Innovation networks among Chinese knowledge workers : the role of guanxi and consequances of organizational

commitment

LI Xiaoxia,

David Alis, Catherine Sarlandie de La Robertie

University of Rennes 1

CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France

Plan of research

1. Introduction 2. Objective of research 3. Concepts and theoretical framework 4. Hypotheses 5. Methodology 6. Results 7. Discussion 8. Conclusion

Introduction: Importance of Innovation networks of knowledge workers in mainland China

Knowledge worker: A Key Factor of SuccessIn an era of knowledge economy, the success of an organization increasingly depends on its ability of collection, creation, diffusion and application of knowledge. During the process of success, knowledge worker play a significant role.

Organizational Commitment : A key topic for research and PracticeOwing to organizational commitment’s relationship to such important positive outcomes as, organizational citizenship behavior, negative consequences as turnover intention, turnover, the topic of organizational commitment has attracted abundant attention of researchers for decades in developed countries.

Mainland China : A new key knowledge economy Having the most population, being the world’s largest emerging

economy with its catalysts for structural economy change, mainland China possesses a rapidly growing stock of scientific knowledge that parallels its social and economic development in the past 30 years.

Networking in mainland China : A new warranted subjectBy the end of 2007, there are more than 1160 R&D centers in

mainland China built with foreign investment. Given more and more international R&D centers locate there and local organizations expand, a greater understanding about innovation networks among Chinese knowledge workers is particularly warranted.

Objective of research

- To understand innovation networks among Chinese knowledge workers by exploring the relationship between the role of guanxi and consequences of organizational commitments.

Concept and theoretical framework

1. Concept of Knowledge workers 2. Organizational commitment theories 3. Consequences of organizational

commitment 4. Concept of guanxi 5. Innovative work behaviors.

Who is a knowledge worker?--The term "knowledge worker" was coined by Peter Drucker in his book, “Landmarks of Tomorrow” (1959) to describe someone who adds value by processing existing information to create new information which could be used to define and solve problems.

Nevertheless, the extent of knowledge workers develops along with the time.

Baldwin J.R. and al. (2003) consider knowledge workers include “management, professional, and technical occupations” in Statistics Canada Analytical paper.

Davenport T.H. (2005) indicates the following categories belong to the knowledge workers’ fields in the United States:1. Management; 2. Business and financial operations 3.Computer and mathematical;3. Architecture and engineering; 4.Life, physical, and social scientists; 5.Legal; 6. Healthcare and social services; 7. Education, training, and library; 8. Arts, design, entertainment, sports media

Varied definitions of knowledge workers Knowledge workers depend on a highly esoteric and intangible knowledge, analytical

tools, tacit or judgmental skills that are very difficult to standardize, replicate and incorporate within formalized organizational routing. ----M.REED (1996)

Knowledge workers are employees who holding a high level of diploma initial.-Herbach & Mignonac (2001)

Knowledge workers are considered to be individuals in positions that required at least a four-year technical degree or seven years of equivalent experience in engineering, scientific, and information technology related functions. ----Lord and Farrington (2006)

Knowledge worker is an employee who has a special set of skills related to an area of expertise, but it requires additional skills include the ability to acquire and transfer knowledge effectively to be successful as a knowledge worker. ---Erick C. Jones, (2005)

Knowledge workers have high level of skills/education, with technological literacy, high cognitive ability to observe, synthesize and interpret data, and to communicate new perspectives and insights to lead more effective decisions, processes and solutions for the organization. ----Horwitz F. M. and al., 2006

According to previous definitions of knowledge workers, a consensus does not exist at present.

This lack of consensus on the definition about knowledge workers raises at least two important issues.

it raises the issue of stability of knowledge workers’ concept. it raises the issue of opportunity to compare results from different studi

es on management of knowledge workers.

Do types of employees belonging to knowledge workers in western developed countries are the same perceptions in China?

Reviewing literature, knowledge is an elusive concept that has been defined in varied ways. (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Zander & Kogut, 1995; Birkinshaw et al., 2002) The human capability to capture and understand complex knowledge is culturally constrained. (Schlegelmich & Chini, 2003)

From cross-cultural perspective, knowledge is considered mostly objective and can be mostly made explicit in some western countries, such as U.S. (Shenkar & LI, 1999). Contrastingly, knowledge is viewed largely tacit and contextual in China.( Burrows et al., 2005)

What is organizational commitment?

