The social bases of a committed labor force: how guanxi works in the Chinese factories?

Abstract

Existing research points out that social relations are crucial in governing employment relations and eliciting commitment but fails to clarify how they work in different contexts. Using an employer-employee nested dataset and interview records in the Yangtze Delta, this study addresses the effect of employer-employee native-place ties on employees’ organizational commitment and how the effect is moderated by a firm’s internal labor market. This study finds that native-place ties can enhance employees’ organizational commitment, especially when the ties are stronger and constructed at a higher level. The firm’s internal labor market functions as an effective moderating variable: when the internal labor market becomes more open and provides more upward opportunity for its employees, native-place ties become less effective in promoting organizational commitment.