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This study examined the relationship between the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) and Confucian Dynamism in a sample of 1,757 respondents from several provinces in mainland China. Mirels and Garrett’s (J Consult Clin Psychol 36:40–44, 1971) PWE Scale and Robertson’s (Manag Int Rev 40:253–268, 2000) Confucian Dynamism Scale were used to measure the work...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... to Hofstede (1991), long-term orientation refers to a positive, dynamic, and future-ori- ented culture linked with four ''positive'' Confucian values, whereas short-term orientation, represents a negative, sta- tic, and traditional and past-oriented culture associated with four ''negative'' Confucian values. Table 1, which is in line with Confucian Dynamism analyzed by Hofstede and Band (1988), is presented. ...
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... From a theoretical perspective, China and the U.S. are known to differ in important political structures, cultural values, and social norms, such as collectivism/individualism and cultural tightness/looseness (we acknowledge that cultural and social norms also differ significantly within each country) (Talhelm and English, 2020). More importantly, the two cultures also differ in their dominant work ethic (Amos et al., 2019;Celniker et al., 2023;Zhang et al., 2012): while the U.S. work ethic is strongly influenced by Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) beliefs (industrious, ambitious, hardworking, intrinsically motivated), the Chinese work ethic reflects Confucianism values (e.g., hard work, diligence, frugality, and the love of education). It is thus theoretically interesting to examine how the evolution of moral attitudes towards effort and efficiency/productivity differs in these two distinct cultures (e.g., as the economic performance of the society fluctuates). ...
In some cultures, merely exerting effort is considered virtuous, even when the effort is inefficient. Our study examines how this moral attitude towards effort (relative to efficiency) has evolved historically across two distinct sociopolitical and linguistic contexts: the People’s Republic of China and the United States, using natural language processing techniques. Specifically, two formal political corpora were used—the People’s Daily (1950–2021) and the Congressional speeches for the U.S. (1873–2011). We developed dictionaries for each concept based on pre-trained word embedding models in both languages. Moral attitudes towards effort and efficiency were calculated on a year-by-year basis as the cosine similarity between the dictionaries of these concepts and an existing dictionary of morality. We benchmarked the fluctuations of moral attitude towards inefficient effort against critical historical events in the two countries. Additional time series analysis and Granger tests revealed the association and potential directionality between the evolution of moral attitude towards inefficient effort and critical socio-cultural variables such as collectivism and cultural looseness. Our research sheds light on the historical and socio-cultural roots of moralization of effort and has implications for historical psychology research on moral attitudes.
... 42 As a unique approach, guanxi emphasizes trust, reciprocity, and networks as essential components of social capital in Chinese businesses. 43 The guanxi business model aligns with Confucian principles, promoting harmony, welfare, and sustainability in business practices. 44 By incorporating humanistic and sociological approaches, the guanxi model fosters communication, trust, and reciprocity, forming the core of social capital in Chinese business environments. ...
Social capital encompassing ideas, knowledge, information, contacts, and referrals is crucial for business achievement. This study discusses the concept of social capital within Chinese society and its pivotal role as a strategic component in the business performance of Chinese entrepreneurs. The research identifies guanxi, originating from Confucian principles, as a cornerstone of Chinese social capital. Guanxi fosters trust, facilitates networks, and fulfills reciprocal obligations, enhancing business operations' efficiency and sustainability. It is a vital component of Chinese entrepreneurs' strategic approach, characterized by its ethical and insightful nature. The findings emphasize that leveraging social capital, especially guanxi, is a reliable predictor of Chinese business success. By exploring the dynamics of social relationships, the study sheds light on the strategic deployment of social capital as a critical determinant of business performance. This research significantly contributes to understanding social capital from a sociocultural perspective, suggesting the potential development of a refined social capital theory across diverse socio-cultural contexts.
... Some foreign businesses also have 'glass ceilings', which limit the development and promotion of Chinese staff to the most senior positions in China and bar them from global development (Siebers et al., 2015). The idea that foreign businesses' promotion of work-life balance may resonate less strongly with many young Chinese employees than the idea that sacrifice and hard work are necessary resonates strongly with the literature on the Chinese work ethic (see, for example, the relationship between Confucian Dynamism and hard work and diligence in Hofstede and Bond (1988) and the connection between the Protestant Work Ethic and Chinese attitudes in Zhang et al., 2012). ...
This chapter investigates management education in China, with a specific focus on MBA programmes. The chapter begins by briefly considering the economic context for management development in China before turning to a review of the literature on the MBA, both in America, the original source of the Chinese model, and in China itself. Next is an assessment of the MBA offerings from ten highly ranked Chinese institutions against the findings from the review. The chapter then analyses experiments in management development driven by Chinese culture at Fotile, a successful kitchenware company, and The Hupan University set up by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and his colleagues (now known as Hupan Enterpreneurship Research Center). The chapter also explores the views and experiences of four senior Chinese managers working in foreign-invested enterprises. The chapter concludes by arguing that the MBA is best understood as a ‘structured field’ made up of Chinese and foreign businesses and their employees, actual and potential, responding in turn to their own environments.
