elimination of any mistakes in which employees are rewarded even when they demonstrate behaviors that are contrary to the culture. Respectful and trustworthy effective communication channels open between the employees and the management in every sector of the place of work to ensure that there is two-way communication between managers and their subordinates.

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