IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v37y2023i6p1699-1716.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managerial Technique and Worker Subjectivity in Dialogue: Understanding Overwork in China’s Internet Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaotian Li

Abstract

The article theorises three different organisational processes that uniquely organise and normalise overwork in China’s Internet industry: coercive formalised overtime schedule, normative informal overtime culture, and disguised work-related time expenditure, work-for-labour. It reveals the ‘double flexibility’ in management strategy, namely, flexible, combined use of coercive and normative control techniques inside the company in addition to its pursuit of flexibility in employment relationships. It then theorises the pendulum movement of worker subjectivity between the ‘self-as-business’ metaphor, which justifies market competition as meritocracy and encourages individuals to polish ‘employability’ in overwork efficiently, and ‘self-as-property’ metaphor, which reflects a conventional, Marxist understanding of employment relationships. The pendulum movement is manifested in the spectrum of workplace behaviours, ranging from the individualised psychological distancing to the collective noncompliance and online activism. The article provides a dynamic understanding of labour relations through the management-labour dialogue in the Chinese Internet industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaotian Li, 2023. "Managerial Technique and Worker Subjectivity in Dialogue: Understanding Overwork in China’s Internet Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1699-1716, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:6:p:1699-1716
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170221092585
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170221092585
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170221092585?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Thompson & Diane van den Broek, 2010. "Managerial control and workplace regimes: an introduction," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1-12, September.
    2. Chris Smith, 2006. "The double indeterminacy of labour power," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 389-402, June.
    3. Colin Hawes & Eng Chew, 2011. "The cultural transformation of large Chinese enterprises into internationally competitive corporations: case studies of Haier and Huawei," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 67-83.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alex Veen & Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods, 2020. "Platform-Capital’s ‘App-etite’ for Control: A Labour Process Analysis of Food-Delivery Work in Australia," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(3), pages 388-406, June.
    2. Ivanova, Mirela & Bronowicka, Joanna & Kocher, Eva & Degner, Anne, 2018. "Foodora and Deliveroo: The App as a Boss? Control and autonomy in app-based management - the case of food delivery riders," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 107, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    3. Sharon C. Bolton, 2009. "Getting to the heart of the emotional labour process: a reply to Brook," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(3), pages 549-560, September.
    4. Elena Baglioni, 2022. "The Making of Cheap Labour across Production and Reproduction: Control and Resistance in the Senegalese Horticultural Value Chain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(3), pages 445-464, June.
    5. Simon Schaupp, 2022. "Algorithmic Integration and Precarious (Dis)Obedience: On the Co-Constitution of Migration Regime and Workplace Regime in Digitalised Manufacturing and Logistics," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(2), pages 310-327, April.
    6. Alex J Wood, 2018. "Powerful Times: Flexible Discipline and Schedule Gifts at Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(6), pages 1061-1077, December.
    7. Laurence Romani & Patrizia Zanoni & Lotte Holck, 2021. "Radicalizing diversity (research): Time to resume talking about class," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 8-23, January.
    8. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    9. Catherine Casey & Helen Delaney, 2022. "The effort of partnership: Capacity development and moral capital in partnership for mutual gains," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(1), pages 52-71, February.
    10. Wood, Alex & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy," SocArXiv y943w, Center for Open Science.
    11. Rutvica Andrijasevic & Devi Sacchetto & Ngai Pun, 2020. "One firm, two countries, one workplace model? The case of Foxconn’s internationalisation," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(2), pages 262-278, June.
    12. Claudio Morrison & Devi Sacchetto & Richard Croucher, 2020. "Migration, Ethnicity and Solidarity: ‘Multinational Workers’ in the Former Soviet Union," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 761-784, December.
    13. Harvey, Geraint & Turnbull, Peter & Wintersberger, Daniel, 2021. "Has Labour Paid for the Liberalisation of European civil aviation?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Arianna Tassinari & Vincenzo Maccarrone, 2020. "Riders on the Storm: Workplace Solidarity among Gig Economy Couriers in Italy and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(1), pages 35-54, February.
    15. Rikap, Cecilia, 2022. "Becoming an intellectual monopoly by relying on the national innovation system: the State Grid Corporation of China's experience," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    16. David Jordhus-Lier & Anders Underthun & Kristina Zampoukos, 2019. "Changing workplace geographies: Restructuring warehouse employment in the Oslo region," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(1), pages 69-90, February.
    17. Rocio Bonet & Marta Elvira & Stefano Visintin, 2024. "Hiring Temps but Losing Perms? Temporary Worker Inflows and Voluntary Turnover of Permanent Employees," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 83-102, February.
    18. Yu Zheng & Chris Smith, 2018. "‘Chicken and Duck Talk’: Life and Death of Language Training at a Japanese Multinational in China," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(5), pages 887-905, October.
    19. Dyson, Simon M. & Atkin, Karl M. & Berghs, Maria J. & Greene, Anne-Marie, 2021. "On the possibility of a disabled life in capitalist ruins: Black workers with sickle cell disorder in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    20. Patricia Harrison & Helen Collins & Alexandra Bahor, 2022. "‘We Don’t Have the Same Opportunities as Others’: Shining Bourdieu’s Lens on UK Roma Migrants’ Precarious (Workers’) Habitus," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(2), pages 217-234, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:6:p:1699-1716. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.