Social Sciences in China, 2021

Vol. 42, No. 3, 2021

The Organizational Working Conditions from a Governance Perspective: An Analytical Framework

(Abstract)

Zhang Yan and Li Hanlin

To pursue high-quality development, China needs to create new working conditions for workers to improve the quality of their work. “Working conditions” refers to the kind of working climate and state that people perceive in their organizations, a perception will have an important impact on their organizational behavior. Improving the working conditions of an organization is actually a social process of organizational governance. In observing organizational working conditions from a governance perspective, it is necessary to take into consideration “embeddedness” as a structural background and the work unit (danwei) as an institutional vehicle. It is imperative to emphasize both organizational order and the subjective perceptions of individuals. It also essential to analyze the organization's social solidarity, its conflicts and integration and its protections and inclusion, the participation of its members, their interaction and the structure of their roles, and the organization's structure and functions. This analytical framework provides a more comprehensive picture of organizational governance, which in turn reflects the organization's working conditions and provides insights into overall research and dialogue in the disciplinary field of working conditions.

Keywords: order of organizational governance, subjective perception, embeddedness, work unit