Journal articles on the topic 'Workplace guanxi'

We investigated the relationship between workplace fun and work engagement as well as the mediating role of workplace guanxi. Participants were 272 Master of Business Administration students at a Chinese university who were working in various enterprises. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that workplace fun was positively related to work engagement and that this direct relationship was mediated by workplace guanxi. Our study is the first to empirically test the role of workplace guanxi as a mediator of the workplace fun–work engagement link. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

We explored the effects of guanxi prevalence and guanxi practices on 3 types of unethical work behavior (UWB), proposing that job satisfaction would mediate the relationship between guanxi in the workplace and employees' UWB. Data were collected from 379 employees working for companies in China. Results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that guanxi prevalence had a positive relationship with property-related UWB and conventional and minor (ordinary) UWB, such as doing personal business in company time. Guanxi practices had a significant positive relationship with violation of laws and regulations, property-related UWB, and ordinary UWB. Both guanxi prevalence and guanxi practices had a significantly negative relationship with job satisfaction, and job satisfaction had a significant negative correlation with violation of laws and regulations, property-related UWB, and ordinary UWB. Job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between guanxi prevalence and ordinary UWB. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Relationships outside of work impact employee effectiveness at work. But how do we explain this? Our study focuses on the guanxi relationship in China. This is based on close personal ties between supervisors and subordinates initiated outside the workplace. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we develop a model that explains how supervisor–subordinate guanxi constitutes a social resource that spills over into the workplace and impacts subordinates’ job resources (including autonomy, support and development at work), job crafting (proactive behaviors aimed at increasing resources and reducing demands) and job performance (task performance and organizational citizenship behavior). Our model was tested on a sample of 406 subordinates and their supervisors from seven manufacturing organizations in China. The results of a multilevel path analysis indicate that high-quality guanxi relations with supervisors facilitate subordinates’ job resources, job crafting behaviors and organizational citizenship behavior at work. In addition, job resources mediate the relationship between supervisor–subordinate guanxi and job crafting, and job crafting mediates the relationship between supervisor–subordinate guanxi and subordinate task performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Overall, our research highlights the importance of externally-generated guanxi between subordinates and supervisors and the mechanisms that contribute to improving employee performance in the workplace.

How to regulate employee conduct and engage them in high performance works actively and continuously has always been the important topic for organizations. Based on affective events theory and social exchange theory, a moderated mediating model was constructed with the affective commitment as mediator and the supervisor–subordinate exchange guanxi as moderator. Regression analyses and conditional indirect effects were tested by SPSS and PROCESS with 374 matched supervisor–subordinate pairs. The paper explores the moderated mechanism of supervisor-subordinate guanxi to the chain of “ambidextrous leadership–employee’s affective commitment–workplace deviance behavior.” The results showed that the affective commitment mediated the effect between ambidextrous leadership and employees’ workplace deviance behavior, and supervisor–subordinate exchange guanxi moderated the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and employees’ workplace deviance behavior but also moderated the mediating effect of affective commitment. The results have significances to improve human resource management practices and reduce the workplace deviance behavior of employees.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employee perceptions of the ethical conduct of their leaders affect their job satisfaction in the context of the workplace in China. The authors posit that guanxi, which is a complex relational phenomenon deeply rooted in Chinese tradition, may act as a substitute for ethical leadership in the Chinese workplace. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model which explicitly incorporates guanxi as a moderator in explaining the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction is developed. This model is then tested using data from a sample (n=388) of professional employees in nine organisations in Beijing, China. Findings The results show that, as expected, self-efficacy positively and strongly mediates the ethical leadership-job satisfaction relationship. However, guanxi negatively moderates the overall effect of ethical leadership on job satisfaction with the effect being larger in Chinese-owned enterprises compared to foreign-owned enterprises. The findings suggest that employee relationship with their leaders may act as a substitute for ethical leadership in the Chinese workplace. Research limitations/implications The main question which this research uncovers is whether the Western-based conceptualisation of ethical leadership is applicable in different cultural contexts. The authors’ research shows clearly that in the case of China, guanxi plays a substituting role and reduces the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction. Future research could investigate the effects of ethical leadership in different cultural contexts. Practical implications The substituting effect of guanxi on the ethical leadership-job satisfaction relationship suggests that Western firms need to consider culture as an integral contextual factor in explaining employee job satisfaction when they operate in a different cultural context. Originality/value The explicit consideration of guanxi as an influencing factor of the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction in the context of the workplace in China and the testing of this relationship via a moderated-mediation approach is novel.

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation role of harming behavior (HB) in the relationship of guanxi and organizational commitment (OC) by using a moderated mediation model. In addition, this study explores whether malicious envy (ME) can moderate the relationship of OC and guanxi when mediated by HB. Data were collected from 215 employees who had experience working in an organization in the United States. An integrated mediation and moderation model was evaluated. The findings contribute to understanding of the effects of guanxi on OC. Although guanxi relationships between supervisors and subordinates directly promote OC, the high level of ME in response to guanxi relationships among coworkers in the workplace leads to a high level of HBs, reducing OC.

