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Abstract
Increasingly complex social and labor issues are becoming a major concern affecting Chinese
companies in their pursuit of a growth and profitability. While disciplinary research has delved
into basic facets of job satisfaction, less attention has been given to tackling the applicability of
influential international corporate responsibility benchmarking initiatives. Using Social
Accountability SA8000 standard as a tool, our study aimed to explore the facets of employee
perceptions of their organization’s ethical behavior through a survey of 835 employees from
twenty export processing and labor-intensive private manufacturing SMEs in the Pearl River
Delta of China. Results of our semi-confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the SA8000
standard is able to capture some core dimensions of employee sentiments towards their
employer’s ethical behavior. Based on the applicability of a four-dimensional measurement
scale, including employee benefits and welfare, discrimination, work health and safety, and
corporate governance, our results build ground for further examination of business ethics and
employee job satisfaction in manufacturing companies.