8 Organizations and Management in China

Abstract

China’s economic transition and its integration into the global economy have been widely recognized as among the most important social changes in the past three decades. This transformation has attracted scholarly attention from multiple disciplines, and sociologists have made particularly important contributions to literature emphasizing theories of organizations, organizational change, and management practice. In this article, we present a critical review of the state of sociological literature on organization and management issues in the transition process. We focus on studies that explore how organizations shaped the trajectory of China’s economic transition, how organizations affect important social and economic outcomes during transition, and the unique challenges that managers face in China’s transition context. We conclude with suggestions for resolving central debates and future research directions.

Notes

1. There are many excellent descriptions of the process by which transition began in various countries. I will not review those studies here (Guthrie, 1999; Naughton, 1996; Nee, 1989; Tsui, Bian, et al. 2006; Walder, 1996a).

2. The version of new institutionalism that Nee develops is distinct from new institutionalism in the sociological study of organizations (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991; Meyer & Rowan, 1977).

3. The term “politicized capitalism” is relatively new (Nee, 2005b; Nee & Opper, 2007), but it describes ideas that Nee and colleagues have been developing for years.

4. Some estimates of the extent to which entrepreneurship has grown might be overestimated because of differences in definitions of entrepreneurship (Róna‐Tas & Saga, 2005).

5. Boundary blurring is closely related to Stark’s notion of recombinant property (Stark, 1996), although boundary blurring can also refer to blurring of boundaries between legal and illegal markets.

6. Market transition has been criticized repeatedly since Nee first proposed it (Bian & Logan, 1996; Róna‐Tas, 1994; Walder, 1996b; Xie & Hannum, 1996). We do not review those critiques here to conserve space, but thorough discussions of the related debate are available elsewhere (Keister, 2008).