One dimensional approach: organizational commitment refers to the relative strength of the identification of the individual and his or her invo

lvement in a particular organization. ( Porter et al.,1974)

Multidimensional approaches: organizational commitment is viewed as a psychological state that has at least three separable components. (Meyer & Allen,1990;1991;1997)

(a) Affective commitment (a desire) [AC, refers to the emotional attachment of individuals to organization;] (similar to Porter et al., s (1974) conceptualization)

(b) Continuance commitment (a need) [CC, refers to the employee’s awareness that costs are associated with leaving the organization]; (combined the conceptions of Becker, 1960, Kanter1, 1968 and Hrebiniak & Alutto, 1972)

(c) Normative commitment (an obligation) [NC, refers to an employee’s feelings of obligation to remain with the organization]; (combined the conceptions of Marsh & Mannari, 1977 and Wiener, 1982)

Common consensus, discordance and gaps regarding organizational commitment researches

Although there is no absolute consensus on its measurements and its consequences among different comprehensions of organizational commitments in existing literatures, the growing consensus is that organizational commitment is a multidimensional construct.

Relatively, less researches conducted outside North America. With increasing globalization and awareness of culture issues that bear on social, cognitive, and attitudinal issues in the workplace, cross-cultural researches of organizational commitment attract more and more attentions.

To the extent of our knowledge, there has not research focus on consequences of knowledge workers’ organizational commitment across public sector, para-public sector and private sector in mainland China with all three components in one study at present.

Hence, our research will address the gap to understand innovation networks among Chinese knowledge workers by exploring the role of guanxi and consequences of organizational commitment.

Consequences of organizational commitment Before 1978, China’s innovation system is under central

planning. During the high centralized period, the State Planning Commission had all authority over coordination of economic activities, including those related to the development, diffusion and exploitation of technological innovations.

Under the planning economy, all university graduates waited for work assignments in state-funded organizations. The graduates had no choice, nor could they freely change jobs.

Along the development of labor management reform, not only common workers have relative freedom to move between jobs as well as economic sectors, but also more flexibility for scientists, researchers and engineers to choose their employers.

In spite of an active population of 750 million in mainland China, a relative shortage of skilled workers, experienced managers and top managers appears in public organizations as well as in private organizations recently. Thus, this study selects one negative consequence following:

-- Turnover intention

Consequences of organizational commitment

Although knowledge repositories can play an important role in facilitating knowledge flow within organizations, the repositories cannot guarantee by themselves that the knowledge sharing will indeed takes place.

As Knowledge sharing needs commitment from both transmitter and receiver, we expect that knowledge workers’ organizational commitments have correlations with their intentions to share knowledge.

Considering the significance of tacit knowledge in the process of innovation, we select Sharing tacit knowledge intention as one positive consequence in this study.

The national context of Networking among Chinese knowledge workers

Reforms have created strong incentives for applied research institutes to be more responsive to downstream problems of manufacturers and end-users by reducing government’s financial support to force the institutes to find outside sources of revenue. For instance, after 2000, more than 5000 research institutes have not received support from the government for their operating budgets, although ministries will award more competitive research project grants. (Liu & White, 2001)

Since reforms, Chinese Academic researchers have supported the government’s drive to promote R&D activities in existing manufacturing firms.

Guanxi is a concept extraordinary rich, complex and

dynamic. Reviewing literature about guanxi, three approaches of definition

s can be broadly distinguished: One approach emphasized on the nature of interaction of Gua

nxi by reviewing development of the concept of Guanxi. One approach insisted on the bases which guanxi is built. Another approach characters in whether or not viewing guanxi

from a network perspective.

According to Luo (1993), there are seven important principles underlying guanxi cultivation, utilization and maintenance: 1) Guanxi is transferable. 2) Guanxi is reciprocal; 3) Guanxi is intangible; 4) Guanxi is utilitarian rather than emotional; 5) Guanxi is contextual; 6) Guanxi is long-term oriented; 7) Guanxi is essential personal.

We integrate the approach of viewing guanxi from a network perspective in this research

Certainly, Interpersonal relations are not belonging distinctively to the Chinese knowledge workers. They exist to some extent in every human society. What is special about guanxi is that it is ubiquitous and plays a fundamental role in daily life. The Chinese have turn guanxi into a carefully calculated science. (Luo, 1997)

Chen & Chen (2004) emphasize that, the quality of guanxi is a neu

tral term describing the subjective judgment made by the guanxi parties regarding the current state of their guanxi.

