Dear OB colleagues,
Below please see the articles published in JOB's most recent special issue entitled "Organizational Behavior in China", which I co-edited with Professors Hongwei He (University of Strathclyde Business School), Kenneth S. Law (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Jiing-Lih Farh (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology). This special issue includes six articles, including the editorial. The paper title and abstract is attached below. The full articles are available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.v36.5/issuetoc
Enjoy your reading, and best wishes,
Sincerely,
Weichun Zhu, PhD
School of Labor and Employment Relations
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Email: wzhu@psu.edu
1. Editorial: Taking an indigenous approach to study organizational behavior in China (pages 613–620)
Weichun Zhu, Hongwei He, Kenneth S. Law and Jiing-Lih Farh
2. Employee well-being in organizations: Theoretical model, scale development, and cross-cultural validation (pages 621–644)
Xiaoming Zheng, Weichun Zhu, Haixia Zhao and Chi Zhang
Summary: In this study, we explore the theoretical model and structural dimensions of employee well-being (EWB) in organizations. Specifically, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, we find that EWB comprises three dimensions: life well-being, workplace well-being, and psychological well-being. We establish the reliability and validity of the newly developed EWB scale through a series of quantitative studies, which indicate that EWB is significantly correlated with affective organizational commitment and job performance based on the data collected from multiple sources at two points in time. We find that EWB has measurement invariance (configural invariance) across Chinese and American contexts. We also discuss the theoretical contributions of these findings to cross-cultural organizational behavior studies, along with the practical implications of our results.
3. Interpersonal harmony and creativity in China (pages 648–672)
Tingting Chen, Kwok Leung, Fuli Li and Zhanying Ou
Summary: This research examined the influence of interpersonal harmony on employee creativity in China. The dualistic model of harmony differentiates harmony enhancement, a genuine desire for a harmonious and mutually beneficial interpersonal relationship, from disintegration avoidance, a tendency to avoid the disruption of an interpersonal relationship to protect self-interest. A survey in China showed that the harmony enhancement motive had a positive relationship, and the disintegration avoidance motive had a negative relationship, with creativity mediated by creative effort. Reward for creativity showed different moderating effects on the two mediated relationships, such that it mitigated the positive relationship between harmony enhancement and creativity mediated by creative effort, and buffered the negative relationship between disintegration avoidance and creativity mediated by creative effort. We replicated some major findings with a multi-wave survey study and provided direct evidence for the underlying mechanisms that account for the opposite relationships between the two harmony motives and creative effort.
4. Social exchange spillover in leader–member relations: A multilevel model (pages 673–697)
Ying Chen, Zhen Xiong Chen, Lifeng Zhong, Jooyeon Son, Xiujuan Zhang and Zhiqiang Liu
Summary: Drawing on role theory and the cultural theory of collectivism, we developed and tested a multilevel model of social exchange spillover in leader–member relations in the Chinese context. In Mplus analyses of a sample of 213 subordinates from 47 groups, we found that, at the individual level, a dimension of leader–member guanxi (LMG), leader–member personal life inclusion (LMG-P), which is defined as the extent to which leaders and members include each other in their personal or family lives, can spill over to affect subordinates' contextual performance (i.e., interpersonal facilitation and job dedication); furthermore, this effect was moderated by subordinates' horizontal collectivism orientation, such that LMG-P spilled over to affect contextual performance only for those who were low in horizontal collectivism orientation. At the group level, the variance of LMG-P within a group, which is referred to as LMG-P differentiation, was related negatively to group performance when the supervisors had a low horizontal collectivism orientation. At the cross level, LMG-P differentiation moderated the relationship between LMG-P and job dedication, such that the relationship was positive only when LMG-P differentiation was low.
5. When is pay for performance related to employee creativity in the Chinese context? The role of guanxi HRM practice, trust in management, and intrinsic motivation (pages 698–719)
Yong Zhang, Lirong Long, Tsung-yu Wu and Xu Huang
Summary: This study aims to provide new insights into the reward–creativity link in the Chinese context by exploring the moderating effect of guanxi human resource management (HRM) practice-reflecting the extent to which HR decisions are influenced by personal relationships in an organization-on the relationship between pay for performance (PFP) and employee creativity. Using two independent samples that were composed of 222 and 216 supervisor–subordinate dyads from Mainland China and Taiwan, we found that the effect of pay for performance on creativity was invariantly moderated by perceived guanxi HRM practice in such a way that when guanxi HRM practice was low, PFP had stronger positive effects on creativity. Furthermore, trust in management, as reduced by guanxi HRM practice, mediated this moderating effect. Moreover, moderated path analysis revealed that intrinsic motivation mediated these moderated relationships among PFP, guanxi HRM practice, trust in management, and creativity. Findings shed light on the processes through which, and the conditions under which, PFP may promote creativity.
6. A cross-cultural examination of subordinates' perceptions of and reactions to abusive supervision (pages 720–745)
Ryan M. Vogel, Marie S. Mitchell, Bennett J. Tepper, Simon L. D. Restubog, Changya Hu, Wei Hua and Jui-Chieh Huang
Summary: This manuscript explores cross-cultural differences in reactions to perceived abusive supervision. Based on an integration of fairness heuristic theory with principles about cross-cultural differences in the importance of hierarchical status, we theorize that subordinates from the Anglo culture perceive and react to abusive supervision more negatively than subordinates from the Confucian Asian culture. The predictions were tested within two field studies. Study 1 results show that culture moderated the direct effect of perceived abusive supervision on interpersonal justice and the indirect effects of perceived abusive supervision (via interpersonal justice) on subordinates' trust in the supervisor and work effort. The negative effects of perceived abusive supervision were stronger for subordinates within the Anglo versus the Confucian Asian culture; subordinates from Anglo culture compared with Confucian Asian culture perceived abusive supervision as less fair. Perceived abusive supervision indirectly and negatively influenced subordinates' trust in the supervisor and work effort. Study 2 replicated the findings from Study 1 and extended them to show culture (Anglo vs. Confucian culture) moderated the effects because it influences subordinates' power distance orientation.