Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T20:49:38.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Guanxi Revisited: An Exploratory Study of Familiar Ties in a Chinese Workplace

Part of: Guanxi Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Jar-Der Luo
Jar-Der Luo*
Affiliation:
Tsinghua University, China
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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.

Keywords

familiar tiefriendshipguanxiinstrumental exchange关系强一弱连带工具性交换熟人关系
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , July 2011 , pp. 329 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2011

References

Baker, W. E. 1994. Networking smart, New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.Google Scholar
Balkundi, P., & Harrison, D. 2006. Ties, leaders, and time in teams: Strong inference about network structure's effects on team viability and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49(1): 49–68.Google Scholar
Blau, P. 1964. Exchange and power in social life. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Burt, R. 1992. Structural holes: The social structure of competition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Butler, J. 1991. Toward understanding and measuring conditions of trust: Evolution of a condition of trust inventory. Journal of Management, 17(3): 643–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. K., & Cantrell, R. S. 1984. A behavioral decision theory approach to modeling dyadic trust in superiors and subordinates. Psychological Reports, 55: 19–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chai, S.-K., & Rhee, M. 2010. Confucian capitalism and the paradox of closure and structural holes in East Asian firms. Management and Organization Review, 6(1): 5–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C. H. 1994. Subcontracting networks and social life. Taipei: Line-Jin Press.Google Scholar
Chen, C. C., Chen, Y. R., & Xin, K. 2004. Guanxi practices and trust in management: A procedural justice perspective. Organization Science, 15(2): 200–209.Google Scholar
Chua, R.; Ingram, P., & Morris, M. 2008. From the head and the heart: Locating cognition and aflect-based trust in managers' professional networks. Academy of Management Journal, 51(3): 436–452.Google Scholar
Chua, R., Morris, M., & Ingram, P. 2009. Guanxi vs networking: Distinctive configurations of affect-and cognition-based trust in the networks of Chinese vs American managers. Journal of International Business Studies, 40(3): 490–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, K. S. 2004. Network, norms and trust: The social psychology of social capital. Keynote Speech in Cooley Mead Award.Google Scholar
Cook, K. S., Eric, R. R., & Alexandra, G. 2004. The emergence of trust networks under uncertainty; The case of transitional economics – Insight from social psychological research. In Ackerman, S. R., Rothstein, B. & Kornai, J. (Eds.), Creating social trust in post socialist transition: 193–212. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fei, H. T. 1992. From the soil – The foundation of Chinese society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. 1995. Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. 1973. The strength of weak tie. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6): 1360–1380.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. 1974. Getting a job: A study of contracts and careers. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. 1985. Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3): 481–510.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. 1992. The sociological and economic approaches to labor market analysis: A social structure view. In Nohria, N. and Eccles, R. G. (Eds.), The sociology of economic life: 25–57. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. 1995. The economic sociology of firms and entrepreneurs. In Portes, A. (Ed.), The economic sociology of immigration – Essays on networks, ethnicity, and entrepreneurship; 128–165. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. 2002. A theoretical agenda for economic sociology. In Mauro, R. C., Guillen, F., England, P. & Meyer, M. (Eds.), The new economic sociology: Development in an emerging field: 35–59. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. (forthcoming). Trust. The third chapter in Society and economy. Draft paper.Google Scholar
Hansen, M. T. 2002. Knowledge networks: Explaining effective knowledge sharing in muki unit companies. Organization Science, 13(3): 232–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, R. 2001. Conceptions and explanations of trust. In Cook, K. S. (Ed.), Trust in society: 3–39. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Heider, F. 1958. The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Hwang, K. K. 1987. Face and favor: The Chinese power game. American Journal of Sociology, 92(4): 944–974.Google Scholar
Hwang, K. K. 1988. The Chinese power game. Taipei: Chi-Liu Press.Google Scholar
Hwang, K. K. 2009. Confucian relationalism: Cultural reflection and theoretical construction, Beijing: Beijing U. Press.Google Scholar
Krackhardt, D. 1992. The strength of strong ties: The importance of philos in organizations. In Nohria, N. & Eccles, R. G. (Eds.), Networks and organization: 25–56. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Krackhardt, D., & Hanson, J. 1993. Informal networks: The company behind the chart. Harvard Business Review, 71:104–111.Google Scholar
Luo, J. D. 2005. Particularistic trust and general trust: A network analysis in Chinese organizations. Management and Organizational Review, 1(3): 437–458.Google Scholar
Mishra, A. K. 1996. Organizational responses to crises: The centrality of trust in organizations. In Kramer, R. M. & Tyler, T. R. (Eds.), Trust in organizations: 261–287. London: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
Sluss, D., & Ashforth, B. 2008. How relational and organizational identification converge: Processes and conditions. Organization Science, 19: 807–823.Google Scholar
Suarez, F. F. 2005. Network effects revisited: The role of strong ties in technology selection. Academy of Management Journal, 48(4); 710–720.Google Scholar
Tsai, W. 2002. Social structure of ‘cooperation’ within a multiunit organization: Coordination, competition, and intra-organizational knowledge sharing. Organization Science, 13(2): 179–190.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. S.; & Farh, J. L. 1997. Where guanxi matters – relational demography, guanxi and technology. Work and Occupations, 24: 57–79.Google Scholar
Uzzi, B. 1997. Social structure and competition in inter-firm networks: The paradox of embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(1): 35–67.Google Scholar
Wang, S. K., & Liu, X. 2003. The foundation of trust: An explanation of rationality. In Zhang, Y. F. & Peng, S. C. (Eds.), Trust in Chinese society: 209–249. Beijing: Chinese City Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. 1996. The mechanisms of governance. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yamagishi, T., & Yamagishi, M. 1994. Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion, 18(2): 129–166.Google Scholar
Yamagishi, T., Cook, K. S., & Motoki, W. 1998. Uncertainty, trust, and commitment formation in the United States and Japan. American Journal of Sociology 104(1): 165–195.Google Scholar
Yang, G. S. 1993. Chinese social orientation. In Yang, G. S. & Yu, A. B. (Eds.), Chinese Psychology and Behavior: 87–142. Taipei: Laureate Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Y. Y. 1995. Analyzing guanxi and its categories: Discussing with Hwang, Kuan Kuo. Sociological Studies, 5: 18–23.Google Scholar
Yang, Y. Y. 2001. Inner circle members. In Yang, C. F. (Ed.), Chinese social relations, emotion and trust: 131– 157. Taipei: Laureate Press.Google Scholar
Zhai, X. W. 2001. The logics of Chinese actions. Beijing: Social Science Documentation Publication.Google Scholar
Zhai, X. W. 2005. Favors, face, and the reproduction of povuer. Beijing: Beijing University Press.Google Scholar
Zucker, L. G. 1986. Production of trust: Institutional sources of economic structure. Research in Organizational Behavior, 8: 53–111.Google Scholar