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Despite the prevalence of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) as an adaptive strategy for the effective management of an increasingly diverse workforce, the drivers of these customized work arrangements and why they enhance mutuality in the employment relationship are not well understood. Drawing on an integration of social cognitive theory and resource-based perspective, we address these interrelated questions by proposing and examining a moderated mediation model of antecedents and outcomes of task and career i-deals. Multi-source and multi-wave data obtained from supervisors and employees in service and manufacturing organizations were used to test our hypothesized relationships. Results of multilevel path analysis reveal that both employee approach motive and supervisor political skill relate to i-deals. Furthermore, high-commitment HR system moderates the relationship between supervisor political skill (but not employee approach motive) and i-deals such that this relationship is stronger when high-commitment HR system is high but not low. Additionally, i-deals relate to service creativity but indirectly through personal skill development suggesting a potential human capital (relative to the predominantly motivational) explanation of the performance implications of i-deals. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and enhancing the effectiveness of negotiating and implementing i-deals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can an organization do to survive when its existence is a problem for political institutions? Drawing information from China's futures market, we address this question through analysing forms of corporate political activity (CPA) among the nation's 'red capitalists', notably using CPA concepts to decode power dynamics between Chinese financial organizations and the state. Deploying a multi-method, longitudinal and reflexive case approach, we explain how a 'rogue' futures exchange was targeted by a major regulatory crackdown, yet ostensibly survived; principally by negotiating new forms of institutional control. This saw the enrolling of state actors and resources to shape politically acceptable forms of corporate behaviour, a process framed theoretically through the concept of voluntary co-optation ; or the strategic steps the focal organization took to yield power to the state in return for enhanced corporate legitimacy. Constructing a two-phase empirical account, including detailed diagrammatic explanations, the article assesses how a range of lobbying-oriented and guanxi -related practices influenced the organization in repositioning and reconstructing itself through progressive strategic acquiescence, as forces of political capital ('whom you know') and intellectual capital ('what you know') combined to shape the firm's decision responses and bolster its functional credibility amid a hostile institutional climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have organisations sought to manage tensions between the needs for flexible labour in neoliberal market economies and the benefits of a committed and motivated workforce? Through an in-depth, qualitative study of a Chinese company, we identify and theorise a novel variation of paternalism that was developed by the organisation to manage the tensions under neoliberal capitalism. We label this management regime 'centrifugal paternalism' since it organises employment relations along the lines of 'adult-like' employers and 'child-like' employees but involves the diminution of employee dependency over time with an ultimate impulse away from the employing organisation. We find that the emergence of centrifugal paternalism is closely related both to the socio-demographic identity of the company's employees as China's second-generation migrant workers and to the economic context of the organisation. Through a 'tough love' approach, this regime allows the firm to secure flexible labour while responding to migrant workers' needs for personal skills development and a fruitful rural-to-urban transition. Our research responds to recent calls for reconnecting organisation studies with society and situating workplace practices within their contexts. It also underlines the enduring importance of paternalism for understanding the dynamic and evolving nature of capitalist employment relations and management regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does top management team (TMT) regulatory focus impact firm environmental misconduct (FEM)? If so, how and when? Integrating upper echelons theory with regulatory focus theory, we examine how regulatory focus, as one of the most direct and important psychological characteristics of TMT, impacts FEM. Additionally, we explore how this relationship is moderated by external and internal environmental dynamism from the perspective of regulatory fit. Based on a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2017, we conduct computer-aided content analysis to quantify TMT regulatory focus. Results show that TMTs high in promotion focus are more likely to engage in FEM, whereas TMTs high in prevention focus are less likely to misconduct. Moreover, external environmental dynamism strengthens (weakens) the positive (negative) relationship between promotion (prevention) focus and FEM. Internal environmental dynamism strengthens the positive relationship between TMT promotion focus and FEM. By examining this motivation-based psychological characteristic of TMT, the findings suggest the need to consider TMT regulatory focus when analyzing the antecedents of FEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does environmentally specific transformational leadership promote team pro-environmental behaviors? If so, why and when? Using the cognitive-affective processing system framework, we explore the idea that environmentally specific transformational leadership facilitates team pro-environmental behaviors via team pro-environmental goal clarity and team pro-environmental harmonious passion separately and that such indirect relationships are stronger when the team power distance is high. We used three waves of data from 113 teams in six Chinese manufacturing organizations to test our theoretical predictions. The results of regression analyses show that environmentally specific transformational