The 2008 Labor Contract Law of China stipulates that all employment relationships must be covered by a written labor contract. This regulation considerably strengthened employment protection for workers. Using a unique longitudinal dataset, the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (2012, 2014, and 2016 waves), this article estimates the impact of the formal contractualization of labor relations on workers’ labor market outcomes, social insurance participation, and job satisfaction. We find that gaining a labor contract was strongly associated with an increase in salary, a decrease in working overtime hours, and greater participation in unemployment and pension insurances. In terms of job satisfaction, workers who gained a labor contract reported being less satisfied with their workplace environment and income than they had anticipated. This finding suggests that workers had higher expectations from the benefits gained through contractualization, than what they actually derived.

The paper discusses the concept of employee motivation in the workplace and its importance for organizational success. It highlights the gap in literature regarding the most effective ways to motivate employees, which mainly focuses on individual factors such as personality traits and motivational theories. The paper aims to explore the impact of both individual and organizational factors on employee motivation and to determine the most effective ways to motivate employees. The existing academic research on employee motivation is plagued by contradictions and inconsistencies, particularly regarding the emphasis on individual factors as the primary drivers of motivation and ignoring the impact of organizational factors. The paper argues for a more holistic approach to employee motivation that considers both individual and organizational factors. [译]本文探讨了工作场所中员工激励的概念及其对组织成功的重要性。它强调了关于激励员工的最有效方法的文献中存在的空白，这些文献主要集中在个人因素上，如人格特质和激励理论。本文旨在探讨个人和组织因素对员工激励的影响，并确定激励员工的最有效方法。现有的关于员工激励的学术研究充满了矛盾和不一致，特别是在强调个人因素作为激励的主要驱动力而忽视组织因素的影响方面。本文主张采用一种更全面的员工激励方法，同时考虑个人和组织因素。