Guanxi HRM Practice and Employees’ Occupational Well-Being in China: A Multi-Level Psychological Process

Abstract

Chinese employees may experience and respond to guanxi human resource management (HRM) practice (e.g., recruiting, selecting, inducting and appraising employees based on personal relationships). Little has been done to examine the linkage between guanxi HRM practice and employees’ occupational well-being. This study investigates the psychological process of how guanxi HRM practice affects employees’ occupational well-being. The theoretical model of this study proposes that employee psychological safety mediates the relationship between guanxi HRM practice and occupational well-being, while collectivistic team culture moderates the relationship between guanxi HRM practice and psychological safety. Multi-level data from 297 employees nested within 42 teams support all hypotheses. This study reveals the cross-level effects of guanxi HRM practice and providing practical suggestions for future research on psychologically safe and healthy work environments.

The Effects of Asymmetrical Guanxi Perception on Job Burnout: Task Conflict, Relationship Conflict, and Process Conflict as Mediators

“…A distinguishing feature of the present study is its focus on the mechanism of guanxi on job burnout. The empirical results showed that, overall, the non-substantial effects caused by asymmetrical guanxi perception on employee job burnout are significant and differ from the negative effects of substantial guanxi; this complements the gap left by the research on the substantial guanxi that affects the job burnout (e.g., Gorgievski and Hobfoll, 2008;Hu et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2019;Liu and Jia, 2020;Xu et al, 2020). In fact, the asymmetrical guanxi perception can be seen as negative effects caused by information asymmetry.…”

“…Though guanxi has both positive and negative effects, the present study focuses solely on its negative effects. Past studies on the negative effects of guanxi have indicated that they include adverse outcomes, such as procedural injustice perceptions, violation of organizational procedures, negative externalities, cronyism, corruption, job burnout, and an erosion of trust in authority ( Gold, 1985 ; Chu and Ju, 1990 ; Pye, 1995 ; Bian, 1997 ; Leana and Rousseau, 2000 ; Chen et al, 2004, 2011 ; Khatri et al, 2006 ; Gorgievski and Hobfoll, 2008 ; Chen and Chen, 2009 ; Hu et al, 2016 ; Zhang and Gill, 2019 ; Liu and Jia, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ). However, the guanxi investigated in these studies was always substantial; the negative effects of non-substantial guanxi, such as the guanxi of erroneous perceptions, were not investigated.…”

“…Job burnout has always been an important issue in the hospitality industry ( Kim, et al, 2007 ; Dai et al, 2021 ). Employees with job burnout will have diminished work performance and organizational citizenship behavior, which can in turn eventually lead to behaviors that are costly to their organization ( Xu et al, 2020 ). Therefore, it is important for managers to take steps to avoid employee job burnout.…”

Exploring Links between Polychronicity and Job Performance from the Person–Environment Fit Perspective—The Mediating Role of Well-Being

“…Obrenovic et al [24] considered that well-being presented sustainability, proactivity, and strong motivation to work. According to the psychological condition theory, the antecedent of well-being refers to employees being motivated and exhibiting well-being when psychological conditions, such as psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety, and psychological availability, were satisfied [8,25]. Moreover, self-determination theory describes how individual motivation is affected by the social environment through distinct satisfaction of psychological needs, with the perceived environment further forming motivation due to self-determination.…”

“…In this case, when an employee's preference for time-structuring matched with the time-use preferences of the organization or their peers, an individual would perceive better organizational climate, greater security, greater agreeance with the organization, and more meaningful work [20]. Xu et al [25] revealed that employees would generate well-being motivation when the psychological conditions were satisfied. When an employee appeared to have consistent values with the organization, the employee would observe positive job performance and show positive work attitudes.…”