... Moreover, Scholars also discussed how regional cultural concepts affect regional development aspects across macro and micro levels and the regional development model with distinctive regional cultural characteristics formed through macro-and micro-level interactions (Huggins and Thompson, 2015;Lin et al., 2016). Considering the relatively good performance of economic and social development in areas dominated by the Protestant and Confucian civilizations, Zhang investigated the influence of Protestant and Confucian work ethics on the innovative behavior of employees in China (Zhang et al., 2012), and reported that the economic take-off of East Asia was highly evident in the late 20th century. Moreover, the emphasis of the Confucian culture on diligence, thrift, order, discipline, collectivism, knowledge, faith, and family responsibility was strongly related to this economic phenomenon (Yang, 2012;Tian et al., 2022). ...
This study summarizes the internal relationship and mechanism of industrialization, business culture, and higher education that affect the development of modern industrial and commercial culture, and consequently, the construction of free trade ports in Hainan. The cases of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai free trade ports were considered as references. Based on immigration, naturalization, and education in Hainan’s history, Hainan’s cultural base map, which influences the construction of modern industrial and commercial culture, was proposed to be formed by splicing and overlapping of the free, guarding, farming-reading, farming-marine, and immigrant cultures. The development course of Hainan in the past 30 years indicated that although Hainan has always been at the forefront and highland of reform and opening up, it is still relatively backward despite the implementation of long-term policies; moreover, its development performance is not ideal. The existing problems and factors related to the present ideology mainly include the following: 1) The pursuit of “making quick money” has led to the ups and downs of Hainan’s development. 2) Lack of innovation hinders functional improvement leading to poor sustainability. 3) The course of modern industrial civilization based on a cultural base map is short. 4) Although bottom-up industrialization plays a key role in the formation of modern industrial civilization, it is not followed by Hainan. Furthermore, the cultural development path of Hainan Free Trade Port construction should 1) strongly promote industrialization by overcoming the shortcomings of industrial development, 2) deepen the reform of the agricultural reclamation system, improve the business environment, and cultivate a healthy modern industrial and commercial culture, 3) standardize the tourism market, and build the most advanced tourism industry culture, 4) improve the basic education level and develop excellent higher education opportunities, 5) enhance the diversity of human resources structure, and 6) revitalize literature and art, and showcase and develop Hainan’s fine culture. Overall, the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port requires long-term upgrading and development. It is necessary to continue cultural construction, adapt to the requirements of the highest level of openness and realize the healthy development of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
... Work ethic as a stable individual difference reflects individuals' work values, and higher work ethic describes individuals who place work at their center of lives and feel intrinsically motivated to work (Mirels and Garrett, 1971;Leong et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2009). Although researchers agree that work ethic is a dimensional variable, the actual dimensions have not achieved agreement (Zhang et al., 2012). In this study, we choose to follow Wang et al. (2009) LODJ 43,4 who developed work ethic under the context of Chinese culture. ...
... Among these dimensions, interpersonal harmony represents the unique aspect of Confucian culture, and it also indicates that subordinates with high work ethic care more about leaders and tend to treat SSG as an effective tool to finish work. Individuals with high work ethic feel intrinsically motivated toward work, and they put work at the center of their lives (Wang et al., 2009;Zhang et al., 2012). This implies that subordinates with high work ethic are more willing to be associated with work and have a higher affective commitment toward organizations. ...
... In addition, this research helps to advance research on work ethic by integrating this variable with cultural values. Previous literature mentioned that individuals with high work ethic treat Guanxi as workload and dislike Guanxi (Zhang et al., 2012). Our research shows that individuals with a high work ethic are willing to look at Guanxi in a positive way. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi (SSG) and employee affective commitment. Integrating social exchange theory (SET) with conservation of resource (COR) theory, this paper explores the mixed effect of SSG on affective commitment as well as the moderating roles of an individual difference (subordinate work ethic) and a contextual variable (procedural fairness).
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopted a survey involving 249 subordinates to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The results showed that the relationship between SSG and affective commitment was inverted U-shaped, and this relationship was moderated by work ethic and procedural fairness, respectively.
