Images of the virtuous employee in China's transitional economy

Abstract

We examine contemporary images of employee virtue and managers' perceptions of actual employee conduct in Wuhan, Beijing and Xi'an, drawing on document analysis and structured interviews with 112 respon- dents in ten case study companies. The image promulgation strategies of the one joint venture enterprise and the two private enterprises in our sample entailed active avowal of tradition linked employee virtue, drawing on a mixture of Communist and Confucian moral imagery. In contrast, most of the seven state-owned or predomi- nantly state invested enterprises had abandoned or marginalized traditional Communist imagery, none promoted Confucian imagery, and two emphasized alternative images of one-sided servility toward the customer. We infer, from managers' accounts, that the abandonment of tradition linked images by the state-owned sector was a tacit acknowledgment of prior covenant violation, and that outside the state-owned sector, tradition linked moral propa- ganda contributed to moral atmosphere only when part of a consistent high-commitment HRM strategy. In drawing out implications for theory and further research, we note the different socio-political contexts of organizations in China and the West, discuss the relationship between bonds or covenants and psychological contracts, and compare tradition linked employee virtues with dimensions of organizational citizenship. Our research identifies three strategies for promulgating propaganda images of virtuous employees in ten case study companies in China. The first of these strategies employs tradition-linked images which, as we explain in this introduction section, stem largely from Communism and Confucianism. The second involves the promulgation of alterna- tive, customer oriented, images of employee morality. The third entails the abandonment or marginalization of traditional propaganda. We also investigate moral atmosphere, the implied norms attached to perceived actual conduct and attitudes of employees. We of- fer two explanations for our findings. First, we argue that the fading of tradition-linked images from the state-owned sector is due to disillusion associated with prior covenant violation. Second, we argue that outside the state owned sector, tradition-linked image pro- mulgation strategies can help to foster a virtuous moral atmosphere, if they are part of a coherent, high-commitment human resource management (HRM) strategy. In conclusion, noting differences from, and similarities to, the West, we suggest that further research be undertaken in China on the relationship between imposed covenants and perceived psycho- logical contracts, and between spiritual civilization virtues and dimensions of organizational citizenship.