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With limited intracultural ethical research in evidence this paper contributes to the theoretical discussion of expatriate ethical acculturation. Of particular interest to this study are the ethical attitudes of subcultural groups, particularly managers, who because of overseas assignment or immigration, are operating outside their usual national location. Research was undertaken to investigate whether ethical divergence or convergence, through acculturation, exists with ex patriate managers, and over what time period. Two locations, Hong Kong and Canada, were chosen for comparative study and the results indicated an interesting dichotomy. Ethical convergence, the adopting of host country ethical values, is evident with Hong Kong Chinese expatriate managers in Canada but did not occur with North American expatriates in Hong Kong. For the expatriate Chinese manager the research findings indicate that Hong Kong Chinese managers now residing in Canada develop a unique set of ethical attitudes that are significantly different from those of local managers in Hong Kong yet also significantly different from the attitudes held by local Canadian managers. A subtle form of ethical convergence is occurring. No significant relationship was found between ethical acculturation and the length of time being an expatriate Hong Kong Chinese manager in Canada except on two issues. For these issues the longer the time spent in Canada the greater the rise in ethical attitudes. A heterogeneous group of expatriate managers in Hong Kong was also evaluated and while predicate similarities existed between expatriates from China and Macau, statistically significant differences in ethical perceptions were found between the general population of expatriate managers (i.e. American, Australasian, British etc.,) and local Hong Kong Chinese managers.

The adjustment of business managers from Beijing and Shanghai assigned to Hong Kong and of Hong Kong expatriates working in Beijing and Shanghai were compared in an exploratory study. The personal in‐depth interviews showed differences between the managers from the Chinese mainland and those from the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. The mainland respondents perceived substantial adjustment needs inside and outside the workplace in Hong Kong, but made earnest efforts and experienced few obstacles. On the other hand, the predicament experienced by many Hong Kong managers on the mainland closely resembles the worst experiences of expatriate managers reported in the literature on international adjustment. The implications of these non‐reciprocal results are discussed, and possible reasons for such findings are speculated upon.

The purpose of this study is to provide relevant information for non‐Chinese hoteliers and caterers who plan to engage in the Chinese food service industry within or beyond China’s boundaries. A total of 152 Chinese restaurant managers working in Hong Kong hotels were surveyed. Factor analysis revealed five underlying dimensions: congenial job context, desirable job content, job status and prospects, self‐fulfilment and accountability, and Confucian work dynamism. Chinese restaurant managers were found to value secure employment, pleasant physical working conditions, high earning and good co‐operation with superiors and peers. Recommendations are made to the concerned government and hotel senior management including: the gender diversity for managerial workforce; managerial competence enhancement for female managers; adoption of unified strategies and plans for the joint ventures or wholly owned foreign hotel companies; introduction of formal vocational education and technical training system for Chinese food service personnel; and, restoration of Chinese ethics through public education and hotel internal training programs.

This monograph reports and compares “desirable” leadership traits, and leadership traits actual exhibited by managers and supervisors as defined by responses on the original English and a Chinese language translation of the Ohio State University leadership behaviour description questionnaire XII (LBDQ XII). From anecdotal evidence and personal experience, the researcher found considerable difficulty in transferring research results from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore to useful practice in the interior of China and performed this study in an attempt to gain understanding for management training courses. Data was collected for 220 managers and supervisors in two hotels in the interior of China. Both expatriate and indigenous Chinese managers were included. All supervisors were Chinese. A significant (p < 0.05) difference between Chinese and non‐Chinese expatriates was observed for factor: Tolerance of Freedom, interestingly, with the Chinese managers indicating more tolerance of freedom than the expatriate managers. Nonetheless, Chinese supervisors believed the ideal manager should be even more tolerant of freedom than their managers (p < 0.01).

Focuses on the managers′ external career patterns; internal career beliefs about career goals, career tactics, career plans, satisfaction and motivation related to careers, and organizational practices which influence the careers of these managers. Also important is the political and economic climate affecting their career decisions beyond 1997. Includes as key findings a perceived lack of formal human resource planning in the companies, except the Government. Also present was the lack of consideration given to career planning among these managers. Suggests that companies in Hong Kong can do more for their managers in facilitating their career development. Managers should in turn be more proactive in managing their career growth.

