Employee suzhi in Chinese organizations: organizational ownership behavior

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine a Chinese indigenous concept of organizational ownership behavior (OOB) as an aspect of employee suzhi in relation to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the Western context.

Design/methodology/approach

A content analysis based on a review of related research in Western mainstream and Chinese domestic literature is conducted.

Findings

Suzhi at the organizational level can be linked to the construct of OCB. In Chinese organizations, a relevant concept to OCB can be better understood as OOB to capture the sociopolitical and cultural context unique to Chinese organizations. The dimensional structure of OOB is presented to differentiate it from OCB which is popular in the Western context.

Research limitations/implications

The identified construct of OOB offers important implications for indigenous Chinese management research and human resources management (HRM) practice. OOB, based on Chinese management practice, can better conform to China’s unique historical and cultural context and management practices. This concept varies distinctively from Western OCB in terms of its connotation and dimensions.

Originality/value

The concept of OOB as an indigenous employee organizational behavior in the Chinese context is conceptualized. The paper differentiates the OOB construct from OCB and presents an initial set of six dimensions of OOB for future research.

Citation

Yang, B. and Mei, Z. (2014), "Employee suzhi in Chinese organizations: organizational ownership behavior", Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 144-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHRM-07-2014-0017