Justice and Guanxi in Hiring: Fairness Reactions of US and Chinese Students

Abstract

This study investigated cross-cultural perceptions of justice between U.S. and Chinese students. The experimental design included four allocation rules (equity, equality, need, and guanxi) along with conditions of hired/not hired and most qualified/least qualified. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and organizational justice are used for hypothesis development, with procedural and distributive justice as dependent variables. Results show U.S. students perceiving equity as fairer than Chinese students and Chinese students perceiving guanxi as fairer than U.S. students under certain conditions. Surprisingly, U.S. students rated equality and need allocation as more fair than Chinese students in some conditions, contrary to what was hypothesized.