We examined the influence of personnel officials' emotional labor on teachers' perceptions of personnel officials' emotional displays. Additionally, we assessed the effects of these perceptions on teachers' guanxi with personnel officials. Participants were 165 personnel officials and 490 teachers from Taiwanese public elementary and junior high schools. Results indicated that the type of emotional acting performed by personnel officials was significantly related to teachers' perceptions of the same type of acting. Teachers' perceived authenticity of personnel officials was related to greater guanxi with personnel officials than was perceived inauthenticity. These results indicate the benefits associated with teachers' impressions of personnel officials' authentic emotional displays. Therefore, emotional authenticity might be important for an individual's ability to understand another's personal identity.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to define the concept of guanxi deviant behaviour (GDB) initially on the basis of a theoretical study of guanxi, guanxi behaviour and workplace deviant behaviour and to analyse the influence of GDB and the relationship between GDB and counterproductive work behaviour.Design/methodology/approachThis study collects interview data from 30 enterprise executives, summarises relevant literature from four major databases (two in English and two in Chinese) and applies a grounded theory methodology to refine and further define the core category of GDB, and the main category is interpreted and validated using triangulation.FindingsThe three dimensions of GDB are guanxi bribery behaviour, irregular connected transaction behaviour and guanxi allied behaviour. There are links amongst the three dimensions, no dimension has an independent existence and that is not the end of the GDB issue. Generally, the occurrence of a kind of GDB can be construed to be a preparation for the implementation of another kind, and the latter is the real purpose of the perpetrators.Social implicationsThis paper is expected to attract the attention of managers and improve the ability of recognising, preventing and punishing GDB.Originality/valueThis study not only enriches organisational behaviour theory but also enhances the awareness of, and insights into, the negative effects of guanxi.

Do Chinese people restrict their complex transactions to a trusted inner circle composed of strong ties? Hwang's (1988) study points out that Chinese people often convert unfamiliar ties into familiar ties when the latter become trustworthy people. This conversion is instrumental in ensuring the fulfilment of promises in complex transactions because it contains an element of emotional attachment or moral obligation. This paper employs network data in a Chinese workplace to demonstrate the following points: first, there is indeed a type of guanxi in the Chinese workplace that can be described as ‘familiar ties’. Second, familiar ties contain as much trust as friendship ties and more than acquaintance ties. A Chinese person may search for his or her possible partners among strangers, then develop trust within this guanxi and gradually transform the relationship into familiar ties. It is through these ties that interpersonal trust can grow and enable complex transactions.

The primary objective of this research was to find out the impact of GRX scale (ganqing, renqing, and xinren) on a non-Chinese working environment. Thus, to apply and ascertain the effect of the three dimensions of guanxi on employees’ engagement and, eventually, their job performance in an African working environment. This research used social exchange theory to explain the relationship between supervisors and their subordinates. The research data comprises 530 respondents who were randomly chosen from seven organizations. Smart-PLS 3.2.8 was the primary instrument used to analyze the data. The finding indicated that renqing, synonymous with mutual sharing or need for reciprocity, was highly significant with employee engagement and job performance. Hence, a win-win outcome is achieved whenever employers exhibit genuine concern and care for their employees. Additionally, there was a negative relationship between ganqing (emotional attachment) and employee engagement. This revealed that making decisions based on personal relationships will negatively affect employees’ engagement and job performance. This research adds to the literature by revealing that guanxi is applicable in non-Chinese workplaces.

In light of the importance of sustainable development, this study aims to deepen and extend our understanding of employees’ pro-environmental behaviour in the workplace in a Chinese context. Drawing on the complex phenomenon of social norms theory concerning misperceptions (i.e., pluralistic ignorance) and supervisor–subordinate guanxi (which is a Chinese term signifying human connection), we present a novel model in which employees’ pro-environmental behaviour is the result of multiple social and individual psychological factors. Through the integration of previous literature from the fields of the psychology of individuals, social psychology, and environmental psychology, the major assumption is that the pro-environmental behaviour of employees is affected by their level of pluralistic ignorance, environmental concern, and subjective norms; these, in turn, are influenced by supervisor–subordinate guanxi and social identity in the collective spirit of Chinese society. Data, which were analysed empirically, were gathered from 548 Chinese employees from the Jiangsu province of China. This study consequently reveals the subtle interplay among employees’ pluralistic ignorance, supervisor–subordinate guanxi, social identity, subjective norms, environmental concern, and their pro-environmental behaviour, while the deeper analysis offers considerable support for environmental management research and practice.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying influence of destructive leadership on hindrance stress and compulsory organizational citizenship behavior (CCB) by developing a moderated mediation model, which examines the mediating role of hindrance stress and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi. Design/methodology/approach By using 324 samples collected from multiple companies in southeast China, the model is tested through multiple linear hierarchical regressions, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and PROCESS bootstrapping program in SPSS and AMOS software. Findings Results reveal that hindrance stress fully mediates the relationship between destructive leadership and CCB, and supervisor–subordinate guanxi moderates the strength of the indirect effect between destructive leadership and CCB (via hindrance stress), so that the mediated relationship is stronger when supervisor–subordinate guanxi is low rather than high. Originality/value The study contributes to display the influence path and contingency mechanism of destructive leadership as a stressor on employees’ negative behavior in the workplace. The moderated mediation model results not only develop the research on the relationship between negative leadership and employee behavior in terms of leadership effectiveness but also provide a new viewpoint to explore the relationship between leadership and employee behavior.

