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Social Science Academic Press: A Magnet for Female Employees

Xin Deng (Dr.)

Business School

University of South Australia, Australia

GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia

Email: xin.deng@unisa.edu.au Phone: 61-8-83020743

Acknowledgement: The case is produced with the financial support from Proya

Cosmetics under the Equal Employment Opportunities for Women project of

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of

Women (UN Women). However, the views expressed in this case do not

necessarily represent that of the UN Women or Proya. Generous support from

SSAP in fieldwork and case writing, and research assistance from Flora Ding

and Wing Lin are acknowledged and appreciated. We are grateful to Jenni

Ratilainen for her ideas and constructive suggestions throughout the project. All

the errors and mistakes are the sole responsibility of the author.

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Abstract: This case reviews the workplace practices of Social Sciences Academic Press

(SSAP), a leading publisher in China in the area of social sciences and humanities. It starts

with a controversial recruitment scenario where three recruiters need to decide between a

female and male job applicant considering the considerable family responsibilities of the

female candidate in the near future. After a brief introduction of the company’s background

and vision, three areas of SSAP’s workplace practices are presented: caring for employees

and protecting employees’ rights and benefits, respecting employees and creating a career

development path for talented employees, and creating a corporate culture of sharing and

harmony. In addition, a range of family-friendly workplace arrangements are highlighted.

Following that, employees’ perspective is explored through a survey to investigate employees’

job satisfaction, perceived organisational support, intention to leave and organisation

identification. The survey responses reveal a very high level of overall job satisfaction among

respondents, and very positive responses in terms of satisfaction regarding colleagues,

supervisors, work environment and career perspective. Respondents’ responses on most items

regarding the perceived organisational support are also quite positive: Only one item-

“company values my opinion” - gets less than one third of positive response, and all other

items have more than half positive responses. Employees’ positive perception of the company

is further supported with results on intention to leave and organisation identification. Less

than 10 percent of respondents consider leaving the company for another job, and nearly 60

percent respondents are committed to stay with the company in the long term. Most

respondents identified with SSAP well, caring for other’s opinions on SSAP and considering

the company’s success as their own success. While male and female respondents are similar

in most areas, there are distinct differences in terms of their perception on promotion

opportunities for male employees, dissatisfaction on pay and work-family balance.

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Social Science Academic Press: A Magnet for Female Employees

Jingjing shook hands with the last interviewee and closed the door behind him. Walking back

to the table, she smiled at the two other people in the room: “What do you think?” They had

just finished interviewing all four applicants shortlisted for the last round of interviews for the

position of Editor. Now it was the time to make their decision. Wei, the Deputy Director in

charge of the human resources portfolio, started: “In my opinion, the second and last

interviewees stand out: Both of them have a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and both are

high achievers among their peers with several publications and ample research experience.

Both are very knowledgeable in their own and related areas, which is important for this job.

Indeed, I slightly prefer the second interviewee. She is quiet in nature, but very focused and

patient and she has great communication skills. I looked at the work she included in her

application – so meticulously presented and I can’t spot any typos or punctuation errors. That

is a good indication that she can do this job very well. Of course, the last candidate has

strengths the second one lacks: He is more energetic and motivated and very outgoing so he

could be a good colleague to work with.” Hong, the manager of the division where the

position is located, reluctantly joined: “I agree with your judgement, but want to point out

that the second candidate mentioned that she would get married soon. So she will have to

take time off to have a child in a couple of years. May I also remind you that the government

just relaxed the ‘one-child’ policy? I already have two Editors in my team planning to take

maternity leave to have their second child. This is the main reason we need to recruit for this

position. I can see myself constantly dealing with staff shortages in the next five years if I add

another female employee to my team.”

There was an awkward silence upon her remarks. Everyone in the room understood that

Hong needed to meet the performance targets set for her division and a failure could mean

her bonus may be cut significantly. Even worse, her contract might not be renewed. Out of

the 20 employees in her division, 12 were female – the majority of them in their thirties.

Some of them already had one child and a few were considering taking advantage of the

newly issued government policy to have a second child. Having a female employee in her late

twenties on the payroll implied that Hong should factor in the possibility of two maternity

leave periods in the next few years. Should they just pick the male candidate to avoid all

these potential hassles ahead?

