1997-a cultural analysis of justice and organizational citizenship

Impetus for Action: A Cultural Analysis of Justice and Organizational CitizenshipBehavior in Chinese Society

Jiing-Lih Farh; P. Christopher Earley; Shu-Chi Lin

Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Sep., 1997), pp. 421-444.

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Impetus for Action: A Cultural Analysis of Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Chinese Society

Jiing-Lih Farh Hong Kong University of Science and Technology P. Christopher Earley London Business School Shu-Chi Lin National Chengchi University

01997 by Cornell University. 0001-8392/97/4203-0421/$I .OO.

We would like to thank Bor-Shiuan Cheng, Dah-Hsian Seetoo, and Jing-Jyi Wu for their valuable inputs in developing the Chinese OCB scale. We also want to thank Dennis Organ, Kenneth Law, Catherine Tinsley, and ASQ's Associate Editor Daniel Brass and anonymous re-viewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. Financialassistance from Hong Kong RGC Competitive Earmarked Grant (HKUST485194H)made this research pos-sible. Requests for reprints and other cor-respondence should be addressed to the first author.

To understand variations i n citizenship behavior within a culture, w e examine the relationship between citizenship behaviors and organizational justice in two studies in a Chinese context, using t w o cultural characteristics (tradi-tionality and modernity) and one individual (gender) characteristic. In Study 1, w e develop an indigenous measure o f organizational citizenship behavior and ex-plore the similarities and differences o f this measure wi th its Western counterpart. In Study 2, w e use this citi-zenship behavior measure to test its relationship t o jus-tice. Results demonstrate that organizational justice (dis-tributive and procedural) is most strongly related t o citizenship behavior for individuals who endorse less tra-ditional, or high modernity, values. In addition, w e found the relationship between justice and citizenship behavior to be stronger for men than for women. The studies are discussed in terms of the generality o f citizenship behav-ior and its relation t o organizational justiqe and cultural characteristics.*

Although an organization may increase its competitiveness through a multitude of means, Western scholars have in-creasingly emphasized the importance of employee actions that are not specifically designated in their formal job duties, or organizational citizenship behavior. Organ (1988: 4) de-fined organizational citizenship behavior as "individual behav-ior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate pro-motes the effective functioning of the organization"; it in-cludes actions such as aiding one's coworkers, punctuality and attendance that exceeds company norms, or voluntary assumption of ad hoc duties (Van Dyne, Graham, and Dien-esch, 1994).

Except for studies devoted to the refinement of an organiza-tional citizenship behavior measure (e.g., Podsakoff et al., 1990; Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch, 1994), the extant literature on citizenship behavior has focused primarily on the various determinants of citizenship behavior and its rela-tionship to variables in a nomological network. Despite the voluminous and fruitful literature stemming from Organ's (1988) seminal work in this area, w e know little about citi-zenship behavior in a global context. Our purpose in this pa-per is to begin to provide an understanding of citizenship be-havior and its relevant correlates for people who vary in their cultural values by exploring whether citizenship behavior has an etic (universal) meaning in cultures in which expectations for employees vary drastically.

Organizational justice appears to be a key determinant of citizenship behavior and related outcomes such as satisfac-tion and commitment (Folger and Konovsky, 1989; Moor-man, 1991), and it reflects both the fairness of outcomes as well as procedures used in their allocation (Lind and Tyler, 1988). The citizenship behavior literature has focused on the fairness of outcomes (e.g., pay) received by an employee and the procedures used to determine those outcomes (Moorman, 1991) . Findings suggest that if both job satisfac-tion and organizational justice are used to predict citizenship behavior, justice typically shows a stronger relationship to

421lAdministrative Science Quarterly, 42 (1997): 421-444

citizenship behavior than does satisfaction. Although it is not known exactly how justice affects citizenship behavior, trust appears to be an important mediating variable (Konovsky and Pugh, 1994). Organizational justice enhances employee trust, which in turn stimulates the display of citizenship behavior.

The importance of justice in the display of citizenship behavior can be seen in Konovsky and Pugh's (1994) empirical results on trust and Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch's (1994) conceptual work concerning covenantal relationships. Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch argued that a number of individual and contextual factors influence citizenship behavior through the mediating role of a covenantal relationship-a personal relationship resulting in action being performed without expectations of reciprocity. Over time, the vitality of the relationship itself becomes an important focus for those who have covenantal ties, and citizenship behavior is a way the relationship is maintained and strengthened. Fiske (1 991), Foa and Foa (1 976), and Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1 994), among others, suggested that this form of relationship is characteristic of people who have a common family structure, shared history, closely linked outcomes, or closely shared cultural perspectives.

Although organizational justice has proven to be an important antecedent of citizenship behavior, the nature of this relationship may differ as a function of individual and contextual attributes. Morrison (1 994) found that the concepts of citizenship behavior varied across organizational ranks. What appeared to be citizenship behavior for some supervisors was defined and perceived differently by job incumbents, suggesting that perceptions of citizenship behavior are sub- jective. If so, then differences in perceptions arising from people's cultural values may have a profound impact on how citizenship behavior is viewed and operates in relation to other constructs.

Further, concepts of justice are known to vary according to people's cultural values. For instance, Bond, Leung, and their colleagues (e.g., Bond, Leung, and Wan, 1982; Leung and Bond, 1984) have examined systematically the distributive aspects of reward allocation in Chinese, Japanese, Ameri- can, and Korean samples. They found that people from collectivistic cultures used different norms of equity and equality than people in individualistic cultures. Norms of distributive justice appear to differ as a function of cultural background. Similar concerns over the etic nature of procedural justice effects have been raised as well (Lind and Tyler, 1 988).

What role, then, do individual differences in cultural values play in determining what citizenship behavior is and how it relates to organizational justice? In Western society, there is an emphasis on individualism and universalism (Triandis, 1989; Markus and Kitayama, 1991) and contractual relationships (Blau, 1964; Williamson, 1975). Relationships are viewed as mutable, and exchanges are regulated instrumentally by specific rules for transactions (Ouchi, 1980). The structure of transactions and expectations of exchanges are universal and not tied to role occupants in these transactions. An employee's background, in terms of race, sex, or

422/ASQ, September 1997

Citizenship Behavior

ethnicity, for example, is not relevant in matters of compensation-an employer is expected to provide all employees with a "fair day's wages" for a "fair day's work." In this cir- cumstance, organizational justice, particularly based on a fair distribution of goods, predicts citizenship behavior. Distribu- tive justice based on an equity norm reinforces a person's belief that he or she is being treated fairly. Over time, as- suming consistent and fair treatment, this relationship may shift from an instrumental to a relational agreement based on trust and good faith, such as that found in a social exchange or covenantal relationship (Graham and Organ, 1993). Procedural justice influences citizenship behavior similarly, in that it enhances a person's trust in his or her supervisor and organization, which in turn leads to the display of citizenship behavior (Konovsky and Pugh, 1994). Thus, distributive and procedural justice enhance the display of citizenship behavior by creating an environment conducive to a covenantal relationship between an employee and his or her organizatio~. If employees believe that procedures used in allocating organizational outcomes are fair and just, they will be satisfied and more likely to engage in citizenship behavior (Brockner and Adsit, 1 986; Konovsky and Pugh, 1994).

