Search

We examined employees' conflict with their supervisors in cross-cultural work settings. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 332 and 302 university employees in the United States and China, respectively. First, the qualitative data revealed that 54% versus 42% of supervisor conflicts were attributable to low job control in the United States and China, respectively. The quantitative data indicated that job autonomy was negatively related to supervisor conflict in the United States but not in China. Second, both quantitative and qualitative data showed that Chinese employees had more supervisor conflict than their U.S. counterparts. Third, both type of data suggested that supervisor conflict was more strongly related to job strains in China than in the United States. Finally, job autonomy played different roles in these two countries. It buffered supervisor conflict--job strain relations in the United States but exaggerated such relations in China. Therefore, our study provided a possible explanation to the inconsistent findings regarding the buffering effect of job autonomy on job stressors. Employees' cultural background may complicate the process. The qualitative data largely supported the quantitative findings and provided detailed information on employees' job stress experience in the cross-cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report a series of efforts to validate a U.S. adult social self-efficacy inventory, the Perceived Social Self-Efficacy scale (PSSE), in Chinese populations. They argue that the construct underlying the PSSE scale constitutes an important component of Chinese adult social self-efficacy, which was confirmed in focus group discussions. The original English PSSE items were back translated into Chinese and were adapted to suit Chinese language and culture. Two validation studies were then conducted with Chinese undergraduate students. Results consistently showed that the Chinese PSSE scale had a single-factor structure, high reliabilities, excellent construct validity, and acceptable criterion validity. Implications for counseling research and practice in Chinese contexts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]