Presents an investigation of how host country national subordinates perceive the leadership behaviour of their expatriate bosses in foreign assignments. From a sample of 240 middle managers in Hong Kong with experience of both local Chinese bosses and expatriate bosses from a broad spectrum of Western and Asian countries, finds that the subordinate managers assessed the leadership behaviour of their expatriate bosses to be significantly different from that of their Hong Kong Chinese bosses. US bosses were perceived as the most different and Japanese bosses, as well as bosses from other Asian countries, were seen as the least different, while British bosses and bosses from other Western countries constituted a middle group. Discusses the implications of these findings for international business and future academic research.

This paper investigates the influence of modernisation on the moral judgements of 211 managers residing in the People’s Republic of China, based on their responses to a series of vignettes depicting potentially unethical behaviour in organisations. Results suggest that there is a significant association between moral judgement and modernisation. Managers from the more industrialised and economically advanced provinces in China gave harsher moral judgements, that is, higher ratings of unethicality, in five out of six vignettes. The study reported in this paper offers valueable insights into the nature of value and attitude change, or “convergence”, as China adopts elements of a more modernised market style economy.

Prior research has identified the outcomes of influence tactics as short-term task commitment, compliance and resistance. This paper argues that leaders’ downward influence behaviors should also have an impact on followers’ organizational commitment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of three influence strategies (11 downward influence tactics) on organizational commitment, and the moderating effect of national culture.

The study draws on survey data (n=185) and follow-up interviews (n=19) from Hong Kong Chinese employees who work for Hong Kong Chinese or Japanese managers.

The quantitative results show that all rational tactics, the inspirational appeal and pressure tactics had effects on organizational commitment. Drawing on the survey and follow-up interview data, three specific factors in the use of influence tactics on organizational commitment are identified. Results suggest that some tactics are more universal and able to provide “long-lasting” effects compared with other tactics in enhancing or reducing employees’ organizational commitment. The results of the entire study also show that most rational influence tactics seem to be convergent; yet, there is also evidence that other tactics are more culturally specific in generating employee commitment.

This is the first empirical study to examine the effects of influence behaviors on organizational commitment with both inter- and intra-cultural samples. The study has also drawn on interview data to demonstrate examples of effective and ineffective influence tactics used by superiors, thereby offering managerial hints to managers on how to exercise their influence behaviors effectively.

This paper investigates the cultural influences (ethnic and organisational) on management decision making. Using Michael Kirton’s Adaptors and Innovators (1987) as a model, research was undertaken in Hong Kong with four groups of managers. The groups represented the permutations of expatriate and local managers in the private and public sectors. A comparison of national cultures prefaces the research methodology and the instrument used. Assumptions of culturally induced performance and sector styles were examined, producing some interesting results. The findings have implications for the selection and development of managers in multicultural or Chinese environments. Finally, an area for future research is how training can be used to enable managers to switch consciously between a range of problem‐solving and decision‐making styles.

Behavioural consequences of emphasis on budget‐related performance evaluation measures have been extensively researched in single countries, but not in cross‐cultural organizational settings. Contingency theory is invoked in this study to model the “fit” for international joint venture companies (IJVs) between two contingency factors — environmental uncertainty (EU) and organizational objectives conflict (OOC)—and the organizational control sub‐system variable of budgetary emphasis (BE). The impact of this “fit” on the effectiveness of managers from Chinese and Western sides of an IJV partnership is tested in respect of the effectiveness outcomes of self‐rated managerial performance (MP) and the creation of budgetary slack (BS). These two effectiveness constructs are chosen for this study because they provide a complementary picture of effectiveness in a budget‐related behavioural settings. To test the various “fit” hypotheses, this study provides results from a survey of Sino‐foreign JVs. Specifically, middle and senior managers representing the foreign partner to a Sino‐foreign JV were chosen in two groupings, Hong Kong Chinese managers and Western managers. Multiple regression was performed for the independent variables (EU, OOC and BE) in relation to the respective dependent variables (MP and BS) and the respective sample groups (HK Chinese and Western). Both main and interaction effects are reported in this study. Implications of the findings for the use of budgetary emphasis in management performance evaluation in IJVs are discussed.