Different predictions can be generated if alternative assump- tions are made concerning what constitutes contractual relationships in a society. In societies emphasizing expressive, or covenantal, ties among people, exchange is not always based on a universalistic principle of an equitable distribution of outcomes; rather, it is often based on a particularistic principle of need or social status distribution (Foa and Foa, 1976; Fiske, 1991). For example, the behavior of traditional Chi- nese is situationally determined, and whether they feel they have been treated fairly does not strongly affect their behavior, as evidenced by a story told in The Analects of Con- fucius. A regional governor told Confucius that in his community the rules of conduct reflected dedication of the individual to the community above other relationships, and he illustrated this by telling a story of a "righteous" son who reported to the authorities that his father stole a sheep. Con- fucius replied that a righteous man in his community does not behave this way-a father conceals the sins of his son and the son conceals the sins of his father. In a traditional Chinese context, .the particularistic conditions of a given relationship govern expectations of exchange and behavior. Thus, social structure provides role relationships (e.g., father to son) that are comparable to a covenantal relationship.

While market forces may govern an instrumental relationship, an expressive one is regulated through personal integ- rity and devotion to the good of the relationship, as in Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch's covenantal relationship. In a society dominated by role-based relationships, trust and faith in one's superiors are built into the social structure of organizations, and w e would not expect any relationship between justice and citizenship behavior, because employees' actions would not need to be motivated by enhanced trust. Of course, such an idyllic society is no more likely to exist than a purely instrumental society; rather, societies differ according to the relative balance of these various forms of contracts. Thus, current thinking about justice and citizenship


behavior may be limited to a cultural context emphasizing justice as a means of enhancing trust in forming relational contracts. In this paper, w e test these boundaries by consid- ering the effects of two cultural dimensions, or values, in relation to citizenship behavior: traditionality and modernity.

Traditionality. In a culture characterized by traditionality, there is an emphasis on expressive ties among people and values such as respect for authority, filial piety, ancestor worship, male-domination, fatalism, and a general sense of powerlessness (Yang, Yu, and Yeh, 1989). For instance, traditional Chinese society is strongly based on the five fundamental relationships (called wu-lun) of Confucianism, namely, emperor-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger, and friend-friend. These relationships are not societal characteristics; rather, they indicate the relation of people to one another within their social system. Yang (1993: 29-30) described wu-lun: "The formalistic aspect of interpersonal relationships is effectively consolidated, or even firmly fixed, by transforming each relation into specific dyadic roles. . . . For each dyadic wu-lun relationship, role prescriptions specify what should and should not be done by the actors." We chose to focus on respect for authority here as a key aspect of traditionality, for a number of reasons. Most importantly, the five cardinal relations (wu-lun), even those between friends, are constructed in hierarchical patterns. In each case, the senior member is accorded a wide range of pre- rogatives and authority with respect to the junior. Yang (1993) has also pointed out that prescriptions for these relations are asymmetric, in that the behavior expectations of the role with less power (e.g., the subject, the son, and the wife) is specified in much more detail than those of the role with greater power. Much more stringent requirements and restrictions are imposed on the less powerful role, and as a result, people in those roles are greatly underprivileged. Moreover, the hierarchical orientation in wu-lun has been generalized and extended to wider social contexts (Yang, 1 993: 40).

The above description suggests that traditional Chinese will engage in citizenship behavior according to their perceived roles within their work organization, not according to whether they feel they have been treated justly, and that there are other forms of relational contracts than those based on a Western equity principle of justice governing interaction in traditional Chinese society. Presumably, employees engage in citizenship behavior not merely because they perceive the work environment as just; they do so in satisfy- ing their self-derived obligations to their companies.

Modernity. As traditional Chinese societies underwent industrialization and modernized, they went through revolution- ary changes in institutional patterns as well as in people's values and attitudes. This social shift represents an alternative to traditional values and has been referred to as individual modernity (Inkeles and Smith, 1974). Modernity describes a society in terms of egalitarianism and open- mindedness, optimism and assertiveness, affective hedonism, sexual equality, and self-reliance (Yang, Yu, and Yeh, 1989). We focused on egalitarianism and open-mindedness here in our use of this construct. Western society is



1

Traditionality and modernity are conceptu- ally related to two of the cultural dimensions that Hofstede (1980) has posited as fundamental to all societies. Traditionality. with its emphasis on hierarchical relationships, is related to "power distance," which Hofstede used to characterize the power distribution among individuals in a society: a large discrepancy between those who are powerful and those who are powerless exists in a high power-distance culture (e.g., Malaysia). We expect that Confucian-based cultures will generally exhibit a moderate to high power distance given the emphasis on the five, hierarchically ordered relationships among people. Modernity is related to the cultural value of individualism-collectivism. which describes a relative tendency of an actor to pursue self-interests (individualistic) versus those of his or her collective (collectivistic). Hofstede posited that individualism is a conglomeration of values concerning the relation of a person to his or her collective or group. Modernity overlaps with individualism-collectivism. and, as Yang (1993) pointed out, individualism is the most important constituent of individual modernity or modernism. In modern societies there is an emphasis on egalitarianism and freedom of expres- sion, and in individualistic cultures people are encouraged to "do their own thing" and freely express their ideas and views (Triandis, 1989).

strongly dominated by modernity, as reflected by its emphasis on a principle that everyone has certain basic human rights (Triandis, 1989; Erez and Earley, 1993), and everyone has an equal right to receive rewards based on his or her individual contributions. In a modern society, there is an emphasis on instrumental exchange based on underlying rules of equity.