leadership is positively related to team pro-environmental behaviors; this relationship is parallel mediated by team pro-environmental goal clarity and team pro-environmental harmonious passion. Furthermore, the team power distance strengthens the above parallel mediation effects such that in teams with high levels of power distance, environmentally specific transformational leadership strongly provokes team members' pro-environmental goal clarity, pro-environmental harmonious passion, and subsequent pro-environmental behaviors. These findings suggest that environmentally specific transformational leadership is an effective approach for organizations to improve their teams' pro-environmental behaviors, particularly in the context of strong power distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of cities' institutional capital in the context of massive waves of migration from rural regions to cities in China. We examine reasons for and consequences of the accelerated urbanization process from both social and individual points of view. Based on surveys using a database of 8113 Chinese people, we identify and analyse factors that influence career success according to their migration status, comparing those who have migrated from rural to urban areas with those who have not moved. We also identify the role of an individual's migration status and the role of a city's institutional capital as moderators of the relationships between human, social capital and career success. We find that human, social and institutional capital, both individually and interactively play important roles in career success. The article offers an original contribution to career theory, in particular by incorporating migration status as a novel factor, and by determining the role of a city's institutional capital in the process. With these overwhelming structural changes in populations, it may also inform internal migration policy and its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sources of meaning and identity, it has been suggested that research on work and family roles should focus on understanding the processes by which commitment to these roles is built and sustained (Bielby, 1992). Informed by this view, data obtained through structured questionnaires from dual-earner couples (N = 207) in Hong Kong were used to constructively replicate the work of Bielby and Bielby (1989). The thesis of this paper is that as individuals become involved in a role, they develop an identity attached to that role. Results of the regression analysis revealed support for the thesis but generally, in ways consistent with the prescribed roles of men and women in a gender-stratified social system. In addition, the results revealed that women balance their work and family identity by trading-off one for the other. In contrast, men are able to simultaneously identify with work and family roles. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, and implications of the findings for a balanced life are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In standard Kohibergian research, respondents tackle hypothetical ethical dilemma cases and state what should be done and why (a form of espoused theory). Kohlberg's six-stage model of espoused theory (KSSMET) is used to assess the responses. An individual's ethical reasoning is located either at a single stage or at transition points. This paper demonstrates a complementary research paradigm where ten Hong Kong Chinese managers were asked how they had tackled their own ethical dilemmas at work and why (indicating theory-in-use). Their ethical reasoning theory-in-use was found to be volatile (spanning many stages). An aggregate map of respondents' theory-in-use values (MTV) was developed as an approximate "cultural" map, representing socially-constructed values which may change over time. While MTV was found strongly to resemble KSSMET, there were some differences in actual values expressed which appeared to reflect cultural differences between Chinese and U.S. managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers is presented for a special issue on the topics of labor relations and employment in China.

Relationships outside of work impact employee effectiveness at work. But how do we explain this? Our study focuses on the guanxi relationship in China. This is based on close personal ties between supervisors and subordinates initiated outside the workplace. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we develop a model that explains how supervisor–subordinate guanxi constitutes a social resource that spills over into the workplace and impacts subordinates' job resources (including autonomy, support and development at work), job crafting (proactive behaviors aimed at increasing resources and reducing demands) and job performance (task performance and organizational citizenship behavior). Our model was tested on a sample of 406 subordinates and their supervisors from seven manufacturing organizations in China. The results of a multilevel path analysis indicate that high-quality guanxi relations with supervisors facilitate subordinates' job resources, job crafting behaviors and organizational citizenship behavior at work. In addition, job resources mediate the relationship between supervisor–subordinate guanxi and job crafting, and job crafting mediates the relationship between supervisor–subordinate guanxi and subordinate task performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Overall, our research highlights the importance of externally-generated guanxi between subordinates and supervisors and the mechanisms that contribute to improving employee performance in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of work–family conflict on well-being outcomes is well established, as is the role of social support in buffering perceptions of conflict. What is less well understood is how these relationships vary for different groups of respondents. Using a two-wave longitudinal design with a 12-month time lag and samples of employees (total N = 2183) from Australia, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong, the present research investigated whether the mediating relationships between social support, work–family conflict and well-being outcomes were moderated by gender, geographical region and the presence of dependants in the household. Supervisor support