Changing Labour Policies and Organization of Work in China Impact on Firms and Workers

The transformation of China’s economy from a centrally planned to a market-oriented system has had a profound impact on management systems and practices at the firm level, particularly changes to the organization of work. One of the consequences of this is increasing social disparity reflected through inequality of employees’ income and employment conditions. This book, based on extensive original research including interviews and questionnaire surveys in different regions of China, explores the exact nature of these changes and their effects. It examines state-owned enterprises, foreign-owned enterprises and domestic private enterprises, discusses the extent to which employees are satisfied with their employment conditions and whether they think their employment conditions are fair and outlines how managers and employees in China expect conditions to change in future.

1. Economic and social reform in China 2. Policy reform, employment relations and labour management 3. Management initiatives on work and labour management 4. Employees’ experiences and responses to labour management reform 5. Regular workers and perceptions of fairness 6. Wellbeing and satisfaction among workers 7. Future expectations among workers 8. Conceptualizing the economy of labour beyond markets 9. The ongoing challenges of labour management reform in China

Ying Zhu is Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Asian Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide Michael Webber is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Geography at Melbourne University John Benson is a Professor in the School of Business at Monash University Malaysia and an Adjunct Professor in the Monash Business School, Monash University Australia