Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2009, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (4): 26-58.

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Contracting the Mentor-Apprentice Relationship and Labor Politics:A Case Study on a State-Owned Manufacturing Enterprise in Northeastern China

  

  • Online:2009-07-20 Published:2009-07-20

Abstract:

Apprenticeship is a form of institutional arrangement for skill impartment in Chinese stateowned enterprises (SOEs). During the period of command economy, apprenticeship worked fine as the major means for imparting skills in SOEs. But in the process of marketizing SOEs, apprenticeship is experiencing a crisis. The differences in the effectiveness of apprenticeship before and after the reform of the SOEs are due to the existence or absence of the coordinating mechanism in the corporate governance to provide the compatible institutional arrangement. Contracting the mentor-apprentice relationship has changed the nature of the mentorapprentice relationship: from a nonmarket relationship structure to a market relationship structure. This change has led to the emergence of labor politics regarding the controlling power of skills and influenced the production order in the enterprises.

Key words:  institutional compatibility, labor politics, mentor-apprentice relationship, non-market coordinating mechanism