The mediating role of organisation support in effective delegation: the case of Chinese subordinate managers

Abstract

Delegation is widely accepted as an essential element of effective management in North American organisations; however, delegation may not be effective in other countries where employees hold different cultural values. We suggest that Chinese cultural values are inconsistent with delegation, and as such we develop a model in which organisation support mediates the relationship between delegation and, subordinate job satisfaction and performance in the Chinese context. Our sample comprised 136 Chinese subordinates working in a large transport company in Hong Kong. Our results show that organisation support partially mediates between delegation and job satisfaction while organisation support (with job satisfaction) fully mediates between delegation and subordinate performance. Implications for the theory and practice of delegation are discussed, particularly in the context of employees' national cultural differences.