Confucian values and zero-hour contracts: Sensemaking in workplace regimes at McDonald’s in China and the UK

Abstract

This article is based on a comparative analysis of precarious work and employment relations practices at McDonald’s stores in China and the UK. It applies the concepts of workplace regimes and sensemaking. The authors argue that in both countries recruitment policies, contracts and working time are manipulated by McDonald’s management as control mechanisms, but that sensemaking in different national institutional and cultural contexts produces variations in control styles and the manner of worker responses. The findings suggest that the work regime at McDonald’s China is partly shaped by Confucian values, an enduring feature of Chinese culture, leading to a form of patriarchal control and self-imposed subordination amongst the predominantly female and student workforce. At McDonald’s UK, arbitrary control is enabled by an institutional context of minimal worker protections (particularly zero-hour contracts) and an acquiescent workforce predominantly made up of young workers, economic migrants and other marginalized workers.