and family support were associated with lower work–family conflict, and hence reduced psychological strain and increased job and family satisfaction, for women and for employees in China and Hong Kong, but not for employees in Australia and New Zealand. However, the presence of dependants was not a significant moderator. Our findings illustrate the importance of exploring gender and national differences in work–family conflict research, particularly the investigation of cross-domain effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that employees’ perceptions of intra-organizational cues are an important factor influencing their identification with their organizations. Building on self-categorization theory, we examine whether perceived organizational support influences organizational identification. We contend that in addition to the mediating effect of affective commitment, organizational identification also mediates the effect of perceived organizational support on employees’ extra-role behavior. We collect perceptions of perceived organizational support, organizational identification and extra-role behavior information from 363 nurses in China using a three-wave data collection method and find empirical evidence to support most of our hypotheses. We find that collectivism moderates the indirect effect of perceived organizational support on extra-role behavior through organizational identification. We discuss the implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjective well-being and wages, but not for hours worked. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents empirical evidence from household and firm survey data collected during 2009−2010 on the implementation of the 2008 Labor Contract Law and effects on China’s workers. The Government and local labor bureaus have made substantial efforts to enforce the provisions of the new Law, which has likely contributed to reversing a trend toward increasing informalization of the urban labor market. Enforcement of the Law, however, varies substantially across cities. The article analyzes the determinants of worker satisfaction with the Law’s enforcement, workers’ propensity to have a labor contract, their awareness of the Law’s content and their likelihood of initiating disputes, and finds that all are highly correlated with education level, especially for migrants. Although higher labor costs may have had a negative impact on manufacturing employment growth, this has not led to an overall increase in aggregate unemployment or prevented the rapid growth of real wages. Less progress has been made in increasing social insurance coverage, although signing a labor contract is more likely to be associated with participation in social insurance programs than in the past, particularly for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Are internal migrant workers who have contributed so much to contemporary Chinese economic growth forming a distinct, impoverished underclass (Chan, 2010; Solinger, 2006) or are they slowly merging into the Chinese working class? In this article sociological theory is employed to develop the distinction between underclass and working class, including the conditions and criteria that enable these social categories to be distinguished theoretically and empirically. Drawing on a large range of survey data, including our own analysis of a recent Chinese migrant worker survey, we examine relevant aspects of work and city experience in order to assess the underclass thesis. In addition, we evaluate the argument that younger migrant workers are significantly different in work orientation and strategies for work-life improvement compared with their more experienced counterparts. We conclude that evidence for the underclass thesis is less compelling than an interpretation that views most migrant workers as transitioning into the working class. In addition, although younger workers are more intrinsically oriented than older migrants, both groups concur that labor law enforcement is critical for work-life improvement while simultaneously developing their own collective capacity to influence labor relations outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent studies highlight how organizational power relations are materialized in space. However, relatively little is known about how these spatialized power relations are reproduced on a day-to-day basis. Drawing on a ten-month ethnographic study of a large government office in China, we find that hierarchical space is produced through three intertwined processes. It proliferates as employees actively seek out signs of hierarchy in the organization’s space; it becomes familiarized as employees fabricate and circulate fanciful narratives about their spatial environs; and it is ritualized by employees acting out hierarchical relations across the organization’s space. These processes resulted in a hardening of the hierarchical relations of power. The study extends the existing literature by showing how hierarchical organizational space is not just something that is imposed on employees; it is also imposed by the employees themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite researchers’ increasing attention on customer sexual harassment, few studies have investigated its effects on the service performance of frontline employees. This study examined the link between customer sexual harassment, as perceived by frontline employees, and their service performance by focusing on the mediating role of difficulty in maintaining display rules and the moderating role of traditionality. The results from a field survey of 359 supervisor–subordinate dyads in a chain of restaurants in China provided evidence that difficulty in maintaining display rules mediates the negative relationship between customer sexual harassment and service performance. In addition, Chinese traditional values attenuate the relationship between customer sexual harassment and difficulty in maintaining display rules and the mediating effect of difficulty in maintaining display rules. Implications for theory, research and management practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article gives information about submitting papers to this periodical "Human Relations" on the topic of changing work, labour and employment relations in China, noting the deadline for submission is January 31, 2013.

