Search

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to borrow the concept of right-hand person as a specific type of work arrangement and propose a moderated mediation model highlighting the important role of work arrangement in affecting the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinate work outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the hypotheses with a sample of 275 supervisor–subordinate dyads in China (68.8% response rate).FindingsResults showed that if the subordinate was a right-hand person of the supervisor, abusive supervision played a relatively weaker role on the subordinates' performance and organizational citizenship behaviors through leader–member exchange (LMX).Practical implicationsAbusive supervision is a major concern in contemporary organizations, and the current research found that work arrangement such as being a right-hand subordinate could buffer its negative effects. This finding indicates that it is important for organizations and supervisors to make clear work and role assignments.Originality/valueAbusive supervision has received a lot of research attention in the past decades. On top of the nature of supervisory abusive behaviors, researchers have investigated its antecedents and consequences. However, little is known concerning the roles of the work arrangement for the subordinate that may affect the impact of abusive supervision on subordinate work outcomes. This study empirically tests that being a right-hand subordinate may weaken the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinate performance and organizational citizenship behaviors, which highlight the importance of work arrangement in studying abusive supervision.

PurposeProponents of paternalistic leadership argue that a paternalistic leader is authoritative and at the same time, a benevolent and moral individual, and this style is effective in non-Western societies. However, past empirical studies consistently found that authoritarianism related negatively to benevolence, morality and job outcomes. The authors posit that the original proposed style probably did not exist, or at least not being a dominant style, in modern Chinese business organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected supervisor–subordinate dyadic data from three independent Chinese sample in Taiwan (N = 305), Hubei (N = 350) and Jiangsu (N = 270) and utilized the latent profile analysis method to test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, authoritarianism ratings are much lower than ratings of benevolence and morality. Second, none of the identified profiles is high on authoritarianism, benevolence and morality at the same time. Third, leadership style with low authoritarianism, but high on benevolence and morality leads to the best employee outcomes.Originality/valueConceptually, the authors clarify the typical leadership styles that compose of the independent dimensions proposed by paternalistic leadership researchers. Methodologically, the authors showed that using person-centered latent profile analysis method can examine combinations of various leadership dimensions or constructs to examine a leader as a whole person. Practically, understanding a leadership style that composes of different levels of various leadership constructs may better inform managers and leaders how they could effectively influence subordinates.

PurposeHospitality managers face constant challenges in promoting hotel service principles such as innovation and flexibility to their new employees, as such knowledge is usually tacit in nature and hard to formalize. This study aims to suggest that this problem can be addressed by using a knowledge sharing group intervention. Specifically, the authors propose that knowledge sharing groups can enhance a newcomer’s job clarity and positive work attitude by encouraging a stronger sense of perceived importance of and affection toward the hotel service principles.Design/methodology/approachThe authors designed a three-month knowledge sharing program in a five-star hotel chain in Hong Kong. Newcomers were randomly assigned into an experimental group (knowledge sharing group) (N= 235) and a control group (N= 233). The authors tested all the hypotheses via path analyses using Mplus 8.0.FindingsThe results revealed that employees of the experimental group showed a stronger sense of importance of and affection toward the service principles, which in turn resulted in higher levels of job clarity, satisfaction and commitment and lower levels of turnover intention.Practical implicationsThis research provides hotel managers with practical knowledge regarding sharing programs as key socialization intervention mechanisms. By triggering the employees’ deeper understanding of hotel policy, this program can help hotels fortify high-quality service and develop realistic and useful materials for their future training activities.Originality/valueAlthough hospitality scholars have consistently acknowledged the positive influence of knowledge sharing, field experimental research on the outcomes of knowledge management for the newcomer socialization process has been scanty. This study seeks to fill this gap by designing and testing a practical knowledge sharing intervention program in the hotel industry.

