An Exploratory Study of Chinese Motives for Building Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi

Zhang, Long; Deng, Yue; Wang, Qun

doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1899-4

Cited by 33 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Second, this approach may advance the research into the functions of supervisor-subordinate guanxi because it draws attention to the individual differences in supervisor-subordinate guanxi. After all, despite the myriad purposes of guanxi revealed, the role of personal characteristics in supervisor-subordinate guanxi has to a large extent gone unheeded (Zhang et al, 2014).…”

Section: The Functional Approach To Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, supervisor-subordinate guanxi and LMX are deemed as similar concepts in that they both take roots in social exchange theories (Blau, 1964) and highlight the importance of leader-member relationships (Law et al, 2000). On the other hand, however, they have big differences (Zhang et al, 2014). In particular, LMX is clear and simple in its exchange content and the way to get things done (i.e., the fair exchange of effort-performance and reward; Law et al, 2000), thus providing a desirable basis for deriving the more complex features of supervisorsubordinate guanxi.…”

Section: Organizing Framework Of Motives For Supervisor-subordinate Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, these motives to be identified are expected to be nicely and uniquely situated in the Chinese cultural. For example, given the enduring debate on the ethics of supervisor-subordinate guanxi, we speculate that some opposite motives may emerge because both the bright and dark sides of such guanxi have received empirical support (Zhang et al, 2014). These opposite motives may be acceptable to Chinese people but confusing for the Western people.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Supervisor-subordinate guanxi, or Ba dyadic, particular, and sentimental tie^ (Bian, 2006: 312) between Chinese employees and their supervisors, has attracted abundant attention in recent years (e.g., Law, Wong, Wang, & Wang, 2000;Wei, Liu, Chen, & Wu, 2010;Zhang, Deng, & Wang, 2014). It takes roots in mutual interest and benefits (Wong, Ngo, & Wong, 2003), emerges and develops primarily through social interactions after work (Chen, Friedman, Yu, Fang, & Lu, 2009;Luo, 2000), and has the potential of facilitating favor exchanges between the two parties involved (Hwang, 1987).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The myriad functions revealed in these studies lay foundations for our endeavor to identify the motives underlying supervisor-subordinate guanxi. In a recent exploratory study (Zhang et al, 2014), we interviewed 60 Chinese employees working in various industries and, using content coding, identified primary motive categories for building supervisor-subordinate guanxi that were mentioned most frequently by the interviewees. With this exploratory study as a basis, the current research makes further progress by determining and validating the dimensions of motives for supervisor-subordinate guanxi.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Why do Chinese employees build supervisor-subordinate guanxi? A motivational analysis

et al. 2015

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Supervisor-subordinate guanxi is an informal leader-member relationship that is of utmost importance in Chinese organizations. This paper explores Chinese employees' motives for building supervisor-subordinate guanxi through two studies. Study 1 develops an indigenous scale of motives for supervisor-subordinate guanxi. Four motive types (i.e., career advancement, team concern, personal life, and impression management) are identified, and the scale's convergent and discriminant validity is established. Study 2 examines the predictive power of these motive types. The results indicate that they, as a whole, account for unique variances in supervisor-subordinate guanxi. Furthermore, as single motive types, they have unequal impacts on this relationship and its dimensions. This research enhances understanding of what underlies supervisor-subordinate guanxi from a motivational perspective and has implications for Chinese indigenous research of guanxi.

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Section: The Functional Approach To Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Organizing Framework Of Motives For Supervisor-subordinate Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 97%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Why do Chinese employees build supervisor-subordinate guanxi? A motivational analysis

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How to foster frontline employee knowledge sharing within service‐oriented enterprises: Empirical evidence from China

Zhou

Chen

2018

Hum Ftrs & Erg Mfg Svc

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Based on the context of Chinese workplace, the present research aims to explore the combined effects of proactive personality, supervisor–subordinate guanxi (s–s guanxi), and leaders’ innovation expectations on the knowledge sharing of frontline employees (FLEs). Questionnaire data from a sample of 301 FLEs within service‐oriented enterprises in China were used in this study. The results show that proactive personality and leaders’ innovation expectations are both positively related to employees’ psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing, and s–s guanxi significantly impacts psychological empowerment, but has a nonsignificant effect on knowledge sharing. This study expands the understanding of FLEs’ knowledge sharing behavior and enriches our understanding of the guanxi construction process during the interaction between supervisors and subordinates.

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Social exchange spillover in leader–member relations: A multilevel model

Chen

Zhong

et al. 2015

J Organ Behavior

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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. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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An Exploratory Study of Chinese Motives for Building Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi

Cited by 33 publications

References 44 publications

Why do Chinese employees build supervisor-subordinate guanxi? A motivational analysis

Why do Chinese employees build supervisor-subordinate guanxi? A motivational analysis

How to foster frontline employee knowledge sharing within service‐oriented enterprises: Empirical evidence from China

Social exchange spillover in leader–member relations: A multilevel model

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