Impact of Job Rotation System on the Employees Performance - Based on Chinese State-owned Enterprises

Human capital is always considered as the most valuable asset of an organization, which affects the overall profitability of companies. However, some studies have found the problems caused by unmatched skills and specific job vacancies, highlighting the significance of job rotation system. This study aims to explore the impact of job rotation system on the performance of employees from Chinese state-owned enterprises (via training, commitment, development chances), utilising human capital theory and ability, motivation, opportunity theory. This study also seeks to investigate the moderators of aforementioned relationship. This study employed a synthesized literature review to investigate the relationship between job rotation and employee performance based on a 10-year longitudinal and comprehensive analysis of prior studies. It is obvious that individual as well as organizational performance significantly change after rotation regardless of industries. Meanwhile, from numerous data collected previously, we find that gender has no significant influence from job rotation to employee performance, whereas age and tenure are playing important roles in moderating the relationship. With the findings summarized from this study, several practical recommendations are given accordingly to human resource departments in state-owned enterprises, scholars and researchers in relevant field.


Research Background
Owing to the rapid development of globalisation, technological innovation, increased business competition and the need to maintain a competitive edge, last decade has witnessed a drastic increase on the need for corporations to attract and retain talent (Esteban-Lloret et al., 2018).Comprehensive training has been considered one of the most effective highperformance work system practice in terms of talent cultivating as well as retaining.
Vol 13, Issue 11, (2023) E-ISSN: 2222-6990 Elnaga and Imran (2013) define training in human resource field as program that provides staff with the adequate job-related knowledge, occupational skills, or increased professional opportunities.Similarly, Morley et al. (2016) further explain employee training with the concept of human capital, stating that training brings about the logical growth of the behaviors, knowledge, and abilities required by the labor force to effectively (in time and with high quality) complete any task that has been allocated to them.Continuous learning environments should be provided to employees so they can keep up with the organisations' vision and mission.However, the current educational system in China does not give students the specialized information required for a particular job position in business context (Teng et al., 2019).As a result, the labor force has few workers who possess the knowledge, appropriate skills, and competences needed for the employment roles that are now available on the market.Due to this, businesses have been obliged to set up substantial internal and external training programs that both meet employee demand and improve business performance (Njoroge and Kwasira, 2015).In a prior study investigating the influence of human resource management practice in health sector conducted by Mutua (2017), he found that training can be carried out using a variety of techniques, including off-the-job and on job training.When it comes to job training methods, this include providing workers with practical tools in a working setting.Job rotation, orienting, mentorship, coaching, and demonstration are widely acknowledged as the most effective training techniques.By moving an employee from one department to another, Akbari and Maniei (2017) define work rotation as a planned onthe-job training aimed at advancing the employees' awareness of the job procedures, thus enhancing the employees' abilities and contribution to the enterprises.To improve employee output, Kuzey (2012) shed the light on concept of job rotation as a welldesigned training technique, arguing that it improves the physical and mental health of the labor force by cultivating favorable attitudes to the workforce, escalating variability of work via boredom, reduction, and displaying intrinsic-motivation toward specific job positions.Tarus (2014) also concurs that the job rotation approach, when correctly executed in accordance with corporate goals and human resource strategies in an organization, could serve to excite the human mind during the course of various challenges.

Problem Statement
After decades of reform and opening up, China now accounts for over a quarter of the Global 500 with 145 companies on the list in 2023, among which 59% are Chinese state-owned enterprises (Hagy, 2023).A state-owned enterprise is legally recognized as organisation who carries out business operations on behalf of its governmental owner.From being a component of the government to stock firms with the state as a regular or dominant stockholder, their legal standing varies.The legal status of state-owned enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SOEs) varies from being a part of government to stock companies with a state as a regular or dominant stockholder.And the term state-owned enterprise (SOE) is often used interchangeably with another term government-owned corporation (GOC).Although several previous researches have sought to examine the relationship between comprehensive training practices and employee performance as reviewed in below chapter, these findings have not been consistent.Besides, only a few studies focus on the specific and innovative job rotation strategy and none of them concentrate on powerful business giants, state-owned enterprises in China.Thus, this literature gap motivated the researcher to further explore the relationship between job rotation and performance of employees working for Chinese state-owned enterprises.To better resolve the research question in a systematic way and propose practical suggestions for future policy implementation, the author divide the general research goal into several specific research objectives: • To determine the nature of job rotation practices; • To explore the relationship of job rotation and employee performance; • To examine the impact of job rotation on employee performance of Chinese state-owned enterprises; • To find out the challenges and benefits of implementing job rotation.