Traditionality and modernity, as conceptualized and tested by Yang, Yu, and Yeh (1989), are not opposite ends of a unidi- mensional construct. Traditionality reflects the hierarchical nature of Chinese society based on the principles of wu-lun, while modernity reflects an orientation toward egalitarianism, self-reliance, and openness. It is possible for a culture to be both traditional and modern in this usage. Thai society is characterized by a strong respect for hierarchy (i.e., traditional) with an emphasis on individuality and self-reliance (i.e., modernity). Yang, Yu, and Yeh's (1989) empirical work demonstrated the separation of these cultural orientations in ~a iwan. '

We hypothesized that the relationship of citizenship behavior to an instrumentally based construct of organizational justice (distributive and procedural) would interact with the cultural values of traditionality and modernity:

Hypothesis la : Traditionality will moderate the relationship between organizational justice (distributive and procedural) and citizenship behavior. For employees who hold less traditional values, the relationship between justice and citizenship behavior will be stronger than for more traditional employees.

Hypothesis Ib: Modernity will moderate the relationship between organizational justice (distributive and procedural) to citizenship behavior. For employees who hold more modern values, the relationship between justice and citizenship behavior will be stronger than for less modern employees.

For both cultural dimensions, w e hypothesize a basic relationship between justice and citizenship behavior predicated on an instrumental relationship. People who are more traditional, or less modern, have expressive (covenantal) relationships with their organizations based on societal expectations of roles. These relationships are an alternative to organizational justice as a means of encouraging employees to engage in citizenship behavior. Not only may citizenship behavior, as a construct, differ across cultural boundaries, its relationship to other constructs such as organizational justice may change as well.

To focus on traditionality and modernity, w e conducted our study in a Chinese setting, Taiwan. Certainly while one might question to what extent Taiwanese society represents traditional versus modern values, because tremendous economic growth has occurred in the past two decades, as have cultural shifts (Yang, Yu, and Yeh, 19891, there is evidence that these values generally hold sway and may even dominate a particular demographic segment within Taiwan- ese society-women (see Bond and Hwang, 1987, for a review). Some researchers maintain that the traditional role of women remains an unchanging core value in Taiwanese society (Chiang, 1982), and, therefore, w e expect that Chinese women will view their relationships to their companies pre-


dominantly through expressive ties, whereas men will tend to view them instrumentally.

Gender is not simply a proxy for traditionality or modernity. Research on individual differences in justice behavior has demonstrated that the equity norm is more salient for men than women (Major and Deaux, 1982). Brockner and Adsit (1 986) showed that the equity-satisfaction relationship was considerably more pronounced for men than for women and was even stronger for men in a primarily male group and weaker for women in an all-female group. Chang (1988) demonstrated gender effects on individual performance under different reward distribution systems. Male Taiwanese students were found to produce more under an equity-based reward system than under an equality-based one, whereas female students' productivity did not differ under the two types of reward systems on certain tasks. To explore the effect of gender, w e hypothesize that gender will significantly moderate the effects of justice on citizenship behavior: Hypothesis 2: Gender will moderate the relationship between organizational justice (distributive and procedural) and citizenship behavior. For male Chinese employees, the relationship between organizational justice and citizenship behavior will be stronger than for female Chinese employees.

We conducted two studies of citizenship behavior and justice in Taiwan. In the first study w e developed and assessed a citizenship behavior measure. Our second study was a field investigation of the relationship between citizenship behavior and organizational justice.

STUDY 1

We used three independent samples (two in Study 1 and a third in Study 2) to develop the Chinese Organizational Citi- zenship Behavior (OCB) scale. The first sample in Study 1 consisted of 109 Chinese students and employees enrolled in the Master's of Business Administration (MBA) or Man- agement Development programs at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan. Sixty percent of the respondents had more than five years of full-time work experience, and 41 percent were managers.

We presented respondents with a broad definition of organizational citizenship behavior and several examples. We did not inform them of the five dimensions of citizenship behavior identified in Western samples by Organ (1988). Each re- spondent was asked to draw on his or her work experience to list 10 to 20 examples of citizenship behavior.

We obtained a total of 1,512 statements describing citizenship behavior, which w e then transcribed onto cards for a three-stage sorting process. In the first stage, w e sorted the items into 11 5 categories. Next, three assistants to the au- thors independently decided how these categories could be combined and reached a consensus in collapsing the 11 5 categories into 60 general categories. Next, w e selected a representative statement for each of the 60 categories, using the most frequently mentioned example item in a cat- egory. Since 40 percent of the 1,512 items concerned negative behaviors, w e used negative items to represent



categories in which the majority of the items were negative. The 60 representative statements constituted our original citizenship behavior scale. Consistent with Podsakoff et al. (1 990), each item was measured on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 7 ("strongly agree").

We tested the 60-item citizenship behavior scale by obtain- ing an independent sample of 75 managers from 10 different organizations, which included electronics, machinery, chemi- cal, and food products firms, financial institutions, management consultants, and government agencies. To assess our citizenship behavior scale, w e first calculated the item-total score correlation. We deleted four items because of low item-total score correlation (less than .40) and performed a series of factor analyses on the remaining 56 items. These analyses resulted in a five-factor solution with 6 to 19 items loading on each dimension. To make the scale more man- ageable for subsequent research, w e constructed a 22-item citizenship behavior scale (see table 1 ), by selecting four to six items with the highest factor loadings from each factor.

We used the 22-item citizenship behavior scale for the third sample, which w e surveyed in Study 2. In that study, 227 supervisors completed citizenship behavior questionnaires. To test if the five-factor structure of the Chinese citizenship behavior scale was consistent with this third sample of respondents from Study 2, w e performed a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL 8 to analyze its covariance matrix. The initial confirmatory factor analysis indicated that all of the items used to assess the five factors of citizenship behavior had significant and substantial loadings on their hypothesized factors, but the overall fit of the five-factor model was not optimal. After examining the modification index, w e found that by dropping two items, the overall fit of the model could be greatly improved.

Table 1 reports the results of the confirmatory factor analysis of the final, 20-item Chinese citizenship behavior scale. The overall fit of the five-factor model to the data was quite good (TLI = .91), with a chi-square value of 346.23 (d. f. = 160; p < .01). All of the items used to assess the five citizenship behavior factors loaded significantly on their intended factors. We labeled these five factors identification with the company, altruism toward colleagues, conscientiousness, interpersonal harmony, and protecting company resources.

Etic and Emic Aspects o f Chinese Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Table 2 presents a comparison of the five dimensions of the Chinese citizenship behavior scale with those identified by Organ (1988) and later operationalized by Podsakoff et al. (1990) and reveals several similarities and differences. Our dimensions of identification with the company, altruism toward colleagues, and conscientiousness are similar to dimensions reported by Organ and appear to be etic dimensions. While both scales include compliance with company regulations and policies and better-than-expected attendance records, the Chinese scale also comprises items that are somewhat more proactive, such as "willing to take on chal-


-- --

Confirmatory Factor Analysis for the Chinese Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale ( N= 227)*

1. Identification with the company a. Willing to stand up to protect the reputation of the company. b. Eager to tell outsiders good news about the company and

clarify their misunderstandings. c. Makes constructive suggestions that can improve the operation

of the company. d. Actively attends company meetings.

