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The purpose of this paper is to examine the indigenous Chinese concept of suzhi (素质) with the aim of furthering the development of Chinese human resource management (HRM) research and practice.

An extensive review of the literature on suzhi, published in the West, as well as in China, is the basis for proffering an organizational-level conceptualization of suzhi in the Chinese context.

Instead of understanding it as a free-floating signifier, we argue that suzhi can be considered as a criterion-based framework for HRM research and practice. Suzhi research is classified into two major sources – indigenous Chinese and indigenized Western constructs. We further make a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic suzhi, and analyze a popular set of suzhi criteria, considering de (morality) and cai (talent), while focusing on de in HRM selection (德才兼备, 以德为先). As multilevel and multidimensional framework, suzhi criteria may form different gestalts in different organizations and industries.

From a social cultural and historical perspective, HRM research that incorporates a combination of indigenous and indigenized suzhi characteristics may receive better acceptance by individuals, organizations and the society in the Chinese context. Accordingly, the reconstruction of suzhi into manageable and measurable dimensions can be undertaken for more effective HRM practice in the Chinese context.

The HRM literature is advanced by linking the indigenous suzhi discourse to Chinese indigenous HRM research and practice.

The purpose of this paper was to explore the Chinese concept of suzhi and how it relates to behavioral standards within mainland Chinese society and the workplace. The article provides a general discussion of suzhi and its inherent elements to act as a foundation for the education of expatriate managers and executives and for future research by Chinese human resource management (HRM) scholars.

This paper draws on the author's first-hand experience and observations from five years of living and working abroad in mainland China with Chinese companies and executives.

The concept of suzhi in China is a reflection of multiple behavioral standards throughout China. And while suzhi's roots are in ancient Chinese culture and Confucianism, it is also subject to influence and change.

The paper may serve as a foundation both for expatriate managers seeking to improve HRM practices in foreign companies in China and future scholars who wish to conduct further research on suzhi and Chinese behavioral standards as they can be applied to the workplace.

This is an attempt to enlighten expatriate managers and executives in China on the concept of suzhi and its implication for HRM in China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore suzhi requirements and expectations to double-shouldered academics as middle-level cadres (双肩挑处级干部) in a Chinese higher education institute (HEI) as an initial step to examine the interplays between suzhi requirement and expectations and organizational operational mechanism in the Chinese context.

The study adopted an exploratory single-case approach for the study. In this study, 22 participants composed of middle-level cadres, other stakeholders at the university, college/department and business unit levels were interviewed.

Suzhi requirements for the cadres followed the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) guideline, the required de, neng, qin, ji and lian (德, 能, 勤, 绩, 廉) was abstract and vague. With the parallel systems, the CPC and administrative lines, there were discrepancies between the CPC required suzhi and those expected by the stakeholders. A social phenomenon, “official rank-oriented standard” (ORS, guan ben wei, 官本位), was found significantly intertwining with the self suzhi expectation of the cadres, unveiling a more complex dynamics than most research reported for the Chinese public sector organizations (PSOs).

With the initial qualitative findings unveiling suzhi as an organizational construct, this study informs future empirical research in the indigenous suzhi phenomenon in organizational setting. The conceptualized results of our study offer new insight for future indigenous Chinese management research in all PSOs including state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

As an initial step, this study endeavored to explore suzhi as an organizational construct in a Chinese HEI. The paper contributes to the literature by unveiling the complexity of PSOs in the interplays of dual management systems and ORS coupled with dual-role suzhi requirements for the cadres.

Despite concerns about the effect of internet addiction, little is known about how psychological suzhi impacts the internet addiction of college students. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between psychological suzhi and internet addiction among college students.

Using the college student psychological suzhi scale and internet addiction test, 2,070 college students from 11 universities in North China, East China, South China and Southwest China were tested.

The detection rate of internet addiction in this college sample of students was 18.8%. There was a significant negative correlation between students’ psychological suzhi and internet addiction (r = −0.408, p < 0.01). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that adaptability and individuality in psychological suzhi significantly negatively predicted college students’ internet addiction tendency (p < 0.001).

This study is the first to show a relationship between psychological suzhi and internet addiction in college students. In detail, the adaptability and individuality of college students’ psychological suzhi are protective factors related to internet addiction. The results also suggested that the authors can prevent and intervene in internet addiction by modifying college students’ adaptability and individuality.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the indigenous concept of suzhi at individual and organizational levels, and identify its dimensions for human resource management (HRM) research and practice in China.

Based on a comprehensive review of suzhi literature, Chinese cultural and historical literature, as well as Western mainstream HRM research, a multidimensional suzhi framework is conceptualized.

As an indigenous expression, suzhi can be and has been adopted for Chinese HRM research and practice. As a multidimensional construct, one’s cognitive suzhi is jointly determined by corresponding moral suzhi, wenhua (knowledge-based) suzhi and zhuanye (professional) suzhi. Cognitive suzhi, in turn, determines one’s behavioral suzhi that drives employees to enhance organizational performance, and this relationship is moderated by psychological suzhi.

The proposed framework provides new insight for Chinese indigenous management research, particularly in developing suzhi measurement for different dimensions. It also informs HRM practices in recruiting, selection, performance analysis and employee career development.

The complexity of suzhi dimensions from an organizational HRM perspective is analyzed. The resulting suzhi framework offers new insight for HRM research and practices in China.

This paper aims to examine the Chinese indigenous concept of suzhi (素质) by analyzing its historical evolution and its contemporary implications for human resource management (HRM) research and practice at the national and organizational levels.

