Shuang Ren

Human resources, higher education reform and employment opportunities for university graduates in the People's Republic of China

This study examines the influence of higher educational reforms in the Peoples Republic of China on human resources, the labour market and the employment situation of university graduates, and investigates their interactions within a complex web of network relationships as between government/private employment agents, university systems and potential employers. An in-depth case study was conducted in Yantai, which is a medium-sized city located in Shandong Province, in eastern China. This research reveals the graduate market is still immature and identifies three gaps that contribute to the employment difficulties of university graduates: (a) a gap between what graduates are taught at university and short-term ‘usable’ skills favoured in the labour market; (b) between the changing society and the perceptions and expectations of strategic actors and (c) judgement of what constitutes useful knowledge. It argues that as the role of the state recedes, the part played by other strategic actors should be clarified and enhanced.

Dilemmas concerning the employment of university graduates in China

This article draws on a ‘within-subject’ design of employment of university graduates in China over two different periods, namely 2008 and 2014. This research was conducted based on semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis with four groups of key stakeholders including universities, government agencies, labor-market intermediaries and university graduates. The ‘within-subject’ design enabled an in-depth exploration of how changes at formal and informal institutions affect the employment of university graduates in a fast-changing labor market. The results show that lack of institutional interactions, socially constructed norms that influence graduates’ perceptions and ambiguous directions of educational policies significantly affect university graduates’ employment.

Making sense of business leadership vis-à-vis China’s reform and transition

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the contemporary paradigm of business leadership vis-a-vis China’s reform and transitional context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs an evidence-based approach to explore the business leadership issues influenced by economic reform and within the context of societal transition in China. A qualitative research method was adopted based on in-depth interviews with a number of middle managers from a variety of Chinese enterprises, including state-owned, domestic-private and foreign-invested enterprises. Content analysis of several rounds of interviews added depth to the data analysis. Findings – The findings complement existing thoughts and illustrate concepts, issues, and characteristics not yet emphasized in mainstream literature. General patterns and associated characteristics of business leadership in China, as well as specific patterns associated with different forms of enterprise ownerships, are identified. Research limitations/implication...

New generation employees’ preferences towards leadership style in China

Abstract The leadership style preferences of China’s ‘new generation’ employees in the workplace are now, more than ever, important issues in the management field. Our theoretical contribution aims to extend the employee involvement and leadership literatures by illustrating the relationships between different styles of leadership preferences from the follower-centric perspective. The findings highlight that Chinese new generation employees’ need for involvement negatively impacts on their preference for directive leadership and positively on their preference for high relationship-oriented leadership (i.e. participative and coaching leadership). Additionally, trust-in-supervisor is found to moderate the relationship between need for involvement and preference for delegating leadership.

Leadership self-development in China and Vietnam

The transition towards a socialist market-oriented economy has presented many challenges to both China and Vietnam. One of the key human resource challenges has been to develop business leadership skills in a flexible, timely and cost-effective manner. This paper focuses on the self-initiated approach to professional development that has been introduced by managers at a grassroot level to improve business leadership (referred to as self-development). Given the limited research on self-development in China and Vietnam, the intention of this paper is to enrich understanding of why managers in a complex and dynamic transitional environment undertake self-development activities. The findings of this study suggest that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ paradigm to understand self-development across contexts. First, the western model of leadership competencies at the different management levels do not necessarily fit the needs that managers are targeting in their self-development activities in China and Vietnam. Second, despite some similarities between China and Vietnam, the Chinese managers were more interested in technical leadership skills than the Vietnamese managers whose self-development foci were centred on improving their moral standards. Such differences highlight each countrys stage of economic and social development while reinforcing the influence of contextual factors. It also suggests that self-development is best understood as a process within a specific context.

Ethical leadership, self-efficacy and job satisfaction in China: the moderating role of guanxi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employee perceptions of the ethical conduct of their leaders affect their job satisfaction in the context of the workplace in China. The authors posit that guanxi, which is a complex relational phenomenon deeply rooted in Chinese tradition, may act as a substitute for ethical leadership in the Chinese workplace. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model which explicitly incorporates guanxi as a moderator in explaining the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction is developed. This model is then tested using data from a sample (n=388) of professional employees in nine organisations in Beijing, China. Findings The results show that, as expected, self-efficacy positively and strongly mediates the ethical leadership-job satisfaction relationship. However, guanxi negatively moderates the overall effect of ethical leadership on job satisfaction with the effect being larger in Chinese-owned enterprises compared to foreign-owned enterprises. The findings suggest that employee relationship with their leaders may act as a substitute for ethical leadership in the Chinese workplace. Research limitations/implications The main question which this research uncovers is whether the Western-based conceptualisation of ethical leadership is applicable in different cultural contexts. The authors’ research shows clearly that in the case of China, guanxi plays a substituting role and reduces the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction. Future research could investigate the effects of ethical leadership in different cultural contexts. Practical implications The substituting effect of guanxi on the ethical leadership-job satisfaction relationship suggests that Western firms need to consider culture as an integral contextual factor in explaining employee job satisfaction when they operate in a different cultural context. Originality/value The explicit consideration of guanxi as an influencing factor of the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction in the context of the workplace in China and the testing of this relationship via a moderated-mediation approach is novel.