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This is not an unusual scene for interview panels at Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP)

when making a decision between job applicants. Part of the difficulty is that already two

thirds of employees at SSAP are female and management has been considering hiring more

males just in order to achieve gender balance. However, most times, the female applicant has

been superior to the male ones and so the panel considered they could not let her go. What

are the reasons that SSAP attracts so many high quality female job applicants? Has the

company’s performance been dragged down by the large body of female employees? How do

the managers perceive and deal with the issue of the family responsibilities of female

employees? Let’s start our quest for the answers with a brief history of the company.

Company Background

SSAP is a relatively new player in the publishing industry. Established in 1985, it is one of

the publishing arms under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) – the top

research institute under the direct administration of the State Council and operates under the

leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. CASS is regarded as

the top research institution in China in the area of philosophy and social sciences. SSAP was

first set up as a self-financing institution with independent budget。 In 2010, SSAP

transformed into an independent enterprise following government policy. SSAP’s

performance in the last 30 years can only be described as stunning.

The publishing industry in China is highly competitive with nearly 600 publishing houses

formally registered and approved by The Bureau of News and Publishing. Theoretically, all

of them could be potential competitors with SSAP. In practice, however, not all of them focus

on publishing academic books in social sciences and humanities, which is the target segment

of the market for SSAP. Nevertheless, it has to directly compete with over 100 publishing

houses. Surviving in this industry is hard enough, but SSAP is not surviving, it is thriving.

Rising from a small publishing house with 20 employees, SSAP is now the leading publisher

in China in the area of social science and humanities. The average annual growth rate of

SSAP in terms of revenue in the last 30 years is an astonishing 20% and there is nothing to

indicate it has lost the momentum for future growth. In 2015, SSAP published 1,898 titles

including 406 reprinted ones containing 551 million words. In addition, it publishes 72

journals including 4 English language journals. They generated an annual revenue of 230

million RMB with a before tax profit of 47.68 million RMB (SSAP 2016b). As shown in

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Table 1, the revenue and profit in 2015 is not an exception, but is built on the solid growth of

the preceding years.

SSAP sets its primary goal as publishing “authoritative, cutting edge, and original” titles

(SSAP 2016a). Its corporate motto is “producing classics of broad and long-lasting influence

both within academia and beyond”. It has several highly successful book series. Its yearbook

series, for example, publishes annual reports compiled by leading scholars on China’s latest

developments in virtually all areas including economy, society, education, environment,

culture and the law. There are more than 200 titles published under this series each year. It

has become the “must-have” collection for all universities and major libraries in China and

occupies a special shelf in many major bookstores. In fact, SSAP is one of the top 10

publishers in terms of presence in library collections. It is also the leader in setting the

standard for academic publishing and was in charge of drafting standards for 10 academic

areas. Its presence is not limited to mainland or Chinese-speaking regions. By 2014, it had

established long term collaborations with over 40 publishing houses and academic

institutions including Springer, Brill, Routledge, Oxford and Cambridge. Its current activities

are not limited to only publication. It has two research centres and it hosts a research hub for

post-doctors. It also regularly hosts conferences, seminars and book exhibitions.

Although highly profitable, SSAP does not see maximising profit as its goal. Instead,

corporate social responsibility is an important item on its agenda. It is the first publishing

house releasing corporate social responsibility reports. As shown in Figure 1, it has sound

corporate governance structures with its seven functioning departments. Working with the

communist party committee, the board of directors makes strategic decisions to be carried out

by an operations and management committee. This committee in turn is under the supervision

of a supervision committee, a disciplinary committee and the congress of employee

representatives. SSAP’s corporate social responsibility covers seven areas: industry,

academia, clients, collaborators, employees, environment and society (SSAP 2014). Given

the theme of this case, it is appropriate to take a closer look at practices related to SSAP

employees.