PurposeThe implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SCM) calls for an acknowledgement of uncertainty inherent in complex environment. Confucianist society forms social networks in Confucianist society, called guanxi networks, influence economic behaviours and business practices in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to explore how these social networks influence the implementation of sustainable SCM. In doing so, this study aims to critically investigate the constructs of guanxi networks, their impact on flow of supply chain capital and how this leverages the implementation of sustainable SCM.Design/methodology/approachTwo systematic literature reviews are conducted to understand the constructs of social networks in Confucianist culture and their impacts on the flow of supply chain capitals. The reviews also analyse evidence related to the economic, social and environmental practices to reveal the current state of the literature and research gaps. Propositions and a framework are developed to support future research in this area.FindingsThe constructs of ganqing, renqing, xinren and mianzi in guanxi networks have expanded the contexts of social networks in Western literature. Guanxi networks increase the flow of supply chain capital and generate trust between players, thus enhancing capabilities to implement sustainable SCM. Guanxi networks also create the mechanism of network governance with which to increase sustainable SCM implementation under the institutional logics of sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptual framework and justification are based on the reviews of current studies in the field. Future empirical study is encouraged to test the propositions, both in Confucianist culture and other countries with culture of social networks.Originality/valueSocial networks are socially constructed concepts. The constructs of guanxi networks revealed in this study have developed the knowledge of Western-based social network theory. Besides, arguments from a social network perspective provide an alternative answer to explain increased behavioural commitment and companies’ investment in sustainable SCM. This study helps practitioners understand the logic of this social norm and to use it to maximise their operation outputs, including sustainable SCM implementation.

Second- and third-party altruistic punishments can both improve knowledge sharing, but it is debatable which does so better. We thus concurrently consider the influence of status conflict advantage and disadvantage on knowledge sharing. We also analyze knowledge sharing by introducing an evolutionary game model and conducting simulations, and reveal the following: (1) the appropriate choice for an organization that is increasing its knowledge contribution is third-party punishment; (2) the status conflict advantage and disadvantage play important roles in knowledge sharing. When the status conflict advantage is greater than the disadvantage, the two players eventually share knowledge, and vice versa. Interestingly, when the status conflict advantage is equal to the disadvantage, the player with the stronger sharing inclination has a powerful impact on the player who would rather hoard knowledge, thus ultimately leading him/her to share. (3) Guanxi, knowledge capacity, and synergy revenue have positive effects on knowledge sharing, while the knowledge sharing cost has a negative influence on them. Moreover, the stable equilibrium result is affected by the initial system state. In sum, our results not only promote the understanding of altruistic punishment and status conflict regarding knowledge sharing but also provide practical implications for both organizations and leaders.

Most theories of information security policy (ISP), except a few focused on the insider-centric view, are grounded in the control-centric perspective, and most ISP compliance models stem from Western countries. Regulatory focus theory (RFT) proposes two modes of motivational regulation, promotion and prevention focused that are supposed to motivate employee compliance in a trade-off. Culture is crucial to the study of ISP that puts control over human connections. Chinese guanxi, a specific dimension of Chinese culture, is better understood underlying the trust-distrust frame. To bridge the theoretical gap between the control-centric and the insider-centric perspectives, we develop an ISP behavioral model by taking an integrated approach from RFT and the trust-distrust frame. We employed scenario-based events about information security misconduct in the workplace to examine employees’ compliance intention and non-violation choice of ISP upon counterfactual thinking. Our empirical results improve the theoretical and practical implications of security practices.

