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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of advancing theory and research in China through identification of unique aspects of Chinese organizational behaviors, which can lead to expanded, robust organizational behavior and human resource management models and theories that transcend national boundaries.

This is a conceptual paper and does not employ research methods.

The results of studies included in this special issue suggest that researchers can identify elements unique to China in constructs such as psychological capital, work‐to‐family spillover, work‐family conflict, performance appraisal process, and expatriate interactions that further expand theory and research in organizational behavior.

The review of articles in the special issue suggests that managers in organizations in China may want to: develop individuals' psychological capital; train managers on the importance of eliminating abusive behaviors and developing employees' heartiness; adopt family friendly practices; employ performance appraisal process to encourage commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors; and train local country nationals on working with expatriates to enhance organizational effectiveness.

This review provides a unique perspective on employee behavior because it considers such behavior in a Chinese context.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the special issue on employee behavior in China. It aims to highlight the importance of advancing theory and research on the topic, and to suggest that many of our theories are underdeveloped because they do not consider the critical role that culture plays in understanding behavior in organizations.

This is a conceptual paper and does not employ research methods.

The results of studies included in the review suggest that Chinese employees' reactions to workplace bullying, layoff policies, autonomy and supervision, affective commitment, and moral leadership are related to their attitudes and behaviors. They also indicate that some unique Chinese values and perspectives may be related to the same criterion variables.

The review of articles in the special issue suggests that managers in Chinese organizations may want to control workplace bullying, develop fair layoff policies, enhance affective commitment to change, consider employees' traditional values, and develop fair employment policies because they are related to employees' attitudes and behaviors.

This review provides a unique perspective on employee behavior because it considers such behavior in a Chinese context. It also offers important implications for current theory, future research, practice, and society as a whole.

This paper explores the “Western” concept of psychological capital in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and highlights critical areas of divergence and notable dimensions of similarity.

This is an empirical study conducted in a wide range of Chinese organisational forms, employing an inductive approach based on critical incident technique.

This research showed that the concept of psychological capital appears to have a degree of applicability and salience in China. A series of dimensions common in Western organisations were found in our research, including Optimism, Creativity, Resiliency, Self‐confidence, Forgiveness and Gratitude, Courage and Ambition (Hope). These were found to be common types of psychological capital both in China and in the West. However, the dimensions of Courtesy and Humility (Qian‐gong‐you‐li in Chinese), Self‐possession and Sincerity fell into the “different” category.

This paper is a first attempt to examine psychological capital in a range of organisational forms and industrial sectors in China using a grounded theory approach. It not only reports various dimensions of Chinese psychological capital, some unique to this research, but also compares and contrasts these dimensions between China and the West, highlighting further research opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to examine how performance appraisal process is associated with organizational citizenship behavior, under the light of social exchange theory and impression management theory, using affective commitment as a mediator and rating‐reward linkage as a moderator.

Using a multi‐source sample (n=777), the authors examined the mediating role of affective commitment with structural equation modeling and Sobel tests, and the moderating role of rating‐reward linkage with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models.

The relationship between performance appraisal process and organizational citizenship behavior was partially mediated by affective commitment, and perceived rating‐reward linkage strengthened the direct association between appraisal process and organizational citizenship behavior whereas it weakened the relationship between appraisal process and affective commitment.

The study adds to knowledge of how performance appraisal process relates to organizational citizenship behavior – through affective commitment. Further, the moderating role of rating‐reward linkage deepens understanding of the underlying motives of organizational citizenship behavior. The findings strengthen the valence of using social exchange theory to explain how performance appraisal process is associated with organizational citizenship behavior and suggest the value of incorporating impression management to supplement social exchange theory.

The current study seeks to examine the link between abusive supervision and subordinate family undermining by focusing on the mediating role of work‐to‐family conflict and the moderating role of boundary strength at home.

Data were collected using a three‐wave survey research design. Participants included 209 employees from a manufacturing company in China. Hierarchical regression analyses and a bootstrapping algorithm were used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results indicate that abusive supervision is positively related to family undermining, and this relationship is mediated by work‐to‐family conflict. Moreover, boundary strength at home attenuates the direct relationship of abusive supervision with work‐to‐family conflict and its indirect relationship with family undermining.

This research contributes to the integration of the work‐family interface model and the abusive supervision literature by providing evidence of a link between abusive supervision in the workplace and conflict in the home. This study also indicates that abusive supervision is a problem of both organizational and societal importance in China. However, data are correlational in nature, which limits the ability to draw causal inferences.

Findings provide evidence that abusive supervision is a source of work‐to‐family conflict and undermining behavior in the home. Training employees to create boundaries between work and family domains may minimize the negative spillover effects of work on the family.

This study provides a relatively comprehensive model regarding the relationships between abusive supervision and work‐family consequences, and a promising new direction for both the leadership and work‐family literatures.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between two forms of work‐family conflict – work‐family conflict and family‐work conflict – and individual consequences for Chinese managers.

Participants of this study were 264 managers from Mainland China. The authors tested their hypotheses with structural equation modeling.

Work‐family conflict was positively associated with emotional exhaustion. Family‐work conflict was negatively associated with life satisfaction and affective commitment, as well as positively related to turnover intentions. Contrary to the research with samples of workers from Western countries (e.g. the USA), the study found that work‐family conflict was positively associated with affective commitment and did not associate with turnover intentions for Chinese managers.

Using the perspective of the Chinese prioritizing work for family benefits, the authors are the first to provide a preliminary test of the generalizability of the source attribution and the cross‐domain models to Chinese managers. The paper's findings provide the preliminary evidence that the cross‐domain model works among the Chinese because of its cultural neutrality whereas the source attribution model cannot be used to predict the associations between work‐family conflict and work‐related consequences.

This study aims to build on recent research, by investigating and examining how likely it is that Chinese locals (i.e. host country nationals (HCNs)) would offer support to expatriates from India and the USA.

Data were gathered from 222 participants in Chinese organizations, asking them to respond to questions about their willingness to offer support to expatriates.

As predicted, perceived values similarity was significantly related to higher dogmatism, which had a significant positive relationship with ethnocentrism. Further, ethnocentrism had a significant negative relationship with willingness to offer support.

All data were collected from the participants at one point in time, so the study's results are subject to common method bias. Also, it only included India and the USA, as the two countries of origin of the expatriates.

Given HCNs do not automatically offer support to all expatriates, organizations might consider sending expatriates who are culturally similar to HCNs, as they are more likely to receive support, which will help their adjustment and thus organizational effectiveness.

This study adds to the small, but growing, number of empirical investigations of HCN willingness to support expatriates.