Outsourcing partners have the potential to learn from each other by discussing effective practices and to use these discussions to improve their business performance. However, there are significant barriers to trusting, open, and integrative communication. Results from 95 largely domestic outsourcing partnerships in China support the hypotheses that cooperative, but not competitive or independent, goals are a foundation upon which partners share their effective practices openly and directly with each other and that this kind of discussion promotes improved business results. Specifically, the structural equation analysis supported the reasoning that cooperative goals foster open discussion of effective practices that, in turn, results in business development. Findings were interpreted as providing support that cooperative interdependence is a foundation for effective interaction and learning between outsourcing partners in China and perhaps in other countries as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the relationship between job search and distress using the daily diary method that involved 100 unemployed job seekers in China. Three models were tested: a direct relationship model (examining the effect of job search on distress), a reversed relationship model (assessing the impact of distress on job search), and a third variable model (testing the extent to which daily financial strain accounts for the relationship between job search and distress). Results offered support for both direct and reversed models. The third variable model was not supported. Negative job search experience mediated the direct effect of job search on distress. Using a within-individual approach, our study provides an in-depth examination on the nature and directionality of the relationship between job search and distress and illuminates the dynamic nature of this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The May 1996 'disaster' on Mount Everest in which eight mountaineers died and its subsequent media exposure is re-examined from the perspective of discourse, myth, and spectacle. We draw from Foucault to talk about the disciplinary aspects of the discourse of 'disaster and tragedy', and how Jon Krakauer's Into thin air, as the leading text in this episode, has perpetuated explanations of disaster that are rooted primarily in notions of failed leadership and decision- making, dysfunctional group dynamics, flawed personality, and the absence of appropriate planning and control. We also discuss how, in part through this discourse, the May 1996 episode has evolved into myth and spectacle that have spawned even more fantastic spectacles while being devoid of contextual influences and the voices of other silent members (Sherpas and participants on the climb). By considering other contextual variables and listening to other voices, we try to unpack the dominant narrative and show how it has both entertained and served various parties (the public, media companies, publishers and authors, governments) while tending to normalize disaster and leadership in a psychological, gendered way. We also consider how the dominant narrative has migrated into the management classroom in the form of 'leadership lessons', a predictable outcome, we suggest, given the fascination that the field holds for other masculine adventures and misadventures such as the explorations of Shackleton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job insecurity has become an important issue for western organizations in the last decade due to uncertain economic conditions, global competition, and the advancement of information technology In this study, we integrate social exchange theory and rational choice theory to explain employees' responses to job insecurity in the Chinese context. We distinguish short-term transactional exchange from long-term relational exchange, and argue that joint ventures (JVs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are characterized by different kinds of employee-organization exchange. An integrated theoretical framework is developed to explain why workers in these organizations respond differently to job insecurity A total of 548 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a JV and a SOE in China are used to test the hypotheses derived from our framework. The results of hierarchical regression analysis indicate that the effects of job insecurity on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and job performance depend on both organizational types and employees' trust in their organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts integration and differentiation perspectives to examine why unity and diversity of organizational cultures emerged as a function of economic reform, and how subcultural differences were reflected in employees' perceptions of cultural practices. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews and a large-scale survey in two large, state-owned enterprises in north-east China. Results indicated that, although all employees were oriented towards a common set of cultural themes, the two generations of employees did not exemplify the themes in the same way. Specifically, unity was illustrated by employees' desire to maintain Harmony and to reduce Inequality. Diversity was revealed by first-generation employees' higher ratings on Loyalty, Security and even Bureaucracy. The findings are discussed in the light of traditional Chinese cultural values, political ideology and the social context. Implications are drawn for organizational cultural theory and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is widely recognized that international cooperative ventures suffer a high rate of failure, current theories, namely transaction costs, partner selection, bargaining and learning, offer limited and disjointed reasoning for it. Each of these theories is focused on a single aspect and on a limited phase in the venture's life, neglecting the process that leads to eventual termination. To study this process, an in-depth analysis of the demise of an international cooperative venture in China traces the critical events in the venture's life cycle. The analysis shows that escalation of partner political behavior played a key role in the venture's failure. An integrative political process model incorporating the dynamic aspects of the relationships between parents within their environmental context is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]