Organizational justice is a topic popularized for Western bureaucracies but there is less known about its influence in Eastern cultures. This research tests how organizational justice moderates the relationship between political skill and career success in the Chinese public sector. Analysis reveals that four dimensions of political skill (networking ability, apparent sincerity, social astuteness, and interpersonal influence) correlate positively with career success (measured as perceived internal marketability and perceived career success). Although hypothesized that organizational justice would lessen the influence of political skill on career success as a result of the implementation of formal merit-based pay rules, findings show that political skill is only partially moderated. While lessening the value of social astuteness, a positive relationship between interpersonal influence and internal marketability remains. Points for practitioners Profound changes in China’s salary system challenge traditional workplace customs. The implementation of merit-based pay requires a fair procedure for determining salary raises. In China, personalism remains a driving force because of the importance of guanxi. This affects how formal merit-based pay systems function in the East. Chinese culture tempers Western notions of organizational justice with its persistent reliance on political skill. This blend of worker behavior and career success, moderated by a conceptualization of organizational justice that embraces political skill, complicates the application of Western management systems in the East.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to better understand the more complex social, technical and personal socialization experiences of engineers when they started new jobs in Taiwan. Much of the research and practice on the socialization of newly hired employees is narrowly focused on newcomer learning. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a qualitative, case study approach designed to collect in-depth data about the socialization experiences of engineers in Taiwan. Thirteen participants reported their experiences from when they began new jobs, and the researchers collected and analyzed data from semi-structured interviews. The analysis followed qualitative analysis methods for content analysis. Findings – The findings indicated that interpersonal relationships are critical to successful socialization, and the relational structures encountered by newcomers reflect the broader culture of Confucianism and the social interactions of guanxi in the Taiwanese workplace. Three main dimensions of socialization emerged from the data referring to social, technical and personal learning experiences. Practical implications – The findings identify what is working (mentoring) and what is not working well (training). Human Resource managers and supervisors of newcomers can take actions to better manage the multiple dimensions of socialization. Originality/value – Unlike most studies of socialization in Asia, this study took an in-depth, qualitative look into the experiences of newcomers. What emerged from the analysis of the data was a framework composed of three interdependent dimensions of socialization experiences. The findings inform both managers and newly hired employees about socialization experiences and how they can be improved.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the issue of promoting women managers at an enterprise level in China by tackling key research questions related to the level of participation of women among total managerial positions and the opportunities of promoting women into managerial position. Design/methodology/approach By conducting a questionnaire survey and analysing the results from 296 women managers who were taking MBA and EMBA programmes in China, the authors were able to obtain the sufficient sample size, as well as sufficient responses, given that these people who were taking MBA and EMBA studies required three to eight years of managerial work experience. Key questions are related to the level of participation of women among total managerial positions, and the criteria for women to be promoted into managerial positions. In addition, other issues such as the satisfaction of women managers towards promotion opportunities and career development and enterprise policies on women leadership are also important and need to be explored in this article. It is also useful to ask their views on the difference between men and women regarding individual efforts leading to promotion opportunities, and to check for any influence of pregnancy and other factors on women managers’ leadership roles. Findings The overall results achieved by analysing the results from 296 women managers who were taking MBA and EMBA programmes in China indicate that there has been positive improvement, with the majority of women managers being satisfied with the proportion of women as managers, and with their own promotion situations, in their current organizations. Research limitations/implications The research project has some limitations. This paper focuses on key issues related to the promotion of women into management positions at an enterprise level through the interview and survey among those women managers who were taking MBA and EMBA programs. This research project did not include many issues that can be found among other women managers or issues at the society level, such as traditional culture and the influence of religion, or overall legislation regarding equal opportunity for women in the society, as the focus was on the experiences and expectations of individual women managers in the workplace. Practical implications Most people believed that social relationship, guanxi, is the most important factor in the promotion of women, but the findings in this paper show that the capabilities and achievements of women are more important than just having a good guanxi. This also inspires women to believe in themselves and believe that they can achieve their goals through their own effort. Other empirical implications, such as the negative influence of pregnancy on the current managerial positions and promotion opportunities for women, are evident, and the lack of policy initiative to address this issue causes a great degree of uncertainty among women managers. Social implications The majority of the surveyed targeted women managers felt confident about their capability to be leaders, while most of them felt satisfied regarding the proportion of women managers in their organization, as well as their own current promotion situation. However, the “glass ceiling” phenomenon still exists, given most highly educated women managers believed it would be difficult to be promoted even further. Originality/value Through this article, the readers are firstly informed about the perceptions held by women managers in China nowadays regarding their promotion opportunities and career satisfaction. Secondly, the paper provides some understanding in the context of China’s reform from traditional planning system to the current market-oriented one, the associated change of business culture and the transformation of human resource management system and gender equality at the firm level.

Purpose Explores, from an insider’s perspective, human resource’s (HR’s) critical role in establishing spirituality practice at the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration, for enhancing academics and administrative staff’ intrinsic satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Describes the various forms of spiritual human resource management (HRM) practice that the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration applied in the workplace. Findings Reports that various forms of spiritual HRM practice could improve the organizational productivity through employees’ engagement; for example, increased use of initiative, helping each other, making constructive suggestions for team work, reducing individuals level of workload and conflict resolution. Practical Implications Explains that HR managers could develop a highly committed and productive workplace through designing various forms of spiritual HRM practice, including connecting employees with nature by building natural featured campus and bringing in plants at workplace, encouraging employees to take exercise and/or breaks to develop their physical and spiritual wellness, celebrating important milestones and achievements, organizing informal teams to get to know each other better (hobbies, likes and dislikes), decorating office with employee-made art, acknowledging employees’ creative expression and promoting feelings of egalitarianism. Originality/value Offers interesting details of spiritual HRM practice, from an insider’s perspective, in a Chinese context.

