Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:09:03.505Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reforming China's State-owned Enterprises: From Structure to People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2017

Li-Wen Lin
Li-Wen Lin*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Chinese Communist Party has recently unveiled its new agenda for state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform. Most attention to date has focused on structural reform through the so-called “mixed ownership” policy. This article is to direct attention to a critically important yet much less analysed item on the SOE reform agenda: the professionalization of the SOE executive personnel. This article provides an empirical study on the managerial elite of China's financial and non-financial SOEs. The findings suggest a politically constrained management approach in the Chinese state-owned sector. Moreover, an innovative analysis of the SOE executive career patterns reveals that the state-controlled banks and industrial SOEs employ divergent human resource management methods. The anatomy of the SOE managerial elite in this article provides a timely evaluation of the recent SOE reform policy and a richer understanding of China's state-owned sector from a comparative capitalism perspective.

摘要

中国共产党最近公布了其最新的国企改革议程。目前多数评论者的眼光多专注于股权结构的改革, 即所谓的混合所有制。然而, 国企领导人的专业化是一项极重要惟较少研究关注的国企改革政策。本文以实证研究的方式分析金融与非金融国企的高管背景, 其研究结果显示中国国有企业有着政治上束缚的管理方式。此外, 本文以一种创新的方式对国企高管职业经历进行分析, 其结果显示金融与非金融国企展现出不同的人力资源管理配置方式。本文对于国企高管的解构对当前的国企改革政策提供了及时的评价, 并且从比较资本主义的观点对中国国有企业有更深的了解。

Keywords

state-owned enterpriseChinamanagerial elitecadre managementbusiness groupprofessionalization国有企业高管干部管理企业集团专业化
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 229 , March 2017 , pp. 107 - 129
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brødsgaard, Kjeld Erik. 2012. “Politics and business group formation in China: the Party in control?” The China Quarterly 211, 624–648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, John P. 1994. “Strengthening central CCP control of leadership selection: the 1990 nomenklatura .” The China Quarterly 138, 458–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, Jerry, Lemmon, Michael L., Pan, Xiaofei, Qian, Meijun and Tian, Gary Gang. 2014. “Political promotion, CEO incentives, and the relationship between pay and performance.” Working Paper.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Hon S. 2004. “Cadre personnel management in China: the nomenklatura system, 1990–1998.” The China Quarterly 179, 703–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Hon S. 2009. “Politics over markets: integrating state-owned enterprises into Chinese socialist market.” Public Administration and Development 29, 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Hon S., and Rosenbloom, David H.. 2009. “Public enterprise reforms in the United States and the People's Republic of China: a drift toward constitutionalization and departmentalization of enterprise management.” Public Administration Review 69(s1), 538–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Zhihong, Guan, Yuyan and Ke, Bin. 2013. “Are stock option grants to directors of state-controlled Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong genuine compensation?” The Accounting Review 88(5), 1547–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Gerald F. 1991. “Agents without principles? The spread of the poison pill through the intercorporate network.” Administrative Science Quarterly 36, 583–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fligstein, Neil, and Zhang, Jianjun. 2011. “A new agenda for research on the trajactory of Chinese capitalism.” Management and Organization Review 7(1), 39–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, Gang. 2005. “Party recruitment of college students in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 14(43), 371–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2005. “Regulatory innovation by Leninist means: Communist Party supervision in China's financial industry.” The China Quarterly 181, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Bobai, and Walder, Andrew G.. 2001. “Career advancement as Party patronage: sponsored mobility into the Chinese administrative elite, 1949–1996.” American Journal of Sociology 106(5), 1371–1408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Cheng. 2005. “The rise of China's yuppie corps: top CEOs to watch.” China Leadership Monitor 14 (Spring), 1–18.Google Scholar
Lieberthal, Kenneth, and Lieberthal, Geoffery. 2003. “The great transition.” Harvard Business Review 81(10), 70–81.Google ScholarPubMed
Lieberthal, Kenneth, and Oksenberg, Michel. 1988. Policy Making in China: Leaders, Structures, and Processes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Li-Wen. 2013. “State ownership and corporate governance in China: an executive career approach.” Columbia Business Law Review 2013, 743–800.Google Scholar
Lin, Li-Wen, and Milhaupt, Curtis J.. 2013. “We are the (national) champions: understanding the mechanisms of state capitalism in China.” Stanford Law Review 65, 697–760.Google Scholar
Lin, Nan. 2011. “Capitalism in China: a centrally managed capitalism (cmc) and its future.” Management and Organization Review 7(1), 63–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGregor, Richard. 2010. The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. New York: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Pei, Minxi. 2012. The Myth of Chinese Meritocracy, http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-myth-of-chinese-meritocracy. Accessed 22 November 2016.Google Scholar
Ren, Bing, Au, Kevin Y. and Birtch, Thomas A.. 2009. “China's business network structure during institutional transitions.” Asia Pacific Journal of Management 26(2), 219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walder, Andrew G. 2011. “From control to ownership: China's managerial revolution.” Management and Organization Review 7(1), 19–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, Carl E., and Howie, Fraser J.T.. 2011. Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise. Singapore: Wile.Google Scholar