‘No, I cannot just walk away’: government career entrenchment in China
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852319884624 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
‘No, I cannot just walk
away’: government
career entrenchment
in China
Chung-An Chen
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Chengwei Xu
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract
Despite compromised work morale, Chinese public employees generally feel reluctant to
quit a public service job. The present study looks deeply into government career entrench-
ment, defined here as “public employees’ perceived career immobility due to the concern
for alternative career availability and substantial losses upon career shifting.” By using mixed
methods, the authors identify and measure four distinctive types of government career
entrenchment, namely, emotional cost, career investment, limited alternatives, and extrin-
sic rewards. Evidence further shows that emotional cost and extrinsic rewards are more
associated with positive work attitudes, while career investment and limited alternatives
aremorerelatedtonegativeworkattitudes.Attheendofthearticle,wediscuss howthe
developed government career entrenchment scale can be used for future research.
Points for practitioners
The findings show that public employees choose to remain in public service for various
reasons. Those who remain in order to secure extrinsic rewards have positive work
attitudes, whereas those who remain due to limited job alternatives have poor work
attitudes. Special attention should be given to employees entrenched by limited alter-
natives and career investment.
Corresponding author:
Chengwei Xu, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639818.
Email: xuchengwei1985@163.com
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020852319884624
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
2021, Vol. 87(4) 944–961
Keywords
China, government career entrenchment, public employees, risk aversion
Introduction
It is generally agreed that employees’ intention to stay in their current job or career
is closely related to their work attitudes and perceived fit with the environment.
Recently, a study based in the US showed that public employees are less inclined
than their private sector peers to remain in their current working sector (Chen
et al., 2019). This finding is fairly supported by the existing public management
literature: public employees experience more political interference and negative
bureaucracy, and, accordingly, their job involvement and organizational commit-
ment are much more compromised (Rainey and Bozeman, 2000). Poorer attitudes
may increase public employees’ intention to leave public service.
However, evidence from Chinese public employees shows the opposite: many of
them choose to remain in the public sector even if they are unsatisfied with their
current public service job. Scholars find that in Taiwan, where Chinese culture
dominates, poor work attitudes increase turnover intention only in the private
sector, but not in the public sector (Wang et al., 2012). A more recent Taiwan-
based study also indicates that, despite an aversive environment, public employees
are much less willing than their private sector peers to leave their current working
sector (Chen et al., 2019). In China, where we collected data for the present study,
President Xi’s administrative reform has largely removed various privileges, while
public employees’ workload, pressure, and anxiety have increased (Tan et al.,
2017). Nonetheless, the upsurge of employee dissatisfaction has never triggered
much turnover; a public service position remains rather attractive to the younger
generation (Wei, 2016; Zhou and Liu, 2015).
Indeed, in response to occupational obstructions, not everyone is highly adapt-
able and mobile. Many public employees perceive little possibility in career shift-
ing, feel that they must stay, and choose to decrease their level of aspiration in
order to adapt to negative aspects of their work situation, forming a “resigned
satisfaction”: they are self-convinced that their “work is not ideal, but there are
worse jobs” (Giauque et al., 2012; Quratulain and Khan, 2015).
Why do so many public employees feel reluctant to change their career track in
China today, even when their working experience is not entirely pleasant? The
literature on career entrenchment (Carson et al., 1995; Zacher et al., 2015) provides
some starting points: people often feel entrenched in a career because they are
skeptical about the future if they change their career track. After calculating mate-
rial investment, psychological investment, and available job alternatives, they
choose to stay in spite of adversities. Similarly, scholars who study occupational
commitment (Blau, 2003) propose that sunk costs in money, training, and other
945
Chen and Xu
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