2. Altruism toward colleagues a. Willing to assist new colleagues to adjust to the work

environment. b. Willing to help colleagues solve work-related problems. c. Willing to cover work assignments for colleagues when

needed. d. Willing to coordinate and communicate with colleagues.

3. Conscientiousness a. Complies with company rules and procedures even when

nobody watches and no evidence can be traced. b. Takes one's job seriously and rarely makes mistakes. c. Does not mind taking on new or challenging assignments. d. Tries hard to self-study to increase the quality of work outputs. e. Often arrives early and starts to work immediately.

4. Interpersonal harmony a. Uses illicit tactics to seek personal influence and gain with

harmful effect on interpersonal harmony in the organization. (R) b. Uses position power to pursue selfish personal gain. (R) c. Takes credits, avoids blames, and fights fiercely for personal

gain. (R) d. Often speaks ill of the supervisor or colleagues behind their

backs. (R)

5. Protecting company resources a. Conducts personal business on company time (e.g., trading

stocks, shopping, going to barber shops). (R) b. Uses company resources to do personal business (e.g.,

company phones, copy machines, computers, and cars). (R) c. Views sick leave as benefit and makes excuse for taking sick

leave. (R)

Reliability (Cronbach's alpha)

* Note' Tucker-Lew~s Fit Index (TLI) = 91, Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) = .87; Conf~rmatory Fit Index (CFI) = .92. Chi square w ~ t h 160 degrees of freedom = 346.23. (R) denotes Items that have been reverse coded

lenging assignments" and "willing to self-study to improve one's work performance."

Sportsmanship and courtesy, two dimensions in the Podsa- koff scale, were not present in our citizenship behavior scale, while interpersonal harmony and protecting company resources do not appear in Podsakoff's scale. The presence of interpersonal harmony and protecting company resources in the Chinese citizenship behavior scale can be attributed to their cultural roots. As noted by many writers (e.g., Bond and Hwang, 1987; Yang, 1993), one of the most distinctive features of Chinese societies is their family orientation. The influence of the family is so strong in Chinese society that it has an undeniable predominance over its members in almost all domains of life. The submerging of one's self or individuality into his or her family is a special type of in-group collec-



Table 2

Comparison of Western and Chinese OCB Scales*

Western OCB scale Chinese OCB scale

Etic dimensions - - -

Civic virtue Identification with company Discretionary behavior that indicates that one Very similar to civic virtue in definition. Items here also

responsibly participates in, is involved in, or is emphasize the willingness on the part of the concerned about the life of the organization, e.g., employees to spread positive company news to attending important but nonmandatory meeting; outsiders; defend company reputation; make keeping abreast of changes in the organizations, suggestions for improvement. reading company memos and announcements and performing functions that help company image.

Altrusim Altrusim toward colleagues Discretionary behavior that has the effect of helping Identical to Western altruism in definition; very similar

others around him or her (mostly peers, clients, item contents. supervisors) with an organizationally relevant task or problem.

Conscientiousness Conscientiousness Discretionary behaviors by an employee that go well Identical to Western Conscientiousness; very similar

beyond the minimum role requirements of the item contents. organization in the areas of attendance, obeying rules and regulations, taking breaks, working hard, and so forth.

Emic dimensions

Sportsmanship Willingness of an employee to tolerate less than ideal

circumstances without complaining; to avoid complaining petty grievances, and railing against real or imagined slights.

Courtesy Discretionary behavior by an employee aimed at

preventing work-related problems with others from occurring; mindful of the effects of one's behavior on others; not abusing others' rights; preventing problems with other people.

Interpersonal harmony Discretionary behavior by an employee to avoid pursuing

personal power and gain with detrimental effects on others and the organization.

Protecting company resources Discretionary behavior by an employee to avoid negative

behaviors that abuse company policies and resources for personal use.

* The definition and sample items for this scale were taken from Podsakoff et al. (1990) and Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Hui (1993).

tivism called familistic collectivism, which can be distinguished from universal collectivism (Schwartz, 1990). One of the natural consequences of familistic collectivism is in- group favoritism, which may manifest itself in organizational life in the form of using one's position to benefit oneself or one's family members (e.g., nepotism). This is especially true when an employee is working in a business that is not related to his or her family. Because such abuses by employees interfere with economic efficiency, it is a common chal- lenge for Chinese organizations to devise strategies to guard against such behavior. The emergence of protecting com-

429/ASO, September 1997

pany resources as a major form of citizenship behavior in Chinese societies is a manifestation of such concern. The cultural root of interpersonal harmony in the Chinese citizenship behavior scale is a cherished cultural value of interpersonal harmony found in Chinese societies (Yang, 1993). For example, it is a common practice in traditional Chinese societies for anyone who first violates interpersonal harmony, for whatever reason, to take a much larger share of the blame, no matter whether his or her behavior is justifiable. Interper- sonal harmony is so stressed by Chinese people that it appears to outsiders that they pursue harmony for harmony's sake.

Protecting company resources and interpersonal harmony appear to be negatively oriented citizenship behavior dimensions, which may explain their apparent emic nature. These dimensions may have separated out from the others as an artifact of their negative orientation. There are two reasons why w e do not think that is the case. First, it is common in the Chinese language for positive attributes to be expressed using a negation of a negative. For example, someone who performs "well" is said to perform "bu cuo," or literally, "did not do the wrong things," and someone who performs "ex- tremely well" is said to perform "hen bu cuo," or literally, "did not do the wrong things at all," which is consistent with a culture stressing personal modesty. The use of negative phrasing is connotatively different in Chinese than it is in English in many cases. It is therefore not surprising that when subjects were asked to describe citizenship behaviors, instead of identifying all positive behaviors, they also identified negative behaviors that one should not do to represent good behavior. The fact that negative items were heavily used to describe harmony and resources suggests that they are indeed emic. Second, if the factor analyses were shaped by a negative rather than a positive wording, w e would not expect to see two independent "negative" dimensions produced. Rather, these two dimensions should have loaded on a common factor reflecting a "negative" wording. Based on these analyses and our tracing of these two dimensions to Chinese culture, w e think that these two dimensions are emic dimensions and not simply a methodological artifact.

STUDY 2

Our purpose in conducting Study 2 was to test the hypoth- eses with our indigenous measure of citizenship behavior.