An integrated review of literatures in sinology, political science, anthropology and sociology concerned with suzhi-related research, combined with recent incidents associated with suzhi.

Suzhi is an indigenous concept embedded in the centuries-long historical context of China. Suzhi development has been focused on three key dimensions, moral, physical and mental, as a way of building quality employees and citizens. Yet developing and quantifying the moral aspects of suzhi is more challenging than measuring its physical and mental dimensions. Linking suzhi development to human capital theory enriches the understanding of this indigenous concept at both organizational and national levels.

By analyzing a three-dimensional suzhi composite, the article offers an example of how suzhi may be linked to human capital theory and identifies directions for future research.

By analyzing suzhi at organizational and national levels for HRM purposes, this article broadens the suzhi literature from its place in the political sciences and social anthropology to encompass a theoretical analysis in HRM and development for the benefit of organizations and the society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a Chinese indigenous concept of organizational ownership behavior (OOB) as an aspect of employee suzhi in relation to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the Western context.

A content analysis based on a review of related research in Western mainstream and Chinese domestic literature is conducted.

Suzhi at the organizational level can be linked to the construct of OCB. In Chinese organizations, a relevant concept to OCB can be better understood as OOB to capture the sociopolitical and cultural context unique to Chinese organizations. The dimensional structure of OOB is presented to differentiate it from OCB which is popular in the Western context.

The identified construct of OOB offers important implications for indigenous Chinese management research and human resources management (HRM) practice. OOB, based on Chinese management practice, can better conform to China’s unique historical and cultural context and management practices. This concept varies distinctively from Western OCB in terms of its connotation and dimensions.

The concept of OOB as an indigenous employee organizational behavior in the Chinese context is conceptualized. The paper differentiates the OOB construct from OCB and presents an initial set of six dimensions of OOB for future research.

The purpose of this study is to review the current status of the Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management (JCHRM) in this initial stage and present a number of emerging unique Chinese phenomena for scholarly attention in relation to JCHRM entering its fifth year.

Based on a review of JCHRM's status, we further reviewed literature and media reports to identify new research opportunities for indigenous Chinese human resource management (HRM) research.

JCHRM has demonstrated its strength and uniqueness in contributing to management knowledge production and dissemination in the first four years, thanks to enthusiastic support from the worldwide research community. Moving forward, we identify a number of intriguing indigenous phenomena, including distinctive social political contexts in state-owned enterprises, emerging trends in embracing the Party Branches (dang zhi bu, Fixed graphic 1) by multinational corporations (MNCs) in China and the indigenous Chinese suzhi (Fixed graphic 2) phenomenon, for new opportunities in Chinese HRM research.

The three indigenous phenomena constitute only a few samples. Developing a theoretical understanding of Chinese HRM phenomena has a long way to go. Continued inquiries in this area will not only help build local knowledge on complex organizational dynamics but also enrich the overall management knowledge base.

We review the status of JCHRM in its first four years and bring a sample of intriguing indigenous Chinese phenomena to the attention of the worldwide scholarly community for future research.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between ethical self-fashioning and citizenship practices in the ongoing revival of “Chinese Traditional Culture” pursued in tandem by the party-state and by private actors in present-day China.

Adopting an anthropological approach, the author draws from three sets of resources: (1) research literature on China’s political history and key texts of early Chinese thought, (2) contemporary state discourses on citizen formation, and (3) participant observation notes and interviews with organizers and followers of the Wu-Wei School (a pseudonym). The author conducts a textual analysis of primary and secondary literature and a critical discourse analysis of the ethnographic data and examines emerging themes.

Firstly, the author identifies a crucial dimension in the historical and cultural roots of Chinese citizenship practices: an enduring conception that binds individual ethical self-improvement with socio-political flourishing. Secondly, examining contemporary state discourses on “citizen quality” and “reviving China’s outstanding traditional culture”, the author showcases how party-state authorities call on individuals to self-reform for national rejuvenation. Thirdly, the author investigates how members of the Wu-Wei School construe their individual pursuits of ethical self-improvement as significant for societal progress.

Based on these findings, the author demonstrates the ways in which autochthonous conceptions of Chinese citizenship give a central place to private acts of self-fashioning. The author argues that the entanglement between individual ethics and citizenship practices constitutes a crucial but largely understudied dimension of Chinese citizenship.

The purpose of this study is to examine employee imagination and implications for entrepreneurs of China. In 2015, the European Group of Organization Studies released a call for papers highlighting poor knowledge of employee imagination in organizations. To address this need, the current study hypothesizes employee imagination consisting of seven conditions common to the organizational experience of Chinese Entrepreneurs.

The current paper reviews the Chinese enterprising context. Cases from China are used to illustrate the effects of proposed conditions and their value for entrepreneurs and innovators in businesses undergoing change.

Employee imagination underpins and conditions how Chinese employees make sense of their organizations and better understand the process of organizational change. From the viewpoint of human resource management, emphasis on coaching and developing imagination enables businesses to stay competitive and adapt to environmental demands such as lack of information, too much information or the need for new information.

The proposed conditions apply to the Chinese context; however, their application to wider contexts is suggested and requires attention.

Employee imagination was found to be a powerful tool, which facilitates the process of organizational change management.

Theoretically, the research adds new insights to knowledge of a poorly understood organizational behavior topic – employee imagination. Practically, the research findings provide mangers with knowledge of conditions, which could be adopted as powerful tools in facilitating organizational change management.