Chinese multinational corporations’ responses to host country trade unions: An eclectic approach

Abstract

This paper explores Chinese multinational corporations’ responses to trade unions in host countries. Using an in-depth case study analysis of the policies on union representation and union–management relations in six Chinese multinational corporations, this paper demonstrates that Chinese multinational corporations’ responses to host country unions are primarily shaped by home and host institutions, rational choices of firms, and organizational learning. It concludes that while rational choice and institutional theory, the two dominant lenses used in existing literature, are helpful in understanding the industrial relations practices in multinational corporations, they need to be supplemented with an organizational learning perspective in an analysis of industrial relation practices in multinational corporations from emerging markets.