Theory And Empirical Research On Enterprises’ Labor Relations Climate

With the transformation of labor relations in China, various problems of laborrelations arise and then quality of labor relations has become a major concern of moreand more researchers and management practitioners. As a significantsocio-psychological factor, labor relations climate is often used to describe the qualityof labor relations in organizations. It is an important factor for evaluating quality oflabor relations of corporate. A discussion of labor relations climate and the issuesinvolved has been made abroad. However, domestic study is still in the preliminarystage. The lack of researches on labor relations climate and the frequently occurredproblems of labor relations in China have formed an overwhelming disparity.What are the connotations and indicators of labor relations climate in China?How can we testify corporate labor relations climate scientifically and effectively?What are the factors that would affect labor relations climate? How does laborrelations climate affect organizations and individuals? How and to what extent does itinfluence its antecedents and consequences? To solve the above issues, in light ofsystem theories of labor relations climate, the present study analyses the elements oflabor relations climate, constructs its conceptual model, expounds its predictors andconsequent variables, and explores its mechanism of action on its antecedents andconsequences.Based on922valid questionnaires, some methods such as explorative factoranalysis and multiple linear regression models were used to verify the hypothesesderiving from the conceptual model. The main findings are showed as follows: firstly,labor union values of managers, employee voice, management style, andconsciousness of relationship are powerful predicted variables to the labor relationsclimate; secondly, unionization has no significant impact on enterprise labor relationsclimate; thirdly, labor relations climate has noticeable effect on organizationalperformance, affective commitment and union commitment of the staff, and theirlabor disputes, absence from work, accusation and complaint; fourthly, Laborrelations climate mediator the relationship between labor union values of managers,employee voice, management style and organization performance; Fifthly, Labor relations climate mediator the relationship between consciousness of relationship andaffective commitment, union commitment, labor conflict, absence, appeal, complaint.The main contributions and innovations of this dissertation are chiefly embodiedin three aspects. Firstly, in light of system theories of labor relations climate, itconstructs conceptual model of labor relations climate while it puts forward andexamines the framework of empirical research according to the conceptual model,combining the theories of labor relations climate with the empirical studies. In thissense, it enriches the study on labor relations climate and compensates for the lack ofanalysis of theories of labor relations climate, the lack of systematic analyticalframework and other deficiencies in previous empirical researches, which arebasically scattered. Secondly, it extends the elements of labor relations climate. Theearlier researchers measured labor relations climate mainly from thecooperate-opposite angle. However, the particularity of Chinese society leads to thefact that workers do not tend to be in opposition even though they have many gripes.That is to say, the indicator “cooperate-opposite” cannot completely reflect the realityof labor relations climate in China. Therefore, in line with Chinese situation, thepresent study comes up with another indicator of labor relations climate:active-negative and categorizes labor relations climate into four types in terms of thetwo indicators, cooperate-opposite and active-negative, deepening the study on laborrelations climate. Thirdly, a cross-cultural study on labor relations climate based onChinese situation is also made in this dissertation. Most formerly studies on laborrelations climate were conducted in North America. The differences’ in China’s laborunions and Chinese government determine the particularity of labor relations in China.It is of great value to ponder the connotation and efficiency of labor relations climateand to analyze the influencing factors, consequent variables and the mediator effect oflabor relations climate of Chinese enterprises, according to the theories and practiceof labor relations in China.The structure arrangement of the dissertation is as follows. Chapter One is theintroduction of the background in theory and reality, topics and significance of theresearch, and main method, structure arrangement as well as the innovations of thestudy. Chapter Two reviews the previous studies related with labor relations and labor relations climate, which lays the theoretical basis for the theoretical model in thisstudy. Chapter Three deals with the definitions, indicators division and theconstruction of conceptual model: it begins with the elaboration of relationmechanism between labor relations and labor relations climate, discovering thereasonableness and value of research on labor relations climate; then it moves on tothe definitions of labor relations climate and its indicators division, conforming toChinese situation; finally, in accordance with the conclusion of the literature review, itraises the conceptual model of labor relations climate, which is considered as thelogical basis of the follow-up study. Chapter Four is devoted to the reality ofcorporate labor relations in China. It explores the reality of labor relations ofenterprises under different economic systems and different ownerships, based onwhich the analysis of the reality of labor relations climate in China is conducted.Chapter Five contributes to the model of empirical research and the researchhypotheses. On the ground of the previous models of labor relations climate, it sets upthe model of empirical research and relevant theoretical hypotheses. Besides, itinquires into antecedents and consequences of labor relations climate and its mediatoreffect. Chapter Six is the empirical research of labor relations climate, which designs,selects and revises scales for the variables in the theoretical model to form thequestionnaire, tests the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, verifies theresearch hypotheses and discusses the research results. Chapter Seven concludes withfindings, implications and limitations, and makes some prospects for further study.