We are grateful to three anonymous referees for extremely valuable suggestions. This research was supported by grants 88/S15050 from BBSRC (UK) and grants R000239002 and R000239351 from ESRC (UK AbstractHow do workers make wage comparisons? Both an experimental study and an analysis of 16,000 British employees are reported. Satisfaction and well-being levels are shown to depend on more than simple relative pay. They depend upon the ordinal rank of an individual's wage within a comparison group. 'Rank' itself thus seems to matter to human beings. Moreover, consistent with psychological theory, quits in a workplace are correlated with pay distribution skewness.JEL codes: J3; J28; I31.

This study aims to provide new insights into the relationship between supervisors perceptions of guanxi human resource management (HRM) practices and their subordinates work engagement. We used a three time-lagged sample from 45 work groups and 205 employees in a state-owned organisation (Study 1) and cross-sectional data from 101 work groups and 413 employees in 101 different organisations (Study 2) to test our hypotheses. The results revealed that supervisors perceptions of guanxi HRM practices were positively related to subordinates perceptions of guanxi HRM practices, which, in turn, negatively affected subordinates work engagement. This indirect effect was stronger when group power distance was low or when individual power distance orientation was low.

Although research in the feedback-seeking behavior literature has primarily focused on feedback-seeking from supervisors, some emerging works have begun to explore the benefits of coworker feedback-seeking behavior. Based on the social exchange theory, we investigated how and when seeking feedback from coworkers will benefit the seekers. Using a sample of 327 teachers from China, we find that seeking feedback from coworkers is positively associated with task performance and workplace well-being. Seeking feedback from coworkers is also positively associated with coworker relationship. Moreover, the coworker relationship mediates the effects of seeking feedback from coworkers and task performance and workplace well-being, and moderates the strength of the relationship between seeking feedback from coworkers on task performance and workplace well-being. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Drawing upon psychological ownership theory, we examined the link between participative decision making and employees' feedback seeking from supervisors, by focusing on the mediating role of job-based psychological ownership. Analysis of data from 248 subordinatesupervisor dyads employed at 2 hotels in China showed that participative decision making was positively associated with employees seeking feedback from supervisors, and the relationship was mediated by job-based psychological ownership. In sum, our results suggest that participative decision making can serve as a managerial tool to stimulate, encourage, and foster employees' feedback-seeking behavior, and that the development of job-based psychological ownership can help with this process.

We are grateful to three anonymous referees for extremely valuable suggestions. This research was supported by grants 88/S15050 from BBSRC (UK) and grants R000239002 and R000239351 from ESRC (UK). Oswald's work was supported by an ESRC Professorial Fellowship. The first version of this paper was written in 2002. Opinions in this article are those of individual authors only; they do not necessarily reflect views or policies of Watson Wyatt. For helpful suggestions, we thank Dick Easterlin,