Competitive Advantage, Human Resource Strategy, and the 2008 Olympics

Beginning of article

Jeremy B. Fox, Ph.D.

Department of Management

Appalachian State University

Boone, NC

Joan M. Donohue, Ph.D.

Department of Management Science

University of South Carolina

Columbia, SC

Jinpei Wu, Ph.D.

Department of Management

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, VA

China, by hosting the 2008 Olympics, hopes to create not only economic payback, but, more importantly, long-term national public appeal. The following statement by Fowler (2006) gives witness to this "best face" goal:

   Sun Weide, a former press official for
   the Chinese Embassy in Washington,
   works extensively with Hill &
   Knowlton (PR consulting). He says
   his main message is to emphasize
   China's development and Beijing's
   technological, social and environmental
   approaches to running its Games.

An organization hoping to achieve some specific goal must look at the planning and strategies it intends to implement by asking, "Will the actions of our organization serve to achieve that goal?" In the case of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and considering China's globally competitive labor cost advantage, we are led to examine a project goal in the context of strategic human resource management. Specifically we consider whether, in the long term, Olympic exposure will allow the country …