Institutional antecedents and performance consequences of employment security and career advancement practices: Evidence from the People's Republic of China

In this study, we examine the provision of employment security and career advancement opportunities in firms of diverse institutional ownership and the impact of such practices on employee and firm outcomes. The sample included 478 state-owned and non-state-owned firms (i.e., domestic private firms, Sino-foreign joint ventures, and wholly-foreign-owned firms) in the People's Republic of China. We found that the provision of employment security was greater in state-owned than in non-state-owned firms. The provision of career advancement opportunities in domestic private firms and Sino-foreign joint ventures was similar to that in wholly foreign-owned firms, but greater than that in state-owned firms. The provision of career advancement opportunities was positively related to employee organizational commitment, citizenship behaviors, and firm performance. The provision of employment security was positively related to employee organizational commitment, but not to citizenship behaviors or firm performance.