Migrant workers in China tend to suffer from inferior status and hardship in the workplace. Domestic private enterprises have become highly market-oriented and have been criticized for exploiting workers; however, some of them have started to pay increasing attention to motivating and retaining workers. The well-being of migrant workers is worthy of study. This study collected survey data from migrant workers in two Chinese private enterprises in the cosmetics industry, aiming to probe how a harmonious and supportive working environment may benefit workers. It is argued that HR???s assistance to line managers can be conveyed to workers via supervisors, leading to perceptions of a supportive working system (represented by the behaviour of HR, managers and supervisors). This kind of system is likely to promote employees??? identification with the organisation and social exchanges with organisational members. Further, these may improve workers??? psychological state and cooperative worker relations. This thesis starts by presenting migrant workers??? experience and discussing how HRM is practised in Chinese private enterprises. Studies of organisational support are introduced as a foundation to explore the influences of HR on employee outcomes???emotional exhaustion and co-worker assistance???through the mechanism of supervisor support. The results validate the substantial role of effective HR assistance to line managers and the role of the supportive supervisor in improving employees??? well-being and in facilitating helping behaviour among co-workers. Finally, implications for management practices and future research are considered.

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Littéralement « petite soeur travaillant pour un patron », le terme dagongmei désigne la main d’œuvre chinoise féminine salariée non qualifiée composée de jeunes filles non mariées souvent originaires de milieux ruraux, et migrant hors de leur village, parfois hors de leur province pour trouver un emploi. Les dagongmei représentent une catégorie de travailleuses précaires, main d’œuvre occasionnelle facilement interchangeable produite par les politiques de développement économique de la Chine au cours des quatre dernières décennies. Depuis les années 90, la médiatisation de scandales sur les conditions de travail des sujets dagong retentit en Chine et au niveau international, appelant les entreprises à repenser leur rôle social. D’autre part, face aux inégalités socio-économiques et politiques qui déterminent les parcours actuels des Chinoises, le gouvernement adopte un positionnement s’affichant comme résolument en faveur de l’empowerment des femmes. Cette thèse porte sur un groupe de jeunes femmes issues de villages ruraux de la province du Yunnan et employées à Kunming dans une entreprise à capitaux étrangers se définissant comme fonctionnant de manière socialement responsable et pourvoyeuse d’empowerment pour ses employées. Si le projet de modernité et de mondialité de la Chine a façonné de nouveaux sujets-travailleurs dagongmei et dagongzai, par la transformation de corps de migrants ruraux en corps de travailleurs industriels, quels sujets dagongmei un projet d’entreprise socialement responsable se propose-t-il de contribuer à produire ? Comment penser les processus d’individualisation au sein de groupes subalternes selon une perspective prenant en compte les rapports sociaux de sexe ? / Literally "little sister working for a boss", the term dagongmei refers to the unskilled, unmarried, often coming from rural areas female labor force, migrating out of their villages, sometimes out of their province to find a job. The dagongmei represent a category of precarious workers easily interchangeable produced by China's economic development policies over the past four decades. Since the 1990s, the media coverage of scandals on working conditions of dagong subjects increased in China and internationally, calling on companies to rethink their social role. On the other hand, considering the socio-economic and political inequalities that determine the current paths of Chinese women, the government adopts a positioning that is resolutely in favor of women's empowerment. This thesis focuses on a group of young women from rural villages in Yunnan province who are employed in Kunming in a foreign-owned enterprise that defines itself as socially responsible and empowering its employees. If the project of modernity and globality of China has shaped new subjects-workers dagongmei and dagongzai, by the transformation of bodies of rural migrants into bodies of industrial workers, what subjects dagongmei a socially responsible enterprise project to contribute to produce? How can we think of the processes of individualisation within subaltern groups from a perspective that takes into account the gendered relations?