Promotion as a Power-Building Process — Exploring the Influence Mechanisms of Managers' Promotion in Chinese Private Firms

Speaker: Yinxi Dong, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, Tsinghua University; Visiting Ph.D. Candidate, Stanford University

This study aims to study what influences managers’ promotion in Chinese private firms. In contrast to prior studies predominantly centered on the rational decisions of entire organizations or the impact of social structural factors, this research shifts focus to CEOs’ considerations in power-building and associated promotion strategies. Using data from the China Employer-Employee Matched Survey (CEEMS) in 2017, we unveil two distinctive promotion strategies of the CEO. Promotion is the CEO’s strategy to enhance their professional power and political legitimacy. Our findings contribute a power-centered perspective to the understanding of promotions and intra-organizational power dynamics. Furthermore, they reflect how Chinese private firms’ dual systems of the institutional environment influence the leader’s power strategies and promotion decisions.
 

About the Workshops

The SCCEI Young Researcher Workshops are a bi-weekly series of presentations from scholars around campus who are working on issues related to China’s economy and institutions. The aim of the series is to bring together young scholars by providing a platform to present new research, get feedback, exchange ideas, and make connections. Each session features a single presenter who may present a new research plan, share results from preliminary data analyses, or do a trial run of a job talk or conference presentation. The Workshop Series is an opportunity to give and receive feedback on existing research, get to know other researchers around campus who are working on or in China, and be a testing ground for new ideas, data, and presentations.

Workshops are held every other Thursday from 1 - 2 pm. Afternoon refreshments will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present.