Beyond Skills: The Institutional Role of Employee Training in Republican China’s Banking Sector

Lingyu Kong and Qixia Xu
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Qixia Xu: Zhongnan University of Economics and Law

Adelaide Economics Working Papers from Adelaide University, School of Economics

Abstract: We show that employee training in Republican-era Chinese banks served not just to build skills but to stabilize institutions and align workforce behavior with evolving organizational goals. Despite operating in skill-rich environments with simple job tasks, banks invested heavily in hierarchical training systems to maintain internal labor markets, enforce ethical conduct, and foster merit-based promotion. Training functioned as a mechanism for employee monitoring, governance control, and symbolic commitment to long-term employment. This reframing challenges human capital theory and contributes to a richer historical understanding of training as an organizational control mechanism, emphasizing its symbolic and structural significance in employment relations.

Keywords: On-the-job training; Republican China banking; Internal labor markets; Employee monitoring; Job rotation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
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