To bring these propositions into the analysis, Kochan and colleagues’ strategy choice approach (see Kochan, McKersie and Cappelli, 1984) is deemed an appropriate framework for helping to conceptualise the complex dynamics of CCP- driven labour management. Unlike other writings from the orthodox school of industrial relations, Kochan’s approach treats industrial relations as a field comprising a variety of social and institutional components beyond corporate domains. Also, unlike many writings that adopt a comparative approach, this framework is not limited merely to exploring how management in different institutional settings reacts to the overall environmental changes. Instead, Kochan sees the strategic choices made by organisations (either competitive strategies or
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other practices responding to industrial relation policies) as “systems of interlocking and mutually reinforcing elements” (Locke, Kochan and Piore, 1995, p. xxiii). Consequently, it is important to unpack how decision makers (managers, or other kinds of roles embedded in various political and social settings) shape their “choices” and also to shed light on the linkages between these competitive production practices in different industries or segments. In addition, the strategic choice framework considers the impact of corporate governing arrangements on overall employment policies and practices. Under this lens, it is conceived that no managerial decision is made outside of the political and institutional settings. For example, in many countries where competitive behaviours are constrained by centralised institutions and strong pro-labour state policies, competitive decisions are bound to be made with more concerns regarding labour-management cooperation and commitment, which will inevitably influence decisions and practices made at the state level. Such a perspective provides the opportunity to obtain an in-depth view on how managerial arrangements reflect the state’s ideology with regards to the industrial relations setting. It also allows for the examination of managing practices and policies as components of a grand institutional system of labour management, rather than considering them in isolation.4.2.1 The framework of strategic choice
Kochan exemplifies three level of analysis that a study on an IR system with strategic choice approach needs to develop (See Error! Reference source not
found.). The first tier is the study of “explanatory forces”, which entails
scrutinising institutional factors, such as particular types of national and industrial governing institutions, regarding their structures and operating mechanisms. Based on this contextual information, the researcher should examine what kinds of strategies firms (or other types of economic entities) deploy. The author gave two contrasting examples based on American experience: 1) a cost-driven mass production strategy based on low-skilled, low-paid workers and adversarial labour-management relations; or 2) long-term strategies driven by innovation and product quality, aiming to form a high-skilled, well-paid workforce that is oriented
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towards cooperation rather than confrontation with management. Firm strategies can be even more diverse depending on the degrees of centralisation and institutionalisation of collective bargaining, and researchers are supposed to reveal rich detail through the forming of strategies employing a longitudinal approach. In general, the primary analytical foci regarding this “explanatory force” are a) competitiveness or mass production oriented strategies and b) adversarial or cooperative labour-management relations.The next tier of inquiry focuses on the particular industrial relations or human resource practices deployed in firms, which include: 1) issues of staffing, employment security and job mobility; 2) pay arrangements; 3) skill formations, training and social welfare benefits; and 4) work organisation and employee participation. It should be noted, Kochan (1995, p. xxvi) admitted that these four types may not comprehensively cover all kinds of employment practices, but rather, it is anticipated that they will serve as a window on employment relations in most countries. Moreover, the enquiry should be aimed at revealing the relations between actors and the shaping of these practices at various levels. This approach also serves to provide a window on diversity within and across different firms, industries, regions and countries.
Finally, the economic and social performance of these practices are the last tier to address in a strategic choice study. These outcomes should not only be viewed as consequences of particular firms in terms of business performance and employment strategies, for they also need to be considered in terms of reflection or potential sources of change in the industrial relations setting at the societal level. In this regard, the chosen framework is sufficiently flexible to uncover the linkage between firm practices and outer-firm institutions, thereby shedding light on the nature of party-driven labour management. Moreover, case study research within state-owned organisations as found in China, should be designed to probe beyond the conventional role setting of industrial relations (state, manager and labour force). Despite there seemingly being a well-organised framework of employment relationships at the state level in China’s context (tripartite system), all the players are party-attached agents who represent various kinds of Party
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interests. Hence, to understand what kind of party-controlled mechanisms make it possible to balance diverse interests within SOBGs, it is necessary to scrutinise the strategic choices made by CCP organs at the firm-level. Only a good understanding on what the party thinks and how its decisions are executed, can lead to the acquisition of meaningful explanations regarding particular labour managing matters.Figure 4-1 Illustration of strategic choice framework
(Note: excerpted from Bamber, G.J. and Lansbury, R.D. eds., 1993, p. 23. International
Comparative Industrial Relations: A Study of Industrialised Market Economies. Allen and Unwin.,
adapted with small changes)
4.2.2 Propositional inquiring plan and case study template (before the pilot
study)
In the original plan of inquiry, an extended case study procedure entailing 3 or 4 cases was proposed. Each case was supposed to uncover contingent labour managing strategies that SOBG managers (or cadres with managing or administrative jobs) made in response to different market settings and ownership structures. The investigation was to start by gathering background documentary
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data at local the SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, or Guoziwei), the governing body of Shanghai’s local state-owned enterprises. That is, in order to target the initial case of this extended case study, a wide range of information regarding the corporations’ corporate structure, market strategies and performance would be needed during the time of research, which was located with the SASAC. After this stage, the case selecting and case study inquiries would proceed based on the findings and questions generated from the previous ones, until the extending process reached a “saturated status”, when no questions of interest are unanswered, in this case, in relation to building a typology of labour management.The proposed objective of typology building was based on the existing theories in relation to the diverging “regimes of production” in post-reform China. With a perspective of western-based labour sociology, Chinese workplaces have now become contested terrains between labour and management, exhibiting various forms (Lüthje, Luo and Zhang, 2013). Some profound differences in the regime of production across regions and ownership types have already been discussed, such as the divergence between the country’s northern state-owned heavy industrial areas and the export-oriented, heavily private and foreign dominated south (see Lee, 2007). Lüthje and colleagues (2013) further looked into such divergence by including more within-organisational factors, such as models of production, management systems and ways of performance control. Through in-depth empirical inquiry within enterprises, he developed a complex typology and pointed out that uniformities beyond the conventional boundaries of regions and industrial sectors exist, such as a weak labour voice in a tripartite system and disseminated human resource practices.
It is necessary to broaden this type of analysis to scrutinise other factors and to examine the potential divergence within regions and institutions. In addition, longitudinal data related to the shaping of policies and practices should be valued, since it is crucial not only to draw descriptive conclusions as to what kinds of divergence there are, but also what they mean. In light of these concerns, the
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original case study I proposed included three aspects of policies and practices adopted within organisations:a) Party’s control over management: this aspect of the inquiry was supposed to look at firm-level party organs’ behaviour for influencing particular managing matters. What were their responses to “Grasping Big and Letting Small Go” and what kind of new roles are party officials and apparatuses are playing in the aftermath of the “iron rice bowl” breaking?
b) Staffing strategy: what kinds of staffing strategy the state-owned corporations have adopted – recruiting large numbers of low-skilled, temporary workers or a long-term strategy focusing on cooperation and commitment.
c) Types of workforces: whether the workers in those state-owned corporations are associated under certain voice representing institutions, such as a firm-level ACFTU or other forms of formal or informal alternatives. The inquiry was also designed to investigate whether workers are willing to devote themselves to a long-term career in their current workplaces or prefer short stay temporary jobs.
In sum, for the original plan the aim was to explore China’s segmentation of diverses labour managing regimes by investigating the dynamic within Shanghai’s local state sector. It was hoped that a new typological theory would be generated through this procedure of extended case study research and moreover, provide understanding with regards to what such divergence within the local state sector means for the country’s industrial relations system shaping.