PurposeThis study aims to fill the research gap on the moderating effect of leadership empowerment on the relationship between relational capital and firms' innovation performance in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by addressing the following research questions: (1) How do different types of relational capital positively or negatively affect firms' innovation performance in China? (2) Does leadership empowerment play a moderating role in the above relationship?Design/methodology/approachUsing data derived from the firms distributed in eastern, central and western China, the authors study the impact of relational capital, one of the dimensions of intellectual capital, on firms' innovation performance in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Based on firms' operation process regarding the relationships with their external stakeholders, the authors divided relational capital into three aspects: trust, reciprocity and transparency. Furthermore, leadership empowerment is taken as the moderating variable in the above theoretical relationship.FindingsThere is significant evidence that trust, reciprocity and transparency have positive impact on firms' innovation performance. Leadership empowerment positively moderates the impact of trust and reciprocity on innovation performance. However, there is no significant moderating effect of leadership empowerment on the relationship between transparency and innovation performance.Originality/valueIn the era of the knowledge economy, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is a critical foundation for firms to improve their innovation capacity and performance, and intellectual capital is one of the most imperative drivers in terms of firms' innovation performance. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated thoroughly concerning the relationships among the entrepreneurial ecosystem, intellectual capital and innovation performance. As this study explores the relationships among the above three factors, it may have profound theoretical and practical significance for firms to extent external relationship networks, improve their innovation performance and strengthen their core competencies, which is of great significance to facilitate the construction of entrepreneurial ecosystem.

PurposeDrawing on the social influence literature and proposing parental intervention as a social influence process, this study seeks to theorize why parental intervention occurs and how it affects young adults' career development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a conceptual design, offering a conceptual model based on social influence research and career development research.FindingsIt is proposed that parental intervention is a result of incongruence between parental expectations and young adults' interested occupations and between parents' assessments of young adults' qualities and job demands. Parents' traditionality moderates these relationships, while the success of parental intervention depends on young adults' traditionality and career maturity. Parents' position, referent and expert powers affect young adults' compliance, identification and internalization, respectively, which impact their occupational commitment and career satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsLooking at parental intervention over time would help researchers understand this phenomenon more comprehensively than focusing only on its short-term effects as identified in the literature. The motivational processes of parental intervention triggered by power bases play a key role in determining young adults' long-term career consequences.Practical implicationsCareer advisors should consider parents as a source of potential intervention in young adults' career choice. They may also provide parent-oriented services in addition to young adult-oriented services.Originality/valueThis framework contributes to the career development literature by adopting social influence approach to explain parental intervention in young adults' career choice and also providing implications for career counselors.

Although a great deal of knowledge has accumulated about dyadic relationships (i.e., leader–member exchange (LMX) or team–member exchange (TMX)) within a team, employee behaviours that involve triadic relationships among focal employees, leaders, and teammates have seldom been investigated. Using balance theory, which describes triadic relationships from a power dependence perspective, in the current study, we explore how the interplay of LMX, TMX, and peers’ LMX jointly impacts employees’ feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB) and subsequent job performance. By conducting a multilevel moderated polynomial regression on three-wave, multi-source data from 147 team members and their leaders (from 45 work teams), we found that the incongruence between LMX and TMX facilitates FSB when peers’ LMX or task interdependence is high. We also found an asymmetrical incongruence effect concerning the way in which individuals are more likely to seek feedback when LMX is worse than TMX, compared with when LMX is better than TMX. This differential effect is stronger when peers’ LMX or task interdependence is high. The interplay of LMX, TMX, peers’ LMX, and task interdependence eventually has an indirect effect on job performance through FSB. The results from a follow-up study of 270 employees from 77 teams further confirm our predictions about the mechanism of balance theory. Specifically, the results indicate that when peers’ LMX is high, the incongruence between LMX and TMX decreases employees’ psychological safety. Practitioner points: Our study highlights the importance of studying the triadic (LMX, TMX, and peers’ LMX) rather than dyadic relationships in a work team. This study demonstrates that imbalanced relationship triads can influence employees in a positive way (i.e., motivate employees to conduct more change-oriented proactive behaviours). Our study’s findings show that feedback-seeking behaviour is important in promoting job performance when it aims at changing the imbalanced social environment. Our findings suggest practitioners should pay more attention to the role of task interdependence, which changes the power dependence structure of workplace relationships.

