What sort of workplace democracy can democratic management achieve in China?

Abstract

The year 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of democratic management (DM) provisions in China. DM, once predominant in state-owned enterprises, has now been extended to all enterprises. Democratising workplaces in China represents institutional experimentation. Both DM-related research and practice thus require updating. Ten years on, a social consensus on DM's orientation and legitimacy remains elusive. Can expanding DM inspire industrial democracy or strengthen Party control over market-oriented workplaces? Or is DM merely window dressing as previous studies suggest? This article aims to uncover the type of workplace democracy that DM can achieve in China. A triangle of DM is established and integrated with institutional theory as an analytical framework to explore the causes and characteristics of DM in six case companies.