Guoquan Chen

Conflict Management and Team Effectiveness in China: The Mediating Role of Justice

Although increasingly relied upon, teams can be ineffective and frustrating. Recent research suggests that conflict management contributes to team effectiveness but the value of conflict has not been considered to apply to China and other collectivist societies. However, collectivist values can make developing justice particularly important. This study investigates how conflict management can contribute to team effectiveness by developing justice. Structural equation analysis of data provided by 126 MBA student respondents involved in group projects in China supports the model that a cooperative approach to conflict leads to distributive, procedural, and interactive forms of justice which in turn promote team effectiveness. In contrast, an avoiding approach was found to predict injustice and team ineffectiveness. Unexpectedly, a competitive approach was not as consistently related to injustice as avoiding conflict. Findings were interpreted as suggesting that orienting members to manage conflict cooperatively can strengthen justice and effectiveness in teams in China.

Cooperative Goals, Leader People and Productivity Values: Their Contribution to Top Management Teams in China

This study proposes that when top management team members are convinced that their leader is committed to people and productivity, they conclude that their leader is effective and contribute to making their organization innovative. Cooperative goals among top management team members may be credible evidence that their leader has people and production values. Executives from over 100 organizations in China completed measures of their cooperative, competitive, and independent goals, their leaders people and production values, and their leaders effectiveness. CEOs from these firms rated their organizations innovativeness. Structural equation analysis suggested that cooperative goals among top management teams convince them that their leader values people and production and that these values in turn result in leader effectiveness and organizational innovation. Results, coupled with previous research, were interpreted as suggesting that cooperative goals and leader people and production values are foundations for leader and top management team effectiveness in China.

Cooperative Goals and Constructive Controversy for Promoting Innovation in Student Groups in China

Abstract In this study, the authors used the theory of cooperation and competition to identify conditions that promote student team innovation. Through an investigation of student teams in Beijing, China, the authors found that teams with cooperative goals engaged in open-minded, constructive controversy, whereas teams with independent goals avoided open discussion. Teams with a high level of constructive controversy rated themselves as innovative and loyal.

Knowledge management in Chinese organizations: collectivist values for open-minded discussions

Employees from different departments of an organization often do not have the relationships and interaction patterns that facilitate integrating and applying their knowledge together. This study proposes that departments that develop collectivist rather than individualist relationships engage in constructive controversy (CC) and share knowledge. Results using data from CEOs and Vice Presidents of various industries and regions of China suggested that collectivist but not individualistic values promote open-minded discussion of views which results in knowledge sharing. Coupled with previous research, these results suggest that collectivist values and CC provide an important foundation for productive knowledge management in organizations.

Constructive controversy for learning and team effectiveness in China

Researchers have strongly endorsed the value of learning for individuals, teams, and organizations, and proposed that effective collaboration among employees is critical for this learning. This study aims to document specifically the nature of this learning enhancing collaboration. It argues that constructive controversy, the open-minded discussion of various views for mutual benefit, characterizes learning interaction among team members. Structural equation analyses were conducted on data provided by teams working in a sample of manufacturing organizations in Shandong, China. Findings support the theorizing that learning promotes team effectiveness and that constructive controversy facilitates a learning orientation. This study empirically links research on constructive controversy with the organizational learning literature.

Leader productivity and people orientations for cooperative goals and effective teams in China

Researchers have traditionally distinguished leaders by the extent to which they are oriented to people and productivity, and meta-analytic results indicate that these orientations have consistent and practically important effects. But research is needed to understand the dynamics by which these orientations induce team effectiveness. This study empirically relates leader orientations to teamwork by suggesting that productivity- and people-oriented leaders develop cooperative goals among team members that in turn results in team effectiveness. A total of 146 team leaders from 21 organizations in China completed measures of productivity and people orientations and their encouraging cooperative goals among team members; 1067 team members rated their effectiveness. Results of the structural equation analysis support the theorizing that leader productivity and people values when complemented by strengthening cooperative relationships can contribute to making teams effective in China and perhaps in other countries as well.