Workplace Practices

SSAP’s workplace practices have been developed around three principles: people orientation,

sunshine entrepreneurship and happy sharing. In terms of people orientation, SSAP cares for

its employees’ needs and constantly views its employees’ interests as the key to sustaining

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company growth and development. For “sunshine entrepreneurship”, SSAP aims to create a

relaxed working environment, utilizing its employees’ expertise and creating a platform for

them to display their talents and pursue their ambitions. When SSAP promotes “happy

sharing”, they are talking about shouldering corporate difficulties and challenges as a whole

and working together towards the same goal, as well as sharing the benefits from the

company’s growth and development (SSAP 2016a).

The workplace practices at SSAP are largely divided into the following three areas1:

Care for employees and protection of employees’ rights and benefits: Most employees in

SSAP are on a contract，the company abides government’s requirement to pay for five

mandatory insurances and housing accumulation fund for all employees. In addition, the

company purchases various commercial insurances for its employees such as Personal

Accident Insurance and Commercial Medical Insurance. It also funds an established

employee medical fund, a major illness scheme and supplementary medical support for

employees’ children. Apart from paid annual leave2, employees can take paid sick leave of up

to 30 days each year.

SSAP also goes beyond what the law requires to care for its employees. It surveys their

employees each year to ensure they are happy with their work and to try to identify any

emerging issues. Each time an employee is hospitalised, union representatives pay a visit and

bring fruit and flowers to the employee. For employees who have financial or personal

hardship, the company provides additional financial support. In 2014 alone, the company

provided 16,000RMB in cash to employees in need (SSAP 2015). Each employee also

receives a maternity grant on the arrival of a new baby. Beijing is notorious for its high

property prices. An ordinary 3 bedroom apartment 20 kilometres away from city centre could

cost millions and monthly rents are in thousands of RMB. SSAP offers a dormitory for

employees who are single or live away from their family and has offered free bus services for

employees living in the dormitory. In addition, it has created a “House Supporting Fund for

Young Employees” to lend up to 100,000RMB interest free funding to employees who need

to pay a deposit on their property. For employees who do not have any special needs, a

400RMB gift card on their birthday is a reminder that the company still cares for them. There

1 The following information is drawn from a combined sources of interviews with senior management, company’s reports and website. 2 According to “Regulation of Employees’ Paid Annual Leave” issued by The State Council (2007), employees are entitled 5 days of annual leave upon completion of 1 year employment, and 10 days of annual leave after completing 10 years of services, and 15 days of annual leave if they have worked for more than 20 years.

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are also family-friendly workplace arrangements to be discussed in the latter part of this

section.

SSAP endeavours to create a safe and healthy working environment. The company has a

safety committee that ensures safety requirements and procedures are strictly adhered to. Fire

drills are conducted on a regular basis. The company invested 80,000RMB in 2013 and 2014

to upgrade and maintain the safety equipment. Being in a heavily polluted city, the company

also installed air purifiers in every office to improve air quality in the workplace.

SSAP aspires to be more than a safe and clean workplace - it wants to create a special

workspace for its employees. Green Place is an onsite place for meeting and relaxation. It can

be utilised for meeting clients, catching up with colleagues, or holding a seminar. It has the

appearance of a café with shelves of books and antiques separating the floor into three areas.

There are tables with seating from 2 to 12 people and special tables to make traditional

Chinese tea. The moment you step in, you feel like you have stepped into a tea room full of

history and culture. Books on the shelves quietly display the achievements of the company;

people behind the bar are friendly and attentive showing they are happy with their job. Most

importantly, each employee receives a voucher of RMB200 per month which they can spend

on coffee, freshly squeezed juice or anything they like in the Green Place.

Respect employees and create a career development path for them: SSAP understands

the importance of respect and career development. It has an evaluation and remuneration

management committee overseeing the remuneration, welfare and performance evaluation of

employees. It has a well-established human resource management system underpinned by a

competitive remuneration scheme with clear career path supported by the company.

Remuneration and Reward: Given the different natures of different jobs, SSAP has developed

different remuneration schemes ensuring career development of employees in each stream of

position, and ensuring that employees are adequately rewarded for their contribution. In

principle, all employees who have met certain performance criteria receive a pay rise each

year – normally around 10%. In addition, it also offers a special remuneration package for

outstanding talents in their new business areas such as international publishing and internet

marketing. Based on their performance evaluation, employees are offered a base salary

supplemented by short term, medium term and long term incentives for performance. In

addition to their regular salary and bonuses, individuals and teams with outstanding

performance can receive special rewards from the Director of Reward Fund.

