Smith, Peter B, Wasti, Arzu, Grigoryan, Lusine, Achoui, Mustafa, Bedford, Olwen, Budhwar, Pawan, Lebedeva, Nadya, Leong, ChanHoong and Torres, Claudio (2014) Are guanxi-type supervisor-subordinate relationships culture-general? An eight-nation test of measurement invariance. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45 (6). pp. 921-938. ISSN 0022-0021

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Abstract

Three dimensions of subordinate–supervisor relations (affective attachment, deference to
supervisor, and personal-life inclusion) that had been found by Y. Chen, Friedman, Yu, Fang,
and Lu to be characteristic of a guanxi relationship between subordinates and their supervisors
in China were surveyed in Taiwan, Singapore, and six non-Chinese cultural contexts. The
Affective Attachment and Deference subscales demonstrated full metric invariance whereas
the Personal-Life Inclusion subscale was found to have partial metric invariance across all eight
samples. Structural equation modeling revealed that the affective attachment dimension had
a cross-nationally invariant positive relationship to affective organizational commitment and a
negative relationship to turnover intention. The deference to the supervisor dimension had
invariant positive relationships with both affective and normative organizational commitment.
The personal-life inclusion dimension was unrelated to all outcomes. These results indicate the
relevance of aspects of guanxi to superior–subordinate relations in non-Chinese cultures. Studies
of indigenous concepts can contribute to a broader understanding of organizational behavior.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Subjects:	Q Science > QZ Psychology
Depositing User:	Peter Smith
Date Deposited:	14 Jan 2015 07:30
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2017 08:13
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/52107

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