Yaping Gong

Employee Learning Orientation, Transformational Leadership, and Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role of Employee Creative Self-Efficacy

We examined the relationship between employee creativity and job performance. Furthermore, we identified two learning-related personal and situational variables—employee learning orientation and tr...

Subsidiary Staffing in Multinational Enterprises: Agency, Resources, and Performance

How likely are multinational enterprises (MNEs) to use expatriate parent country nationals to staff culturally distant subsidiaries? How does their employment affect subsidiary performance? The agency theory prediction is that MNEs will rely more heavily on parent country nationals as cultural distance increases and that this reliance will weaken over time. Both agency theory and the “resource-based view” suggest that a positive effect of expatriate staffing on subsidiary performance increases with cultural distance but decreases over time. Results largely supported the predictions in data on Japanese foreign subsidiaries.

A Model of Multinational Enterprise Subsidiary Staffing Composition

A large proportion of the multinational enterprise (MNE) literature focuses on parent country national (PCN) expatriates. The high costs of managing and supporting PCNs on foreign assignments, however, have made these assignments less attractive for MNEs and, as a result, MNEs are more actively exploring ways to effectively utilize third country nationals (TCNs) and host country nationals (HCNs), as well as PCNs to satisfy international subsidiary staffing needs. Grounded in the person–environment (P–E) fit theory, we delineate three environmental dimensions (strategic, national and organizational) to offer some propositions that may serve to guide this exploration. These propositions are based on an integrative model that examines the MNE subsidiary staffing composition under different combinations of strategic, national and organizational dimensions. We conclude with suggestions for future research.

Unfolding the Proactive Process for Creativity Integration of the Employee Proactivity, Information Exchange, and Psychological Safety Perspectives

The authors integrate the employee proactivity, information exchange, and psychological safety perspectives to develop a model of individual creativity. Proactive employees prepare themselves with resources in anticipation of effecting changes. The authors propose that proactive employees seek informational resources through exchanging with others in the workplace. Information exchange, in turn, fosters the development of trust relationships that provide psychological safety for creative endeavors. The authors collected time-lagged data from a sample of 190 matched employee–manager pairs in a specialty retail chain. The results showed that proactive employees engaged in more information exchange and, by so doing, built stronger trust relationships with supervisors and colleagues. These trust relationships, in turn, increased employee creativity. The relationship between information exchange and employee creativity was fully mediated by trust. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for creativity theory and research.

Toward a Dynamic Process Model of Staffing Composition and Subsidiary Outcomes in Multinational Enterprises

Subsidiary staffing composition is defined as the distribution of parent country nationals (PCNs), host country nationals (HCNs), and third country nationals (TCNs) in subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Subsidiary staffing composition varies along the dimension of nationality heterogeneity. The MNE staffing literature has mainly focused on expatriate PCNs and individual-level outcomes. This article develops a dynamic process model in which heterogeneity of staffing composition influences affective, behavioral, cognitive, and strategic outcomes, which in turn affect subsidiary financial performance. Drawing upon organizational learning and social identification theories, this article offers testable propositions regarding relationships between staffing composition and subsidiary outcomes, and changes in these relationships over time. Finally, it proposes a preliminary research program to test the model.

Flexibility-Oriented HRM Systems, Absorptive Capacity, and Market Responsiveness and Firm Innovativeness

Although market responsiveness and firm innovativeness are important aspects of firm performance, little is known about which human resource management (HRM) systems foster these performance aspects and how. Building on prior research, we delineate flexibility-oriented human resource management (FHRM) systems in terms of resource- and coordination-flexibility-oriented HRM subsystems. In addition, we draw on organizational learning theory and the concept of absorptive capacity (AC) to articulate the mechanisms through which these systems might influence market responsiveness and firm innovativeness. We develop and validate measures of FHRM systems using a series of four independent samples. Our findings based on a sample of high-technology firms indicate that FHRM systems are positively associated with firm-level potential and realized AC and that potential AC, in turn, is positively associated with market responsiveness and firm innovativeness.

Role conflict and ambiguity of CEOs in international joint ventures: A transaction cost perspective

Insights from transaction cost economics were used to study the boundary conditions underlying the role conflict and ambiguity of 265 CEOs in Chinese-based international joint ventures. Role conflict and ambiguity were lower when the contract between parents was more complete. Contract completeness fully mediated the effects of parent objective gap and parent formalization on role ambiguity but only partially so in the case of role conflict. Role conflict was lower when the foreign parent was dominant in the venture but higher when the local parent was dominant. Role conflict and ambiguity were inversely related to cultural distance. Neither construct had a detrimental effect on international joint venture performance. Implications for role theory are discussed.

Proactive personality, social capital, helping, and turnover intentions

Purpose – Proactive personality is believed to relate to greater interpersonal helping and lower turnover intentions. Accrued social capital should play a mediating role in this relationship. This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – The authors used structural equation modeling to analyze the longitudinal data collected from 174 individuals at three points in time. Two dimensions of social capital, i.e. the resource dimension as indicated by information exchange and the relational dimension as indicated by trust relationships were specified.Findings – After controlling for the Big Five personality dispositions, information exchange and then trust relationships sequentially mediated the relationship of proactive personality with helping and turnover intentions.Research limitations/implications – The research highlights the importance of understanding proactive personality through the social capital perspective. Multiple source data collection method is recommended for further ...

Validation of a Multidimensional HR Flexibility Measure

Wright and Snell (1998) contend that HR flexibility is an important construct that may enable managers and management scholars to gain a greater understanding of the role of human resource management in enhancing firm performance. However, there is limited evidence regarding the psychometric properties of the measures that have been used to assess the HR flexibility construct and examine its effects. A primary objective of this study was to develop and validate a psychometrically sound measure of the HR flexibility construct. In this article, we present evidence of content validity/adequacy, internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity that provides support for the use of this study’s multidimensional HR flexibility measure in subsequent empirical inquiries and theory testing efforts. Implications and limitations of this current research as well as avenues for future research are discussed.

Goal orientations and cross-cultural adjustment: an exploratory study

This study provides the first empirical test of the impacts of goal orientations on cross-cultural adjustment. Eighty-five international students participated in the study. Factor analysis results demonstrated a two-factor structure of the goal orientation scale developed by Button, Mathiew, and Zajac (Organ. Behavior Human Decision Process. 67 (1996) 26). Hierarchical regression analysis results indicated that learning goal orientation had a positive impact on both academic and interaction adjustment, whereas performance goal orientation had a positive impact on academic adjustment.