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Training and Development: SSAP invests heavily in both internal and external training. In

2014 alone, they held 16 internal training sessions for 640 people - equivalent to 5,520

employee hours. 112 employees also attended 58 external training sessions totalling 4,224

hours. SSAP does not stop at offering training; it actively provides opportunities for

employees to further develop their abilities (SSAP 2015). Key personnel are sent overseas to

attend international conferences, international book exhibitions, visit or even work in

overseas publishing houses. In 2014, 57 people were supported overseas. In addition to ad

hoc training and development, they have a formal “mentoring scheme” and a “job rotation

scheme”. The former is designed to help junior staff and the latter targets both junior and

managerial staff. Employees are encouraged to move to other divisions of the company to

attempt different roles and find the most suitable position for them. Managers, especially

those in the administrative division are encouraged to take part time roles in the business

division to get a sense how the business is run on daily basis. Job rotation helps people to

develop multiple skills and better understanding of the operation in other divisions. In this

way they can work together more efficiently and be more sympathetic with the difficulties

faced by their colleagues.

Career Path: While the core staff for any publishing business is the Editor, SSAP does not

neglect the career aspirations of its other employees. As shown in Table 2, they divide the

positions into two series: the professional and managerial series. The professional series is

further classified into five categories: editorial, research, sales, marketing/service, and

technical. Each category has 4 to 5 steps that would allow employees to rise to the top. To

reward the best editors – their core personnel, they also set a special title: famous editor,

designed for editors who are highly influential and have made outstanding contributions in

the field of academia.

Creating a corporate culture of sharing and harmony. As a company engaging in the

business of culture, SSAP pays great attention to developing its own culture. The most

important part of sharing at SSAP is to share the benefits of growth with the employees. Each

year, a significant proportion of profit is used to increase employees’ salary, and employees

are offered the opportunity to purchase a share of SSAP’s new ventures. It also organises

time for social activities to connect the employees. Apart from the Green Place, it devoted

funds to the union to spend on improving the employees’ general wellbeing. The union

bought table tennis tables and gym equipment for employees to use during work breaks. In

addition, the union organised a range of activities such as a Lantern Festival riddle

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competition, Christmas drinks, and a photography competition. Their Youth League has

organised activities for younger employees including a basketball and a badminton

competition. In 2014, it organised a group wedding for four couples. Each year, SSAP has

organised team building activities to reinforce their corporate culture. Chinese New Year is

the most important festival in China and is also an opportunity for employees to get together

to display their talents. Each year, employees get onto the stage to sing, dance, and act.

Performance is not only a good way to demonstrate their employees’ talents outside work but

also a perfect way for them to get to know each other and to work together. In 2015,

employees put on stage a one-hour play telling the story of their own company - a great

present to celebrate SSAP’s 30th birthday.

SSAP also has a range of practices in place to allow employees to better address their work

and life balance.

Flexible Hours: Employees are offered the option to have flexible hours wherever their duty

allows. In principle, all employees can choose their own starting and finishing time as long

as it does not impact the operation of their own division or related departments. Editors are

assessed on the quality and quantity of the work they complete instead of the hours spent in

the office, so they have even more autonomy with their working hours.

Work from Home: Employees are allowed to work from home provided they obtain the

necessary approval from their line manager. Editors, for example, are only required to be

present at the workplace on Tuesdays, a day when meetings and social activities are

scheduled. If they choose to come to work on other days, they receive 25RMB to compensate

them for their travel time. Other employees in need are encouraged to discuss work for home

matter with their supervisors to organise an arrangements suitable for both the employees and

the department.