Method

Sample. The sample for this study consisted of employees drawn from eight companies in the electronics industry of Taiwan. All eight companies were locally owned and were members of the 500 largest companies in Taiwan. Thirty to forty matching questionnaires were distributed to supervisors and subordinates in each company. The sample consisted mainly of low- to mid-level managers, engineers, salespersons, and clerical staff. The sample of subordinates had slightly more men (55.6 percent) than women, was rela- tively young (76 percent between the ages of 26 and 351, and 70 percent of the respondents had completed vocational college or university education. Forty-five percent of the respondents were clerical and other staff, 26 percent engi-



neers, 17 percent management, and 12 percent sales personnel.

Procedure. Questionnaires, coded to ensure confidentiality, were distributed to a total of 65 supervisors and 265 subordinates and were returned through the coordinators designated for each company. We obtained usable matching questionnaires from 227 dyads, for a response rate of 87.3 percent.

Measures

With the exception of citizenship behavior, which was measured by the supervisor survey, all variables were measured by the subordinate survey. Unless otherwise noted, all multi- item scales were measured on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Additionally, all materials were presented in Chinese, either in indigenous form (citizenship behavior, traditionality, modernity) or back-translated from English where needed (justice and control variables). We assessed justice in terms of the distributive and procedural justice associated with compensation.

Distributive justice. Distributive justice was measured by nine items adapted from Balkin and Gomez-Mejia (1990). We made a number of wording adjustments to the original items to reflect compensation issues in Taiwan. Sample items included: "Relative to similar jobs in other organizations, the pay I received is fair"; "The pay differential in my company does not reflect the differences in job responsibilities and difficulties involved in the job" (reverse scored); and "lndividual performance is the most important factor driving salary adjustment." Results of factor analysis of this scale suggested that a single dominant factor accounted for 45.4 percent of the total variance. The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .84.

Procedural justice. Consistent with Moorman (1 991) and others, the measure for procedural justice consisted of formal procedures and interactional justice. The former refers to the degree to which the formal procedures were at least present in the organization. The latter refers to the degree to which the behavior of the supervisor enacted the formal procedures fairly. We investigated two aspects of formal procedures in this study: participation and appeal mechanism. Par- ticipation refers to the extent to which employees are allowed to have input in pay and related performance appraisal decisions. It was measured by four items adapted from Balkin and Gomez-Mejia (1990): "Managers at all levels participate in pay and performance appraisal decisions"; "Through various channels, my company tries to understand employees' opinions regarding pay and performance appraisal policies and decisions"; "Pay decisions are made ex- clusively by top management in my company; others are ex- cluded from this process" (reverse scored); and "My company does not take employees' opinions into account in designing pay and performance appraisal policies" (reverse scored). The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .71. Appeal mechanism refers to the extent to which formal appeal procedures were present and followed in the organization. It was measured by three items adapted from Spencer (1986): "The company has a formal appeal channel"; "The company


imposes a time limit within which the responsible parties must respond to the employee's appeal"; and "Employees' questions concerning pay or performance appraisal are usu- ally answered promptly and satisfactorily." The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .81.

Interactional justice. Perceptions of procedural justice were also influenced by the interpersonal behavior of the supervisor. Several studies found that the actions taken by managers as they enacted procedures and explained the decisions were instrumental in determining if procedural justice ex- isted (Bies, 1987; Tyler and Bies, 1990). We adapted five items from Folger and Konovsky (1 989) to measure the interpersonal behavior of the supervisor in performance appraisal and pay decisions: "My supervisor is thoroughly familiar with my job performance"; "My supervisor allows me to tell my side of the story in performance evaluation"; "My supervisor lets me know my appraisal outcomes and provides justification"; "My supervisor lets me know my pay raise and annual bonus and provides justification"; and "My supervisor re- views my performance with me and discusses plans or ob- jectives to improve my performance." The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .88.

To test if the 12-item procedural justice scale could be accounted for by the three hypothesized factors, w e performed a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL 8 to analyze the covariance matrix. The overall fit of the three-factor model to the data was excellent (TLI = .94), with a chi- square value of 106.4 (d. f . = 51; p < .01). All of the items used to assess procedural justice factors loaded significantly on their intended factors with factor loadings ranging from .42 to .95.

Traditionality. This construct was measured by five items taken from the Chinese Individual Traditionality Scale, an indigenous scale developed by K. S. Yang and associates (Yang, Yu, and Yeh, 1989). According to Yang, respect for authority is a key aspect of individual traditionality for Chi- nese people in Taiwan. The original scale for respect for authority has 15 items. We took the five highest loading items: "The chief government official is like the head of a house- hold. The citizen should obey his decisions on all state matters"; "The best way to avoid mistakes is to follow the in- structions of senior persons"; "Before marriage, a woman should subordinate herself to her father. After marriage, to her husband"; "When people are in dispute, they should ask the most senior person to decide who is right"; and "Those who are respected by parents should be respected by their children." The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .76.

Modernity. This construct was measured by five items taken from the Chinese Individual Modernity Scale, an indigenous scale also developed by K. S. Yang and associates (1989). According to Yang, egalitarianismlopen-mindedness is a key aspect of modernity. The original scale for egalitarianism1 open-mindedness has 12 items. We took the five highest loading items: "If the chief government official makes a mistake, the citizen may criticize him openly"; "If the teacher makes a mistake, the student can argue with him by reason"; "People who seek political reforms should have the



right to make a speech in public places"; "To pursue ad- vanced study or better employment opportunity, it is okay for someone to leave his home and family"; and "The sexual scenes in a TV program should not be censored if they are an integral part of the script." The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .72.

Organizational citizenship behavior. Subordinates' citizenship behavior was measured by the 20-item scale described in Study 1.

Demographic and control variables. Subordinates' surveys provided four demographic attributes that are used as controls in this study. Age was measured by eight categories (i.e., 1 = under 20, 2 = 21-25, 3 = 26-30, 4 = 31-35, 5 = 36-40, 6 = 41-45, 7 = 46-50, 8 = above 50). Gender was coded with 1 designating men and 0 designating women. Educa- tion was measured by five categories (i.e., 1 = middle school or under, 2 = high school, 3 = vocational school, 4 = univer-, sity, 5 = graduate school). Tenure was measured in years. Pay satisfaction and organizational commitment were included as control variables because they have been shown to be significant correlates of citizenship behavior (Organ and Ryan, 1995).

