As China continues to modernise and allow more scope for capitalist forms of market exchange, a growing number of modern-style supermarket chains are emerging to cater for the more westernised tastes of middle class Chinese. Aussie Best is a large (fictitious) supermarket chain that successfully operates 250 stores across Australia and New Zealand. As the Australian supermarket industry has become more competitive, the manager of Aussie Best thinks the massive Chinese market will offer opportunities to expand, thereby allowing the company to achieve greater economies of scale at the same time reducing its reliance on the domestic market. The manager believes this expansion will be possible by leveraging the company's existing knowledge of the supermarket business.
You have been hired by Aussie Best as one of a number of consultants to advise the firm on the best way to establish a small chain of three supermarkets in mainland China. In your role as a consultant you have been asked to confine your analysis to the following three issues:
(1) What will be the main human resource management challenges confronting the company in trying to establish and operate a chain of supermarkets in China?
(2) With respect to managerial and non-managerial positions, what will be an appropriate composition of national and expatriate personnel to run the operations in China, both now and in the future?
(3) What will be the feasibility of transferring the company's highly successful 'partnership' approach, which involves the operation of autonomous work teams, high involvement decision making systems and collaboration with unions, to the proposed supermarket operations in China?
In answering these questions, you are expected to support any arguments and/or suggestions offered by making reference to authoritative journal articles and studies.