Care Plan in Three Periods: SSAP has a care plan for female employees spanning three

periods - pregnancy, delivery and nursing. This care plan includes special arrangements for

female employees’ working hours, workload and remuneration. In terms of working hours,

employees who are pregnant or are nursing can work one hour less than their colleagues in

the same role and can take personal leave if they feel uncomfortable, without the need to

produce any supporting documentation. They can also negotiate their workload with their

manager depending on their physical status and the nature of their work. In principle, their

manager should not require them to take on business trips or heavy physical work when they

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are pregnant. The remuneration of employees who are pregnant or nursing should be the

same as before as long as they carry out their normal duties. If they cannot attend to their

normal duties, they can apply for “standby” until the end of the nursing period. They will be

paid minimum wages set by the Beijing municipal government and be re-employed in their

original position once their standby period has finished. Male and female employees are

entitled to paid paternity and maternity leave following relevant policy stipulated by Beijing

Municipal Government. Female employees who have had a miscarriage can have leave

between 15 to 90 days depending on the stage of the pregnancy.

Women only seminars and activities: Each year, there are seminars and activities especially

for female employees. In 2014, SAPP organised several talks around the theme “Elegant

Women, Healthy Women”. External speakers were invited to discuss mental health, culture

and independence. Female employees are encouraged to attend and communicate with other

female colleagues. There are also yoga classes for employees. While this is not restricted to

female employees, they are the main participants.

Employees’ Perspective

While the stunning performance of SSAP is perhaps enough to underscore the success of the

workplace practices， it is important to go one step further to see how they are perceived by

employees and how they influence employees’ perceived organisational support, their

intention to leave and their job satisfaction. The researcher first explored the company’s

website and annual reports in the last five years to gain an understanding of the history,

vision and culture of the company as well as the ideology behind their human resources

policy. Interviews were carried out with senior management and questionnaires were

distributed to employees.

Three interviews were conducted with senior management of SSAP: the deputy director in

charge of the human resources (HR), the manager of human resources and the chairwoman of

the worker’s union. The main issue discussed in the interview was the organisation’s SSAP’s

human resources policies, especially the ones that support female employees. The deputy

director introduced the history of SSAP and the evolvement of their HR management policies.

He stressed that the ideology behind their overall HR policy is to support the employees and

provide them with the opportunity for personal development. The HR manager outlined the

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HR policies to care for employees and to develop employees’ careers. The union chairwoman

explained the activities organised by the union e.g. the Youth League and the committee for

female employees. All of the interviewees pointed out that the motivation behind their work

and policies is to create a working environment that allows employees to achieve their

potential, which will eventually benefit the company. Most of the information provided from

the interviews and company documents is presented in the previous sections.

Subsequent to the interviews, questionnaires were distributed to employees over a three day

period in September 2016, and 118 questionnaires were returned with the majority of

questions answered. Apart from general information, the survey asked the respondent’s

thoughts on a range of statements covering gender roles, career opportunity, perceived

organisational support, organisational identity, intention to leave and overall job satisfaction.

Table 3 shows the summary statistics of the respondents. 80% of the respondents are female,

and nearly half of them are under 30 years old. More than half of the respondents have a

Master’s degree and 10% have a doctoral degree. Three quarters of the respondents are

employees without managerial duties. Young and highly qualified are the two outstanding

features of the respondents, which is representative of SSAP’s workforce.

Figures 2 to 8 summarise employees’ responses in respect of job satisfaction, career

opportunity, perceived organisational support, organisational identity and intention to leave.

As shown in Figure 2, over 60% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were

satisfied with their job and only 1 female respondent disagreed with the statement. Among all

the areas of job satisfaction, colleagues scored the highest, with 78% of respondents who

agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am happy with my colleagues.” Results for

other categories were supervisors (72%), working environment (67%) and career perspective

(51%). The only indicator that less than half of respondent were happy with is pay. While it

looks alarming at first glance, there was no male respondent disagree with the statement, and

just over 20% female respondents disagree with the statement. We asked two further

questions regarding job satisfaction: “Considering my qualification and my contribution to

the company, I am satisfied with my current position (pay).” The positive response is much

higher for these two questions (58% and 46% respectively). More interestingly, there is a

higher proportion of female respondents being positive about these two statements.

