Critically Examine the Importance of Managing the Employee Relations Climate for Hrm in China

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Along with the New Labour Contract Law, the modern elements has also created a space for the trade unions to start new experiments with collective bargaining at enterprise level and tripartite consultation at higher levels within the potential limit of the socialist labour relations regime. Even though all unions in China belong to or are controlled by the “All China Federation of Trade Unions” (ACFTU), which is the country's main and only legal labor union is government controlled, and not really represent workers' interest and not protect workers’ right, this preemptive corporatist strategy in the case of the effect of wage negotiation on the gradual strengthening of workplace unions’ representational and bargaining capacity seems to have yielded some positive result. Furthermore, there is no chance that the ACFTU is going to taper off or that the government is ever going to allow individual, unaffiliated trade unions on the mainland, but if employees on the ground can get mobilized, there is a bit of hope that the workers will be able to take matters into their own hands.

However, these legislative changes and collective bargaining relations are seen to bring increased responsibility to employers. The increased controls and employee participation has significant challenges for employers including higher labour cost, less management autonomy, stronger employee bargaining power, and weaker control of labour mobility. These tensions may foster new ideas and perspective about employment relations climate.

- Regionalization of employee relations climate

The regionalization of industrial development of competing industrial centers along the East Coast and now in inner China is producing an increasing variety of employee relations practices across industries, companies and regions – ranging from established Chinese models of union workplace representation over European-style corporatism and bureaucratic paternalism as known from Asian countries to distinctively non-union regimes, which results in may challenges in the construction of harmonious employee relations climate.

- New generation fighting for rights

Increasingly, new generation migrant workers are taking a more active role in mobilizing collective action in defense of their own rights. Compared with first generation migrant workers, they demonstrate better knowledge of relevant labour laws and a stronger sense of protection of their own legal rights. Their adeptness in new media technologies and social networking tools also enable them to organize efficiently and to publicise their struggles effectively to a wider audience. All these creates a new challenge in managing employee relations climate.

Conclusion

Even though there is a key question on whether the new employee relations climate elements driven by modernization can deliver outcomes for workers and society measured by better working conditions, more voices for workers, and more equitable distribution of economic gains, it is ascertain that positive employee relations climate is an important and a pulling element in the modern market economy. Harmonious employee relations climate is not only conducive to promote social harmony, it is presence of a feeling of participation, open communication, sharing information, and trusting relationship in the organization, which reflects a high involvement, employee-centered culture that creates the conditions for employees to make a value-added contribution to improving company decision, HR initiatives execution, and hence company performance.

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