Organizational Configurations and Human Resource Practices in International Chinese Language Education Institutions

Wang Chaoqun; Wang Chengyong

doi:10.47297/wspiedWSP2516-250052.20261006

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Organizational Configurations and Human Resource Practices in International Chinese Language Education Institutions

Volume 10, Issue 6

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Organizational Configurations and Human Resource Practices in International Chinese Language Education Institutions
Organizational Configurations and Human Resource Practices in International Chinese Language Education Institutions
Farabi International Business School, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty 050040, Kazakhstan
Vol. 10, Issue 6, Pages: 231-236(2026)
Online First：11 August 2026，

Published：30 June 2026
DOI：10.47297/wspiedWSP2516-250052.20261006
Accepted：

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Wang Chaoqun,Wang Chengyong.Organizational Configurations and Human Resource Practices in International Chinese Language Education Institutions[J].Journal of International Education and Development,2026,10(06):231-236.
DOI：

Wang Chaoqun,Wang Chengyong.Organizational Configurations and Human Resource Practices in International Chinese Language Education Institutions[J].Journal of International Education and Development,2026,10(06):231-236. DOI： 10.47297/wspiedWSP2516-250052.20261006.

摘要

Abstract

International Chinese language education (ICLE) has quietly grown into an unusually diverse sector. A state-backed Confucius Institute embedded in a European university has almost nothing operationally in common with a Shanghai-based online academy selling one-to-one lessons

or with a weekend heritage school in suburban Toronto — yet the modest body of human resource research that touches on the field tends to treat them as variants of a common template. The template is the problem. Drawing on configurational theory in organization studies

this paper argues that ICLE institutions cluster into four ideal-typical configurations — Diplomatic-Institutional

Market-Commercial

Hybrid-Partnership

and Community-Voluntary — and that each configuration calls for its own bundle of recruitment

training

compensation

and retention practices. The typology is developed through a review of recent strategic HRM literature and illustrative institutional cases from 2018 to 2024. Two patterns come through. HR effectiveness in ICLE turns on fit between practice bundles and configuration

not on any universal set of best practices; imported bundles travel poorly across configurational boundaries. And institutions that mix logics without aligning the underlying HR systems tend to accumulate coordination costs that surface

eventually

as unplanned attrition. The contribution is a configurational vocabulary for a field whose HR debates have largely been framed in universalist terms.

关键词

Keywords

references

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