Social expectations, gender and job satisfaction: Front‐line employees in China's retail sector

• Author: Qihai Huang,Jos Gamble
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12066
• Date: 01 July 2015
• Published date: 01 July 2015

Social expectations, gender and job satisfaction:

Front-line employees in China’s retail sector

Qihai Huang, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, Lancaster

University Management School

Jos Gamble, School of Management, Royal Holloway – University of London

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 25, no 3, 2015, pages 331–347

This study aims to enhance our understanding of gender and employment in China. Analysing data

collected from over 1,800 employees at 22 foreign-invested and locally owned retail stores in eight

Chinese cities, it firstly explores whether, like their counterparts in Western countries, female employees

have higher levels of job satisfaction than their male colleagues. Secondly, it distinguishes the key

differential predictors of female and male employees’ job satisfaction levels. This article extends gender

role theory on job satisfaction by showing how traditional values, the structure of work and a nation’s

dominant gender ideology combine to shape women and men’s job satisfaction and work experiences in

a transitional context.

Contact: Dr Qihai Huang, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development,

Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster LA1 4YX, UK. Email: qihai.huang@

lancaster.ac.uk

Keywords: gender role theory; job satisfaction; multinationals; retail employment; HRM; China

INTRODUCTION

The growing importance of the Chinese economy has been paralleled by increasing

research on employment and human resource management in China. While this research

has often touched upon gender, few studies have focused specifically on women’s work

and careers (Cooke and Xiao, 2014). This study aims to contribute to our understanding of

gender and employment in China by drawing upon the social role theory of sex differences

(Eagly, 1987). We extend this theory by showing how China’s traditional values, the structure

of work and a nation’s dominant gender ideology combine to shape women and men’s

response to both the extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions of job characteristics, job satisfaction and

work experiences in a transitional context.

Job satisfaction is an important aspect of the quality of work (Brown et al., 2008; Brown and

Lam, 2008), and is often considered critical to organisations’ success (Heskett et al., 1994; Pfeffer,

1998; Brown and Lam, 2008). An important research theme examines gender differences in job

satisfaction. Frequently, this research indicates that women perceive either greater or equal

levels of satisfaction in their work than men, despite being paid less or being engaged in less

desirable occupations (e.g. Hodson, 1989; Clark, 1997; Sousa-Poza and Sousa-Poza, 2000a;

Bender et al., 2005; Lange, 2008; Aletraris, 2010). This paradox has been explained by

expectation theory. Clark (1997), for example, argues that job satisfaction is a function of

expectations; if women have lower expectations about labour market outcomes, their

expectations are more easily fulfilled. The assumption that women have lower expectations in

the workplace can be problematic as it begs the question why this should be the case. Gender

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits

use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12066

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 25 NO 3, 2015 331

© 2015 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Please cite this article in press as: Huang, Q. and Gamble, J. (2015) ‘Social expectations, gender and job satisfaction: Front-line employees in

China’s retail sector’. Human Resource Management Journal 25: 3, 331–347.

role social expectation theory (Eagly, 1987) can provide a means to better understand this

issue.

Until recently, most studies on employee satisfaction have been based on data collected in

Western countries, especially the United States and the United Kingdom (Nielsen and Smyth,

2008). However, determinants of job satisfaction may differ between cultures and countries

(Spector, 1997). Moreover, despite increased female employment, relatively few empirical

studies examine whether job satisfaction is gendered and its key determinants in developing

countries (Spector et al., 2007).

Our study examines the relationship between gender and key determinants of job satisfaction

among employees in China’s retail sector. It addresses two main questions. Firstly, do Chinese

female employees in this sector have higher levels of job satisfaction than their male counter-

parts like those in Western countries? Secondly, in these workplaces, what are the key predictors

of job satisfaction of female and male employees respectively? This article aims to further

understanding in three main respects. Firstly, it contributes to the gender and employment

literature and extends gender social role theory by utilising empirical insights from a transitional

context to interrogate theories drawn from Western contexts. Existing research on gender and

human resource management tends to focus on the experience of well-educated and highly

skilled professionals (e.g. Aaltio and Huang, 2007; Adya, 2008; Cooke et al., 2013; Cooke and

Xiao, 2014), but neglects less educated and lower skilled workers such as most shopfloor

employees in China’s retail sector (Gamble, 2011; Huang and Gamble, 2011). Watson (2012: 238)

suggests ‘that workers in routine jobs both find and seek satisfaction in work less than do those

in managerial, professional or highly skilled work.’ Secondly, it contributes to research on

front-line service work, a neglected sector despite the numerical dominance of service jobs

(Kerfoot and Korczynski, 2005). Retailing alone employs over 10 per cent of the total labour force

in advanced economies (Bozkurt and Grugulis, 2011). Typically, this is work in which women

predominate and is often associated with jobs considered of low social status and involving poor

conditions, such as low wages and limited career prospects (Bozkurt and Grugulis, 2011). In

addition, work in this sector is often distinguished by interaction between service employees

and customers. Thirdly, it is among the early research focusing on job satisfaction in China’s

retail sector. Studying this sector is important since China looks set to become the world’s second

largest consumer market by 2015 (American Chamber of Commerce, 2012). This makes it

attractive to foreign consumer brands and retailers, which need to understand how employees’

job satisfaction can be influenced in different environments (Sousa-Poza and Sousa-Poza, 2000b).

The next section reviews previous findings and arguments that explore employee satisfaction

and gender. These inform the hypotheses developed and tested in this study. The article then

introduces the research methods, followed by the empirical results. The final section comprises

the discussion and conclusion.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Job satisfaction is ‘a pleasurable or positive emotional state’ which is ‘a function of the

perceived relationship between what one wants from a job and what one perceives it is offering’

(Locke, 1976: 1300). Spector (1997: 2) defines job satisfaction as ‘the extent to which people like

(satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs’. In essence, job satisfaction is a subjective,

positive feeling or emotional state that a person perceives based on a variety of facets of the

work itself and the work situation (Christen et al., 2006). Rose (2003) suggests that five main

factors affect job satisfaction: the terms and conditions of the employment contract, work hours,

financial rewards, the work situation (job characteristics) and the work orientation of the

Social expectations, gender and job satisfaction

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 25 NO 3, 2015332

© 2015 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.