Four statements were presented to test the employees’ perception of equal opportunity:

“Everything held equally, male employees have a better chance to get promoted in my

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company.” “Time permits, I can attend different trainings offered by my company”, “Female-

friendly HR policies are one of the reasons for me to choose to join the company”, “I often

neglect my family due to my work commitment.” In terms of male-preferential promotion

opportunity (first statement), there is much higher proportion of female respondents (41% vs

22%) who agreed with the statement indicating more can be done to promote female

employees. There is, however, hardly any difference in terms of training opportunity with

over three quarters of respondents agreeing with the statement. While just over 10% of

respondents said that female-friendly practices is one of the reasons they chose to join SSAP,

only 21% think they have neglected their family because of work commitment. There is a

much higher proportion of female respondents (45%) who disagreed with the statement

indicating that female employees in SSAP were able to balance family and work life well.

We tested respondents’ perceived organisational support through four statements. Over half

of the respondents agreed that the “company will help me if I encountered a problem at work”

as well as “I will be forgiven if I made a mistake at work and reported it to my supervisor”.

But only 30% agreed that “my company values my opinion” and 40% agreed that “my

company cares for my welfare”. Despite the slightly low positive responses in the last two

statements, very few disagreed with them either: only 2 respondents disagreed with the

second statement, and less than 10 percent disagreed with the first and last statement, and 14

percent disagreed that the company values their opinion. Overall, the outcomes indicate a

very positive reflection on perceived organisation support despite there is room for

improvement in seeking employee’s feedback.

Intention to leave perhaps better reflects an employee’s organisational commitment.

Responses towards two negative statements and one positive statement indicate a high level

of organisational commitment. Less than 10% respondents agreed with the statements “I

always think about resigning” “I may leave the company for another job next year”, and

nearly 60% of respondents agreed that “I plan to stay in the company to develop my career.”

Statements regarding organisational identification also indicate employees identify with the

organisation. For example, 64% of respondents agreed that “I feel a praise for the company is

also a praise for myself” and 57% of respondents took offence when other people criticised

their company. Half of the respondents care about other people’s opinion about the company

and consider the company’s success as their personal success.

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Numbers sometimes speaks louder than words. The overwhelmingly positive responses from

the employees in all the areas surveyed indicates that SSAP has a workforce that is happy at

work, satisfied with their working conditions, highly committed, identify with the company’s

vision and intend to grow within the company. Is it the secret ingredient for SSAP’s success?

The Deputy Director’s answer is: “Employees’ success is our company’s success.”

********

Back to the interview room, Jingjing broke the silence: “I recall we had a similar

conversation 5 years ago. We interviewed Mei and could not decide whether to hire her or

another candidate, as Mei had a one year old son at the time of applying to the job. We

worried that she could not concentrate on her work with a young child.” Hong smiled: “I am

glad that we made the decision to hire Mei. She has shouldered so many responsibilities for

me, I can go to holiday relaxed knowing that she is around.” Wei added: “Director Xie was

really impressed by her abilities and was talking about placing her in the Chief Editor’s

office.” To that suggestion, Hong replied with haste: “No way! Each time I have a good staff

member you guys steal her from me. I have already let you take 5 people from me in the last

few years - this has to be stopped! How am I going to meet my KPIs by losing my best

employees all the time?” “By recruiting more and making them working harder.” Jingjing

answered jokingly. Hong sighed: “Looks like that is the only way. Let’s go for that lady this

time. But we do need to seriously consider gender balance issues in our company – I can’t

imagine how my division is going to function with half of the team on maternity leave.” “I

am sure there will be a solution.” replied Wei. “By the way, the finance department informed

me that the raw profit of your division is 17 million RMB last year! Well done!”

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Discussion Questions:

1. An inevitable issue faced by organisations when hiring female employees is their need

to take maternity leave. With the relaxation of the one-child policy, the length of

maternity leave may be doubled. If you were a manager deciding on whether to hire a

male or a female candidate, what are possible reasons for you to choose the female

candidate? Would the situation be different if men and women both could take

parental leave, like in many Nordic countries? What types of action can a company

take to prevent gender-based discrimination during the recruitment process?

2. One of the concerns management has in terms of introducing family-friendly

workplace practices is that male employees may feel left out or unfairly treated.

Looking at the survey results and Table 4, discuss what contributes to employees’ job

satisfaction.