Previous scholarly work has elaborated on challenges faced by Chinese international returnees at Chinese workplaces. However, limited research has captured to what extent such challenges have involved Chinese Australian graduates in gaining employment in China. Hence this study investigates the challenges involved in obtaining successful employment in China. Drawing on a qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Chinese graduates who studied at one Australian university and returned to China upon graduation. The study results highlight significant barriers to employment. Challenges include limited prior working experience, graduation in Australia that is not synchronised with employment months in China and lack of guanxi. This study provides important insights into barriers of employment in China for Chinese returnees from Australia and, potentially, for graduate returnees from other countries to China. It also discusses implications for Australian universities and for Chinese international students in Australia.

Today, the legitimacy of politicians and public confidence in public decision-making and administration are increasingly dependent on the way in which their ethics are appraised ( Kolthoff et al., 2013 ). The ‘moral pluralism and cultural diversity’ of contemporary society ( Boisvert, 2008 ) make public ethics a new theoretical framework to be explored from the point of view of the compromises it makes between various, often conflicting, values. Yet, in practice, this compromise seems to limit the values of public ethics to principles of good governance formalised around codes of conduct or managerial procedures (Rochet, 2011). Our research question sets out to question the variety of these values; the research objective being to develop a categorisation of the values of public ethics by supplementing the conceptual framework of New Public Value ( Moore, 1995 ; Nabatchi, 2011 ), in particular, by characterising the values of the ethics of interaction not yet illustrated in the literature. Points for practitioners In practical terms, the aim of this article is to identify and characterise more precisely the variety of ethical values mobilised by public managers. To do so, we conducted a survey in two stages among public managers in Guangxi province in China, a country where the expression of personal or cultural ethics in the workplace is described in the literature as relatively natural. Our first results suggest a fairly clear distinction between the ethical values governing the performance of public action, which are relatively well formalised, and the ethical values governing public interaction, which are more informal and closer to cultural and social rituals.

PurposeDrawing on basic psychological needs theory, this paper aims to delineate how an indigenous Chinese concept guanxi HRM would undermine employee well-being in China.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested this moderated mediation model based on a survey of 321 Chinese employees.FindingsThe results are consistent with the hypotheses except for the moderating effect when employee well-being is operationalised as emotional exhaustion.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by investigating the dark side of guanxi via basic psychological needs theory and acknowledging the multidimensionality of employee well-being in the Chinese workplace.

Purpose To propose a newer perspective for an often-tabooed knowledge hiding by highlighting the socio-psychological experiences in knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth interviewing process was adopted to study the influencers of knowledge flow, taking 42 educators of the online teaching platforms. Findings Unrelatedness, supervision, and engagement propelled knowledge sharing-conducive ambiance, contrary to the conclusions of the earlier studies. Originality/value Emerged themes established a connection between knowledge sharing, and the feel-good factor, promoting future researchers to extend it to higher psychological order approaches like Guanxi, Mianzi, and Ikigai.

Even though organizations encourage the dissemination of knowledge and information among organizational members, the phenomenon of knowledge hiding still exists widely in organizations. The consequences of leader-signaled knowledge hiding are more destructive to the workplace than the consequences of employees’ knowledge hiding. It is particularly necessary to explore the influence mechanism of leader-signaled knowledge hiding on employees’ work behavior. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this study establishes a moderated mediation model with emotional exhaustion as a mediating variable and supervisor-subordinate guanxi as a moderating variable. This study focuses on the consequences of leader-signaled knowledge hiding and divides leader-signaled knowledge hiding into self-practiced knowledge hiding and explicit knowledge hiding. Based on the results of 440 questionnaires from tourism employees, it is shown that leader-signaled knowledge hiding has a positive impact on employees’ work withdrawal behavior. Specifically, leader’s self-practiced knowledge hiding has a greater direct impact on employees’ work withdrawal behavior, while leader’s explicit knowledge hiding has a greater direct impact on employees’ emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion plays a key mediating role in the relationship between leader-signaled knowledge hiding (i.e., self-practiced knowledge hiding and explicit knowledge hiding) and employees’ work withdrawal behavior. Supervisor-subordinate guanxi significantly moderates the positive relationship between leader-signaled knowledge hiding (i.e., self-practiced hiding and explicit knowledge hiding) and employees’ emotional exhaustion. This study is an extension of previous research on knowledge hiding. The results provide a reference for leaders to deal with knowledge hiding and improve organizational knowledge management ability.

