Fang Lee Cooke

Changing Organizational Forms and the Employment Relationship

This paper draws upon new research in the UK into the relationship between changing organizational forms and the reshaping of work in order to consider the changing nature of the employment relationship. The development of more complex organizational forms – such as cross organization networking, partnerships, alliances, use of external agencies for core as well as peripheral activities, multi-employer sites and the blurring of public/private sector divide – has implications for both the legal and the socially constituted nature of the employment relationship. The notion of a clearly defined employer–employee relationship becomes difficult to uphold under conditions where employees are working in project teams or on-site beside employees from other organizations, where responsibilities for performance and for health and safety are not clearly defined, or involve more than one organization. This blurring of the relationship affects not only legal responsibilities, grievance and disciplinary issues and the extent of transparency and equity in employment conditions, but also the definition, constitution and implementation of the employment contract defined in psychological and social terms. Do employees perceive their responsibilities at work to lie with the direct employer or with the wider enterprise or network organization? And do these perceptions affect, for example, how work is managed and carried out and how far learning and incremental knowledge at work is integrated in the development of the production or service process? So far the investigation of both conflicts and complementarities in the workplace have focused primarily on the dynamic interactions between the single employer and that organization’s employees. The development of simultaneously more fragmented and more networked organizational forms raises new issues of how to understand potential conflicts and contradictions around the ‘employer’ dimension to the employment relationship in addition to more widely recognized conflicts located on the employer–employee axis.

HRM, Work and Employment in China

1. Introduction 2. Employment Relations in China and Its Institutional Context 3. Reforms of the Personnel System in the State Sector 4. Pay Systems and Recent Remuneration Schemes 5. Vocational and Enterprise Training Systems 6. Gender Equality Policy and Practice in Employment and Management 7. Minimum Wage and Implications for Equality in Employment 8. Employment Relations in Private Small Firms 9. HRM in China: Recent Developments 10. The Future Prospects of HRM, Work and Employment in China

Implementing TPM in plant maintenance: some organisational barriers

Since the 1980s, quality initiatives, seen as critical for greater competitiveness, have gained much attention from British management under the influence of Japanese management principles. This has resulted in a widespread adoption of quality techniques such as quality circles, teamworking, customer care, total quality management (TQM) and total productive maintenance (TPM), etc. This paper reports the finding of a study of the production and maintenance function of four processing/manufacturing companies. It intends to highlight the difficulties that these companies have been faced with in their attempt to implement TPM initiatives between the production and maintenance departments in order to improve organisational efficiency. The paper concludes that implementing TPM is by no means an easy task, which is heavily burdened by political, financial, departmental and inter‐occupational barriers.

'Husband's career first' renegotiating career and family commitment among migrant Chinese academic couples in Britain

An increasing number of professional Chinese have been coming to Britain for further education and employment in the last two decades. However, studies on the employment of Chinese migrants in Britain remain limited, particularly of women professionals from mainland China who enter Britain as the following spouse.This article compares the career experience of the ‘trailing’ wives of Chinese academic couples before and after their migration. It investigates what barriers migrant Chinese professional women may encounter in Britain; what familial strategy they adopt in advancing the familys economic and social position; how these Chinese women balance their work and family commitment; what support they receive from their husband to rebuild their career; how they adjust to their new life in Britain; and how they renegotiate their new social identity.

Corporate social responsibility and HRM in China: A study of textile and apparel enterprises

Issues related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been the subject of growing debate across an increasingly wide range of disciplines in social sciences and business and management studies. China has been facing mounting pressure to take CSR issues seriously especially vis a vis environmental issues and labour standards. However, issues related to CSR and human resource management (HRM) in China remain under-explored. This study investigates how managers of textile and apparel firms perceive CSR issues, what actions they are taking and what implications these may have for institutional bodies that seek to promote CSR in the country. The study concludes that firms tend to adopt a business case approach to CSR, focusing on the market rather than their employees.

Human resource management in China : new trends and practices

The approach to managing human resources has changed significantly in China over the last twenty-five years as its transformation from a state planned economy to a market-oriented economy continues. By adopting a broad notion of HRM, while remaining sympathetic to the strong emphasis on relationship management in the Chinese culture, Fang Lee Cooke builds on the foundations of traditional Chinese HRM practice and brings it right up to date, including analysis of currently under-explored issues such as diversity management, talent management, new pay schemes, and performance management. Including extensive first hand empirical data and pedagogical features such as vignettes, case studies, and further reading lists. This book will be of great use on upper level undergraduate, post graduate and MBA courses covering international/Chinese management and HRM as well as appealing to practitioners, students and scholars of Chinese Business, Asian Business and Human Resource Management.

Women's Managerial Careers in China in a Period of Reform

This contribution examines the opportunities for and barriers to womens managerial careers in China, drawing on first-hand empirical data and existing literature. It focuses on four groups of managers: managerial leaders in government administration, academics in higher education, entrepreneurs in private and self-employed businesses, and rural women managers. The paper explores the Chinese characteristics of gender inequality in management careers against the current political and economic background. It highlights the low level in both quantity and hierarchy of women in management. The contribution argues that women are discouraged managerial candidates for a number of legislative, social and personal reasons.

Women's participation in employment in Asia: A comparative analysis of China, India, Japan and South Korea

This study compares the patterns of womens employment in four major Asian economies: China, India, Japan and South Korea. It illuminates how the heterogeneous characteristics of political regimes, institutional arrangements and societal values are manifested in the employment system and human resources of each country. It also reveals the varying cultural, social and institutional forces that prevail, despite similar outcomes of womens employment. The contribution adds to existing knowledge of womens employment through the comparison of four major Asian countries which remains under-explored. It also contributes to the theoretical debates of gender and employment by adopting an interdisciplinary analytical framework that incorporates socio-cultural, politico-economic and institutional perspectives.

Equal opportunity? The role of legislation and public policies in women’s employment in China

Reviews the positive role of the state in promoting women’s employment since the founding of Communist China in 1949. Identifies patterns of gender inequality which exist throughout the process of employment such as recruitment and retirement. Against this backcloth, analyses major reasons for the occurrence of this gender discrimination, which range from inadequate social security for childbearing and ineffective legislative monitoring mechanisms to gender bias in the employment legislation itself. Concludes that recent radical economic and social reforms in China have disrupted the context within which a level of equal opportunity has been achieved in the past few decades and demands a new legal framework under which greater equality between men and women in employment can be achieved.

Plant maintenance strategy: Evidence from four British manufacturing firms

The nature of maintenance work has changed as a result of a huge increase in the number and variety of physical assets to be maintained, increasing automation and complexity, new maintenance techniques and changing views on maintenance organisation and responsibilities. Maintenance philosophy has evolved from reactive to preventive and later to a proactive approach. However, maintenance function is still largely seen as a “necessary evil” by many companies. What is their maintenance strategy in an increasingly competitive world? This paper first reviews the development of the maintenance philosophy. It then reports the case study findings of the maintenance strategies adopted by four large and medium‐sized British manufacturing and processing companies. The paper concludes that production pressure has forced these companies to resort to reactive maintenance, a technique which is counterproductive for the long‐term performance of the plant.