How managers use culture and controls to impose a ‘996’ work regime in China that constitutes modern slavery

The paper investigates how unrestricted global capitalism and a Confucian culture of hierarchy and obedience combine to create a form of modern slavery in China. The cases cited involve semi-structured interviews with 11 managers and 19 workers working in the hospitality and manufacturing sectors. The interviews are analysed to determine how managers use controls to exploit power/distance, high levels of insecurity, and unenforced labour rights to impose harsh working conditions. Prior research has examined what mechanisms are imposed in a society that retains a Confucian legacy of obedience but not ‘how’ they are imposed in a way that constitutes a form of modern slavery.