Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wbk2r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-23T05:09:56.827Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Personal Relationship to Psychological Ownership: The Importance of Manager–Owner Relationship Closeness in Family Businesses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Hang Zhu ,
Chao C. Chen ,
Xinchun Li  and
Yinghui Zhou
Hang Zhu
Affiliation:
Sun Yat-sen University, China
Chao C. Chen
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, USA
Xinchun Li
Affiliation:
Sun Yat-sen University, China
Yinghui Zhou
Affiliation:
Shanghai University, China
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Integrating theories of psychological ownership and stewardship, and taking a relational perspective, we examine key antecedents and outcomes of professional managers' psychological ownership in Chinese owner-managed family businesses. We tested the model using a survey of 166 Chinese professional managers (one from each of 166 family businesses). We find that owner–manager relationship closeness at work mediates the effect of both the owner's benevolent leadership and owner–manager friendship ties on the manager's psychological ownership. Psychological ownership, in turn, is positively related to the manager's intention to stay and to stewardship behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

benevolent leadershipChinese family businessparticularistic tiespsychological ownershiprelationship closeness仁慈领导中国家族企业特殊连带心理所有权关系亲密度
Type
Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 295 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2013

References

Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. 1988. Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3): 411–423.Google Scholar
Barnett, T., & Kellcrmanns, F. W. 2006. Are we family and are we treated as family? Nonfamily employees' perceptions of justice in the family firm. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30(6): 837–854.Google Scholar
Bernhard, F., & O'Driscoll, M. P. 2011. Psychological ownership in small family-owned businesses: Leadership style and nonfamily-employees' work attitudes and behaviors. Group & Organization Management, 36(3): 345–384.Google Scholar
Brislin, R. W. 1980. Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In Triandis, H. C. & Berry, J. W. (Eds), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Methodology, Vol. 2: 349–444. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Carney, M. 1998. A management capacity constraint? Obstacles to the development of the overseas Chinese family business. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 15(2): 137–162.Google Scholar
Chai, S., & Rhce, M. 2010. Confucian capitalism and the paradox of closure and structural holes in East Asian firms. Management and Organization Review, 6(1): 5–29.Google Scholar
Chatman, J. A. 1989. Improving interactional organizational research: A model of person-organization fit. Academy of Management Review, 14(3): 333–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C. C., Chen, Y. R., & Xin, K. 2004. Guanxi practices and trust in management: A procedural justice perspective. Organization Science, 15(2): 200–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C. C., & Farli, J. L. 2009. Developments in Chinese leadership: Paternalism and its elaborations, moderations, and alternatives. In Bond, M. H. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of Chinese psychology: 599–622. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, X. P., Eberly, M. B., Chiang, T. J., Farh, J. L., & Cheng, B. S. forthcoming. Afiective trust in Chinese leaders: Linking paternalistic leadership to employee performance. Journal of Management.Google Scholar
Chen, X. P., & Peng, S. Q. 2008. Guanxi dynamics: Shifts in the closeness of tics between Chinese coworkers. Management and Organization Review, 4(1): 63–80.Google Scholar
Chen, Y., Friedman, R., Yu, E., Fang, W., & Lu, X. 2009. Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi: Developing a three-dimensional model and scale. Management and Organization Review, 5(3): 375–399.Google Scholar
Chen, Z. X., & Aryce, S. 2007. Delegation and employee outcomes: An examination of the culture context of mediating process in China. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1): 226–238.Google Scholar
Cheng, B. S., Chou, L. F., Huang, M. P., Farh, J. L.; & Peng, S. C. 2003. A triad model of paternalistic leadership: Evidence from business organizations in mainland China. Indigenous Psychological Research in Chinese Societies, 20: 209–250 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. 2002. Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2): 233–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chua, J., Chen, L., Kirkman, B. L., Li, X., Rynes, S., & Gomez-Mejia, L. 2012. Call for papers: Management and Organization Review special issue on ‘Expanding Research on Family Business in China’. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 249–251.Google Scholar
Corbetta, G., & Salvato, C. 2004. Self-serving or self-actualizing? Models of man and agency costs in different types of family firms: A commentary on ‘Comparing the agency costs of family and non-family firms: Conceptual issues and exploratory evidence’. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 28(4): 355–362.Google Scholar
Davis, J. H., Schoorman, F. D., & Donaldson, L. 1997. Toward a stewardship theory of management. Academy of Management Review, 22(1): 20–47.Google Scholar
Davis, J. H., Frankforter, S., Vollrath, D., & Hill, V. 2007. An empirical test of stewardship theory. Journal of Business and Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching, 3(1): 40–50.Google Scholar
