This thesis examines the role of microblogging in shaping public opinion and political participation in China with particular focus on the question of what sociopolitical implications and challenges that weibo phenomenon has brought to the Chinese society. I explore some of the prominent features of weibo for the role they plays in framing public sphere. Along with an in-depth study of two weibo cases, the results show that microblogging provide a unique platform for Chinese citizens to participate in civic engagement and to organize their collective opinions. The study also demonstrates that weibo has a significant impact on spurring social change. Further, weibo discourse encourages interaction between government and ordinary citizens, and it also changes traditional Chinese politics through enabling public political participation. However, the spread of rumors and network violence are some of the disadvantages inherent to the weibo phenomenon that should be of concern. More importantly, the analysis reveals that the initial reasons behind the weibo phenomenon were the long-term social conflicts and continuous information control by the state. Weibo certainly provides a remarkable platform for the freedom of speech but it should not be considered as a panacea for the social changes in China.

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In their highly influential work on the labour market impact of unions termed the collective voice/institutional response model (CVIR), Freeman & Medoff (1984) proposed that whether the unions monopoly or voice face would prevail greatly depended on the unions and managements willingness to compete or cooperate, respectively. However, these authors and the researchers that tested their ideas afterwards neither theorized about nor tested this key moderating condition of a unions impact. The result has been a confusing, mixed and generally inconclusive litany of research findings about the impact of unions at both the individual and organizational levels of analysis. I attempt to resolve this gap in CVIR by using the appropriateness framework (March 1994) to identify when and under what conditions management and unions, along with their members, will respond cooperatively or competitively toward each other. My empirical results are consistent with the idea that management response is a key moderating mechanism of a unions power and thus impact, contributing to zero or negative sum outcomes when management chooses to compete (i.e., union power is exerted in the direction of harmful monopoly effects) and positive sum outcomes when management chooses cooperation (i.e., union power is exerted in the direction of beneficial voice effects). In particular, when environmental cues lead the union and/or unionized employees to believe that management values voice, they will consider cooperation an appropriate response under the circumstances and reciprocate in-kind with other-regarding behaviors. On the other hand, when environmental cues lead the union or unionized employees to believe that management may potentially behave opportunistically, they will consider competition appropriate under the circumstances, and respond in-kind with self-serving, competitive behaviours. Drawing upon the resource-based view of the firm, I argue how a cooperative union-management relationship can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Barney, 1991). / Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations