Job attitudes and organizational justice in joint venture hotels in China: the role of expatriate managers

In a survey of local employees in joint venture hotels in China, perceived interactional justice was found to be predictive of job attitudes, and perceived salary fairness in comparison with expatriate managers explained additional variance in job attitudes. Compared to previous results, local employees now perceived their pay as much more unfair when compared with that of expatriate managers. In addition to perceived justice, perceived managerial practices of expatriate managers and incentives received were also predictive of job attitudes of local employees. Consistent with previous results, employees working with overseas Chinese and Japanese managers reported less positive job attitudes than those working with Western and other Asian managers. These differences were related to neither perceived differences in managerial practices or managerial experiences of the expatriate managers nor perceived differences in incentives received. The justice framework provides the best explanation for these results.     

Leader‐Member Exchange,Group‐ and Individual‐Level Procedural Justice and Reactions to Performance Appraisals

Previous research has established that relationships with authority figures and procedural justice perceptions are important in terms of the way in which employees react to organizational procedures that affect them. What is less clear are the reasons why exchange quality with authorities is related to perceptions of process fairness and the role of procedural justice climate in this process. Results indicate that individual‐level perceptions of procedural justice, but not performance ratings, partially mediate the relationship between exchange quality and reactions to performance appraisals, and that procedural justice climate is positively related to perceptions of procedural justice and appraisal reactions. These results support a more relational than instrumental view of justice perceptions in organizational procedures bound by exchange quality with an authority figure. Our study suggests that it is essential for managers to actively monitor and manage employee perceptions of process fairness at the group and individual levels. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

High involvement work system,work–family conflict,and expatriate performance – examining Taiwanese expatriates in China

This study explores the effects of multinational companies (MNC) implementation of a high involvement work system (HIWS) for their expatriates on both expatriate work–family conflict (WFC) and their performance. We surveyed 174 Taiwanese expatriates stationed in China. Data were collected on: (1) perceived human resource management (HRM) practices concerning ‘high involvement work system’; (2) perceived work–family conflict; (3) job satisfaction; and (4) supervisor ratings of expatriate job performance. Structural modeling techniques helped us examine in one model the interdependent relationships among high involvement work system, work–family conflict, and expatriate performance in their host country. Our results show that a high involvement work system is positively related to expatriate satisfaction and performance. However, a high involvement work system is also positively related to expatriate work-family conflict, which in turn is negatively related to expatriate satisfaction and performance. Our findings remind managers that a high involvement work system may produce multiple effects on various dimensions of employee work life, and not all of these effects may be positive.     

Antecedents and consequences of host-country nationals' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates: What we do and do not know

Host-country nationals' (HCNs') attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates are critical for expatriate success. Thus, this study systematically reviews the existing literature on the antecedents and consequences of HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates. It is revealed that HCN personality, the perceived compensation gap between expatriates and HCNs, social categorization, HCNs' previous contact with expatriates, expatriate justice, task cohesiveness, interpersonal affect, and interpersonal relationships (guanxi) directly or indirectly predict HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates. The attitudes and behaviors of HCNs toward expatriates are significantly related to expatriate adjustment and performance. This review indicates that the extant research on HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates is limited, and the findings of past studies are often contradictory. Theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions are discussed.     

What a Diverse Top Management Team Means: Testing an Integrated Model

Prior research has produced inconsistent results on the relationship between top management team (TMT) diversity and firm performance. Drawing on the information–social categorization framework, this study is designed to investigate both the mechanism and the contextual factors underlying the relationship between TMT cognitive diversity and firm performance by examining them in a unified model so as to better understand how a diverse TMT works. Based on a multi‐sourced survey of top managers from 118 Chinese firms, this study finds that team interdependence and team cohesion moderate in the linkage between TMT cognitive diversity and elaboration of task‐related information. In addition, TMT's elaboration of task‐related information mediates the interactive effects of TMT cognitive diversity and team interdependence on firm performance as well as the interactive effects of TMT cognitive diversity and team cohesion on firm performance.     

Personal attributes of expatriate managers,subordinate ethnocentrism,and expatriate success: a host-country perspective

This study had two objectives. First, to establish the relative importance of expatriate managers' job knowledge, relational leadership skills, and cultural openness and adaptability for expatriate success from the perspective of host-country national subordinates, and to test whether these personal attributes are related to expatriate success criteria (expatriate work adjustment, subordinate commitment, subordinate job satisfaction, and unit performance). Second, to test whether host-country national subordinate ethnocentrism is related to expatriate work adjustment. Respondents were 129 host-country national subordinates of expatriate managers. Results showed that subordinates perceived all personal attributes as important and that all personal attributes were positively related to most of the success criteria. However, relational leadership skills was the most important personal attribute, and it was the crucial success factor for expatriate managers' unit performance. Subordinate ethnocentrism was negatively related to expatriate work adjustment. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Expatriate career support: predicting expatriate turnover and performance

This study aimed at explaining why multinational companies have difficulty retaining their repatriates as well as how multinational companies can improve in- and expatriate performance. In the study 100 in- and expatriates of a multinational company operating in the food and personal care industry reported the career support they experienced, their perceived career prospects within and outside the home organization, their intentions to leave, and their performance. As predicted, it was found that perceived career support negatively related to intentions to leave. Additionally, it was found that perceived career support positively related to perceived career prospects within the home organization and expatriate performance. Interestingly, no relationship was found between perceived career prospects outside the home organization and intentions to leave. Implications and directions for future research and HR practices in multinational companies are discussed.     

