The Past and the Future of Employee Voice: Shenzhen’s High Technology Industry

Can a nation’s technology future be linked to its past? This article discusses employee voice, as defined in terms of discretionary and constructive behaviour that challenge the status quo, within the innovative, fast growing high technology industry in China. It provides insight into factors shaping employee voice in this under-researched knowledge-intensive sector of China that has emerged rapidly since the economic reform. It suggests the notion of employee voice among the highly skilled knowledge workforce can only be understood in terms of technological convergence and cultural divergence.

Keywords

employee voice; high technology; cultural divergency; Shenzhen

JEL Classifications

J59, L69, M12, N35, N95, O43