Pay satisfaction. Participants were asked to indicate their degree of satisfaction on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly dissatisfied, 7 = strongly satisfied) with regard to four key aspects of pay: current salary, most recent pay raise, annual bonus, and overall level of pay. Annual bonus was included because it constituted a significant portion of the take-home pay in Taiwan, and all large firms in Taiwan paid annual bonuses to their workers (Farh, 1995). The Cron- bach alpha for this four-item scale was .82.

Organizational commitment. A subordinate's commitment to the employer was measured by a 15-item scale taken from Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979). The original English scale has been translated into Chinese and has been used in prior behavioral research in Taiwan. We used the existing, translated version validated in prior work. Despite its West- ern origin, the scale has been found to perform satisfactorily in terms of reliability and validity (e.g., Yang and Cheng, 1987). The Cronbach alpha for this scale was .85.

Results

The means, standard deviations, reliabilities, and intercorrelations of all of the variables used in the study are reported in table 3. This table indicates that the internal consistency reliabilities for all of the multi-item scales were reasonable.

Gender, modernity, and traditionality were significantly but not highly correlated (r's = -.34 to .34). As expected, men tended to be higher in modernity and lower in traditionality than women, and modern and traditional value orientations were negatively correlated. Both distributive and procedural justice variables were positively correlated with citizenship behavior dimensions, with the strongest correlations associated with distributive and interactional justice.

Effects of justice on citizenship behavior. We examined the individual effects of organizational justice variables on


Means, Standard Deviations, Reliabilities, and Intercorrelations of Demographic, Organizational Justice, and Outcome Variables (N= 206)

Variable

1. Identification 2. Altruism 3. Conscientious 4. Harmony 5. Resources 6. Distributive justice 7. Participation 8. Interaction 9. Appeal mechanism

10. Pay satisfaction 11. Commitment 12. Age 13. Gender 14. Education 15. Tenure 16. Modernity 17. Traditionality

Variable

9. Appeal mechanism 10. Pay satisfaction 11. Commitment 12. Age 13. Gender 14. Education 15. Tenure 16. Modernity 17. Traditionality

Mean S.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

.81

.30" .82

.35" .35" .85

.OO -.01 . I0 NA

.18" .04 .07 .21" N A

.01 -.09 .08 . I3 .27" N A -.02 -.01 .20" .37" -,02 -.19** NA -.02 -.04 .04 .02 .34" .21" -.07 .72

.09 .02 .09 -.01 -.19" -.19" .02 -.34" .76

.p < .05; 0.p < .01; two-tailed tests.

citizenship behavior by regressing citizenship behavior on the four justice variables along with subordinates' demographics, traditionality, modernity, pay satisfaction, and commitment. This analysis permits us to examine the unique effects of each individual justice variable while controlling for other variables. Table 4 presents the regression results.

Table 4 indicates that demographic variables and individual characteristics of traditionality and modernity had little impact on citizenship behavior. In general, the emic types of OCB were more strongly related to justice than were the etic types of OCB. Only three of the combinations were significant (i.e., education on altruism; age and tenure on protecting company resources). Pay satisfaction also had no independent effect on any of the outcome variables. In contrast, one or more organizational justice variables had a significant impact on four of the citizenship behavior dimensions. Details of the main effects model are presented in table 4.

After controlling for individual demographics, values, pay satisfaction, and commitment, organizational justice still had significant impact on four of the five citizenship behavior dimensions. Among the four justice predictors, distributive and interactional justice were clearly the most consistent predictors of citizenship behavior, whereas participation and appeal mechanism were less consistent predictors, having no sig-



Table 4

Regression Analysis of Effects of Organizational Justice on Subordinate Outcomes, Controlling for lndividual Characteristics, Pay Satisfaction, and Commitment (N= 206)"

Etic OCB Emic OCB

Variable Identification Altruism Conscientiousness Harmony Protect resources

Individual demographics AgeGender Education Tenure Unique R2 Control variables Pay satisfaction Organizational commitment Unique R2 Individual values Modernity Traditionality Unique R2 Organizational justice Distributive justive Participation Interaction Appeal Unique R2 Overall R2 Overall model F

'p < .05; " p < .O1 (two-tailed tests). * Betas are reported. Unique R2 is the unique variance attributable to a set of variables independent of all other sets of variables in a given equation.

nificant independent effects on any dimensions of citizenship behavior.

Moderating effects of traditionality, modernity, and gender. We tested the moderating effects of traditionality modernity, and gender on each of the justice-outcome relationships separately by hierarchical regression using a three-step procedure in each analysis. For example, in examining the moderating effect of gender on the distributive justice and altruism relationship, we first regressed altruism on five demographic and control variables (age, tenure, education, pay satisfaction, and organizational commitment). The main effects of gender and distributive justice were then added to the regression equation in step 2. In the final step of the analysis, the interaction term of gender and distributive justice was loaded into the equation. We tested the moderating effect by examining the change in R2 attrib-utable to the interaction term. If the interaction term added to the final stage of the regression analysis produced a significant R~ (i.e., significantly increased the amount of variance explained in the criterion variable, altruism), then gender could be said to be a moderator of the relationship between distributive justice and altruism. If the interaction term was significant, w e divided the sample into two groups (male and female for gender; high versus low, using a mean split for traditionality and modernity) to aid in inter- preting the interaction term. Because w e hypothesized a specific pattern of interaction in testing each moderating effect, and key variables (i.e., pay satisfaction and commitment) were included as controls in the equation to render


the tests conservative, we used one-tailed tests in significance testing.

Table 5 summarizes the results of moderated regression analyses. Each entry in the table has two numbers: the up- per one shows the beta coefficient for the interaction term along with its level of statistical significance, and the lower one shows the percent of R~ change in the outcome variable due to the interaction term. For example, the first entry under gender in the table reports a significant moderating effect of gender on the relationship between distributive justice and identification with the company. The beta coefficient for the interaction term (gender x distributive justice) was significant (beta = 1.26, p < .01), and this interaction, when added to the equation, accounted for 5 percent of additional variance in identification. The pattern of the interaction can be interpreted using the sign of the beta coefficient. Be- cause male gender was coded as 1 and female as 0, the positive sign of the beta coefficient indicates that the relationship between distributive justice and identification was stronger and more positive for men than for women. Figures 1-3 present plots of distributive justice and conscientiousness citizenship behavior for traditionality, modernity, and

Table 5

Summary of Moderated Regression Analyses of Traditionality, Modernity, and Gender with Organizational Justice on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (N= 206)*

* A p indicates the change in R2 due to the interaction term

Identification Altruism Conscientious Harmony Resources

Traditionality

Distributive justice

Interaction

Participation

Appeal mechanism

P A R2

P A R2

P A R2

P A R2

-.98' .02'