This article aims to analyse an intercultural telephone invitation given by a Chinese tutor to an Australian student, and highlight general principles of intercultural invitations. This anecdote is based on a true story that took place in a university in Australia, but the persons' names used here are fictitious for the sake of confidentiality. Below is the transcript of the actual conversation between the Chinese tutor Dr Lin Liang (L) and his student Catherine Jones (C): C: Catherine speaking. L: Hi, Catherine, this is Lin. C: Hi, Teacher Lin. L: I would like to invite you to our New Year's party to be held in my house this Saturday evening. C: This Saturday? I am afraid I won't be able to make it because I am going to my best friend's birthday party. L: You know this is the end of our school year. It would be so nice for all of our classmates to gather together. C: But I have already promised my friend. L: En... It is a pity... C: Sorry about that, but -- L: Never mind. Enjoy your party then. C: Thanks. L: That's OK, bye. C: Bye. However, the story does not end here. About two hours later, Dr Lin rang Catherine a second time, asking if it was still possible for her to consider attending the Saturday party. Late in the evening around 9.00 pm, Dr Lin rang her yet again to invite her to the party, saying it would be OK even if she stayed just for a short while. The next day, Catherine lodged a complaint with the Dean, alleging that Dr. Lin's repeated calls constituted sexual harassment. Dr. Lin was highly distressed to learn of the complaint, and explained that he just wanted to indicate sincerity and warmth as required by an invitation, and had no other intentions. This communication breakdown invites a number of questions: What are the factors underlying Catherine's interpretation that Dr. Lin's repeated calls constituted sexual harassment? What are the factors underlying Dr. Lin's contention that his actions were intended to emphasise his sincerity? What factors would need to be recognised in order to facilitate culturally competent performances on both their parts? In order to answer these questions, this article will adopt a holistic approach based on an analytic framework encompassing three theoretical dimensions. This framework is comprised as follows: Differences in intercultural exchange and politeness behaviour; Aristotle's distinction between the three orientations of persuasive/rhetorical appeal; ethos, pathos, and logos; Austin and Searle's theory of speech acts, as applied to politeness behaviour and felicity conditions in communicative interaction as applied to the act of inviting. These approaches are conceptualised as three overlapping spheres, and their relatedness can be further illustrated: Figure 1 First and foremost, the case study in question is related to an intercultural interaction between the Australian and Chinese culture, and some research findings in relevant areas may help highlight the differences in politeness behaviour between high-context and low-context cultures (Hall). According to Hall, high-context cultures such as Chinese tend to stress the use of internalised or implicit message while low-context cultures tend to emphasise the use of explicit messages. In other words, in Chinese culture, the message may have some shared implied meanings that may go beyond the linguistic forms used in the message. Kaplan's model on oriental circularity and western linearity seemed to in accordance with Hall's model. Young's exploration of the directness and indirectness of American and Chinese requests further substantiated this point. In a similar way, differences may arise in determining the criteria for appropriate behaviour relating to the use of other directives across cultures. As Gao and Ting-Toomey suggest, Chinese culture seems to pay attention to qing (reciprocity and feelings of obligation) and guanxi (relationship building), while in low-context cultures such a stress tends to be missing. This difference may also help explain the differences in communicative patterns as discussed by Kaplan and Young. Zhu found that in making a sales offer, Chinese companies often try to establish a long-term relationship with their clients ("Structural Moves"). In contrast, Australian companies seem to mainly focus on promoting products. The stress on qing in Chinese culture may also be a crucial factor that contributes to the different criteria for a polite invitation as compared to the Australian culture. The following discussion will further explore the other two parameters (see Figure 1) the two cultures differ in when making an invitation, which may have finally led to the breakdown in communication between Dr. Lin and Catherine. As shown in Figure 1, the argument underpinning this approach is that a given illocutionary act reflects culture-specific preferences for certain persuasive/rhetorical orientations, thereby affecting the socio-linguistic performance, i.e. parole as opposed to langue (Cullen) related to politeness principles. In short, the persuasive/rhetorical orientation varies between cultures, which means that the nature of ostensibly equivalent illocutionary acts also varies. Consequently, cross-cultural competence will be limited unless one is aware of the rhetorical and politeness codes implicit in the performance of certain communicative actions. Note that rhetorical orientation may also influence the politeness behaviour directly as a specification of that orientation. This in turn requires an awareness of cultural preferences toward certain persuasive/rhetorical orientations. The interconnections between them and the theoretical utility of this approach will be made explicit in the course of this discussion. Austin and Searle conceptualise the speech acts as comprising of locution (langue) and illocution (parole). What is of vital importance is the illocutionary force of an utterance which is the performance of a speech act, such as an invitation. According to Searle, an invitation is a directive used to get the addressee to do something. Invitation can be understood as a particular form of persuasive speech act. It is generally intended to produce a particular response (i.e. acceptance). As an illocutionary action, an invitation seeks to establish a relationship of social expectations between the host and invitee. This requires certain felicity conditions to be met. In other words, for the speech act to be socially significant, it must create a shared sense of meaning in