Literature Review Nature of Job Rotation
The two approaches utilised for job design, according to Carrell et al. (1998), are specialization-intensive jobs and motivation-intensive jobs.The advantages of highly specialized jobs may be outweighed by the increased costs of employee absenteeism and turnover, as well as the decreased productivity and quality, which may lead to the adoption of job rotation as a job design strategy instead of highly specialized jobs (Carrell et al., 1998;Coşgel and Miceli, 1999).In order to improve skills and job independence, Bennett (2003) defines job rotation as the deliberate replacement of personnel among a variety of occupations over a certain length of time.This increases employee motivation, performance, and productivity.Similar to this, Gomez, Lorente, and Cabrera ( 2004) define job rotation as the practice of working in a variety of positions or circumstances throughout time that are classified according to a range of individuals' particular knowledge, skill, and aptitude.Regardless of the goal of job rotation, Jaturanonda et al. (2006) observed that organizations from the private and public sectors tended to use the combined "knowledge, skills, and abilities" as the primary decision factor.By transferring employees from job to job or department to department, job rotation or cross training (Ho et al., 2009) attempts to broaden knowledge, abilities, and experience (Delpasand et al., 2010).If not well planned and managed, it can be a time-consuming and tedious way to learn new information and skills.Job rotation is the systematic switching of employees between different responsibilities in an effort to improve employee satisfaction (Dessler and Varkkey, 2009;Zin et al., 2013).In recent years, job rotation has been defined as the act of moving from one position to another inside the same company with the intention of maximizing both an employee's potential and the worth of the company (Halawi and Haydar, 2018).Job rotation, also known as cross-training, allows departmental or unit employees to gain a variety of job-related abilities over the course of a set period of time.It is also thought of as a useful strategy to enhance and broaden job responsibilities.In this regard, it can be referred that increasing lateral moves will be necessary to enable organizational renewal and growth in the future if people prioritize job security.

Employee Performance
As human capital playing a pivotal role in overall organizational development and growth, numerous factors related to human capital enrichment including training (job rotation) are attracting more research interests.Plentiful empirical research reviewed below in the past 10 years provides proof of the impact of training and development methods on employee performance.Some research (Alasadi and Al Sabbagh, 2015) have looked at organizational performance as a result of employee performance, while others (Adongo, 2013) have looked at it more generally as organizational performance.Although the former is at the level of the individual employee and the latter is at the level of the organization.According to Makhamara et al. (2016), effective training and development strategies can alter employees' competencies.These methods help employees perform their jobs more effectively overall, but they also develop their abilities, knowledge, and attitudes toward meeting future job needs, which helps the company run sustainably in terms of profitability.It has been discovered that training and development strategies and procedures like job rotations have an impact on employee performance by enhancing employees competencies, knowledge, abilities, and suitable behaviors.Although training may not be the only method for enhancing employee performance, Hage (2017) suggested that it has a greater impact than other methods.Therefore, it is advised that the company consistently embrace new strategies and tactics to improve staff productivity.The majority of the research, according to the reviewed literature, have been done in the corporate, manufacturing, and financial sectors; none of them have specifically focused on the structure of corporate ownership.The methodology employed in the studies also vary, with just a few studies using correlational research design and the majority using descriptive, case study, and explanatory survey research designs.This raises the question of whether the scope and variations in research designs used are to blame for the inconsistent research findings.Thus, the author used combined both primary and secondary data collected between July and August 2023 to analyze the link between job rotation and employee performance in Chinese state-owned firms.

