Informal institutional constraints and their impact on HRM and employee satisfaction: evidence from China's retail sector

Abstract

This paper seeks to assess whether informal institutions can affect human resource management practices. Specifically, we examine whether the social norm of respect for authority, an important informal social institution in countries like China, constrains employee participation, and whether this affects employee satisfaction in foreign-invested and state-owned retailers in China, respectively. Data are derived from questionnaires completed by almost 1900 employees at 22 foreign-invested and state-owned retail stores in nine Chinese cities. We indicate that a norm such as respect for authority can operate as a constraint on human resource management practices such as employee participation with related impacts upon satisfaction levels in foreign-invested and state-owned retailers, but that these play out in unexpected ways.

Keywords:

• China
• HRM
• institutions
• participation
• respect for authority
• retail

Acknowledgement

This article is a result of research sponsored by the ESRC/AHRC under its Cultures of Consumption Programme award number RES-143-25-0028 for the project ‘Multinational Retailers in the Asia Pacific’.