How work-related capabilities influence job performance: a relational perspective

Abstract Employee relationships with supervisors can be based upon both work-focused activities and outcomes, as exemplified by leader–member exchange (LMX), and personal, non-work activities, as exemplified by Chinese guanxi. The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG) and LMX in the relationship between the work-related human and social capital of employees and supervisors’ ratings of their job performance. Data were collected from 372 employees and 127 supervisors in a range of companies in China. The study demonstrates how human and social capital might play differing roles in influencing SSG and LMX. In particular, LMX partially mediated the relationship between human capital and job performance, and the relationship between social capital and job performance was fully mediated by SSG and LMX. The findings enrich understanding of how personal capabilities influence work and non-work relationships and assessments of job performance. The unique content of the Chinese construct of guanxi has implications for research and practice in modern organizations where the barriers between work and non-work are permeable and relationships include affective attachment as well as instrumental considerations.

Candle in the wind: complexity leadership in China’s fringe arts businesses

This study contributes to the leadership literature by applying the complexity leadership paradigm within China’s fringe arts businesses. China’s societal transformation provides a rich site that is far more complex than the one in established economies. Concerned with the evolving role of arts and cultural leadership within such context, this study explores the emergent, interactive dynamism between leaders, leadership and multiple contexts organized at different levels. Using an evidence-based approach, this study draws from in-depth case studies of two fringe arts businesses in Beijing. The findings not only enrich the model that describes the strategic goals of arts and cultural businesses, but also reveals leader behaviours and approaches used to achieve adaptive outcomes of complexity leadership. Overall, the study provides insights into the practice of arts and cultural leadership socially constructed within a context of drastic change and uncertainty.

Context, self-regulation and developmental foci: A mixed-method study analyzing self-development of leadership competencies in China

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate why managerial leaders engage in leader self-development (SD) vis-a-vis China’s transition process and what domains of leadership competencies are enhanced. It aims to investigate leader SD as an interaction between self-regulation and the confluence of multiple contexts experienced simultaneously by these managerial leaders within China’s transition. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a two-phase exploratory sequential mixed-method design. The absence of empirical research on leader SD in China led to a qualitative approach in the initial stage. Focus groups were first conducted to establish the relevance of the focal construct in a holistic and elaborative way. In-depth interviews were then undertaken to capture the richness of the phenomenon through meaningful contextualization and to identify themes as representative of issues faced by participants. Seven themes emerged from this process, which, through consultation with the relevant literature, were operationalized in the second stage to generate a survey for hypothesis testing. Findings The combination of insights from qualitative and quantitative studies highlights the dynamic and interactive nature of leader SD as a product of contextual and personal influences in China. The influential mechanisms connecting personal and contextual enablers and SD are in the cognitive processing of developmental needs and personal responsibility. Chinese managerial leaders who take the initiative to assess their own developmental needs and assume responsibility for their development are more likely to undertake SD. The developmental activities focus primarily on technical leadership competencies. Research limitations/implications A competency perspective to development may not address fully complexities involved in leader development. Also developing leadership competencies is an ongoing process. Due to limited time and fund, this paper did not take a time perspective to investigate both the immediate and long-term outcomes of leader SD. Practical implications SD is an emerging strategy that has the potential to address the shortage of managerial leadership competencies. The analysis of the self-regulatory process explains the mediating dynamism underlying different domains of leader SD. Recruitment focusing on people with a relatively higher degree of self-regulation thus increases the potential for organizations to staff themselves with employees aware of, and prepared for, SD organization would like to take place. It is also advisable that organizations make efforts to create a learning environment in general. Originality/value This mixed-method approach provides a multi-layered investigation that ultimately adds rigor and relevance to the research findings. It is this analysis of the complex web of economic, social and cultural contexts existing in China, and applying them to social cognitive theory as an explanatory platform, that underpins the originality of the study.

Developing family businesses through ongoing learning: case studies of Chinese urban and rural family businesses under market-oriented reforms

This study advances organisational learning research by exploring how and why learning patterns differ between different family businesses at different layers of Chinas market-oriented transformation. The focus is the locational difference, namely the separate urban and rural environments and outcomes. Combining case studies and in-depth interviews, the study investigated how family businesses interact with their institutional environment and consequently build learning patterns. Learning initiatives undertaken by relevant and motivated family members are found to reflect a dynamic process involving personal learning, business growth, and business innovation. Family conflicts and business growth were also found to impact learning in family businesses. Implications for organisational learning are discussed at the end of the paper.