Job Rotation and Employee Performance
In last decade, Sanali et al. (2013) investigated the influence of job rotation practices, motivation, and stress among diplomatic and administrative officers in Sabah, Malaysia, revealing that there is a positive and significant relationship between job rotation practices and motivation.According to the findings, the department of human resources must be able to create tasks that are appropriate for each employment level.The diplomatic and administrative services are among those that integrate employment rotation strategies into their service delivery models in the modern world.Administrative and diplomatic practices often follow those practices that are common in the public sector and may be assigned to domestic or international offices of any federal departments, ministries, and agencies.Such a system was often overseen by the Malaysian Public Service Department, who is in charge of developing, planning, and carrying out organizational management and human resource policies.The personnel of this scheme is deployed to any government agencies or post ministries.In contrast to the current study, which is examining work rotation in Chinese stateowned enterprises, the Malaysian public service study focus more at job rotation, motivation, and stress.In a study to evaluate the influence of job rotation strategy on high performance workplaces, Tarus (2014) found that job rotation as a training technique had a significant impact on the high performance of the workplace in Lake Victoria North Water Services Board, Kenya.The study came to the conclusion that job rotation improved an organization's performance.To select the study's participants, the study's respondents were chosen using a stratified sample method, a simple random sampling method, and an explanatory survey research design.In order to analyze the data and test the hypotheses, a structural equation model was used.
However, this study used an explanatory survey research design and only used secondary data, whereas the current study used a correlational research strategy and combined primary and secondary data.The research object was also different; for example, the previous study concentrated on the Lake Victoria water service board, whilst this study focused on Chinese state-owned enterprises.Tuei and Saina (2015) also examined the effect of job rotation on employee performance with quantitative data, targeting KCB Branches in The North Rift Region, Kenya.The study concluded that in order to boost employee performance, KCB management needed to rebuild and restructure their framework for job rotation motivation that is non-financial.The researcher used a empirical case study research methodology and a census technique to conduct this study, taking into account all six commercial banks in the North Rift Region.The SPSS software was used to conduct both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the primary and secondary data used in the study.The results of regression and correlation analysis showed a substantial positive link between employee performance and job rotation.This study adopted a case study research design while the current study employed a correlational research design, leaving a methodological research gap that has to be fulfilled.Besides, a study on the relationship between worker performance and practices relating to human resources in the Nigerian public sector was undertaken by Tabiu et al. (2016).By distributing questionnaires to specific state offices, data was collected.The findings of their study were as follows.Initially, they discovered that the length of an employee's tenure had a negative impact on the frequency of job rotation: young individuals experienced rotation more frequently than older employees.Secondly, the amount of schooling had no bearing on the rate of job rotation.Individual performance had a good impact on the rate of rotation in the third and final stage, and the rate of rotation had a moderately positive impact on the rate of promotion.Hence, this study suggest that a variety of factors can affect how effective job rotation is.However, this study solely used information gathered through the use of questionnaires from specific departments.The context and breadth of the current study are different from the reviewed study, which was done in the Nigerian public sector as opposed to state-owned enterprises in China.
According to a study conducted by Akbari and Maniei (2017) on the effect of job rotations on employee performance at the Dana insurance firm in Tehran, job rotation in the workplace is proved to be used to advance knowledge.A questionnaire containing eight items was given to the participants in the study, which used a descriptive research methodology and a sample size of senior managers from the insurance firm.The acquired data was examined by SPSS using regression and correlation models.The results showed that when job rotation was implemented, employees were able to acquire new knowledge and experiences that improved their performance.This prior study used a correlational research design, whereas this study tempt to use a descriptive research methodology.Additionally, Kampkötter et al. (2018) studied employment rotation in the German banking and finance sector.In this study, the researcher primarily examined how an employee's capacity to rotate from one function to another and the impact of that employee's earlier performance.After analyzing panel data from the industry, the study discovered that both high and low workers could rotate well, but that lateral rotation was more common among low performers.It was determined that employees who had switched between distinct job responsibilities performed better than their peers who had not.The study came to the conclusion that while there was no significant association between job rotation for low achievers and their performance, there was a significant relationship for high performers.
While this study focused on Chinese state-owned enterprises regardless of specific industries, the aforementioned study only studied the banking industry in Germany in which panel data was employed.Job rotation boosts employees' job happiness and motivation, according to Azzopardi's (2019) study on internal job rotation among Maltese audit firms.In order to collect primary and secondary data from four significant Maltese audit firms, mixed research approaches, including document analysis forms and questionnaires, were used to carry out this study.Inferential statistics showing that employees prefer executing a variety of tasks rather than specializing in one particular task were presented using regression and correlation models.As a result, job rotation was found to increase job satisfaction.It inspires them to attain higher performance, achieve continuous growth on the job, sustained knowledge and skill, and growing employee customer quality, making it a significant answer to this labor force's lack of motivation.Additionally, academics have predicted that job rotation could help workers develop a variety of skills, broaden their perspectives, and prevent job burnout.The current study, which used a mixed method research design to collect data and had work rotation and motivation as its primary research interests, collected data solely using a questionnaire.