Davis, J. H., Allen, M. R., & Hayes, H. D. 2010. Is blood thicker than water? A study of stewardship perceptions in family business. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(6): 1093–1166.Google Scholar
De Jong, J., Schalk, R., & De Cuyper, N. 2009. Balanced versus unbalanced psychological contracts in temporary and permanent employment: Associations with employee attitudes. Management and Organiza tion Review, 5(3): 329–351.Google Scholar
Eddleston, K., & Kellermanns, F. W. 2007. Destructive and productive family relationships: A stewardship theory perspective. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(4): 545–565.Google Scholar
Farh, J. L., & Cheng, B. S. 2000. A cultural analysis of paternalistic leadership in Chinese organizations. In Li, J. T., Tsui, A. S. & Weldon, E. (Eds), Management and organizations in the Chinese context: 84–127. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Farh, J. L., Tsui, A. S., Xin, K., & Cheng, B. S. 1998. The influence of relational demography and guanxi: The Chinese case. Organization Science, 9(4): 471–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farh, J. L., Zhong, C. B., & Organ, D. W. 2004. Organizational citizenship behavior in the people's republic of China. Organization Science, 15(2): 241–253.Google Scholar
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobseivable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1): 39–50.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. 1995. Trust. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Hernandez, M. 2012. Toward an understanding of the psychology of stewardship. Academy of Management Review, 37(2): 172–193.Google Scholar
Hui, C., Lee, C., & Rousseau, D. M. 2004. Employment relationships in China: Do workers relate to the organization or to people? Organization Science, 15(2): 232–240.Google Scholar
Hwang, K. K. 1987. Face and favor: The Chinese power game. American Journal of Sociology, 92(4): 944–974.Google Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. 2005. USREL 8.72 for Windows. Chicago, IL: Scientific Software International.Google Scholar
Karra, N., Tracey, P., & Phillips, N. 2006. Altruism and agency in the family firm: Exploring the role of family kinship and ethnicity. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30(11): 861–878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konovsky, M. A., & Cropanzano, R. 1991. Perceived fairness of employee drug testing as a predictor of employee attitudes and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(5): 698–707.Google Scholar
Li, P. P., Bai, Y., & Xi, Y. 2012. The contextual antecedents of organizational trust: A multidimensional cross-level analysis. Management and Organization Review, 8(2): 371–396.Google Scholar
Luo, J. D. 2011. Guanxi revisited: An exploratory study of familiar ties in a Chinese workplace. Management and Organization Reviezv, 7(2): 329–351.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. 2002. A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7(1): 83–104.Google Scholar
Manz, C. C., & Sims, H. P. Jr. 1987. Leading workers to lead themselves: The external leadership of self-management work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32(1): 106–128.Google Scholar
Miller, D., & Le-Breton Miller, I. 2005. Managing for the long run: Lessons in competitive advantage from great family businesses, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Pierce, J. L., Kostova, T., & Dirks, K. T. 2001. Toward a theory of psychological ownership in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 26(2): 298–310.Google Scholar
Pierce, J. L., Jussila, I., & Cummings, A. 2009. Psychological ownership within the job design context: Revision of the job characteristics model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30(4): 477–496.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., & Bachiach, D. G. 2000. Organizational citizenship behaviors: A critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. Journal of Management, 26(3): 513–563.Google Scholar
Redding, S. G. 1990. The spirit of Chinese capitalism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobel, M. E. 1982. Asymptotic intervals for indirect effects in structural equations models. In Leinhart, S. (Ed.), Sociological methodology: 290–312. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Van Dyne, L., & Pierce, J. L. 2004. Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: Three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(4): 439–459.Google Scholar
Wasserman, N. 2006. Stewards, agents, and the founder discount: Executive compensation in new ventures. Academy of Management Journal, 49(5): 960–976.Google Scholar
Wu, M., Huang, X., Li, C., & Liu, W. 2011. Perceived interactional justice and trust-in-supervisor as mediators for paternalistic leadership. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 97–121.Google Scholar
Yeung, H. W. 2000. Limits to the growth of family owned business? The case of Chinese transnational corporations from Hong Kong. Family Business Review, 13(1): 55–70.Google Scholar
Zahra, S. A. 2003. International expansion of U.S. manufacturing family businesses: The e fleet of ownership and involvement. Journal of Business Venturing, 18(4): 495–511.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. J., & Ma, H. 2009. Adoption of professional management in Chinese family business: A multilevel analysis of impetuses and impediments. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 26(1): 119–139.Google Scholar
Zhang, X. M., & Bartol, K. M. 2010. Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53(1): 107–128.Google Scholar