Among the approaches to the study of career interests, the person-centered profile approach (i.e., studying the career interest profiles of individuals), rather than the traditional construct-centered approach, has gained more attention in recent years. In our research, we intend to advance our understanding of career interests with the person-centered profile approach and address some important conceptual and methodological issues raised by previous studies. Based on the cultural context of Hong Kong after the 1997 handover, we hypothesized four general career interest profiles for Hong Kong high school graduates. Using a sample of senior secondary school graduates who were not admitted into undergraduate programs and a cohort sample of first-year university students, we found support for this hypothesis. This classification was validated by its relationships with career decisiveness, parents’ open communication style, and life satisfaction. Our research provides guidelines to test the validity of the proposed forms of career interest profiles.

We develop a typology of three-way interaction models in order to stimulate more Asia management studies using this approach. In this paper, we explain how to approach moderation based on three-way interactions, introduce three types of three-way interaction models, and provide the appropriate post-hoc statistical procedures accordingly. We also outline several future research examples to demonstrate how three-way interactions can be used in Asian management research.

This paper examines the potential role of gatekeepers’ innovative use of information technology (IT) in organizational units and its ability antecedents. Using absorptive capacity theory as our theoretical lens, we theorize a model of innovative use of IT at the unit level. The proposed model was empirically validated using a survey of 204 unit gatekeepers. This paper develops a preliminary model of innovative use of IT that can inform and guide future research, specifically focusing on the key role of gatekeepers and the abilities needed by users in this role that can help in using IT in an innovative manner.

Purpose The argument in this study is that employees differ in their motives in helping their organizations when they know that they may not be paid back for their efforts. This paper aims to examine whether these motives will lead to greater extra-role contribution in an organization. Design/methodology/approach The data of 124 pairs of employee in China have been used to develop and test the measurement of an “altruistic helping of organization” (AHO) in a pilot sample. In addition, AHO had been then tested as a motive for organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) using data collected from 245 pairs of employees in China. Findings Data from 124 pairs of employees in China have been used to develop and test the measurement of “altruistic helping of organization” in a pilot sample. The authors have proposed and validated whether procedural justice and conscientiousness predict for a new OCB motive – AHO, which explains for an incremental predictive power over the existing motives of OCB, namely, instrumentality, social exchange with the organization, organizational concern, prosocial values and impression management, on a data collected from 245 pairs of employees in China. Research limitations/implications This is a cross-sectional study. In addition, the authors have only taken in samples in China, which may not be generalizable to other context. Practical implications Practitioners can devote resources to encourage employees to help without any consideration of returns. In addition, the fairness perception of organizational practices – procedural justice and individual characteristics – are necessary to induce AHO and other OCB motives. Social implications This research provides that the social implication of arousing the basic underpinning of driving OCB is altruistic motive and not egoistic. This finding helps to stimulate individuals to have more helping behaviors towards the organization. Originality/value This study provides solid evidence for the suggestion by the original proponents of OCB that the distinction between rewarded and unrewarded criterion is blurred in OCB literature. Our findings suggest that altruistic helping does exist and that this explains for a significant proportion of extra-role behavior.

Team emotional intelligence is expected to have a significant impact on intrateam conflict and team effectiveness. However, to date, there has been a dearth of empirical evidence of this link. Taking a comprehensive approach, our study contributes to the literature on intrateam conflict and team emotional intelligence. Data collected from 79 teams in South Korean companies reveal that team emotional intelligence is negatively related to team process (i.e., task conflict and relationship conflict) and positively related to team effectiveness (i.e., team performance, innovation, and cohesion). In addition, team emotional intelligence has a moderating effect on decoupling task conflict and relationship conflict. Our findings also indicate that team emotional intelligence decreases the negative effects of task conflict on team effectiveness, and of relationship conflict on team cohesion. We conclude this study with a discussion of limitations and implications for future research.

