This book is comprised of two parts. The first part explores the process of institutional changes of the Chinese-style employee participation from a historical perspective by detailedly combing through the institutional changes of employee participation since the founding of the People's Republic of China (1949-2020) and the process, mechanism, conditions and existing problems pertaining to employee participation in organizational affairs/demographic management of enterprises. The author posits that employee participation in China has exhibited a distinct characteristic of top-down governmental domination since the very beginning, that is, it has been continuously explored and driven, to a large extent, by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and governments, in accordance with the needs arising from specific situations. It wasn't until the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up, especially the development and increasingly sophisticated non-state-owned enterprises that a variety of bottom-up participatory modes emerged due to the intrinsic requirements of human resources management, giving rise to a diversity of representational forms of employee participation in China. However, in general, the top-down institutional arrangements have always played a significant influence on, and shaped the forms of, employee participation in China across different historical phases. In addition, the author also found that the motivation, target, form, area and authority of employee participation across different historical phases were, to a large extent, determined by contemporary political and economic environments and operating status of enterprises.

The forms of employee participation in China exhibit a high degree of continuity, which is particularly so with the direct, full-member participation in the labor process that has been extensively advocated when it came to labor competition and reasonable advice. With respect to indirect participation implemented by representatives, two major channels have been in place for a long time: First, participation in management institutions through individual representatives, as exemplified by the early factory management commission and the current employees as the members of the board of directors or supervisors; the other channel is a collective participation like the congress of employee representatives, which has become a basic form of employee participation in China or democratic management in enterprises.

In this book, the author presents data of two nationwide sample surveys conducted in 2007 and 2017, and carried out a comparative analysis in order to observe the institutional practices of employee participation and the trend of its changes in China.

First, employee participation in China has generally shown an improving pattern over the past 10 years, as manifested by an increase in participatory opportunities and authorities, as well as in the utilization rate of various participation channels. This also indicates that on the one hand, the participation institutions and arrangements provided by enterprises to employees have been improved, and the awareness of participation among employees themselves has also increased. Non-institutional participation of employees, however, exhibits a weakening trend, as exemplified by a reduction in employees’ non-institutional participatory behaviors within organizations and the willingness of non-institutional participation without organizations. Further, in terms of the intrinsic structure, the improvement in employee participation in China over the past 10 years is mainly concentrated in the labor process, that is, the participatory institutional arrangements made by enterprises are mainly designed to encourage employees to improve work efficiency and thus promote corporate performances. Indeed, when it comes to matters concerning employees’ immediate or vital interests, enterprises also adopt a tolerable or encouraging stance for employee participation. As such, there is a high consistency between the institutional design and practice of employee participation in China.

Additionally, the book also provides a special analysis of the influencing factors for employee participation and its social functions. With respect to influencing factors, some of the findings of the research are basically consistent with our common sense. For example, employees holding an advantageous position in the enterprise structure, especially those with a higher professional title, tend to have better participation opportunities and authorities; however, such a difference also exhibits a weakening trend. In the meantime, the author also finds that contrary to our common perception, the ownership type of enterprises seems to have little effect on employee participation, while what really exerts significant influences is company size. Generally, the smaller the company size, the better the employee participation. Nonetheless, at both the individualistic and organizational levels, the opportunities and areas for employee participation in China show a convergent trend.

In terms of the social functions of employee participation, the author’s research has validated the observation of some of earlier studies, that is, employee participation not only improves employees’ work identification but also reduces their willingness of non-institutional participation outside of organizations. Interestingly, however, factors that can most improve employees’ work identification but also reduces their willingness of non-institutional participation outside of organizations is participation opportunities instead of participation authority. This indicates, to a certain extent, that as long as participation opportunities are provided, there will be positive effects; it also points to the fact that participation in itself is a value target and an integral part of good working conditions.

To sum up, with people's recognition of and requirements on working conditions continuing to grow, employee participation should be considered as an important dimension to which adequate attention is attached. Organizations should establish appropriate participation channels across various areas, provide participation opportunities and delegate reasonable participation authorities, facilitating the formation of a community of shared destiny between employees and organizations while promoting the fulfillment of grassroots democracy within organizations. Indeed, employee participation has now become a broadly recognized concept of value and thus an important element of institutional environment or social expectation that has to be faced by organizations.