Research Design
In order to explore the relationships between job rotation and employee performance, this study is organised to conduct a comprehensive and exploratory research of the existing literature of various studies, i.e. journals, books, conference papers, and reports related to the topic through early 2013 to 2023 collect relevant information and in-depth insights.The academic materials are not only limited to the English language but also covers mandarin materials and other translated copies from European countries.The keywords searched were 'Job Rotation,' 'Employee Performance,' 'Human Capital,' 'Training', and 'State-owned Enterprises.'The data were grouped into separate themes among others; the concept, current issues, types of use, contributing factors and the effects of the use.The purpose of this study project is to assist people learn about the topic in an informative manner.The problem under review is theorized, and a proposition that will assist light and debate potential avenues for businesses to understand the impact of training on employee performance is also formulated and discussed by drawing on the body of existing literature.One difficult issue with all research, according to Gummesson (2002, p. 283), one burdensome task with all research is not to collect or rather generate more data, but to interpret and combine what is already there and make some sense out of it.The author accept this claim and work to address the issue under study by utilizing the most knowledge we can glean from the body of existing research.

Theoretical Framework
This study was supported by human capital theory and ability, motivation and opportunity theory, aiming to find out how job rotation influence the final employee performance and how can organisations (Chinese state-owned enterprises in this study) maximize the beneficial use of job rotation to improve the overall performance.Human capital theory was developed by Becker (1975), highlighting the necessity and worthiness of training and development in human resource management.This theory discusses how training affects worker effectiveness and productivity by continuously enhancing their cognitive capacities, which can help them perform better at work (Schwab, 2018).Studies regarding human capital theory can be traced back to early 1950s.Numerous scholars have looked into this theory and its application in organizations, particularly when determining the worth of human capital in the medical setting, and have come to the conclusion that there is no one model that can be used by businesses to empower staff.The history of measuring and evaluating human capital assists HR and relevant executives in developing a paradigm that can reveal the true value of human capital.According to a recent analysis of human capital, the work force's ideal motivation points in the direction of the theory of self-determination (Nemeth, 2017).People that are ideally motivated are constantly willing to learn new abilities, apply specialized information, and incorporate these outcomes into their work habits to increase the effectiveness of the firm.Based on this particular theory, it is clear that individuals with intrinsic motivation are more valuable for a company than demotivated workers or employees with extrinsic motivation because they are motivated to complete their tasks, which enhances organizational performance (Hage, 2017).The significance of this theory for the research therefore lies in the acknowledgment of employees as significant assets to the company who should be provided with the correct set of skills through various ways in order for them to perform efficiently and effectively for the greatest possible organizational output.As a result, this theory provide a solid theoretical foundation for the dependent variable (employee performance) in this study.Similarly, Ability, Motivation and Opportunities Theory (hereinafter referred to as AMO) has strong implications for studies investigating the influence of different HRM practices.It was created by Bailey in 1993 and was developed by Appelbaum and his coworkers.According to Appelbaum et al. (2000), the AMO model has been widely used along with the implementation of HRM practices to explain how expected, actual and perceived HRM practices can enhance the company performance, adopting an employee-based perspective to link the opportunity to motivate individuals' development.Armstrong and Brown (2019) latter formed a noted formula: P = f (A × M × O) which means that performance depends on the individual's ability, motivation and opportunity.To be more specific, individuals perform when they have, the ability to perform (employees can do the task as they have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities); motivation to perform (employees will do the task since they want to do it or feel they must do it), and the opportunity to perform (their work structure and environment provide necessary support and ways of expression) (Armstrong and Brown, 2019).Despite from the explanation to the AMO theory, other scholars made additional contribution to verify how the three elements are interacting with companies' HPWS practices.Firstly, the ability in this context, refers to the specific ability employees developed to handle job-related obstacles.The abilities that individual employees possess can be improved through comprehensive and well-designed training offered by HPWS.Furthermore, motivation can be defined as "the degree to which an individual wants and chooses to engage in certain specific behaviors" (Kim et al., 2015).And it can be categorized to intrinsic motivations which can be sparked by career planning and development, and extrinsic motivations which can be driven by external reward or extra monetary bonus.Last but not least, the opportunity dimension demonstrates how they may convert the skills and efforts of people into results (Jiang et al., 2018).A group of circumstances that allow for something to be done is another way to describe opportunity.Employee involvement opportunities come in numerous forms, including communication, information sharing, and decision-making participation (Schimansky, 2014).Therefore, this theory support the assumption that job rotation as one of HRM practice plays a vital role on influencing the final employee performance.

