The Transformation And Mutation Of The Work Units Welfare

During the past30years of reform process in China, the end of the WorkUnits(Danwei) of Chinese society and the deconstruction of the work units system arethe most prominent feature with Chinese characteristics in China’s socialtransformation. Work Units(Danwei) system which presents a unique insight into theChinese social structure and the system transformation are of important significance.As an important characterization of the deconstruction of the Work Units(Danwei)system during the transition period, which is represented by state-owned enterprises, aseries of major changes between the individuals and the organizations have takenplace during the transitional period. This paper attempts to focus on this, especiallytaking the transformation and mutation of the Work Units(Danwei) welfare as abreakthrough point to explore the inner mechanism of the development and evolutionof the Work Units(Danwei) system especially in the state-owned enterprises.Under the premise of the continuity in the Chinese political system and thecontinuity of deepening the reform of China’s market economy, the transformationand mutation of the Work Units(Danwei) welfare are a complicated process. Thispaper is based on a large-scale state-owned enterprises in the northeast old industrialbase (H Plant). Through analyzing the development and evolution process of H Plantwelfare in a way of document-review method and interview method, this paperpresents a "deep description" of the process of the transformation and mutation of thework Units(Danwei) welfare. This paper is aimed at further exploring how to build amore reasonable and fair distribution of corporate welfare system, trying to providesome evidence of how to develop a more reasonable welfare allocation policy for ourcountry.This paper, based on the previous study, defines Work Units(Danwei) welfare as:in the state-owned enterprises, in order to achieve political mobilization, socialintegration, economic performance, the units will provide a variety of monetizationand the nonmonetary reward for the enterprise employees. Work Units(Danwei)welfare include dominant work unit welfare and recessive work unit welfare. Thesuperposition of the multiple benefits and the reproduction of state-owned enterprises led to the involution of the function of Work Units(Danwei) welfare, which is also thecause of state-owned enterprises "growth without development", even "still losemoney in the process of growth and thus lead to the plight of the performance-basedpolicy. As a result, Work Units(Danwei)welfare transition constitutes the importantcontent of the reform of the state-owned enterprises. In the paper "transformation"unit welfare is defined as: with the market-oriented reform and the WorkUnits(Danwei) system loosened, salary bonuses, the nonmonetary rewards, thedistribution and structure of benefits in the inner enterprise are experiencing atransformation process. This transition includes at least two aspects: first, our countryunder the consideration of the mechanism of efficiency and equity, aimed at thestate-owned enterprises, carry out the integrity adjustment of the distribution ofinterests, such as the adjustment of the yearly salary of the managers of thestate-owned enterprises; Second, the state-owned enterprise managers, after theygained the relatively independent right of management and disposition, they carrythrough a series of structural adjustment about interests which is aimed at differenttypes and levels of the employees in the inner enterprises. Both the state andenterprises as an independent action subject, their different cognition of WorkUnits(Danwei) welfare tend to result in the mutation of work unit welfare (Danwei).Work Units(Danwei) welfare mutation mainly displays in: the deviation betweennational welfare system and corporate welfare practice. In the process oftransformation of Work Units(Danwei) welfare, the interests of countries and theinterests of the enterprise belong to different interests, and the orientation of"autonomy" often make the welfare mechanism between them not in consistent witheach other. Work Units(Danwei) welfare mutation is precisely based on this, and inthe meanwhile lead to different welfare distribution between different WorkUnits(Danwei).Through the analysis of linking theory to experience, the paper figure out that inthe process of market-oriented reform, the evolution of the Work Units(Danwei)welfare in the state-owned enterprises shows the characteristics in the followingseveral aspects: first, the transfer of the function of the work units welfare fromone-dimension to multi-dimension; Second, the transfer of the work units welfarefrom dominant work unit welfare to recessive work unit welfare. Third, the transfer ofthe work units welfare from "equalization" to "individualized level "; Fourth, thetransfer from work units welfare to social welfare. According to the paper, against the background that in the new era, we should continue to deepen the reform ofstate-owned enterprises, the overall Work Units(Danwei) welfare tend to be weakened,but the Work Units(Danwei) welfare is not going to disappear. Instead, the newvariable form will appear constantly under a new environment.