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Guanxi and leader member relationships between American managers and Chinese employees: open-minded dialogue as mediator

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Abstract

Effective open relationships with employees can help foreign managers rely upon and utilize the local knowledge of their employees. One hundred and sixty-three Chinese employees from various industries in China were surveyed on their relationships (leadership–member relationship and personal guanxi) with American and Chinese managers, their constructive controversy, that is, their constructive controversy with them, and the job assignments and promotions received from their managers. Results support the hypotheses that quality leader–member relationship and personal guanxi promoted their constructive controversy, which in turn facilitated employees receiving challenging jobs and promotions. Results suggest that leader–member relationship and Chinese value of guanxi may be important for enhancing their constructive controversy; this kind of open dialogue can be a foundation upon which American managers can develop the confidence to give their Chinese employees challenging tasks and promotions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, NT, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

    Nancy Yi-feng Chen & Dean Tjosvold

Authors
  1. Nancy Yi-feng Chen
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  2. Dean Tjosvold
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nancy Yi-feng Chen.

Additional information

This work has been supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, (Project No: LU3013/01H) to the second author.

Appendices

Appendix

LMX

My manager and I care about the work problems and needs of each other

My manager and I recognize each other’s potential

My manager and I are inclined to pool our available resources to solve the problems in my work

My manager and I have confidence in each other’s capability

My manager and I are satisfied with each other’s work

Personal Guanxi

During Holidays or after office hours, I would call my manager or visit him/her

My manager invites me to his/her home for lunch or dinner

On special occasions such as my manager’s birthday, I would definitely visit my manager and send him/her gifts

I care about and have a good understanding of my manager’s family and work conditions

When there are conflicting sides, I will definitely stand on my manager’s side

Constructive Controversy

My manager and I express our own views directly to each other

My manager and I listen carefully to each other

My manager and I consider each other’s ideas even if we don’t agree

Job Assignment

My manager can try his/her best to assign me to the positions that I want to be in

If there is an important job vacancy, my manager would definitely assign it to me

When there are difficult tasks that progress slowly in the department, my manager would first assign them to me

Promotion

When openings arise, my manager would promote me there

My manager always thinks of ways to promote me

I have high potential for promotion

Table 7, (Table 8)

Table 7 Results of the SEM analyses (Chinese employees with American managers).
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Table 8 Results of the SEM analyses (Chinese employees with Chinese managers).
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Chen, N.Yf., Tjosvold, D. Guanxi and leader member relationships between American managers and Chinese employees: open-minded dialogue as mediator. Asia Pacific J Manage 24, 171–189 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-006-9029-9

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