Significance of Job Rotation
Based on previous literature, job rotation refers to the process of switching a person from job to job (i.e. from marketing department to product development) in a period of time in the same company, which can not only increases an employee's capability and but add value to an organization.

The Importance of Job Rotation to Company
In line with existing literature focusing on the positive influence of job rotation, it can be inferred that job rotation are beneficial to improving the overall performance of the company in terms of following aspects.Specifically, job rotation is a technique that enables firms to provide a balanced workforce, improve staff morale, reduce employee turnover and improve their performance and retention.In general, job rotation and familiarity with each employee's task foster a desire to learn something new at work.Employee satisfaction at work might dramatically rise as a result of the new environment and challenges.Low turnover rates are a result of improved employee satisfaction which bears out the findings of Ho et al. (2009) and Kuzey et al. (2012).The job rotation model and organizational change are strategies for employees to attempt new roles and discover something that fits their skill set if they are unhappy in a given industry.Besides, utilising job rotation program on a regular basis is conducive to motivating employees in case of boredom, especially those who had a long tenure.Many of today's workers will leave a role due to a lack of career development opportunities or boredom.But through job rotation programs, companies can keep staff more engaged and aligned with the company mission, making them feel valued.To be more specific, it is necessary to motivate each individual since one bored employee can significantly lower the morale of all other employees.High absenteeism and employee turnover rates as a result of a demotivated workforce frequently lead to poor customer service which may finally damage the brand image.It has been discovered in several existing literature that job rotation can break up monotony and boredom, so as to motivate the employees for higher output regardless of national context (Sanali et al., 2013;Tabiu et al., 2016;Azzopardi, 2019).To remain competitive in the market, all firms need employees who are dedicated, motivated, and productive.Job rotation helps businesses create flexible work practices that provide employees the chance to work in reasonable, practical arrangements and open up a variety of career options.This may make it possible for workers to balance work and family obligations, improve their education, or alter their lifestyles at different stages in their lives.An uncertain and dynamic environment can lead to challenges that can be solved by using manufacturing flexibility, such as adjusting the product mix as demand changes and machine flexibility, which is the ability to switch between operations without incurring prohibitive expenses.According to reports published by many large companies who adopted job rotation, their total cost have been reduced by 30-40% within a few years of implementation.

The Importance of Job Rotation to Individual
Many previous researches have reached a consensus on various significant benefits of job rotation for individual employees, such as ensuring mental health, develop capabilities of multi-skilling and multi-tasking, enhancing the ability of problem-solving.For example, there is a significant link between employment rotation practices and stress mentioned by Sanali et al. (2013).In other words, job rotation lessens exposure to physically demanding jobs and alleviates weariness brought on by repetition of an activity (Sekiner and Kurt, 2007).This is supported by research done at a department that collects trash, which revealed that job rotation is essential for reducing the physical workload on workers in physically demanding jobs.Employees at the plant welcomed job rotation as a safe work practice as well as a way to break up the day.Moving away from professions that are stressful or bad psychologically or intrinsically also relieves stress.In addition, job rotation can accelerate the pursuit of multi-skilling, namely to enable individuals to take on a wider variety of activities and to assume more responsibility.As a result, it is in line with the human resource management concept, which places a strong emphasis on the value of investing in people and, consequently, in the development of human resources.Bennett (2003) underlined that job rotation can directly result in the expedited development of new employees since it improves workers' familiarity with the company and its operations.Employees may only be functionally flexible if they possess the variety of abilities needed to complete a variety of activities.The personnel will be more useful to the company if they are rotated into positions that call for a little bit of new and different skill set.

Drawbacks of Job Rotation
Despite benefits related to multiple skill development, job rotation also has its deficiencies or difficulties when implementing it.For instance, some positions within a company may not be eligible for routine rotation, such as position that is highly demanding on specific technology or professional knowledge, and secret-involving jobs, especially under the Chinese context.From psychological perspective, some employees may be resistant to the job rotation for several reasons, i.e.Staff is not interested in rotation as they have an "easier job", employees don not want to give up "their job" to others, etc.