Purpose Some indirect evidence indicates that leadership may affect work-related flow, a core concept in positive psychology. However, the exact process of how this relationship takes place is still unknown. Based on the nature of leader-member exchange (LMX), the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize a moderated mediation model of the LMX-flow relationship in which psychological empowerment is the mediator while emotional intelligence (EI) is the moderator. Design/methodology/approach Two samples are utilized in the study. One sample (n=219) is from the service industry representing a high emotional labor job, and the other sample (n=208) is from the manufacturing industry representing a low emotional labor job. Findings In both the samples, psychological empowerment mediates the positive relationship between LMX and work-related flow. However, the moderated mediation effect of EI is supported only in the service sample but not in the manufacturing sample. Practical implications Leader plays an important role in facilitating subordinates’ flow experience by enhancing psychological empowerment. For the high emotional labor job, employees with high EI are better able to transfer leader’s support into flow experience. Originality/value The paper, as the first study to connect LMX with flow concept, advances the study of positive psychology in workplace context, especially the leadership field. By proposing a mediating mechanism and outlining EI as a moderator, the study explains how LMX relates to flow experience at work.

Psychological contract violation (PCV) is employee negative emotions aroused by employers not delivering their promises. Past studies have used Social Exchange Theory to explain the effects of PCV on employee responses specified in the EVLN (i.e., Exit, Voice, Loyalty and Neglect) model. The present study argues that Activation Theory may also be applied to explain employee responses to PCV for Chinese employees due to the specific role of emotions in Chinese culture. Both theories receive some supports in a Chinese employee sample (n = 439). Results and implications are discussed.

In this study we extend the work of Brower, Lester, Korsgaard and Dineen (2009) on mutual trust by proposing and testing whether and how the interactive effects of trust in the supervisor and trust in the subordinate account for subordinates’ task and contextual performance through the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment. We tested our mediated moderation model on 182 supervisor−subordinate dyads of three service firms in Hong Kong. Results indicated that fulfillment of psychological contract fully mediated the effects of mutual trust between supervisors and subordinates on subordinates’ task and contextual performance.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model explaining the roles of right-hand person and the factors contributing to the successful relationship between the top executive and the right-hand person. Design/methodology/approach – In-depth qualitative case studies are conducted. Longitudinal observations, interviews with six right-hand persons and the top executives in three organizations are conducted to test the propositions of the model. Findings – Results indicate that different types of congruence between the top executive and the right-hand person are required when the right-hand person is performing the roles of an implementer and joint decision maker. Research limitations/implications – This study extends the leadership literature by investigating the phenomenon of right-hand person of the top executive, which has seldom been studied systematically or scientifically. It provides insights and serves as a stepping stone for future research in this area. One key limitation is that it is a qualitative study with limited samples under investigation. Practical implications – Practical implications concerning how to build up a successful relationship between the top executive and the right-hand person can be drawn from the proposed model. Insight concerning how to collaborate between the top executive and the right-hand person can be drawn from the in-depth case analyses. Social implications – The phenomenon of right-hand person is not limited to business organizations. The collaboration between the key decision maker and his chief assistant should be applicable to other contexts such as non-government organizations. Originality/value – To the best of the knowledge, this is the first paper that investigates the right-hand person phenomenon in the literature. As the right-hand person of the top executive can have important influence on organizational performance, the study may serve as the stepping stone for further understanding of this important phenomenon.

