IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v19y1998i2p287-313.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic Ownership and Workers' Perceptions of the Workplace: An Exploratory Study of Manufacturing Workers in Shanghai

Author

Listed:
  • Gina Lai

    (Hong Kong Baptist Universilty)

  • Warren Chiu
  • Choi K. Wan

    (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Abstract

The Chinese urban economy has undergone substantial transformation since the industrial reforms in 1984. This article seeks to understand the impact of economic reforms on the institutional settings of the workplace, as seen from the workers' perspective, and their subsequent influence on workers' well-being, as indicated by job satisfaction. Data were collected from a 1996 survey of 300 urban workers in Shanghai, who were engaged in six organizations, including two state enterprises, two joint ventures and two private enterprises. Findings show that despite the long hours and relatively low income, workers in private enterprises report the most optimistic outlook for themselves in the organization as well as for the future development of the organization, and the highest level of job satisfaction. After controlling for the sociodemographic characteristics of workers and types of economic ownership, expectations for the future development of the organization is found to be the most significant predictor for job satisfaction. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Gina Lai & Warren Chiu & Choi K. Wan, 1998. "Economic Ownership and Workers' Perceptions of the Workplace: An Exploratory Study of Manufacturing Workers in Shanghai," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 19(2), pages 287-313, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:19:y:1998:i:2:p:287-313
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X98192004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X98192004
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X98192004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:19:y:1998:i:2:p:287-313. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.