Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:38:46.600Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Future of Chinese Management Research: Rigour and Relevance Redux

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Mary Ann Von Glinow
Affiliation:
Florida International University, USA
Mary B. Teagarden
Affiliation:
Thunderbird School of Global Management, USA

Abstract

We use the parable of the blind men and the elephant to suggest that Barney and Zhang (2009) and Whetten (2009) analogously touch on only a part of the Chinese management research puzzle. Their analyses remind us of many attempts at anchoring the research purpose – etic versus emic approaches, exploration versus exploitation approaches, rigor versus relevance scenarios – touched on by the many commentators in this issue. We suggest researchers first answer the ‘purpose’ questions before embarking on the research design. The research design should fit the purpose of the knowledge, which is either to improve the performance of Chinese organizations (meeting the relevance criterion) or to replicate, extend or refine a theory developed in the US (meeting the rigour criterion). We believe the strength of applied management research allows us to create knowledge that can meet the criteria of both rigour and relevance. We support the use of academic international research teams and dialectic debate as tools to move the field of Chinese management research forward.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barney, J. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1): 99120.Google Scholar
Barney, J. B., & Zhang, S. 2009. The future of Chinese management research: A theory of Chinese management versus a Chinese theory of management. Management and Organization Review, 5(1) 1528.Google Scholar
Bennett, W. R., & Allen, B. 1979. Opportunities for small business in the People's Republic of China. Journal of Small Business, 17(2): 13.Google Scholar
Berry, J. W. 1969. On cross-cultural comparability. International Journal of Psychology, 4(2): 119128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, J. W. 1990. Imposed etics, emics and derived emics: Their conceptual and operational status in cross-cultural psychology. In Headland, T. N., Pike, K. L., & Harris, M. (Eds.), Emics and etics: Insider/outsider debate: 8499. Newbury Park, CA.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Boisot, M., & Child, J. 1988. The iron law of fiefs: Bureaucratic failure and the problem of governance in the Chinese economic reforms. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33(4): 507527.Google Scholar
Boisot, M., & Child, J. 1996. From fiefs to clans and network capitalism: Explaining China's emerging economic order. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41(4): 600628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, N. 1986. China strategies. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, J. 1994. On the concept of universal knowledge in organization science: Implications for cross-national research. Management Science, 40(1): 162168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, B.-S., Wang, A.-C., & Huang, M.-P. 2009. The road more popular versus the road less travelled: An ‘insider's’ perspective of advancing Chinese management research. Management and Organization Review, 5(1) 91105.Google Scholar
Child, J. 2009. Context, comparison and methodology in Chinese management research. Management and Organization Review, 5(1) 5773.Google Scholar
Conley, T. W., & Beamish, P. W. 1986. Joint ventures in China: Legal implications. Business Quarterly, 51(3): 3944.Google Scholar
Daft, R. L., & Lewin, A. Y. 1990. Can organization studies begin to break out of the normal science straightjacket? An editorial essay. Organization Science, 1(1): 19.Google Scholar
Daft, R. L., & Lewin, A. Y. 2008. Rigor and relevance in organization studies: Idea migration and academic journal evolution. Organization Science, 19(1): 177183.Google Scholar
Drost, E. A. 2001. Toward a unified theory of task-oriented and relationship-oriented leader behavior: A multi-county generalizability study. Unpublished dissertation, Florida International University, FL.Google Scholar
Drost, E. A., & Von Glinow, M. A. 1998. Leadership in Mexico: Etic theories vs. emic practices. In Scandura, T. & Serapio, M. (Eds.), Research in international business and international relations, vol. 7: 326. Greenwich, CT.: JAI Press, Inc.Google Scholar
Fisher, W. A. 1983a. Do we stand on our heads while we work? Research Management, 26(2): 2834.Google Scholar
Fisher, W. A. 1983b. The structure and organization of Chinese industrial R&D activities. R&D Management, 13(2): 6382.Google Scholar
Frankenstein, J. 1986. Trends in Chinese business practice: Change in the Beijing wind. California Management Review, 29(1): 248260.Google Scholar
Fu, Z. 1993. Autocratic tradition and Chinese politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, H. H. 1972. Causal schemata and the attribution process. In Jones, E. E., Kanouse, D. E., Kelley, H. H., Nisbett, R. E., Valins, S., & Weiner, B. (Eds.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior: 107128. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.Google Scholar
Kirkman, B. L., & Shapiro, D. L. 2001. The impact of cultural values on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in self-managing work teams: The mediating role of employee resistance. Academy of Management Journal, 44(3): 557569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luft, J. 1969. Of human interaction. Palo Alto, CA: National Press.Google Scholar
Luft, J., & Ingham, H. 1955. The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness. Proceedings of the western training laboratory in group development. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA.Google Scholar
Marti, M. E. 2002. China and the legacy of Deng XiaoPing: From communist revolution to capitalist evolution: 31. Dulles, VA: Brassey's Inc..Google Scholar
