Prolonged Selection or Extended Flexibility? A case study of Japanese Subsidiaries in China

Abstract

In this paper, the author considers the role of actors in re-institutionalising employment practices at the subsidiary level. The findings lend support to the argument that actors have considerable space to navigate through institutions, creatively deploy agencies of institutions and manoeuvre employment practices. The research is based on intensive case studies at two Japanese-Chinese jointventure manufacturing companies. Both subsidiaries play low-cost production functions within the MNCs and develop a core-periphery division of the workforce to enforce labour cost control. However distinctive management choices exist at subsidiary level to manage the boundaries between the core and the peripheral groups of employees.