3. Survey results indicate that only a small proportion (15%) of the respondents said

female-friendly workplace arrangements was one of the reasons for them to join the

company. Indeed, there is a much higher proportion of female respondents who

disagree with this statement compared to males (40.2% vs 17.4%). If such practices

do not form a major reason to motivate employees to join an organisation, is it still

worthwhile for an organisation to develop family-friendly workplace arrangements?

4. The proportion of female respondents who consider that male employees have better

promotion opportunities is double than that of the male respondents (41.4% vs 21.7%).

On the other end, there proportion of female respondents who disagree or strongly

disagree that they neglected family responsibilities due to work commitments is also

almost double than that of that of male respondents (44.5% vs 26.1%). Discuss

society’s expectations on male and female’s role in a family and work, and how

meeting those expectations can affect a woman’s career advancement?

5. Have you experienced or heard of any other forms of recruitment discrimination

(such as requiring household registration for certain jobs)? Do you consider they are

justified? How do you compare them with job advertisements excluding female

applicants?

6. What are the most striking gender differences in the survey responses? Where could

they be coming from?

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Table 1: Summary of Indicators 2011 to 2015

Revenue (million RMB)

Profit before Tax (million RMB)

No. of Employees

Female Employees

% of female employees

Turnover Rate (%)

Proportion of Female Managers (%)

2015 230 47.68 377 249 66.0 10.05 57

2014 200 40.61 351 231 65.8 7.4 56

2013 160 35.31 310 205 66.1 4.8 54.8

2012 143 35.05 277 174 62.8 7.6 61

2011 127 28.38 233 143 61.4 15.5 51

Source: Social Sciences Academic Press (2015) and Personal communications with company’s human resources manager.

.

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Table 2: Career Paths at SSAP

Pro

fess

ion

al

Ser

ies

Editorial Research Sales Marketing/Service Technical

First Editor Chief Research Fellow Senior Manager Chief Manager Chief Technician

Eminent Editor Research Fellow Manager Manager Senior Team Leader

Senior Editor Deputy Research Fellow Junior Manager Senior Team Leader Team Leader

Middle Editor Assistant Research Fellow Assistant Team Leader Technician

Junior Editor Apprentice Researcher Assistant Assistant

Man

ager

ial

Ser

ies

Senior Director, Deputy Director, Chief Editor, Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Chief Editor, Assistant Director,

Assistant Chief Editor

Middle Division Manager, Division Chief Editor, Department Chief, Division Deputy Manager, Division Deputy Chief

Editor, Department Deputy Chief,

Junior Division Assistant Manager, Division Assistant Chief Editor, Editorial Office Chief, Department Assistant Chief,

and Project Manager

Employee Assistant

Source: Social Sciences Academic Press (2015)

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Table 3: Summary Statistics of Survey Respondents

Observations

Sex Male 23

Female 92

Age ≤ 20 0

21 - 30 50

31 - 40 47

41 - 50 14

51 and over 3

Qualification Bachelor 37

Master 59

Doctor 12

Other 8

Position Staff 88

Junior management 16

Middle management 9

Senior management 3

Note: The total does not add up to 118 due to missing answers.

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Table 4: Proportion of respondents who disagree (D) or strongly disagree (SD) with the job satisfaction statements

Satisfaction Male Female Overall D&SD

Pay 0.00 21.74 17.39

Working environment 4.35 2.17 2.59

Supervisor 0.00 2.17 1.72

Colleagues 0.00 0.00 0.00

Career Perspective 0.00 5.43 4.31

Overall 0.00 1.09 0.86

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Figure 1: Organisational Structure

Source: SSAP (2014).

SSAP

Supervision Committe

Board of Directors

Strategy Committee Editorial CommitteeManagement and

Operation Committee

Joint VentureEditorial

DepartmentNew Business Department

Research Department

MarketingInformation and Digital Publishing

DepartmentServices

Performance Evaluation and

Reward Committe

Comittee of Employee

Representatives

Communist Party Committee, Disciplinary Committee

Academic Resource

Development Committee

Asset Management Committee

International Publication

Committee

Information and Digital

Publishing Committee

Design Working Committee

20

Figure 2: Job Satisfaction

Note: The number is the percentage of respondents who answered agree and strongly agree with the following statements: “I am very satisfied

with my pay”; “I am very satisfied with my work environment”, “I am very satisfied with my supervisor”, “I am very satisfied with my

colleagues”, “I am very satisfied with my career perspective”, “Overall, I am very satisfied with my current job”.

