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With the continued expansion of Western organisations and their leadership personnel and practices across national boundaries there is a need for continued critical examination of assumptions about the transferability of these practices into other cultural settings. The purpose of this paper is to focus on one such practice, delegation, and explores its relationship to leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships and work outcomes in a non-Western organisation.

Participants (186) were Chinese subordinate managers in a large transport company in Hong Kong. Data were collected via questionnaire and analysed using a path-analytic model.

The data supported a direct and indirect path between delegation and job satisfaction and an indirect path only between delegation and job performance where LMX was the mediating variable. The results highlight the importance of LMX in the delegation-work outcomes relationship.

The limitations of using a single site for investigation, cross-sectional data and common method bias are discussed in relation to suggestions for future research.

For the company in question, quality LMX relationships are seen as key for improving delegation-work outcome relationships particularly in terms of the potential to “soften” the autonomy requirements of the delegation process for Chinese subordinate managers.

This research adds new knowledge to the literature about the conditions under which delegation may be effective in improving subordinate job satisfaction and performance through the agency of enhanced LMX relationships in a Chinese work context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes in the relative importance to individuals of particular work values during the deterioration of external economic conditions.

The paper employed longitudinal field survey techniques, comparing the change relative work value priorities at an initial and two subsequent points in time during dramatic economic swings in Hong Kong. The paper also evaluate needs hierarchies such as Maslow's and Elizur's, minimally adjusted for a Chinese cultural context for a theoretical framework for assessing the shifting importance of work values resulting from changing local economic conditions.

The major contribution is the finding of statistically significant changes in the differing importance to individuals of particular work values during the deterioration of external economic conditions. The paper demonstrates that the needs hierarchy theories provide an appropriate framework for the shifting importance of work values resulting from local economic conditions.

The paper is in a single location, limiting generality of the results. All longitudinal studies are affected by panel attrition. Replication with larger samples and tracking of panel drop‐outs are needed for theoretical development.

These results have crucial implications for the effective management of business firms and their human resources in changing economic conditions, finding that work values of managers are not invariant but change with conditions.

The majority of studies on work values of employees have been performed, analyzed, and interpreted in a vacuum, in isolation from consideration of critically import variables, the current, historical, and expected future economic environment of the employee. The paper finds work values change due to environmental circumstances; this effect has rarely been studied.

With the ever‐critical travelling public now venturing throughout China, not only does China need hotel staff, it needs staff who are trained to international standards. Looks at job satisfaction indicators for the hotel sector in China as perceived by local employees. Also examines the disparity between what staff expect and what they actually think they get in the way of satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature and discuss the relations between national culture, national subcultures and innovation based on three perspectives: divergence, convergence and crossvergence.

Based principally on previous studies in the “culture” and “culture and innovation” literature, this paper reviews two key sets of literature: first, the three perspectives of macro‐level cultural interaction are reviewed; second, the relationship between culture and innovation is reviewed. Hofstede's five dimensions of culture in the workplace are employed when discussing the impact of culture and innovation.

The outcome of the review suggests that the product of crossvergence (Chinese‐American culture in this case) has a high potential to be more innovative than one of the two interacting cultures (Chinese), but does not draw a conclusion regarding relative innovativeness between Chinese‐American and US culture. It is generally found that Western cultures tend to be more innovative than Eastern cultures.

This conceptual paper has implications for business strategy but does not present fresh empirical data to support its propositions.

In today's highly competitive and highly complex global environment, innovation is a key success factor in organizations worldwide. The search for talented and innovative employees should not be limited to domestic sources alone. The talent pool of Chinese‐Americans and others from multicultural backgrounds should be tapped. Ethnocentric viewpoints are outdated.

The value of this paper is its exploration of the impacts of the crossvergence of cultures on innovation.

The purpose of this research is to compare work values of surviving and non‐surviving managers during a period of general economic recession in Hong Kong associated with the Asian financial crisis.

Involving a natural field experiment, data on work values were collected from ethnic Chinese Hong Kong managers employed by local companies. The two sub‐samples were established over the period of study, from 1995 to 1998, but all variables concerning these two groups were measured in 1995, well before the Asian financial crisis struck in 1997.

Results indicate that survivors attached more importance to independence in work and to have influence in the organisation than the non‐survivors. On the other hand, non‐surviving managers attached more importance to responsibility and to have an opportunity to meet people and interact with them than survivors.

In future studies, the longitudinal investigation can be improved, non‐Asian locations could be included, and more work values as well as other personal characteristics can be added.

The findings may have consequences for the strategic retention of managerial staff.

As opposed to the traditional perspective, that firms in dire straits may lose their best and brightest first, the findings suggest that in a general economic recession, it could be possible to retain managers capable to ride out the crisis.

The moral ethos profiles (MEPs) of six Hong Kong companies were investigated via questionnaires and in‐depth qualitative interviews and analyzed according to the Kohlberg stages model. In five of the companies, the MEPs obtained via interviews were consistent with those obtained from the questionnaires. Interviews and questionnaires were also used to investigate how managers in these companies tackled ethical dilemmas (both real work‐based ones of their own and hypothetical ones). In the company with the consistently least virtuous MEP, managers used more lower‐stage ethical reasoning to tackle ethical dilemmas. There was, however, no difference between managers in companies with the most virtuous and moderately virtuous MEPs in terms of the stage‐level of ethical reasoning they used to tackle ethical dilemmas. The study helped to refine a moral ethos questionnaire.

This study investigates the significance of developing career goals and adopting appropriate career strategies during the first two years of employment after graduation. Data were collected from a sample of 300 graduate employees in Hong Kong during a time when job competition has been increasingly tough. Results indicate that respondents tend to use strategies such as “enhancing promotability” (performing effectively, acquiring skills, building networks) and “improving image with superiors” (conforming to expectations, highlighting accomplishments) more frequently than “establishing external contacts” (joining professional bodies and trade associations) during early career. The relationships of career goals and strategies to satisfaction with salary and hierarchical progression are also examined. Factors such as “developing career goals and plans” and “improving image with superiors” are positively and significantly related to satisfaction with progression. Practical implications of the study findings on individuals and organizations are discussed.

A range of managerial styles are commonly found in foreign companies in China. Multiple factors influencing management development in China require attention owing to differences of management practices and cultural values across nations. This paper discusses the relationship between values systems and managerial styles among foreign and indigenous managers in China.

This paper reports the results of an empirical study which explores the extent to which career structures have changed. The study examines the influence of technological change, fast‐changing environments, manufacturing and increasing globalisation of products and service markets on careers. The study focuses on these issues in a cross‐cultural context. The study found that in general, more sophisticated human resources activities were associated with career pathing in organizations.

Chinese consumers’ cross-border internet shopping, so called “haitao” is an emerging popular trend in China. Haitao can be understood as service innovation process because it creates new market spaces and provides differentiated values for Chinese customers.

This study aims to explore the service innovation strategies and success factors of haitao business in the Chinese market. The authors selected two successful haitao sites of Amazon.cn and Gmarket.co.kr, as representatives of a global player and a niche player, and conducted a comparative case study to analyze their service innovation strategies and key success factors.

This comparative case analysis based on value chain framework revealed some common success factors such as trust, advanced system and alliances as well as their service innovation efforts. Amazon has advantages such as efficient logistics system and global sourcing, whereas Gmarket has advantages such as product category, sales promotions, and payment system.

This study provides some implications for managers with localization, alliances and platform strategies.