Chinese cultural values and workplace behaviour: implications for continued economic growth

Abstract

The link between national culture and effective human resource management is well established in the management literature. This paper explores the influence of the Chinese cultural architecture on motivating workplace behaviour. In the face of research, which suggests that ideas about motivation are more complicated in the context of Chinese workplaces, the paper shies away from labelling Chinese workplace behaviour according to a systems-based framework. Therefore, although ideas about collectivism and individualism, for example, help explain workplace behaviour, it is argued that practicality is important in the Chinese context. Notions of practicality and emotion are investigated in terms of motivating Chinese workers in ways that will facilitate intensive economic growth in the coming decade.