The Evolving Roles of Human Resource Management Practices for Public School Performance in Beijing, China

Abstract

Human resources (HR) professionals in the education sector will need to take the lead in developing human capital management based on employee care, appraisal, growth, learning and development. To effectively address this shift in China's public schools, the researcher wished to contribute to the understanding of the actual HR change areas and investigate how HR positions are coping with being at the forefront of an unprecedented organisational development. The critical issues that arose are a profound separation and dilemma that revealed the fragility of the HR role's understanding: develop a new synergistic relationship with the top management; define a stronger and broader organisational mandate; and establish structured moments for professional dialogue. Therefore, HR tasks in the context of the education business, particularly after the pandemic, entail a substantial emotional strain associated with role assumption. Specifically, our research highlighted the need to discuss the evolution of the HR role with the top management of China's public schools, the requirement for complementarities, and a concept of the institutional mission that permits broader involvement in decision-making and planning, and the importance of HR role oversight.