Supervisor and subordinate guanxi: a grounded investigation in the People’s Republic of China

Han, Yong and Altman, Yochanan (2009) Supervisor and subordinate guanxi: a grounded investigation in the People’s Republic of China. Journal of Business Ethics, 88 (S1) . pp. 91-104. ISSN 0167-4544 [Article] (doi:10.1007/s10551-008-9827-8)

Abstract

Despite the growing number of studies on the topic of guanxi in a work context, there is a paucity of research on supervisor–subordinate guanxi in the field of organisation and management. This article critically reviews the extant literature on guanxi in human resource management and organisational behaviour and applies an inductive approach to explore the perception of guanxi from both superior and subordinate perspectives in the People’s Republic of China. The study reports positive and ethical features of guanxi as well as unethical and negative practices in the Chinese workplace. On the positive side, guanxi comprises reciprocal exchange and perceived positive attributes, whereas its darker aspects include perceived unfairness and supervisor-targeted impression management. Managerial and research implications are discussed.

Actions (login required)

View Item

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Activity Overview

6 month trend

0Downloads

6 month trend

504Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.