Documents Liu, Mingwei 6 results

"Liu lays out state of Chinese labor relations and scenarios for future:
• Chinese industrial workers' pay and labor standards are generally low today.
• The state is attempting both to reform the worst abuses of labor and to keep worker demands at bay.
• Unions have a foothold in the new industrialized China, but they are weak and lack legitimacy and leadership.
• In his conclusion, Liu presents five possible scenarios for the future of Chinese labor relations."

"Based on extensive field research in China during 2005–2010, this article aims to explore the determinants of unionization in the Chinese context. We find that managerial strategies toward union organizing and functioning have been critical in determining unionization outcomes in Chinese enterprises. While various environment pressures may impose critical constraints on these strategies, managerial industrial relations ideologies are central in shaping these strategies when environment pressures barely exist or are bearable by management. Our study makes the first effort in exploring industrial relations ideologies in China and contributes to better understanding of unionization in the Chinese workplace."

"In contrast to much of the research that treats the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) as a monolithic organization, the author argues that there is considerable variation within the ACFTU in terms of local union organizing strategies. Using extensive field research and interviews with regional union officials, grassroots union cadres, shop floor workers, and employers and managers in China during the period 2005–2007, the author contributes to an understanding of contemporary trade union strategies in China. Moreover, his analysis of regional union strategies suggests three patterns of union organizing: the ACFTU pattern, the union association pattern, and the regional, industry-based bargaining pattern, each with vastly different consequences for the future of trade unions and bargaining in China."

"This article examines the direct and indirect effects of work–life balance (WLB) practices on multiple stakeholder outcomes in hospitals. The authors examine the direct and indirect effects of WLB practices in 173 hospitals in the United Kingdom on organizational, patient care and employee outcomes. The article proposes a model in which the effects of WLB practices on patient care outcomes and financial performance are mediated by employee turnover intentions. The authors provide strong support for the potential vested in WLB practices in the healthcare setting. Results indicate that greater use of WLB practices enhances outcomes for hospitals, their employees and the patients they care for."

" In contrast to various structural accounts of collective inaction or short-lived contention of Chinese workers, the authors take an agency-centered approach to explain how the few sustained labor protests during closure bargaining develop against all odds. They suggest that workers' capacity to resolve collective action problems is essential to understanding why a few contending workers are able to sustain protests whereas many others fail to do so. They argue that workplace representatives and external labor activists are crucial for helping Chinese workers resolve the collective action problems that prevent the formation of sustained labor protests. Their comparative analysis of four protests against Walmart store closures—including one unusually long, one relatively sustained, and two short-lived—shows how presence and strategic capacity of workplace representatives and external labor activists shape protest duration. The authors conclude by discussing lessons learned from these cases of closure bargaining for future development of labor contention in China."

"Although firms in diverse industries increasingly adopt private regulation of labor standards for workers in their global supply chains, growing scholarly evidence suggests that this approach has not generated sustainable improvements in working conditions for those workers. The authors draw on recent developments in institutional theory regarding the development of opaque institutional fields that cause the decoupling between practices and outcomes to develop a new explanation for the lack of sustainable improvement in labor practices in supply chains. Using qualitative and quantitative data from a global apparel supplier and a global home products retailer, they demonstrate the various ways in which opacity causes decoupling between private regulation practices of global firms and outcomes for workers in supply chains."