Intra-national variation in organizational commitment: evidence from the Chinese context

Abstract

This study demonstrates how organizational commitment can differ at the sub-national level. We develop and test hypotheses based on levels of economic development and related shifts from collectivism to individualism. The data comprise 1017 retail employees drawn from two economically distinctly different parts of China. We find that organizational commitment is higher in 'less economically developed' regions. Affective and normative commitment (NC) negatively predicted turnover intentions, whereas continuance commitment related positively to turnover intentions. Unlike earlier findings using Western samples, this study finds the effect of NC on turnover intentions considerably stronger, suggesting that NC is more predictive of turnover intentions. As expected, our results indicate that continuance commitment is more predictive of turnover intentions in the 'more economically developed' regions.

Leadership, creativity and innovation: a meta-analytic review

“…Overall, our finding related to national cultures suggest that the different leadership styles are often effective in cultures high and low in power distance. However, the moderation results we did find suggest that there is a need to better understand the role of culture at different levels (e.g., national and intranational level; Gamble & Tian, 2015;Tsui, Nifadkar, & Ou, 2007).…”

Servant leadership: A meta‐analytic examination of incremental contribution, moderation, and mediation

“…Eva et al (2018) proposed situational strength theory (Meyer et al, 2009) could be applied in order better understand when SL is more likely to influence followers. While we directly address calls to 'understand the role national culture plays for servant leadership' (Eva et al, 2018, p. 15), there is a need to understand the role of national culture not merely from a national level, but also from an intranational level and/or individual level (Gamble & Tian, 2015;Tsui, Nifadkar, & Ou, 2007). However, contrary to this prediction, we found that for the most part SL was just as effective in high power-distance cultures as it was in low power-distance cultures.…”

“…Overall, this finding suggests that power distance is not an obstacle to the use of SL. While we directly address calls to 'understand the role national culture plays for servant leadership' (Eva et al, 2018, p. 15), there is a need to understand the role of national culture not merely from a national level, but also from an intranational level and/or individual level (Gamble & Tian, 2015;Tsui, Nifadkar, & Ou, 2007). While crosscultural differences are of great interest, it is also important to recognize the presence of heterogeneity within countries.…”

Returning the favor: positive employee responses to supervisor and peer support for training transfer

“…In a review of crosscultural studies, Tsui et al (2007) argue that regional variation is 'especially important for those scholars who study nations with rapid economic, technological, and social development, such as China, India, Mexico, Russia and Brazil' (p. 465). Indeed, research has shown that considerable variation exists in the strength of collectivistic values held by people across different regions and subcultures within China (Cui & Liu, 2000;Gamble & Tian, 2015;Gong et al, 2011;Koch & Koch, 2007;Ralston et al, 1996Ralston et al, , 2008. In particular, collectivistic values have been found to be less predominant in the more economically developed coastal regions, such as Shanghai and Fujian, than in less developed inland regions, such as Lanzhou and Wuhan (Koch & Koch, 2007;Ralston et al, 1996).…”