Mitroff, I. 1998. Smart thinking for crazy times: The art of solving the right problems. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.Google Scholar
Peng, M. W. 2000. Business strategies in transition economies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Peterson, M. F. 2001. International collaboration in organizational behavior research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22(1): 5981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, M. F., & Pike, K. L. 2002. Emics and etics for organizational studies: A lesson in contrast from linguistics. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 2(1): 519.Google Scholar
Pike, K. L. 1960. Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior (3rd ed.). Glendale, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Pike, K. L. 1990. On the emics and etics of Pike and Harris. In Headland, T. N., Pike, K. L., & Harris, M. (Eds.), Emics and etics: The insider/outsider debate: 2847. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Redding, S. G., & Wong, G. Y. Y. 1986. The psychology of Chinese organizational behavior. In Bond, M. (Ed.), The psychology of Chinese people: 267295. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Saxe, J. G. 1873. The blind men and the elephant: A Hindoo fable. The poems of John Godfrey Saxe: Complete edition: 135136. Boston, MA: James R. Osgood and Company.Google Scholar
Shapiro, D. L., Von Glinow, M. A., & Xiao, A. 2007. Toward polycontextually sensitive research methods. Management and Organization Review, 3(1): 129152.Google Scholar
Shenkar, O., & Ronen, S. 1987. Structure and importance of work goals among managers in the People's Republic of China. Academy of Management Journal, 30(3): 564575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shenkar, O., & Von Glinow, M. A. 1994. Paradoxes of organizational theory and research: Using the case of China to illustrate national contingency. Management Science, 40(1): 5671.Google Scholar
Simon, F. S., & Rehn, D. 1988. Technological innovation in China: The case of Shanghai's electronic industry. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Spence, J. D. 1999. Mao Zedong: 131. New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Staw, B. M. 1995. Repairs on the road to relevance and rigor: Some unexplored issues in publishing organizational research. In Cummings, L. L. & Frost, P. J. (Eds.), Publishing in the organizational sciences (2nd ed.): 8597. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Teagarden, M. B., & Von Glinow, M. A. 1997. Human resource management in cross-cultural contexts: Emic and etic considerations. Management International Review, 37(1): 722.Google Scholar
Teagarden, M. B., Von Glinow, M. A., Bowen, D., Frayne, C., Nason, S., Huo, P., Milliman, J., Buder, M. C., Arias, M. E., Kim, N. H., Scullion, H., & Lowe, K. B. 1995. Toward building a theory of comparative management research methodology: An idiographic case study of the best international human resources management project. Academy of Management Journal, 38(5): 12611287.Google Scholar
Teagarden, M. B., Drost, E., & Von Glinow, M. A. 2005. The life cycle of academic international research teams: Just when you thought ‘virtual’ teams were all the rage … here come the AIRTs! In Shapiro, D., Glinow, M. A. Von, & Cheng, J. (Eds.), Managing multinational teams: Global perspectives, advances in international management, vol. 18: 311345. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Teagarden, M. B., Von Glinow, M. A., & Drost, E. A. 2007. Research rigor in large-scale cross-cultural research projects: A team-based approach. In Neider, L. & Schriesheim, C. (Eds.), Research in management: International perspectives, vol. 6: 8199. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Tinsley, C. H., & Brett, J. M. 2001. Managing work place conflict in the United States and Hong Kong. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 85(2): 360381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tsang, E. W. K. 2009. Chinese management research at a crossroads: Some philosophical considerations. Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 131143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsui, A. 2004. Contributing to global management knowledge: A case for high quality indigenous research. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 21(4): 491513.Google Scholar
Tung, R. L. 1981. Patterns of motivation in Chinese industrial enterprises. Academy of Management Review, 6(3): 481490.Google Scholar
Tung, R. L. 1982. Chinese industrial society after Mao. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Von Glinow, M. A., & Teagarden, M. B. 1988. The transfer of human resource management technology in Sino-U.S. cooperative ventures: Problems and solutions. Human Resource Management, 27(2): 201229.Google Scholar
Von Glinow, M. A., Teagarden, M. B., & Drost, E. 2002. Converging on IHRM best practices: Lessons learned from a globally-distributed consortium on theory and practice. Human Resource Management, Special Issue, 41(1): 123140.Google Scholar
Warner, M. 1985. Training China's managers. Journal of General Management, 11(2): 1226.Google Scholar
Warner, M. 1987. Management reforms in China. London: Francis Pinter Publishers.Google Scholar
Weber, M. 1947. Theory of social and economic organization. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Whetten, D. A. 2002. Constructing cross-context scholarly conversations. In Tsui, A. S. & Lau, C. M. (Eds.), The management of enterprises in the People's Republic of China: 2948. Boston: Kluwer Academic Press.Google Scholar
Whetten, D. A. 2009. An examination of the interface between context and theory applied to the study of Chinese organizations. Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 2955.Google Scholar
Zhao, S., & Jiang, C. 2009. Learning by doing: Emerging paths of Chinese management research. Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 107119.Google Scholar