Experiencing meaningfulness climate in teams: How spiritual leadership enhances team effectiveness when facing uncertain tasks

This study integrates social information processing theory with leadership and climate literature, and aims to produce novel theoretical insights into whether and how spiritual leadership and task uncertainty foster conditions to enhance meaningfulness climate and subsequent team effectiveness in China. Team effectiveness was operationalized as team performance and team organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Based on data collected at three time points over 12 months from multiple sources of 123 teams in China, we found that spiritual leadership was positively related to team performance and team OCB through meaningfulness climate. Further, the relationship between spiritual leadership and meaningfulness climate was stronger for teams with high task uncertainty than teams with low task uncertainty.     

The problem of employees' network centrality and supervisors' error in performance appraisal: A multilevel theory

This article reveals an unexplored paradox for HR managers: the centrality of an employee in the social network benefits performance but hampers performance appraisal because it affects supervisors' rating errors. Central employees can be erroneously rated high on performance even when they are not high performers because supervisors tend to overappraise their performance. A distinction is made between rating precision, which depends on supervisors' uncertainty regarding employees' performance, and rating accuracy, which depends on supervisors' bias in favor of employees. Employee centrality is posited to be beneficial to precision but deleterious to accuracy because it regulates the diffusion of positive information, status, and power, all of which distort supervisors' capacity and motivation to accurately appraise performance. It is then argued that rating errors caused by network centrality affect aggregate perceptions of justice in organizations. When employees are highly connected to each other in a dense network, organizations have a strong and positive justice climate. Yet when some employees are more central than others in a centralized network, organizations have a negative and weak justice climate. The article contributes to the literature because it identifies an unexplored dark side of network centrality and offers recommendations for HR managers to cope with its deleterious consequences and for scholars to study them.     

Expatriate or local bosses? HCN subordinates' preferences in leadership behaviour

This article explores host-country national subordinates’ preferences in leadership behaviour comparing expatriate bosses and local bosses. From a sample of 240 middle managers in Hong Kong with experience with both local Chinese bosses and expatriate bosses from a broad spectrum of Western and Asian countries, it was found that the subordinate managers assessed the leadership behaviour of their expatriate bosses to be significantly closer to that of their perceived ideal boss. American leadership behaviour was the most preferred and Japanese leader style was the least preferred, with British leadership style comprising a middle group. Implications of these findings for international business firms and future academic research are discussed.     

Expatriate pay satisfaction: the role of organizational inequities,assignment stressors and perceived assignment value

Using equity, stress and buffer theories, we investigate the role played by organizational inequities (organizational justice and provision of benefits) and assignment stressors (work adjustment and role novelty) in predicting expatriate pay satisfaction. We also assess the role of perceived assignment value as an important buffer that moderates the above relationships. With a sample of 78 expatriates from nine nationalities working in Hong Kong, we find that organizational justice and work adjustment are both positively related to expatriate pay satisfaction. We also find that perceived assignment value strengthens the provision of benefits–pay satisfaction and work adjustment–pay satisfaction relationships. Limitations and managerial implications are discussed.     

Factors influencing Chinese female expatriates' performance in international assignments

The current literature is mixed regarding what factors determine expatriate performance. In this study, we developed and tested a model to examine the relationship among family problems, expatriate–efficacy, host-country nationals' (HCNs') prejudice against women, perceived organizational support (POS) and Chinese female expatriate performance in international assignments. Our results indicated that HCNs' prejudice against women had a significant negative relationship and expatriate–efficacy had a significant positive relationship with female expatriate performance. POS and family problems moderated the relationship between HCNs' prejudice against women and female expatriate performance. However, family problems were not significantly related to female expatriate performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Effective Japanese leadership in China: co-operative goals and applying abilities for mutual benefit

In the global marketplace, managers and employees must work together even though they may have suspicions based on their different countries' historical rivalry. Social psychological research suggests that co-operative goals and applying abilities for mutual benefit can strengthen the leader relationship between Japanese managers and their Chinese employees. Working in Japanese enterprises in Shanghai, China, 100 employees in private Japanese companies in China indicated their goal interdependence with their Japanese and Chinese managers, their applying abilities for mutual benefit and their conclusions that their manager had valuable abilities and was an effective leader. Structural equation analysis suggested that applying abilities for mutual benefit mediates the relationship between goal interdependence and leader resourcefulness and effectiveness, especially when the manager is Chinese and less so when their manager is Japanese. These results, coupled with previous research, were interpreted as suggesting that co-operative goals and applying abilities for mutual benefit contribute to effective leadership even when managers and employees have different nationalities.     

