East vis‐à‐vis West: The evolution of work values within China regions

Abstract

Numerous studies have investigated between-country cultural differences. However, the subnational cultural differences, particularly in emerging markets, have remained an underexplored research topic despite its importance. Likewise, multiperiod studies in the cross-cultural management area have also remained an underexplored topic. This study concurrently addresses both of these voids in the literature. Specifically, we examine changes in work values of businesspeople in the economically developed East region and the less developed West region of China over the first decade of the 21st century (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010). Our findings show that, across the eight work values dimensions analyzed in this study, three exhibited static crossvergence, while the other five value dimensions exhibited conforming crossvergence. An implication of these findings is that the dissimilar work values, which had been found across the regions of China of the past century, are moving toward a more countrywide set of homogeneous values among the workforce professionals of China.

Work values across generations in China

“…Next, our data were gathered from employees nested in the companies that are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta of China. Such sampling restriction may raise the question that our research findings might only apply to the particular region, especially given the substantial regional differences in regards to the economic development and the level of modernization (Koveos and Zhang, 2012) and, more importantly, worker values (Ralston et al, 2017). Accordingly, we acknowledge the need for future research to extend our generation cohort model to consider regional effect more fullyto include less-developed regions within China in the sampling scheme (Dou et al, 2006) and/or to extend to other countries beyond China.…”

The Effects of Traditional Concepts on Personal Values Among University Students in China

“…First, our sample is only from one province in China. Considering the heterogeneity of culture across China ( Zhang et al, 2007 ; Ralston et al, 2018 ), in the future scholars should extend the research to other regions. Second, there are some other traditional concepts that substantially regulate Chinese people’s daily life, such as guanxi, renqing, zhongyong, and so on.…”

Values Evolution in Transitional China: An Institutional Perspective

“…First, we only collected data from one province in China. Considering the heterogeneity of values across China (Ralston et al, 1996(Ralston et al, , 2018bZhang et al, 2007;Kwon, 2012), future research should attempt to replicate the study in multiple regions and test the interactive effect of ownership types and regions on values. Second, the values incorporated in this research are limited.…”

“…In addition, the scholars examine cross-vergence theory through intra-nationally comparing the values among the regions (Ralston et al, 1996(Ralston et al, , 2018bKoch and Koch, 2007;Zhang et al, 2007;Kwon, 2012). Specifically, the values held by people from the Chinese coastal and inland regions are always used for comparison based on the premise that the coastal areas in China are much more exposed to the Western culture than the inland areas, where the values are more traditional, although they share the same business environment.…”