ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question raised by the Peking University student on ‘Does China has industrial relations (IR) equivalent to that exists in the west’? Consequently, workers’ reliance on the shop floor’s bargaining and firm’s voice mechanism may have significant managerial implications, especially with reference to strategic human resource management (SHRM). E. Friedman and S. Kuruvilla provided several reasons for China’s recent labor market instability, which is worthy of note as it is related to the choice of SHRM approaches to ‘voice mechanism’ and grievance management adopted at the firm level. Furthermore, research on the labor relations management by Chinese firms operating inside and outside China would not only be promising, but also help identify the gap between the Chinese IR system and the mainstream of labor relations as often understood in the west. Both manufacturing and service sectors represented more labor unrest and disputes.