In the past decade, there has been call for Asian researchers to be more confident and not limit themselves to follow only the footsteps of Western studies. In this paper, we follow up the discussion in Western literature about the importance of testing mediators with longitudinal data. The prevailing way of testing mediation is the use of time-lagged models. That is, the predictor or mediator is collected at prior time points than the outcome variable. We believe this is not sufficient. Instead, cross-lagged models, which measure all three types of variables at different time points, are necessary for testing mediation. Unfortunately, Asian researchers have again followed the footsteps of the suboptimal practice of time-lagged models. Using computer simulation data and a real-life dataset collected in China, we show that erroneous conclusions may be drawn even when the predictor, the mediator, and outcome variables are measured at different time waves under the time-lagged model. We propose a more appropriate procedure to use the cross-lagged model to test the exact causal ordering among the predictor, the mediator, and the outcome variable.

Proponents of paternalistic leadership argue that a paternalistic leader is authoritative and at the same time, a benevolent and moral individual, and this style is effective in non-Western societi...

Feedback is information made available to employees in their work environment, whereas feedback-seeking behaviors (FSBs) help employees to evaluate proactively whether their work has met performance standards and their behavior is considered appropriate. Prior studies have provided a perspective on how the feedback-seeking contexts affect the emergence and development of FSBs. In this study, we extend that perspective by investigating when FSBs affect job performance so that we can understand whether more feedback seeking is always better. Adopting the relational view of leadership, we hypothesize that the FSB-performance relationship should be stronger for employees with low leader-member exchange (LMX) and in groups with low aggregate LMX and low LMX differentiation. Using a multilevel research design and a sample of 379 teachers in 25 groups, we find support for most of our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of the study for the FSB and the proactive behavior literature and suggest avenues for future research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the agreement between supervisors and subordinates concerning the motives of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and how the supervisors’ attributions affect their OCB ratings. Design/methodology/approach – With the permission of seven large organizations in Macau, the authors conducted a survey of 500 employee-supervisor-co-worker triads. The final sample stood at 176 such triads with three hypotheses tested. Findings – First, supervisors are more accurate when judging altruistic motives of subordinates’ OCB than with egoistic motives. Second, supervisor attribution of subordinates’ altruistic motives positively affects the supervisors’ OCB ratings. Third, employees who are motivated by altruistic motives perform more OCB actions those egoistically motivated. Originality/value – The study adds to knowledge of how supervisor attribution of subordinates’ OCB motives affects their evaluation of the subordinates. It also provides evidence about the effect of OCB motives on the actual engagement in OCB. Findings of this study support the work of Organ et al. regarding the motives behind OCB and strengthen the role of attribution theory in studying OCB.

Despite the well-recognized importance of career maturity in job searching, little research has been done on the influence of career maturity on job attainment. Drawing on the extant literature, this study examined the relationship between career maturity and job attainment, and explored the boundary conditions that maximize this relationship. Data were collected from 1,202 young people during two time periods in Hong Kong, China. The results showed that career maturity was positively related to job attainment, and that both emotional intelligence and social vocational interest amplified the positive relationship between career maturity and job attainment.

In examining the effect of a dispositional variable on an employee attitudinal or behavioral outcome, management researchers usually assume the effect is stable over time. We argue that there are a...

The literature on corruption has seldom analyzed how institutional changes and the management of anti-corruption agencies could affect the success in transforming a relatively corrupted society into a cleaner one. Using the institutional changes of Hong Kong after the establishment of its anti-corruption agency in 1974, we identify the key changes in its institutional environment and the management of the agency that led to its success. We discuss the possibility that this experience can be generablizable to other societies such as the China Mainland.

Despite attempts to identify Asian indigenous concepts in the past 10 years, we found that a lot of proposed concepts have not been described clearly. People who are not familiar with Asian indigenous cultures may have difficulty in understanding why the concepts are distinct. Using the Chinese guanxi as an example, we attempt to describe its etic and emic components. In contrast to existing concepts about interpersonal relationship in the literature, the dominant element of the Chinese guanxi concept is the role of obligations and social and ethical norms. Thus, we define guanxi as “the closeness of a relationship that is associated with a particular set of differentiated behavioral obligations based on social and ethical norms.” The specific situation in Chinese society is described in details and agenda for future research questions is highlighted.