-.77' .02'

-.44 .01

-.50 .01

-.SO' .02'

-.77' .02'

-.84' .02'

-.70° .02'

Modernity


Interaction

Participation

Appeal mechanism

P A R2

P A R2

P A R2

P A R2

1.25' .02'

1.02' .02' .77' .ole .97' .02'

Gendert


Interaction

Participation

Appeal mechanism

P A R2

P A R2

P A R2

P A R2

1.26" .05" .51' .01' .47' .01' .23 .01

.67'

.01'

.79"

.04"

. I7

.OO

.44'

.02'

.83'

.02'

.75"

.03"

.33

.01

. I3

.OO

.86"

.02"

.53'

.02'

.56'

.02'

.26

.01

.45

.01

.77"

.03"

.87"

.05"

.30

.01

' p < .05; " p < .01; one-tailed tests.

t Gender was coded as female = 0, male = 1.



gender to illustrate the general pattern of results for the various moderator variables identified in our analyses.

Traditionality. As table 5 shows, traditionality significantly moderated 12 of the 20 relationships between justice and citizenship behavior. The strongest effect was found for distributive and interactional justice, in which w e found significant moderating effects of traditionality for four out of the five citizenship behavior dimensions. The signs for the significant beta coefficients were all negative, indicating consistently that the lower the score on traditionality, the stronger the relationship between justice and citizenship behavior. To interpret the findings, w e divided the sample into high and low traditionality groups, based on a mean split, and plotted the relationship between distributive justice and citizenship behavior accordingly. Figure 1 depicts a typical significant interaction effect. The relationship between distributive justice and conscientiousness citizenship behavior was stronger for the low traditionality group ( r = .30, p < .01) than for the, high traditionality group ( r = .06, n. s.). These results are consistent with hypothesis I a.

Figure 1. Distributive justice and conscientiousness relationship by traditionality.

4.6 } I I

2.74 3.47 4.2 Distributive Justice

Modernity. Modernity significantly moderated 1 1 of the 20 relationships between justice and citizenship behavior. The signs for the significant beta coefficients were all positive, indicating a consistent pattern that the higher the score on individual modernity, the stronger the justice to outcome relationships. To interpret the findings, w e divided the sample into high and low modernity groups, based on a mean split, and plotted the justice-outcome relationships accordingly. Figure 2 depicts a typical significant interaction effect. The relationship between distributive justice and conscientiousness was stronger for the high modernity group ( r = .36, p < .Ol)than for the low modernity group ( r = -.13, n. s.). These results are consistent with hypothesis I b.

Gender. Consistent with hypothesis 2, gender significantly moderated 13 of the 20 relationships between organizational justice and citizenship behavior. The strongest effect was found on interactional justice. This pattern is presented in figure 3, which depicts the relationship between distributive justice and conscientiousness for men and women. The result showed a significant positive relationship for men


Figure 2. Distributive justice and conscientiousness relationship by modernity.

- 1 1 I


( r= .33, p < ,01) and a negative, nonsignificant one for women ( r = -.05, n.s.).

Usefulness analysis o f traditionality, modernity, and gender as moderators. Because traditionality, modernity, and gender were significantly interrelated and sometimes moderated the same justice-citizenship-behavior relationship (e.g., the distributive-justice-identification relationship), it was unclear which ones were associated with unique variance in the tests for moderation. We therefore conducted, a usefulness analysis. For each justice-dimension relationship with citizenship behavior reported in table 5, w e included all three moderator effects in the same equation, to see which one could add uniquely significant variance, using a three-step process. For example, in the first step in assessing the impact of distributive justice (DJ) on identification with the company, w e entered all five demographic and control variables (i.e., age, education, tenure, pay satisfaction, and commitment). In the second step, w e entered the main effect (i.e., distributive justice) and the three moderators (i.e., traditionality, modernity, and gender). In the third step, w e entered three interaction effects, DJ x traditionality, DJ x modernity, and DJ x gender, and examined the significance of the interaction terms. Table 6 lists the significant moderators for each combination of the justice dimensions

Figure 3. Distributive justice and conscientiousness relationship by gender.

-.- I I




Table 6

Usefulness Analysis of Traditionality, Modernity, and Gender as Moderators on Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Relationship ( N= 206)*

Identification Altruism Conscientiousness Harmony Protecting resources

Distributive justice Gender Gender Gender Traditi9pality (I .I I") (.75') (.99"' (-1.10 )

Interaction Traditionality Traditionality Traditionality Traditionality Gender (-.70') (-.85") (-.73') (-.64') (.99")

Gender Gender Gender (.71") (.62') (.53')

Participation Traditionality Traditionality Gender Gender (-.74') (-.70') (.52') (.80")

Modernity (.81°)

Appeal mechanism Traditionality Traditionality (-.74') (-.65') Gender (.37')

'p < .05; *'p < . O l ; one-tailed tests. * Significant moderators are listed in the respective cell entry. The number in parentheses is the beta coefficient for the significant interaction terms listed in the cell. The modernity interaction was significant for the supervisor interaction-protecting resources relationship, but its sign was the opposite of the predicted effect, suggesting a suppresser effect.

and citizenship behavior. Blank cell entries indicate that none of the interactions were significant.

Table 6 reveals that out of the 20 relationships between justice and citizenship behavior, traditionality was a significant moderator for nine cases, gender for ten cases, and modernity for only one case. Clearly, traditionality and gender were unique moderators, but modernity was not.

DISCUSSION

The organizational citizenship behavior scale w e developed in our first study produced some striking results when w e used it to survey supervisors and subordinates in our second study. The measures of distributive and interactional justice were consistently related to the various dimensions of citizenship behavior. Results showed a significant relationship for low traditionality or male employees and a weak or nonsignificant relationship for high traditionality or female employees. These results suggest that employees who perceive their interactions within an organization as recognized and legitimate are more likely to engage in citizenship behavior. This finding is consistent with Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch's (1994) argument that if a covenantal (or what w e refer to as an expressive) relationship exists, citizenship behavior is more likely to occur. For less traditional, or male, Chinese, justice perceptions likely stimulate citizenship behavior through the formation of a covenantal relationship of employee to organization. Traditionalists, or women, how- ever, are likely to have an expressive tie to their organization based on role expectations in society. These preexisting roles exist, in part, because of wu-lun, or the values people have come to endorse through socialization concerning their role in society. An expressive tie leading to citizenship behavior is not dependent on justice perceptions for traditionalists or women; rather, the tie flows from prior socialization and role expectations. If expressive ties do not already exist by virtue of cultural values, social structure, or gender-based


socialization, justice perceptions will be related to citizenship behavior to the extent that they create an attachment between the employee and the organization (Lind and Tyler, 1 988).

