HR Training for New Employees in Lenovo Group

Human being is the core of the organization, which is considered as one of the most valuable resources. With the global competition becomes more and more severe, enterprises face the challenges of how to effectively manage human resources. A number of researches put different aspects of HRM as its focus, some emphasize theoretical analysis; others are engaged in particular field or industry. Employee Training and Development is one of important aspects in human resources management. Mathis and Jackson (2002) indicate that organizations need to keep fresh and dynamic to compete and be flexible to change. And HR training and Development is one of the most effective ways to improve and update the skills and capabilities of employees. This view arouses the researcher’s interest to go further. However, employee Training and Development is still a topic too big for this dissertation to cover all. That is why the training for new employees is chosen as specific topic in this research.

It should be noticed that compared with some developed countries, HRM in China is still very young. The study on the HRM of Chinese enterprises appears far from sufficient. According to the research of Dowling (2008), China suffers from shortage of skilled and capable human resources, though the population is huge and the labor cost is low. However, with the rapid economic growth of China, Chinese companies are dedicated to chasing their western competitors in HRM. Zhu (2005) finds out in his research that more and more Chinese companies begin to realize the important role of HRM and are making efforts to put the western HRM theories into practice, under the competitive pressure from the transnational companies and the joint ventures. However, blind use of these theories without fully considering the local condition will no doubt do harm to the Chinese companies. Hence, it is very necessary to study the most appropriate method for the HRM in Chinese companies. Considering all of above, this research plans to take Lenovo Group, one of the most successful IT companies of China as its focus.

The history of the company is recorded together with the big events of IBM on its official website. When IBM has been a PC giant, Lenovo seemed still a baby in the cradle. However, the speed of its development is amazing. Founded in 1984 with only US$25,000 and 10 staff, nowadays, Lenovo has been a leading company dedicated to “building exceptionally engineered personal computers”. In 1990, it launched the very first PC of the company in Chinese market. Six years later, it became the market share leader in China. Lenovo played as a pioneer in going abroad, and became the top PC vendor in the Asia-Pacific region and headed the Chinese national Top 100 Electronic Enterprises ranking in 1999. The next five years of the new century is the period for Lenovo to accumulate capitals, techniques, and management experience. 2005 is the remarkable year for the company. In this year Lenovo successful completed the acquisition of IBM’s Personal Computing Division, “making it a new international IT competitor and the third-largest personal computer company in the world”. Today, the company is engaged in providing “the high quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide”, and In 2010, the company “achieves its highest ever worldwide market share and becomes the world’s fastest growing major PC manufacturer. ” (Lenovo Official Website, 2010). With more than 20,000 global employees, how Lenovo keeps its sharpness in employees’ capability and knowledge could be lessons for other Chinese enterprises.

2.0 Main Purpose

The main aim of this proposed research is to make evaluation on the programme of human resources training for new employees applied by Lenovo, China and make recommendations for strategies of training for new employees to be used by other Chinese companies. The case study of Lenovo will help to recognize both the advantages and disadvantages in the existing strategies of HR Training for new employees in Chinese companies

3.0 Research Questions

On the base of the main research purpose, some questions are proposed to help to reveal the critical issues about the training programme for new employees in Lenovo Group of China, These research questions include:

What programme is applied by Lenovo to training the new employees？

How about effects of Human Resources Training for new employees in Lenovo?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Human Resources Training for new employees in Lenovo?

4.0 Research Methods

Inductive and deductive methods are always applied in researches. Because each of the approaches has both advantages and disadvantages, both of them will be flexible used so as to achieve the research purpose in this project. Inductive approach plays a key role meanwhile deductive approach serves as guidance.

In this study, the relevant and reliable data will be collected through the appropriate methods. Secondary data and primary data will play complimentary functions. The secondary data of the proposed study will be collected by abundant reading and thinking about the relevant studies on human resources management made by the previous researchers. Meanwhile, primary data will play a main role in this research. Focusing on the programme of human resources training of new employees in Lenovo Group, a questionnaire with structured questions will be carefully designed to conducted among the employees of Lenovo Group.

With the secondary data and primary data collected, qualitative method will be mainly applied in analyzing the survey from the questionnaire. Thanks to the development of IT, software is used in transcribing, examining, and evaluating the data. Because this research does not involve big sample size, Microsoft excel is the mainly tool applied to make relevant analysis in form of table, charter, diagram, etc.

5.0 Research Design

Constrained by the rules of the company, 60 employees will be involved in this primary research, which will provide the researcher with the first-hand data about how Lenovo carries out its HR training for new employees. The sample size is considered as the main limitation of this primary research. Since Lenovo is a transnational company, the sample cannot be big enough to provide a definite and objective result of HR training for new employees in Lenovo.

Ethical issues will be taken full consideration in the process of collecting primary data. To gain access, the permission will be applied first by contacting with Lenovo. During data collection, the targeted employees will not be compelled to participate in answer the questionnaire and they may therefore choose not to participate in it, though the targeted employees will be encouraged to participate in the study. Any questions from the respondents will be also welcomed and be answered honestly. To protect the participants’ anonymity, aliases will also be allowed for all participants.

The research about the HR training for new employees in Lenovo just covers one aspect of HRM. It is expected that further research can be conducted to involve more issues of HRM in Chinese enterprises. Although due to the limitation of the sample size, the finding results cannot be generated, this research focus one of the most successful IT companies of China. The findings are expected to reveal the current situation of HR training for new employees in some modern enterprises of China, which can be good or bad lessons for other Chinese enterprises. What’s more, this research is also expected to serve as reference for other researchers who are interested in the relevant topic.

5.0 Research Time Plan

The time is planned is as follows

Time

Plan

-Review of previous research and relevant information

– Preparing the framework of the literature review

-Designing primary research questionnaire

-Conducting pilot test for the questionnaire

-Adjusting the questions on questionnaire

-Contacting the targeting enterprise to get permission for primary research

-Carrying out the primary research in the enterprise

-Questionnaire review

-Data analysis

-Completing draft of literature review and questionnaire analysis

Completing the first draft of the proposed research

Final writing of the proposed research