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East vis‐à‐vis West: The evolution of work values within China regions
Author(s) -
Ralston David A.,
Wong YimYu,
Egri Carolyn P.,
Lo Carlos W. H.,
Li Yongjuan,
Dutton Xuejiao,
Yang Jun
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
thunderbird international business review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.553
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1520-6874
pISSN - 1096-4762
DOI - 10.1002/tie.21926
Subject(s) - china , work (physics) , workforce , homogeneous , value (mathematics) , cultural values , geography , economic geography , emerging markets , political science , sociology , economic growth , gender studies , economics , engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , macroeconomics , archaeology , machine learning , computer science , thermodynamics
Numerous studies have investigated between‐country cultural differences. However, the subnational cultural differences, particularly in emerging markets, have remained an underexplored research topic despite its importance. Likewise, multiperiod studies in the cross‐cultural management area have also remained an underexplored topic. This study concurrently addresses both of these voids in the literature. Specifically, we examine changes in work values of businesspeople in the economically developed East region and the less developed West region of China over the first decade of the 21st century (2000–2010). Our findings show that, across the eight work values dimensions analyzed in this study, three exhibited static crossvergence, while the other five value dimensions exhibited conforming crossvergence. An implication of these findings is that the dissimilar work values, which had been found across the regions of China of the past century, are moving toward a more countrywide set of homogeneous values among the workforce professionals of China.