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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how ethical leadership and formal control systems influence employee opportunistic behavior. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data collected from Chinese employees (N=430), the authors conducted regression analysis to test hypothesized relationships between ethical leadership and formal control systems and employee opportunistic behavior. Both direct effects and an interaction effect were tested. Findings The authors found that both ethical leadership and formal control systems individually play significant roles in reducing employee opportunistic behavior. In addition, the results indicate that ethical leadership and formal control systems function as complements to jointly constrain employee opportunistic behaviors. Originality/value This study contributes to an understanding of the relationship between supervisors and followers in China by demonstrating the effects of ethical leadership and formal control systems on employee opportunistic behaviors, including an interesting interaction effect.

Ethical leadership has been documented as a critical factor influencing employee behavior. This study aims to expand on previous research by investigating how ethical leadership cultivates healthy Chinese guanxi between employees and their supervisors and influences employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We propose that two types of Chinese guanxi, favor‐seeking guanxi and rent‐seeking guanxi, may play a mediating role in the relationship between ethical leadership and OCB. Using survey data collected from Chinese employees (N = 502), regression and bootstrap analyses are used to test the proposed research model. The results suggest that ethical leadership not only directly promotes employee OCB performance, but also does so indirectly by facilitating favor‐seeking guanxi orientation and suppressing rent‐seeking guanxi orientation. The results provide a theoretical contribution to the study of ethical leadership and Chinese guanxi, and also extend our practical understanding of the role of ethical leadership in enhancing OCB effectively in the China context.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how to align purchasing portfolio management with sourcing negotiation styles. Design/methodology/approach The authors have adopted two-step field tests: a case study; and a follow-up experimental test with 77 sourcing professionals. Findings The authors note that Kraljic Portfolio Matrix (KPM) provides a valuable guide for determining sourcing negotiation styles (i.e. competitive negotiation for leverage items, collaborative negotiation for strategic items and accommodative negotiation for bottleneck items). Interestingly, effective buyers adopt right negotiation styles based on the switching costs of changing suppliers, the dependence level on specific suppliers and the availability of alternative suppliers. Originality/value This study shows that aligning purchasing portfolio management with sourcing negotiation styles improves the chances of effective buying outcomes. Practical implications suggest that successful buyers move beyond interpreting generic predictions of the KPM framework and rather implement specific negotiation styles to maximize the potential benefits of purchasing portfolio management.