Theorizing Chinese Employment Relations Comparatively: Exchange, Reciprocity and the Moral Economy

Robert Westwood (), Andrew Chan () and Stephen Andrew Linstead ()

Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2004, vol. 21, issue 3, pages 365-389

Abstract: This paper contrasts the socio-cultural systems underpinning employment relations in the West and in the Overseas Chinese case. The analysis centres on the norm of reciprocity which, whilst taken as a universal phenomena, exhibits significant cross-cultural variation. Western employment relations are characterised by a model of impersonal rational economic exchange in which individuals engage in a utility calculus. Chinese employment relations remain more fully embedded in the wider socio-cultural system of which reciprocity is a vital and integral part. Employment relations are sustained by a personalistic tacit moral order. The implications for managing employment relations in changing and multi-cultural situations are discussed. The sustainabilty of the different employment relations systems are also discussed.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (4) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://journals.kluweronline.com/issn/0217-4561/contents (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:asiapa:v:21:y:2004:i:3:p:365-389

Access Statistics for this article

Asia Pacific Journal of Management is edited by David Ahlstrom

More articles in Asia Pacific Journal of Management from Springer
Address: P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, the Netherlands
Series data maintained by Guenther Eichhorn ().