Abstract
Peter Sheldon, Sunghoon Kim, Yiqiong Li and Malcolm Warner (eds) China’s Changing Workplace: Dynamism, Diversity and Disparity. New York, NY: Routledge, 2011. 332 pp., £95.00 (hbk).
As the title of the book highlights, China is changing. Rapid economic growth, globalization, urbanization and the transformation of technology are radically transforming both the context for, and practices within, Chinese workplaces. Reflecting the expertise of its researchers, this book brings together evidence of existing and emerging trends in Chinese workplaces, among employers and employees, and in the institutions that influence them. Rather than just an up-to-date picture of China’s workplaces, the editors challenge the historical and comparative perspectives that have dominated the literature. The editors argue that the common ‘transition’ approach to understanding work and employment in China, which assumes that changes to management, work and employment in China have been relatively uniform, fails to explain the uneven development that has become increasingly visible across the nation. By addressing the emergent diversity and disparity, this book proposes a radical shift in the approach to studying work and employment issues in China, which the editors term a ‘local labour market’ (LLM) approach.
The first section contextualizes recent changes to business systems and legislation and explains how these changes affect China’s workplaces; this sets the scene for the following sections. The second and the third sections demonstrate the development of the labour market in urban workplaces and changes in human resource management across industrial sectors and ownership types, respectively. The book concludes, in the last section, by discussing the consequences of, and responses to, change.
Within these four parts, the editors have collected 16 recent studies. Critical changes discussed in the book demonstrate the notion of dynamism, diversity and disparity and a unique pattern of local variations appearing from outside and from within. While all chapters attempt to portray some features of China’s changing workplaces, the local variation of ‘from within’ is the highlight. A few chapters stand out, in my opinion, for their ability to weave the book’s premise and their thought-provoking ideas into their empirical discoveries and societally relevant discussions. For instance, Fang Lee Cooke’s chapter on ‘Labor market disparities and inequalities’ examines indicators of labour market disadvantages and discrimination. Her research explains how disparities across China’s workplaces generate inequalities and disadvantages in access to work-related education. While focusing on the consequence of change, her research also draws together themes from previous sections highlighting the emerging dynamics in local labour markets.
As the only ethnographic piece in the collection, Luigi Tomba’s work on ‘Remaking China’s working class: gongren and nonmingong’ draws attention to ‘excluded and hence marginalized’ groups whose life and employment chances are disadvantaged by low-skill strata and falling outside of the system. Analysing the situation of the two biggest vulnerable groups, Tomba explains the interaction of occupational and employment history and locality in accounting for distinct identity, political response and the uneven economic dynamics within the Chinese workforce. Yiqiong Li and Peter Sheldon’s chapter on skill shortages links issues discussed in previous chapters in the second part, and analyses both the supply and the demand sides of China’s labour market. Their discussion explains how the weakness in the education and training system results in skill shortages across all levels. These stories and discussions advocate for vulnerable workers and groups; while their role is significant within the current workforce, their voices and experiences are less heard – ‘being harmonized’ (bei hexie) – under the promotion of ‘Harmonious Society’, a strong counter-force against the discussion of disparities and conflicts induced by rapid economic development.
In forming a Chinese management philosophy, Confucianism, Maoism, economic reforms and globalization have all played a part, but the juxtaposition also causes ideological dissonance and practical challenges in China’s workplaces. Given the evidence presented in this book and in contemporary media, it will not be a surprise to see disparities continue in the coming decades. Along with a grand economic transformation, it is also clear that China’s workplace dynamism and culture have evolved with the changes in demographics of the Chinese workforce. Increasingly, concerns are raised about labour–capital conflicts, occupational health and safety, and the well-being and social welfare of Gen-Y employees, including the low-income college graduates described in the Chinese media as the ‘ant-tribe’, or yizu (who have become the fourth-largest vulnerable group, but who are often mixed up with young migrant workers in the media and academic research). While these issues might not be the focus of this book, they are in need of careful examination to provide a clearer picture of diversity and disparities with a local focus. The LLM approach as a new conceptual framework (theoretical lens) is useful in providing a more culturally sensitive perspective to understand workplace change from a command-based communist political economy to a socialist market-oriented one with Chinese characteristics.
For researchers with an interest in China’s workplaces, in all their variety, the book is a key resource to guide future exploration into how these new developments may affect work, employment relations and the management of people in China. The book successfully integrates dynamism at institutional and organizational levels with the sectoral disparity and regional diversity emerging in China’s workplaces. The research that is presented provides vivid case studies for students and policy advisors who wish to engage with China’s changing workplaces.
ZHI LI
Griffith University, Australia