Knowledge that Transforms

Taking a procedural justice perspective, we examined the effect of guanxi practices in human resources management (i.e., making human resources management decisions on the basis of personal relationships) on employees' trust in management in Chinese organizations. Two studies were conducted. In the first, a survey study, we found a negative effect of guanxi practices on trust in management, which was mediated by perceived procedural justice. In the second, an experimental study, we found that the negative effect of guanxi practices varied as a function of guanxi bases: favoring a nephew or a hometown fellow lowered trust, but favoring a college schoolmate or a close friend did not. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

In this paper I argue that understanding resources through a social practice perspective enables us to understand more about the role of resources in change. In particular, social practice theory enables us to view resources in context as mutable sources of energy rather than as stable things that are independent of context, and to analyze the reciprocal relationship between actions and resources as they change. This approach to understanding resources requires an elaboration on current social practice theory and provides a new way to understand organizational change. This perspective is used to show how resources transform in unexpected ways as a result of change in organizational routines and how this transformation of resources makes resistance to change difficult to predict.

This article examines the evolution of trust, control, and learning in a joint venture relationship. Using a coevolutionary approach, we develop a framework that shows how initial joint venture conditions give way to evolved conditions as joint venture partners develop an understanding of each other and adjust the collaborative process. We explore the relationship between trust and control in joint ventures and identify how these two critical concepts impact joint venture processes. We argue that trust, along with partner collaborative objectives, creates the initial climate that shapes partner interactions. In turn, these interactions lead to subsequent decisions about the nature of controls. We then examine linkages between alliance learning and the trust and control concepts, and argue that learning processes are central to evolving joint venture dynamics. Once the joint venture is formed, and if the initial conditions support continued collaboration, then learning processes will be central to evolving alliance dynamics. As initial conditions give way to evolved conditions, learning and trust will coevolve and impact decisions about control. Propositions linking the concepts are provided as guides for future empirical research.

In this article, we begin to integrate two fields that have, until now, remained largely independent of one another: organizational justice and transaction-cost economics. Transaction costs consist of search, bargaining, monitoring, enforcement, and other costs not directly related to the production of goods or services. Usually such costs are attributed to difficulties in measurement (the metering problem) or difficulties in redeploying assets to alternative uses (asset specificity). These variables are thought to be objective features of economic transactions. Rarely are the social-psychological dimensions of these objective features taken into account. Although economic transactions are fundamentally human activities, human behavior in the economics literature is usually reduced to such simplifying assumptions as shirking and bounded rationality. In this article, we develop a model of transaction costs based on a more complete description of human psychology as it operates in exchange relationships. We argue that transaction costs are often due to the difficulty of evaluating the fairness of a specific exchange of goods and services. Besides asset specificity and the metering problem, which are treated in the transaction-cost economics literature, the organizational justice literature is especially relevant. Beginning with the work of Ouchi (1980), the paper examines some of the ways that the organizational justice literature complements transaction-cost economics. Because mechanisms that order economic transactions are essentially conflict-resolution structures, we develop a model of economic organization in which transaction costs are related to the perception of fairness in economic exchange. In the literature, governance mechanisms are selected so as to minimize transaction costs. Based on the organizational justice framework, we suggest that the transaction-cost calculus is affected by the perception of fairness in the exchange. In addition, the relationship between the governance mechanism and the perception of fairness is moderated by the elements of interactional justice that characterize the exchange.

In recent years, Western scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)—employees' behavior and actions that are not specifically designated in their formal job duties. Almost the entire body of empirical research on OCB is based on studies conducted in the United States, using U.S. employee populations as samples. Taking an inductive approach, we examined forms of OCB in the People's Republic of China (China). From a diverse sample of 158 employees and managers in 72 state-owned, collective, town and village, foreign-invested, and private enterprises in China, we collected 726 OCB incidents or items that were commonly observed in the workplace. We then subjected these to a content analysis to identify major forms of OCB. Results of our analysis revealed 10 dimensions of OCB, with at least one dimension not evident at all in the Western literature, and four that do not figure importantly in established OCB measures. The type of Organizations influenced the reporting of several forms of OCB. Results suggested that Chinese formulation of OCB differs from that in the West, and is embedded in its unique social and cultural context. We discuss these results in terms of their implications for future research in OCB.