Research limitations/implications
Despite those contributions listed above, there are still some limitations that future research should seek to address. First, the data of this research are cross-sectional, which might cause common method bias to responses. However, all the hypotheses are higher-order forms of the main effects (curvilinear and moderating effects), which are not affected by the cross-sectional nature of the study (Podskoff et al. , 2003). Moreover, given these variables in the model are related to subordinates' internal psychological states or perceptions, data for the study should be collected from subordinates. Relatedly, the cross-sectional nature of the dataset may raise a question about the directionality of the relationships. However, the research model is based on strong theories (i.e. SET and COR theory). In addition, prior research has indicated that Guanxi has an influence on commitment, not vice versa (Cheung et al. , 2009; Chen and O'Leary, 2018). However, given that only experimental design can conclusively prove the directionality of the relationship, the authors encourage to replicate the current study using such a design. In addition, the authors encourage future studies to collect longitudinal data and replicate the current study. Second, this study only tested how work ethic and procedural fairness moderated the relationship between SSG and affective commitment. The authors encourage future research to explore the moderating effect of other moderators, such as the integrity of supervisors. In particular, when the supervisor has a high level of integrity, the negative influence of higher SSG may be weakened. Third, this study did not explore the mechanism linking SSG with affective commitment. Future studies should explore the potential mechanisms. For example, subordinates' emotional exhaustion might be the potential mechanism between SSG and affective commitment.
Practical implications
The results imply that supervisors should treat SSG as a double-edged sword and maximize the positive influence of SSG. In addition, organizations should hire individuals with high work ethic or provide related training. At last, organizations should realize the importance of procedural fairness and set a sector that oversees making and executing well-designed roles.
Originality/value
Previous studies on SSG mainly focused on its positive effect on affective commitment, neglecting to explore its negative effect. This paper helped to illustrate the relationship between SSG and affective commitment comprehensively by indicating the relationship between SSG and affective commitment was inverted U-shaped and moderated by work ethic and procedural fairness, respectively.
... He originally argued that the work ethic was grounded in religious beliefs and emphasized that the Protestant societies were having a different work ethic than that of the non-Protestant societies. However, subsequent researches stated that the conceptualization of PWE is applicable to all religions, not involving any specific religious mandate (Zabel et al. 2017;Zhang et al. 2012). Therefore, scholars refer to this concept only as the "work ethic" (Meriac and Gorman 2017;Rusu 2018). ...
... We are witnessing the birth of a new organizational world in China that emphasizes knowledge, talent, ethical behaviors and innovative spirit more than ever. The work ethic also has been considered as a main driving force behind the economic success of America and the countries of Europe (Zhang et al. 2012). However, in considering the work ethic of Chinese workers, Cao and Hill (2019) stated that the reason for the decline of work ethic lies in the changed ideas of today's people that caused by the rapid economic development. ...
... These personality traits, in turn, have been considered as important sources of positive affect (Diener 1984;van Woerkom and Meyers 2015). A body of research also has confirmed that individuals who possess work ethic will experience positive affect at work (Zhang et al. 2012;Zhang and Shi 2017;Furnham 1990). As an individual's degree of work ethic increase, so should their experience of positive affect and their degree of job involvement (Kalemci and Tuzun 2019;Zhang 2017). ...
This study examined the relationship between work ethic and proactive work behaviors by focusing on the moderating roles of education and party affiliation. The theoretical model was tested using data collected from employees in China. Analyses of 746 usable questionnaires collected at two phrases were used to empirically test the relationship between the work ethic and proactive work behaviors. The relationship between work ethic and proactive work behaviors was more pronounced for those with lower education. It was also founded that the work ethic had a significantly stronger positive influence on proactive work behaviors among non-Party members than among the Chinese Communist Party members. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of this study, future research directions and limitations at the end of this article.
... Where the 1.5-and second-generation groups have higher educational attainment and occupational status, their first-generation counterparts also have higher educational attainment. The cultural capital of the Asian groups may also play a role (Zhang et al., 2012). In view of Australia being one of the worlds' leading destinations for international study, the proportions of the 1.5 and second generations who may benefit from the knowledge and familiarity with Australian education which many of their parents (particularly those from China, India, ...
This paper explores the occupational status of immigrant birthplace‐generation groups in Australia, a country which emphasises skills in immigrant admissions. Using 2016 data, the occupational statuses of the first, 1.5, and second generations of Australia's China, India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam birthplace‐generation groups are compared to those for the main English‐speaking countries, all other countries, and third‐ and above‐generation Australians. The results show that the occupational status of the 1.5‐ and second‐generation Asian groups considered generally exceed that for their first generation counterparts and invariably exceed that for third‐ and above‐generation Australians, even after controlling for a range of confounding factors. For most Asian groups, the 1.5 generation's occupational status exceeds that of the second generation. Modification of the ‘segmented assimilation’ hypothesis to incorporate a new category of ‘hyper‐selective differentiation’ is proposed to capture the extraordinary upward occupational mobility of most 1.5‐ and second‐generation Asian groups in Australia.