regard to some perceived change or modification to existing social relations. These are often so obvious that they require little explanation. However, felicity conditions in speech-acts are culture-specific and may include rhetorical and politeness devices that are not obvious to other cultures. Politeness behaviour in invitations, related to using appropriate language forms, is an important element in competent illocutionary performance. Leech contends that polite illocutions are likely to be seen as minimising the addressee's cost and maximising his/her benefits, and the opposite is true for the addresser. Politeness behaviour can also be further explained in the light of Brown and Levinson's face-saving theory. Many actions we perform with words are potential face-threatening acts, such as requests and invitations (Brown and Levinson). The addresser is thus often confronted with negative face wants and has to address them by applying Leech's principles, in which maximising the addressee's benefits is the dominant strategy to gain politeness. However, strategies to maximise the addressee's benefits can be culture-specific. This is further connected to the persuasive/rhetorical orientation. Based on Aristotle, the appeal from ethos emphasises the persuader's (host's) character and status or other social conventions which might oblige compliance. The appeal from pathos emphasises emotion/feelings (either positive or negative) in inducing the desired response. The appeal from logos emphasises reason and the logical consistency of the proposal with the ideas and motives of the persuadee (invitee). Moran and Stripp found that western cultures tend to have a logical orientation, while others such as Japanese and Chinese tend to be characterised by emotional or dogmatic orientations. In a similar manner, Chinese scholars seem to address ethos, logos and pathos at the same time, in particular the logos and pathos. These principles remain a well-accepted principle in Chinese writing theories. Li, for example, clearly explicates the persuasive principle in writing as qing li (the combination of the emotional and logical approaches). The explicitly preferred qing (feelings/emotions) can be seen as part of the Confucian values relating to harmony, consensus and relationship building as noted by Hofstede and Bond. The different rhetorical orientations are also further explored by Campbell. This difference may suggest that the preferred rhetorical orientations are also a key aspect underpinning competent illocutionary performance. For example in Chinese invitations, a stress on the emotional approach may validate behaviours such as repeating the invitation even after initial refusal. However, a stress on the logical orientation, such as in western cultures, may negate the validity of these politeness conditions. This clearly points out the necessity of understanding the criteria for competent performance across cultures. The felicity conditions of invitation in Euro-Australian culture require, first, that the potential host be in a legitimate position to offer hospitality, and second, that the potential guest be -- at least theoretically -- able and willing to accept. Thirdly, the locutionary form of politeness requires use of conventionally appropriate terms of address and wording. The illocutionary form requires that the host symbolically offer hospitality to the invitee without the imposition of charges or other demands. Furthermore, the implied benefit to the invitee would ideally be achieved though implied cost to the host (even if the invitee is addressed as if their presence constitutes the bestowal of a favour). Fourthly, depending on the nature of the relationship between the host and invitee, certain persuasive/rhetorical orientations are preferred over others (eg. an appeal to emotion may seem out of place in formal invitation). The initial invitation meets these criteria. Dr. Lin offers and Catherine declines, citing a plausible and legitimate reason for being unavailable. From Catherine's perspective, the felicity conditions for invitation are now redundant. She has already declined in a manner which makes it clear that she is socially obliged to be elsewhere. From a persuasive/rhetorical perspective, the first invitation was primarily based on an appeal from logos/reason. i.e. Dr. Lin did not know that Catherine had already committed herself to other plans and it would be reasonable to suppose that she might appreciate being invited to a social occasion. This was backed up by a secondary appeal from pathos/emotion, whereby Dr. Lin pointed out that it would be nice for the whole class to get together. However, the priority of attending a best friend's birthday-party over-rides both these appeals. In Euro-Australian culture, close personal friends enjoy greater social priority than classmates or more distant associates. For Dr. Lin, however, the politeness criteria for invitation were still applicable. From a Chinese cultural perspective, the illocutionary performance of invitation may require repetition of the offer, even if the initial approach has been declined. According to Zhu (Business Communication), in Chinese culture repeating invitations is an accepted ritual to indicate sincerity and hospitality. Thus in Dr. Lin's view the second approach is required to perform the illocutionary act competently. The persuasive appeal, however, has become oriented toward ethos, reflecting Chinese conventions pertaining to politeness behaviour. For Dr. Lin not to repeat the invitation might suggest that Catherine's presence was of merely casual concern. Therefore the sincerity of the invitation demanded the gesture of repetition, regardless of the logical grounds cited for the initial refusal. Unfortunately, Dr. Lin and Catherine perceive the second invitation in very different ways based on the illocutionary performance criteria of their respective cultures. For Catherine, the logical basis for her initial refusal renders Dr. Lin's performance incompetent, and creates uncertainty about his apparent motives. In Euro-Australian culture, the repeated invitation makes no logical sense, since a perfectly legitimate reason for declining has already been provided. Therefore the communicative action cannot be interpreted as an invitation. If it is, then it is performed in a culturally incompetent fashion which could legitimately be construed as pestering. Repeating an invitation which has already been declined may appear to