34.8

56.5

73.978.3

60.9

78.3

32.6

72.274.4

78.9

50.0

61.1

PAY WORKING ENVIRONMENT

SUPERVISORS COLLEAGUES CAREER PERSPECTIVE

OVERALL

Male Female

21

Figure 3: Reward vs Contribution

Note: The number is the percentage of respondents who answered agree or strongly agree with the following statements: Considering my

qualification, experience and my contribution to my company, I am satisfied with my current position”, “Considering my qualification,

experience and my contribution to my company, I am satisfied with my current pay”.

56.5

43.5

61.4

48.3

SATISFIED WITH POSITION CONSIDERING CONTRIBUTION

SATISFIED WITH PAY CONSIDERING CONTRIBUTION

Male Female

22

Figure 4: Perception of Career Opportunity

Note: The number is the percentage of respondents who answered agree or strongly agree with the following statements: “Everything held

equally, male employees have a better chance to get promoted in my company”, “Time permits, I can attend different trainings offered by my

company”, “Female-Friendly workplace arrangements is one of the major reasons for me to apply to a job in this company”, “I often neglect my

family responsibilities due to work commitments”.

21.7

78.3

10.0

18.2

41.4

75.3

15.3

22.7

BETTER PROMOTION OPPORTUNITY FOR MALES

TRAINING OPPORTUNITY FEMALE-FRIENDLY POLICIES MOTIVATES JOB APPLICATION

NEGLECT FAMILIY DUE TO WORK COMMITTEMENTS

Male Female

23

Figure 5: Perceived Organisation Support

Note: The number is the percentage of respondents who answered agree or strongly agree with the following statements: “My company cares for

my welfare”, “My company values my opinions”, “My company will provide me with assistance if I encounter difficulties at work”, and “I will

be forgiven if I made a mistake at work and reported it to my supervisor”.

43.5

26.1

52.2 52.2

40.2

32.6

57.555.7

CARE FOR MY WELFARE VALUE MY OPINION HELP AND ASSISTANCE FORGIVE MISTAKES

Male Female

24

Figure 6: Intention to Leave

Note: The number is the percentage of respondents who answered agree or strongly agree with the following statements: “I often think about

resigning”, “I may leave and move to another company next year”, and “I plan to stay with my company in the long term to develop my career”.

8.7

13.0

52.2

9.26.9

60.7

ALWAYS WANT TO RESIGN LOOK FOR JOB NEXT YEAR LONG-TERM STAY IN COMPANY

Male Female

25

Figure 7: Organisation Identification

Note: The number is the percentage of respondents who answered agree or strongly agree with the following statements: “I care about other

people’s evaluation of my company”, “My company’s success is my success”, “I feel praise for myself upon hearing praise for my company”,

and “I feel like being personally insulted upon hearing criticism of my company.”

60.9

52.2 52.2

56.5

45.5

51.1

69.3

59.6

CARES ABOUT OTHERS' EVALUATION ABOUT COMPANY

THE COMPANY'S SUCCESS IS MY SUCCESS

FEEL PROUD UPON HEARING PRAISES FOR COMPANY

OFFENDED WITH CRITICISM OF COMPANY

Male Female

26

References:

1. Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) (2014): Maximising the Value of Research

Output of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Output – Corporate Social

Responsibility Report of SSAP 2012 to 2013.

2. Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) (2015): Corporate Social Responsibility

Report of SSAP 2013 to 2014.

3. Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) (2016a): Talent Recruitment.

http://www.ssap.com.cn/cpyc/rcln/. Accessed on Sep 10, 2016.

4. Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) (2016b): Summary of This Year’s Work.

Company’s document.

5. The State Council (2007): Regulation on Employee’s Paid Annual Leave.

http://www.gov.cn/flfg/2007-12/16/content_835527.htm.