This study examines the relationships between organisational justice, perceived organisational support (POS), trust in organisation and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by proposing and testing three competing models. The baseline model links POS to distributive justice as its antecedent, and trust in organisation to procedural justice as its antecedent, while OCB is considered the outcome of POS and trust in organisation. Two alternative models are developed to test the effect of distributive justice on trust in organisation, and that of procedural justice on POS. Several hypotheses are derived from these competing models, and tested with a data set consists of 247 employees in three joint ventures in Guangdong Province of China. The results of LISREL show that the baseline model is better supported than the other two models. Specifically, we find that distributive justice affects POS and procedural justice affects trust in organisation. POS has a significant positive effect on trust in organis...

Purpose – This study aims to examine the moderating role played by leaders' task and relations support in the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' level of creativity.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 182 supervisor‐subordinate dyads was randomly collected and returned from a restaurant, hotel, retail store, bank, and travel agent of Hong Kong.Findings – Results indicated that the positive relationship between transformational leadership and followers' creativity is stronger when there is a high degree of leaders' task and relations support.Research lismitations/implications – This study extends the leadership literature to better understand the effects of transformational leadership on employees' level of creativity are contingent on the nature of leaders' support. Sample size is a possible limitation.Practical implications – Intensive training can be provided to supervisors or personality test can be used to screen for selected individuals who are high caliber for bein...

In this study, we attempt to investigate the potential effects of parents’ career interests on young adults’ career interests. Using a sample of 113 freshmen in Hong Kong, results indicated that after controlling for personality, gender, general mental abilities and emotional intelligence, some of the parents’ career interests were still related to the young adults’ respective career interests. For some types of interests, the extent of influences is found to be contingent on the gender of the respondents. Implications are discussed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to preliminary explain the possibly complicated moderating effects of job resources. The paper specifies the missing link between job demand and burnout by focusing on the coping strategy argument.Design/methodology/approachThe paper preliminary supports the mediated moderation model of the missing link by a large sample cross‐sectional survey.FindingsThe two coping strategies as mediators for the relationship between emotional demands and exhaustion are supported. Strong supports for the moderation effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between emotional demands and the two coping strategies are found. Some support for the moderation of supervisor support on the relationship between deep acting and exhaustion are found.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to the job demands‐control‐support and job demands‐resources models, as the proposed model helps to explain the inconsistent results for the buffering effect of job resources found in the literature. It also contributes to the literature of emotional intelligence, as it provides clear evidence of its importance in handling emotional demands.Practical implicationsDeep acting is important. An organization may take more efforts in training employees to equip them with it. Emotional intelligence is also a vital resource and so organizations may benefit if they engage in relevant selection and training practices.Originality/valueEmotional intelligence, an individual ability, is empirically demonstrated to be an important type of job resources that can buffer the negative effect of job demands on employee well‐being.

This study considers the debate about whether emotional intelligence (EI) has incremental validity over and above traditional intelligence dimensions. We propose that EI and general mental abilities (GMA) differ in predicting academic performance and the quality of social interactions among college students. Using two college student samples, we find support for the notion that EI and GMA each have a unique power to predict academic performance, and that GMA is the stronger predictor. However, the results also show that EI, but not GMA, is related to the quality of social interactions with peers. The theoretical contributions and implications of the study and some recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for educational, psychological and management researchers and consultants in recent years. Despite the emerging consensus of its definition and evidence reported in business organizations, relatively little empirical evidence have been reported in the education literature. We conducted two studies to investigate the impact of middle-level leader and teacher EI on teachers’ job outcomes. In Study 1, 107 teachers were asked to list the attributes of successful middle-level leaders in their schools. In Study 2, 3866 school teachers and middle-level leaders were surveyed on their EI and job satisfaction level. Results provide supports concerning the impact of teacher and middle-level leader EI on school teachers’ job satisfaction. Implications are discussed.