be an emotional appeal. While an illocutionary invitation based on pathos conceivably may be competent in Euro-Australian culture, the only circumstances that it would occur in is between relatively close friends. The power-relations between Catherine, as student, and Dr. Lin, as tutor, precludes felicity in this case. Thus the same locutionary action is interpreted as two quite different illocutionary actions. This depends on the interpreter's culturally specific understanding of the social significance of the locution. Since Catherine's cultural conventions would implicitly deny the validity of a repeated invitation, the communicative action must be construed as something else. Catherine may have classified the repeated invitation as a minor issue of little consequence. However, when Dr. Lin called her up to invite her a third time, she interpreted the illocutionary act as harassment. From a contemporary Euro-Australian perspective, pestering may be irritating, but harassment is political in nature. Three factors lead Catherine to this conclusion. First, after two previous declinations, the third invitation could not fulfil the illocutionary performance criteria of a legitimate invitation. In particular, the persuasive/rhetorical orientation of the repeated appeals were not oriented toward logos, as befits the formality of the lecturer-student relation. Indeed, it was Dr. Lin's apparent attempt to approach Catherine in a non-formal manner (apparently oriented toward pathos rather than logos) which led her to this interpretation. Second, the fact that Dr. Lin' social status is higher than Catherine's introduced the problem of the implicit power-relations in the discourse. For Catherine, the third invitation was intrusive and pushy, and it seemed that her explanations had been ignored. The evening call demanded that she re-engage in the discourse of day-time student-tutor power-relations. Since she is subordinate to Dr. Lin, other strategies through which she might have asserted her rights may have carried the risk of subsequent disfavour. However, she obviously resented what she perceived as an attempt to inappropriately use status to interfere with her personal affairs and sought out higher authority to rectify the situation, hence the complaint of harassment made to the Dean. Ironically, Dr. Lin's third invitation in the evening may well have been intended to reduce the social distance between himself and Catherine created by workplace space-time power-relations. For Dr. Lin, the first invitation expressed the illocutionary intent. The second call made sure that the invitee was made to feel assured of the sincerity of the invitation, and the third ring expressed the would-be host's appreciation. Establishing a host-guest relationship is a key illocutionary function in Chinese invitation. Note though, that there may also be a 'face' consideration here. Dr. Lin attempts to facilitate Catherine's attendance by pointing out that it would be acceptable to attend for a brief period. This suggests a re-emphasis on the orientation to logos, since it points out a compromise which allows Catherine to attend both parties. It also allowed Dr. Lin to save 'face' by not having his invitation totally disregarded. However, it failed as an illocutionary performance because the felicity conditions for polite invitation had already been violated as far as Catherine was concerned, even though they remained intact throughout for Dr. Lin. In conclusion, it can be seen from the above analysis of the communication breakdown that persuasive orientations and politeness principles are interrelated and culturally sensitive. Euro-Australian culture stresses the logical orientation in illocutionary performance whereas Chinese culture seems to emphasise both the logical and emotional approaches. Without a recognition of this difference, specific politeness behaviours in intercultural invitations can lead to illocutionary incompetence. This has been exemplified by Catherine's misconstrual of Dr. Lin's intended invitation-performance as harassment. Therefore in intercultural communication, one ought not to judge a speech act such as an invitation based on one's own culture's felicity conditions. First and foremost, a basic understanding of persuasive orientations between cultures is essential. With appropriate understanding of these principles one can avoid misinterpreting the intent of the addresser, thus overcoming barriers in intercultural communication. Specifically, further appreciation of the interplay between rhetorical orientation, politeness codes and felicity conditions in illocutionary performances in different cultures is required for a fuller comprehension of potential cross-cultural incompetence. With this in mind, greater tolerance can be achieved, and intercultural competence enhanced. References Aristotle. Aristotle on Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Trans. George A. Kennedy. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. Austin, John. L. How to Do Things with Words. New York: Oxford UP, 1962. Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1987. Campbell, Charles. P. 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Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1969. Young, Linda Wai Ling, ed. Crosstalk and Culture in Sino-American Communication. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1994. Zhu Yunxia. Business Communication in China. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 1999. ---. Structural Moves Reflected in English and Chinese Sales Letters. Discourse Studies (In Press). Citation reference for this article MLA style: Zhu Yunxia, Peter Thompson. "Invitation or Sexual Harassment? An Analysis of an Intercultural Communication Breakdown." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.4 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0008/invitation.php>. Chicago style: Zhu Yunxia, Peter Thompson, "Invitation or Sexual Harassment? An Analysis of an Intercultural Communication Breakdown," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 4 (2000), <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0008/invitation.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Zhu Yunxia, Peter Thompson. (2000) Invitation or sexual harassment? An analysis of an intercultural communication breakdown. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(4). <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0008/invitation.php> ([your date of access]).