Productivity and labor management in Shanghai state-owned industrial enterprises

The present paper is based on a large three-year survey we carried out among Shanghai SOEs from 1989 to 1992, with a follow-up to 1995. We tried to assess the extent of the reforms, their impact, and the capacity of Shanghai SOEs to adapt to a more competitive environment. In this paper, I shall focus on one aspect of SOEs' management, namely the issue of productivity. Low and declining productivity has been one of the major features of SOEs in China and in Shanghai. By the time of our survey, Shanghai SOEs had been under reform for 8 years (1984-1992). Reforms in management, labor, marketing should have brought substantial changes. They had a serious impact indeed, but they failed to materialize into a real rejuvenation of SOEs.