Harmony and organizational citizenship behavior in Chinese organizations

Abstract

From the divergence perspective in human resource management (HRM), this paper develops an indigenous framework exploring the mechanisms between the prominent cultural characteristic of harmony originating from Confucian ideology, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as well as job satisfaction in the Chinese context. By employing structural equation modeling, our findings demonstrate that the degree of harmony is positively related to employees' OCB and job satisfaction, and that job satisfaction positively mediates the relationship between the degree of harmony and OCB. This research – that examines the relationships between Chinese harmony grounding in an art-based view and employees' display of OCB derived from Western theories – is a response to the recent calls for introducing valid context-specific measures and considering the cultural impact on individual behaviors in HRM. This study suggests that firms in China may encourage employee OCB and job satisfaction by boosting harmonious level at workplace. It provides a useful guideline for multinational enterprises eager to effectively manage Chinese employees, and enriches non-Chinese managers' understanding of the values of harmony in China.