Abstract: Existing research points out that social relations are crucial in governing employment relations and eliciting commitment but fails to clarify how they work in different contexts. Using an employer-employee nested dataset and interview records in the Yangtze Delta, this study addresses the effect of employer-employee native-place ties on employees’ organizational commitment and how the effect is moderated by a firm’s internal labor market. This study finds that native-place ties can enhance employees’ organizational commitment, especially when the ties are stronger and constructed at a higher level. The firm’s internal labor market functions as an effective moderating variable: when the internal labor market becomes more open and provides more upward opportunity for its employees, native-place ties become less effective in promoting organizational commitment.

The Journal of Chinese Sociology 2018(5):3