This paper explores expatriates’ ethical evaluations of and responses to guanxi in China through the lens of integrative social contracts theory. We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 expatriate managers who had spent, on average, 6.5 years working and living in China. Based on the content analysis of these interviews, we identified two different uses of guanxi: defensive and competitive. In general, the respondents found defensive guanxi moral in the Chinese context, while they considered competitive guanxi immoral. Based on our findings, (...) we identified fair competition as the substantive hypernorm that governed most respondents’ ethical evaluations of guanxi. The study has implications for all scholars who seek to utilize integrative social contracts theory to study the relationship between informal networks and corruption in developing countries. (shrink)

We examine the use of Confucian relational morality as an alternative reference point to that of modernist morality in judging workplace ethical conduct. A semi-structured interview based study involving 46 ethnic Chinese managers and 30 non-Chinese expatriate managers in Singapore, provided evidence of the use of traditional guanxi-linked morality as a moral resource by some of the former group in judging workplace ethical dilemmas. While such morality played only a minor role in moral reasoning, and was largely overshadowed by modernist (...) morality, the research nonetheless demonstrates that moral reasoning reflects wider cultural heritage, and is not merely a function of corporate culture and individual moral development. (shrink)

Managers with different cultural backgrounds and under different circumstances have different views on what is acceptable ethical behaviour. This study attempts to determine whether major companies in Hong Kong share the same views as North American academics on what management ethical standards ought to be, and if so, whether any control mechanisms have been established to instill ethical behaviour within their organizations. Notable differences between the practice in these companies and those from a similar survey conducted in North America are (...) identified and explained. The management accountant''s role in the development and implementation of such mechanisms is investigated. (shrink)

Guanxi is a complex construct of Chinese social interaction. Previous studies have focused on implications of guanxi for business outcomes; few have examined guanxi development, which is the purpose of this study. Two theoretical modes of dynamic guanxi processes in the workplace are proposed: working guanxi and backdoor guanxi . The two modes differ in frequency of interaction, frequency of exchange of favors, and how clear the parties are on what each stands to gain from a particular interaction. Although face (...) is expected to play a role in the development of each, the type of face that is most important differs. For working guanxi , lian (personal character) is most important. For backdoor guanxi , mianzi (status) is most important. Backdoor guanxi is the mode most likely to be associated with corruption, bribery, and client–patron relations. The psychological and social processes underlying development of these two modes of guanxi are explored and a basic model proposed as a basis for future research on guanxi , face, and ethics. (shrink)