... Mientras muchas tesis de Weber han sido fuertemente discutidas, la adopción y el arraigo de la ética del trabajo en la sociedad occidental es innegable. Dicha ética pronto se convirtió en un valor cultural tan dominante en las sociedades occidentales que su influencia en dichas sociedades es clara mucho más allá de la afiliación religiosa (por ejemplo, Arslan 2001;Cherrington, 1980;Furnham, 1990;Jones, 1997;Zhang, Liu & Liu, 2012). ...
RESUMEN Las personas, por el solo hecho de percibir a un individuo como muy trabajador, tienden a atribuirle características morales positivas. Sin embargo, la evidencia empírica indica que esta es una atribución precipitada, injustificada. Todo sugiere que la percepción de un individuo como muy trabajador funciona a modo de heurístico, el cual nos permite evaluar de forma rápida, aunque tosca, el carácter moral global de dicho individuo.
En el presente artículo se analizan los posibles
orígenes del fenómeno, las pruebas que hay de su
existencia, cómo puede explicarse y sus
implicaciones tanto teóricas como prácticas. Este
fenómeno puede deberse, en parte, a la fuerte
influencia de la ética protestante del trabajo tan
dominante en la sociedad occidental. A pesar de
que la investigación empírica sobre este fenómeno
es aún escasa, los estudios existentes lo apoyan
claramente, al menos, en el ámbito laboral y en el
contexto estadounidense. Además de la ética
protestante del trabajo, este fenómeno puede
explicarse haciendo alusión al heurístico de
disponibilidad, así como a otros fenómenos muy
próximos al citado heurístico: en concreto,
hablamos aquí de la correlación ilusoria y del
efecto halo. A partir del heurístico de
disponibilidad se establece una correlación
ilusoria entre el trabajo duro y el carácter moral;
por su parte, el efecto halo contribuye a una visión
positiva del individuo en ámbitos desconocidos,
como puede ser el moral, a partir de su valioso
desempeño en el ámbito laboral. El fenómeno que
aquí hemos analizado puede acarrear una serie de
sesgos, al igual que sucede con otros heurísticos.
A pesar de que, en este caso, el juicio sobre la
moralidad de la persona que de él se deriva es
benévolo, su uso puede comportar efectos muy
dañinos, también en el ámbito de la moralidad,
por lo que hemos de estar alerta ante su presencia
para evitar su posible influjo negativo.
... Confucianism has exerted a great influence on Chinese thinking and behavior (Xiong and Wei, 2020). Confucian values relate to individual job attitudes and performance (Zhang et al., 2012;Leong et al., 2014). Confucian familism, as the key aspect of Confucianism, emphasizes the obligations of family members to the family (Yang, 2004). ...
To reveal the cultural effect in the job demands-resources model, this study examined how Confucian familism, emotional labor, and work-family conflict (WFC) explain the variance in teachers’ emotional exhaustion, with a focus on the mediating roles of emotional labor and WFC. With a sample of 3,312 teachers in China, the results of this study revealed that surface acting and expression of naturally felt emotion (ENFE) and WFC mediated the relationship between familism and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, familism positively predicted deep acting, ENFE, WFC, and emotional exhaustion, while negatively predicted surface acting. These findings suggest that Confucian familism may play the dual role of motivator and stressor for Chinese teachers’ emotional labor and well-being. This study contributes to the job demands-resources theory by revealing the important role of cultural traditions and provides valuable information for interventions to sustain teacher well-being.
... Further research is needed on this matter, but in the meantime, there can be little doubt that there are 'elective affinities' (to again use a Weberian term) between the Protestant ethic and Chinese Confucianism (Harrison 1992;Martin 2011, pp. 73-74;Zhang et al. 2012;Leong et al. 2013). ...
Insufficient attention has been paid to the interface between religion, business and development, allowing assumptions and stereotypes to abound. This paper takes a broadly conceptual and sociological approach to the development potential of the Evangelical Pentecostal Charismatic Movement (EPCM). Taking their cue from Weber, three questions are addressed, and three corresponding suggestions are made that are important to understanding this potential. Using the notion of ‘calling’ as an example, the first suggestion is that the cognitive, behavioural and social characteristics of the EPCM that are significant for development relate closely to personal and corporate purpose. Secondly, in contrast to what Weberian and secular perspectives tend to assume, the EPCM and its associated virtues will not necessarily decline as economies grow. Thirdly, while alternatives (such as Confucianism) are possible, the EPCM demonstrates considerable potential in terms of practical development impact. None of this challenges existing evidence that the movement is influenced by the ‘prosperity gospel’; by world-denying pietism and supernaturalism; and by socio-economic factors often described as ‘neo-liberal’—influences that have received much scholarly attention. It does indicate, however, that a more nuanced understanding of the movement and of its causal relationships is needed, given the complexity of the religion–business–development nexus.