The relationship between expatriates' personality traits and their adjustment to international assignments

This study investigates the relationship between personality traits of expatriates and their adjustment to international assignments. We focused in particular on the Big Five personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. We sampled eighty-three US expatriates in Taiwan and found statistically significant relationships between expatriate adjustment and three personality traits in theoretically reasonable directions. Specifically, our results showed that a US expatriate's general living adjustment in Taiwan is positively related to his or her degree of extroversion and openness to experience. We found that extroversion and agreeableness are both positively related to interaction adjustment (i.e. relationships with local people). Furthermore, a US expatriate's work adjustment is positively related to his or her openness to experience. Unlike prior research on expatriate adjustment, we have examined multiple traits rooted in personality theory, and we have derived hypotheses that are specific to a Chinese context.     

Shedding new light on the relationship between contextual ambidexterity and firm performance: An investigation of internal contingencies

This research investigates four key factors that influence the relationship between contextual ambidexterity and firm performance: two knowledge exchange elements (i.e., informational justice and task conflict) and two aspects of the internal competitive environment (i.e., resource competition and reward interdependence). These components define a firm's ability to convert its ambidextrous posture into enhanced performance. A sample of Canadian-based firms shows that the contextual ambidexterity–firm performance relationship is amplified at higher levels of informational justice and reward interdependence but suppressed at higher levels of task conflict and resource competition. The authors discuss the study's implications as well as future research directions.     

The impact of expatriate supporting practices and cultural intelligence on cross-cultural adjustment and performance of expatriates in Singapore

We test the relationships between corporate expatriate supporting practices, cross-cultural adjustment, and expatriate performance. Specifically, we propose that the facets of cultural intelligence moderate the expatriate supporting practices–expatriate adjustment relationship. Analyzing 169 expatriates residing in Singapore, we found that expatriate supporting practices were positively related to adjustment as well as performance. Further, we demonstrated that metacognitive and cognitive cultural intelligence negatively moderated the links between expatriate supporting practices and adjustment, while motivational cultural intelligence had a positive moderating effect. These findings have implications for organizations providing support for expatriates and the expatriate selection and training processes.     

‘Intended’ and ‘implemented’ HRM: the missing linchpin in strategic human resource management research

We argue that inconclusive findings in the SHRM literature regarding the relationship between HRM systems and organizational performance may result primarily from methodological weaknesses and a failure of researchers to distinguish between HR practices intended by the organizations and those actually implemented. Rather than relying upon a single respondent per organization as is the norm, we contrast reports of both managers and non-managers from inside and outside HR departments to highlight differences between intended and implemented HRM. The findings, arrived at with the help of 195 interviews, 508 questionnaire responses and several company documents, support our expectation: implemented HRM may be substantially different from intended HRM; consistent implementation increases employee satisfaction with HRM, which is positively related to organizational performance. The current study thus highlights new factors that require attention in developing HR–performance analyses and also suggests that a mere imitation of HRM in the hopes of improving organizational performance creates no value. It is crucial that HR departments and managers remain committed and supportive to the development of effective HRM systems by focusing upon actual ‘implementation’ within their organizations.     

Understanding expatriate manager performance: Effects of governance environments on work relationships in relation-based economies

Evidence shows that the majority of Western expatriate managers fail in their job assignments in developing countries. To go beyond attributions of expatriate failure to “cultural differences” this article responds to calls for a theoretical basis for understanding expatriate performance by using a recently developed framework of rule-based and relation-based governance environments to examine how the macro-environment of a country's governance system affects the creation of effective working relationships between executive level expatriate managers and Host Country Nationals (HCNs) on the executive's management team. Based on cross-cultural psychological contract research [Rousseau, D.M., Schalk, R. (2000). Psychological contracts in employment: Cross-national perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.] and the premise that expatriate performance is largely a function of the ability to manage discrepancies between the rule-based expectations of the Western MNC culture and the relation-based expectations of local employees, we develop research propositions to promote future HR research designed to examine the effect of the governance environment on the working relationships between American managers and Chinese HCNs. Implications for future HR efforts to improve the performance of expatriate managers in relation-based societies are also discussed.     

Perceptions of HR practices and innovative work behavior: the moderating effect of an innovative climate

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are to explore the effect that perceived HR practices have on the innovative work behavior (IWB) of individual workers and to examine the role that an innovative climate plays in this relationship. We hypothesize that employees will show greater IWB if they perceive the organizational climate to support innovation and perceive the presence of HR practices related to a compensation system, training and development, information sharing, and supportive supervision. Using data from 463 individuals in four Dutch manufacturing companies, the study tests the effects of employees’ perceptions of HR practices and of an innovative climate on their innovative behaviors. We found that employee perceptions of a compensation system are negatively related to IWB, and that employee perceptions of information sharing and supportive supervision are positively related to IWB. The effect of perceptions of information sharing and training and development on IWB are moderated by an innovative climate, in such a way that information sharing has a stronger effect on IWB and training and development a weaker one. Managers can stimulate innovative behavior by investing in information sharing, supportive supervision, and establishing an innovative climate.