Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer empirical evidence on whether and how the work experiences of employees in China influence their union-related attitudes and behaviours. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a mediated moderation model to examine how job satisfaction and labour relations climate interactively affect union participation and whether union commitment mediates the interactive effects. A total of 585 employees from enterprises in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian province of China were surveyed to verify the model. Findings Job satisfaction was negatively related to union participation and union commitment. Labour relations climate moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and union participation; the relationship was negative and stronger when employees perceived an adverse, rather than a favourable, labour relations climate. Further, the interactive effect of job satisfaction and labour relations climate on union participation was partly mediated by union commitment. Originality/value By empirically examining employees’ attitudes and behaviours towards unions in the Chinese context, this study confirms that unions could provide employees with alternative work resources to cope with job dissatisfaction, even in a country where unions play a “transmission belt” role between employees and employers. This study adds value to the existing base of knowledge on union practice and labour relations construction, both inside and outside of China.
Abstract:Purpose: Given the current lack of literature in the background of China labor force, this study aims to investigate the relationships among job satisfaction, perceived union instrumentality, and unionization from a reference-frame-based perspective and explore the referred relationships in the context of Chinese labor market.Design/methodology/approach: The study introduces perceived union instrumentality as a mediator to the relationship between job satisfaction and unionization. The applicability of western theories was tested in the Chinese context by a questionnaire survey on 390 employees who were working in private sectors of Jiangsu Province in China. Four hypothesis were proposed and tested by data analysis to verify the model. Findings:The study found that most aspects of job satisfaction were negatively correlated with unionization and perceived union instrumentality, while perceived union instrumentality had a positive relationship with unionization. Perceived union instrumentality was also found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between job satisfaction and unionization. examining the relationships between job satisfaction, unionization and union instrumentality of Chinese employees. It pays a regular contribution to labor union studies both inside and outside China.
PurposeDespite the considerable research into China's industrial relation system, little attention has been focused on what do Chinese unions at the enterprise level do and how their daily work influences employees' work-related outcomes. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this paper aims to examine the impact of Chinese enterprise union practices on employees' change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior through the mediating roles of psychological safety, perceived insider status, and role breadth self-efficacy.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 450 employees at 45 unionized enterprises in China through a three-wave survey. Multilevel analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized effects.FindingsChinese enterprise union practices positively predicted change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Critically, psychological safety and role breadth self-efficacy mediated the positive relationship between Chinese enterprise union practices and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior.Originality/valueThis study provides new evidence on the effectiveness of Chinese enterprise union practices from a perspective of employees' work-related outcomes. It also enriches the existing literature on antecedents of change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior and provides a “planned” perspective to understand the mechanism that underlies the relationship between Chinese enterprise union practices and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior.
Improving the well-being of the employees is the inevitable choice to improve corporate performance and competitive advantage and the social responsibility that enterprises must undertake. Based on the job demands-resources model, this study introduces perceived organizational support and work stress as the mediator and trade union practice as the moderator to explore the double-edged sword effect of a high-performance work system (HPWS) on the well-being of the employee. Taking 243 employees from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui as samples, we found that HPWS positively affects the well-being of the employee through perceived organizational support and negatively affects the well-being of the employee through work stress. Union practices can significantly reduce the positive effect of HPWS on work stress and further weaken the negative effect of HPWS on the well-being of the employee through work stress. The results of this study provide a new way to explain the impact of the HPWS on the well-being of the employees and find that union practice can weaken the negative effects of HPWS. This study provides a new thinking direction for improving the well-being of employees in enterprises.
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