Results were less powerful for the cultural value of modernity. Modernity moderated the relationship between citizenship behavior and the participative facet of procedural justice and distributive justice, as predicted, but few other consis- tencies were observed. This may have occurred for several reasons, including an improper specification of the cultural moderator or insufficient variation associated with this construct. The variances reported in table 4 suggest that re- stricted range is not a likely problem, given that the standard deviation for both cultural variables was roughly the same. Still, the strength of modernity as a moderator might be generally weak, in which case more cross-culturally divergent sampling might have produced a stronger, and more consistent, set of results. Another possibility is that the theory is misspecified. Modernity and its emphasis on egalitarianism and open-mindedness is not strongly related to expressive relationships. An emphasis on equality among people does not necessarily mean that an instrumental rather than an expressive form of relationship is likely to occur. Perhaps other aspects of modernity (e.g., self-reliance) might have proven to be more useful moderating variables.

These results suggest there is an important limitation to the mediating role of a covenantal tie in the relationship between citizenship behavior and organizational and individual factors, namely, that the nature of social ties within a society influences the display of extra-role employee behavior. Some researchers have argued that organizational influences (e.g., perceptions of a just pay system) affect citizenship behavior by creating covenantal ties between employee and employer (Organ, 1990; Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch, 1994). If this were the case, w e would expect that the general level of citizenship behavior engaged in by both traditionalists and nontraditionalists would be related to their perceptions of organizational justice. Our findings do not necessarily contra- dict Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch's model, because traditionalists, and Taiwanese women, may already have a covenantal form of relationship with their organization, and, so, distributive and procedural justice does not predict engage- ment in citizenship behavior. But it is also possible that the existing role identities within a traditional Chinese context are a substitute for an expressive or covenantal relationship. Based on their social roles and norms for behavior, they do not need a covenantal relationship to engage in citizenship behavior.

An additional finding on procedural justice is that procedural justice in the form of supervisor behavior (interactional justice) is more important than the more formal aspects of justice, such as appeal mechanism and the opportunity to participate. These findings are consistent with the Chinese tradition of personalism (also referred to as particularism), which describes the tendency to use personal criteria and relationships as a basis for decision making and action. Per- sonalism is much stronger in Taiwan than it is in most West- ern countries. When this aspect of culture manifests itself in



procedural justice, it is not surprising that interaction emerges as a central component of justice.

A complementary interpretation of these results involves dis- tinguishing between low and high fairness. Under conditions of high fairness, traditionality and modernity appear to have little discriminating capacity for the amount of citizenship behavior a person engages in (see figures 1 and 2, above). This is not the case for conditions of low fairness, when levels of traditionality or modernity discriminate the amount of citizenship behavior displayed. In this sense, a covenantal relationship, characteristic of people who endorse high traditionality or low modernity, may buffer people from low fairness so that they continue to display citizenship behaviors.

Our studies make at least two important methodological contributions. First, w e used an iterative procedure of item generation and testing to develop an indigenous scale of citizenship behavior that yielded several context-specific (emic) dimensions focused on smoothing interpersonal relationships. In Chinese society, there is an emphasis on relationships and on avoiding confrontations, as well as devotion to one's in-group and organization (Bond and Hwang, 1987). This emphasis is captured by several of our citizenship behavior dimensions. In addition, although the Chinese sample w e surveyed had several of the citizenship behavior dimensions found in the U. S., this does not mean that organizational citizenship behavior is an "etic," or universal construct (Brett et al., 1997). For the sample w e studied, the emic dimensions were also significant and accounted for a larger proportion of variance than the universal dimensions.

Second, our studies represent a new style of conducting "cross-cultural" research. Many researchers equate cross- cultural with cross-national, or comparative, methods (e.g., Hofstede, 1980). For example, it is common for researchers to measure cultural values using individuals' responses, which are then aggregated according to criteria such as nationality (e.g., Thai versus Canadian) or another diversity characteristic (e.g., black versus white). Obviously, this type of categorization does not require direct interaction among members of the culture (Rohner, 1984). What is presumed by this approach is that people exposed to a common envi- ronmental setting (e.g., being raised in the United States or Germany) develop a shared understanding of the world around them, share specific values, and can be distinguished from others who do not share these values. This style of study is illustrated in a recent paper by Wagner (1995), who used a single-nation sample (U. S.) to explore variations in the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism. Thus, the term "cross-cultural" has been used to depict differences in individuals' values about cultural dimensions, regardless of whether they are co-acting or have a common nationality. What is critical to our perspective are the views that people have about the world around them. A researcher can com- pare people who endorse a given cultural value or belief with those holding contrasting values or beliefs to establish cross- cultural comparisons. In our study, w e assessed two cultural dimensions at an individual-level of analysis using their natural variability within Taiwan. As described by Earley and Mo- sakowski (1 995), this procedure has the advantage of di-


rectly connecting the hypothesized, cultural moderators to other constructs in the nomological network because it measures the relative degree of value endorsement (extent of sharedness). By contrast, a simple aggregation method pre- sumes that all cultural members share a given perspective equally and identically. Analyses conducted at an individual level treat cultural dimensions as quasi-individual-difference characteristics and thus capture variations among people. Our research is also cross-cultural in the more traditional sense, in that w e contrast our findings with Western research in a number of ways, and there is an underlying, im- plicit cross-cultural comparison throughout our study of Western and Chinese organizational citizenship behavior.

In traditional societies, such as might be found in developing countries within the Pacific Rim (e.g., Indonesia, Vietnam), citizenship behavior will not necessarily be enhanced by in- troducing more "just" human resource practices. More fundamental in these cultures are employees' basic relationships with their organizations and their expectations of their organizations. We are not suggesting that these relationships cannot be improved through the provision of procedurally just human resource practices, but, as Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994) and others have recently argued, what matters is the nature of relationships and ties in a culture, not simply the enactment of specific organizational practices. What remains unclear is how the continuing evolution of these societies, many undergoing radical economic transfor- mations, may influence these relationships in the future. With industrialization and economic growth will employee- organization relationships inevitably shift from a culturally covenantal form to a market form? The extent to which these forms of ties will change as a function of the sur- rounding economic conditions is not fully understood. With- out question, changes in these societies will induce changes in people's relationships with their organizations, and these changes will reflect themselves in new and different styles of work behavior based on citizenship principles. We will understand these changes better if w e understand the com- plex relationships that govern behavior now.

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