Abstract
Under the influence of Confucian relativism, Chinese decisions are often influenced by guanxi. Thus, Chinese employees may be partial to colleagues who have close guanxi with them. This will have a potential negative effect on the organization. Given that few studies have focused on how to reduce the negative effect of guanxi on whistle-blowing behavior in unethical situations, this study examined the effect of guanxi on employees' whistle-blowing intention, and explored the potential moderating variables (i.e., organizational guanxi orientation and employee integrity) in the above relationship.
In order to test the above hypotheses, this study used two experimental designs and a field survey study to examine the moderating factors between guanxi and employees' whistle-blowing intention. Study 1 (N=208) was a 2 (guanxi: strong vs. weak) × 2 (organizational guanxi orientation: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design. The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of organizational guanxi orientation. Study 2 (N=118) was a 2 (guanxi: strong vs. weak) × 2 (integrity: priming vs. non-priming) between-subjects factorial design. The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of integrity. Study 3 (N=205) was a field survey study. The purpose of this study was to provide external validity support to our hypotheses.
Results showed that guanxi was negatively related to employees' whistle-blowing intention (Studies 1~3). Further moderating analyses found that the negative effect of guanxi on employees' whistle-blowing intention was moderated by organizational guanxi orientation (Studies 1 and 3) and employee integrity (Studies 2 and 3). For those high guanxi orientation organizations or low integrity employees, guanxi had a significant suppressed effect on the employee's whistle-blowing intention. However, for those low guanxi orientation organizations or high integrity employees, the relationship between guanxi and the employee's whistle-blowing intention was not significant.
The above conclusions have some important theoretical and management implications for employee guanxi management and the design of whistle-blowing system. First, the present study revealed that the relationship between guanxi and employees' whistle-blowing intention in China was different from that of Western culture. Thus, managers should use different methods to manage guanxi in different countries. In China, for those departments that are prone to corruption, managers should focus on supervising those employees with good guanxi and take rotation plans when necessary to prevent a conspiracy to commit corruption and malpractice. Second, for the organizational managers, diluting the guanxi orientation within the organizations, advocating contract-based management practices and recruiting employees with high integrity will reduce mutual concealment behavior of employees with good guanxi, which in turn promote organizational employees' whistle-blowing intention to unethical behavior.
Key words
guanxi /
whistle-blowing /
organizational guanxi orientation /
integrity /
unethical
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When is the Concealment between Close Colleagues Terminated? The Boundary Condition of the Effect of Guanxi on Whistle-blowing Intention[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2020, 43(2): 423-429
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