Job Rotation in Chinese State-owned Enterprises
The rotation programme is conducive to enhancing the brand image of SOEs and increasing the utility value of talent training.As a strategic talent reserve means, the rotation programme can help SOEs alleviate the pressure of short-term talent gap and provide guarantee for personnel stability on the one hand; on the other hand, by perfecting the talent training mechanism, it can cultivate more elites with strong cultural identity and sense of belonging for the enterprise, and can set up a better image of the enterprise in the industry, enhance the influence of the employer brand, and attract more excellent aspiring talents to join the enterprise.From the perspective of strategic human resource development, under the traditional talent training system, it often takes at least 5 to 6 years for an enterprise to cultivate a middle-level backbone, and this process may take longer for state-owned enterprises, while for rotational trainees with a relatively high starting point and systematic training, they may have the opportunity to be unique and stand out in important positions in a relatively short period of 2 to 3 years to maximise the value of the talent cultivation. .Although the time and cost invested by the enterprise in the short term is not considerable, in the long term, it can maximise the utility value of strategic human resources development as far as possible.Overall, the results of this study depicted that there is a relationship between human capital development (from the dimensions of job rotation) and employees performance.Nowadays, consistent concentration on individual work is an indication of job stability, which, however, results in job uniformity and repetition.In order to encourage employees, manage talent, and plan for succession, human research experts utilize job rotation to transfer and acquaint human resources with the organization.Therefore, the author proposed the following suggestions regarding further implication of job rotation in Chinese state-owned enterprises and future academic research..

Recommendations for Future Implementation
Based on insights drawn from the longitude analysis of the prior literature, multi-dimensional suggestions for further implementation of job rotation are proposed as follows.

Implications for Human Resource Management
Employees perceive the personal benefits of job rotation as satisfying their need for challenge, boosting self-confidence, and making them more employable.This is in relation to the perceived impact of job rotation on employees.The implication is that while organizations use job rotation to increase challenge and decrease monotony, they must also make sure that the job and benefits continue to attract and motivate workers to stay with the company.Otherwise, their increased marketability and training could be counterproductive, leading to an increase in turnover.Regarding the perceived effect of job rotation on productivity, it is critical to make sure that rotation occurs in a planned and systematic way to ensure the development of new skills, efficient training, the ability to learn from different generations, and the ability to gain a holistic understanding of the organization that will enhance greater problem-solving capabilities.Additionally, it is of great importance to guarantee an equitable task distribution as this fosters harmony, which is essential for the success of job rotation, and improves views of justice and equity.

Directions for Future Research
In this study, the effects of job rotation on employee performance are evaluated.The importance of creativity and innovative thinking may surpass that of conventional knowledge and skills owing to the rapid speed of change and rising problems.In order to apply the practice of work rotation, it may be helpful to evaluate how job rotation affects creative problem-solving as well as how technology may be leveraged to improve knowledge management and adaptability across generations.

Conclusion
There is a relative lack of all-round talents in the Chinese state-owned enterprises since the staff only tend to have a certain aspect of the professional skills, so that the staff for the other positions of the lack of understanding.In the whole process of the enterprise operation process, the staff will be poor at developing a comprehensive understanding towards the general business flow of certain companies, which might affect the promising development of the enterprise.Therefore, the implementation of the job rotation system enable employees to understand the various positions within the enterprise, master the operating procedures of other positions, and make corresponding norms for their own positions, so that the comprehensive skills of employees to get the corresponding enhancement, but also can be a good way to promote the stability of the overall process within the enterprise to reduce the probability of problems.In summary, it can be concluded that job rotation is an worthwhile strategy to increase employee job performance in Chinese state-owned enterprises.If this strategy is implemented purposefully, it will be of great use for both employees and employers.The findings of this study contribute to the established theories and previous literature in different ways.Firstly, this research highlights the significance and advances the general understanding of job rotation from the perspectives of AMO theory and human capital.By combining the above two theories with investigating the relationship between job rotation and employee performance, this study extended the use of these theories to a broader domain.This research also verified the various means (i.e.cross-departmental learning, adaptability and flexibility, inter-departmental communication) by which job rotation inserts impacts on employee performance, complementing to existing theoretical framework.This study also makes specific contribution to practices regarding the implementation of job rotation in the context of Chinese state-owned enterprises.The study shows that employees who often rotated between different position perform better.As job rotation has several benefits in promoting employee individual and organizational performances, practitioners like HR managers and executives should attach more importance to ensuring the rationality of job rotation programs.Meanwhile, as the effect of job rotation may vary by voluntary and involuntary rotations, companies should make more efforts to motivate all employees.