Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on basic psychological needs theory, this paper aims to delineate how an indigenous Chinese concept guanxi HRM would undermine employee well-being in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested this moderated mediation model based on a survey of 321 Chinese employees.
Findings
The results are consistent with the hypotheses except for the moderating effect when employee well-being is operationalised as emotional exhaustion.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by investigating the dark side of guanxi via basic psychological needs theory and acknowledging the multidimensionality of employee well-being in the Chinese workplace.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by China Scholarship Council (No. 201306990009). The authors are grateful to Prof Jacques Igalens at Université Toulouse 1 Capitole for his advice on the project that led to this paper, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Citation
Liu, L. and Jia, Y. (2021), "Guanxi HRM and employee well-being in China", Employee Relations, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 892-910. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2019-0379
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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