This study explores the differences in work commitment between Chinese male and female employees. We develop a model that specifies the major antecedents of job and organizational commitment in the Chinese workplace. We then examine whether the gender differences can be attributed to factors related to gender role ideology or unfavorable work conditions encountered by women. Several hypotheses are formulated and tested with a data set collected from 582 employees in Beijing. The findings reveal that employee work commitment is related to organizational support, job characteristics, and perceptions of gender discrimination. Further, it is found that the level of job commitment of women is lower than that of men, whereas the level of organizational commitment is the same for both sexes. The lower level of job commitment of women is due largely to their stronger perception of gender discrimination, receiving less challenging job assignments, and engaging in a low level of leader–member exchange. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Localization in the corporate setting is the extent to which expatriate managers are replaced by local employees originally held by expatriate managers. We sampled 229 multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the People's Republic of China and investigated the antecedents of localization success based on resource dependency theory. We developed a 40-item scale to measure human resource (HR) practices determined to contribute to successful localization. We also identified parent company support and top management's commitment as two sets of factors that predicted localization success. It was the first study that found a significant relationship between localization success and top management ratings of company performance.

Scholars have speculated that the Chinese may be more reluctant to express their opinions strongly and that this may be reinforced if the odd number response format with a mid-point option of “no opinion” or “neither agree nor disagree” is provided. This may undermine the quality of survey data because less variances or even inaccurate information will be collected. This study provides empirical evidence from 532 mainland Chinese employees in Beijing to test this speculation. These employees were randomly assigned to complete either an odd number or even number response format questionnaire. In contrast to the speculation, in a wide variety of measures that are relevant to the area of organizational behavior (OB) and human resource management (HRM), it appears that the odd number response format does not show systematic differences when compared with the even number response format. This result holds even for some sensitive measures of personal beliefs, evaluation of and judgments about employing organizations, supervisors, and colleagues. Given the increasing number of studies surveying Chinese and other Asian respondents, we call for further research on this issue.

On top of not defining explicitly the relationship between multidimensional constructs and their dimensions, many management researchers have conducted their analyses of multidimensional constructs at the dimension level only and assumed that these analyses would be valid at the construct level. This article discusses the potential problems of these practices. Data from two reported management studies are reanalyzed to show that different conclusions might be arrived when analyses are conducted at the construct rather than the dimension level. This finding is especially true when the multidimensional construct is defined under the latent model. Implications are discussed.

To demonstrate the utility of the emotional intelligence (EI) construct in organizational studies, this study focuses on the effect of EI on job performance among research and development scientists in China. We argue that EI is a significant predictor of job performance beyond the effect of the General Mental Ability (GMA) battery on performance. This predictor effect is supported by results on a study of research and development scientists working for a large computer company in China. Our results also show that a self-reported EI scale developed for Chinese respondents, the WLEIS, is a better predictor of job performance than the scale developed in the U.S., the MSCEIT. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for psychological, educational, and management researchers and consultants in recent years. However, existing literature has concentrated on demonstrating the effects of EI on either the mental health or on job outcomes such as job attitudes and performance. There is relatively little discussion concerning how EI, as a set of interrelated abilities about handling emotions, is developed. Understanding how EI is developed may be the significant first step for organizations to develop effective EI training programs. As an exploratory effort, we borrowed the basic argument from theories in human development to argue that life experiences affect EI development. Based on samples of university students from Singapore and Hong Kong, whether one of the parents was a full-time parent was a significant predictor of the students' EI. This finding was cross-validated with a sample of graduate students in Taiwan. Furthermore, age as a proxy for life experiences for this graduate student sample was found to be a significant predictor of EI. Implications for EI research and training are discussed.

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for psychological, educational, and management researchers and consultants in recent years. However, there is a lack of scientifically valid measures of this concept, especially for those that have practical utility in the Asian context. Recently, a 40-item forced-choice instrument was developed for Chinese respondents in Hong Kong. We collected data in three studies to further test the practical utility of this instrument in Hong Kong and mainland China. The results provided clear evidence for the instrument’s practical utility. More research that uses this measure in Asian countries is required.