Networking can enhance an organization’s competitive advantage by providing access to the resources of other network members. we expect guanxi quality will have influences on sharing tacit knowledge intentions among Chinese knowledge workers.

Innovative work behaviors

According to Janssen (2000), Innovative work behavior (IWB) is defined as the intentional creation, introduction and application of new ideas within a work role, group or organization, in order to benefit role performance, the group or the organization. In other words, IWB means consists of idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization.

In China, innovation activities take place principally in three types of organizations:

--enterprises, --universities, --research institutes.

innovation is not a single function but rather a network that interacts with all value-chain activities. Hence it is expected that guanxi quality will influence Chinese knowledge workers’ innovative work behaviors.

Organizational commitment - affective - continuence - normative

Research model: Innovation networks among Chinese knowledge workers

Innovative work

behaviors

Guanxi quality toward - superiors- colleagues

Turnover intentions

Sharing tacit knowledge intention

H1abc

H2d

H3abc

H2abc

H4ab

H4cd

Hypotheses proposed H1a: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of affective organizational

commitment will be correlated positively with their levels of intention to share tacit knowledge.

H1b: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of continuance organizational commitment will be correlated positively with their levels of intention to share tacit knowledge.

H1c: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of normative organizational commitment will be correlated positively with their levels of intention to share tacit knowledge.

H2a: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of affective organizational commitment will be correlated negatively with their levels of turnover intention.

H2b: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of continuance organizational commitment will be correlated negatively with their levels of turnover intention.

H2c: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of normative organizational commitment will be correlated negatively with their levels of turnover intention.

H2d: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of turnover intention will be correlated negatively with their levels of intention to share tacit knowledge.

H3a: The levels of Chinese knowledge workers characteristics will be correlated positively with their levels of sharing tacit knowledge intention.

H3b: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of guanxi quality towards superiors will be correlated positively with their levels of sharing tacit knowledge intention.

H3c: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of guanxi quality towards colleagues will be correlated positively with their levels of sharing tacit knowledge intention.

H4a: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of guanxi quality towards superiors will be correlated positively with their levels of innovative work behaviors.

H4b: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of guanxi quality towards colleagues will be correlated positively with their levels of innovative work behaviors.

H4c: For Chinese knowledge workers, their levels of intention to share tacit knowledge will be correlated positively with their levels of innovative work behaviors.

H4d: The levels of Chinese knowledge workers characteristics will be correlated positively with their levels of innovative work behaviors.

Methodology in this study = qualitative + quantitative

(18 interviews realized) + (120 questionnaires distributed)

Conducting the interviews was to ensure that we could organizer a questionnaire that was relevant to the sample.

Given China recently became the 2nd world's largest consumer of primary energy after the USA; we selected first 6 interviewees from research institutes in energy enterprises which belong to state-owned enterprises in mainland China, (China Petroleum & Chemical Co., ltd in Guangdong Province and China Petroleum & Chemical Co., ltd in Shandong province)

We selected second 6 interviewees from Chinese universities since they are facing the challenge of providing the quantity and quality of educated employees and qualified professionals to support a rapid economic development, (South China University of Technology and Shandong Finance University) namely employees in para-public sector

The rest 6 interviewees are selected from high tech enterprises, (Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd and Conglin Group Co., Ltd) namely employees in private sector.

measurement All items used in the survey

were adopted and modified from stand validation measurements found in the literature. Because this study was conducted in a Chinese-speaking context, all measures were translated from English to Chinese by one translator and then back-translated independently by a second translator (cf., Brislin, 1993). All items were anchored with a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Scale Items Reliability

AOC 8 0.75

COC 8 0.63

NOC 8 0.67

KW 5 0.71

GQTS 7 0.79

GQTC 9 0.91

TI 3 0.74

ITSTK 3 0.84

IWB 5 0.82

The results of interviews report the range of Chinese knowledge workers include employees who possess

at least one of the characteristics following: An employee who has high degree of tacit knowledge and/

or explicit knowledge;

An employee who uses intellectual rather than manual skills for a living;

An employee who needs continued learning in his/her work;

The purpose of his/her job concerns on any of the tasks of searching, acquiring, organizing, analyzing, creating, storing, programming, distributing, transferring, applying or otherwise contributing to the transformation and commerce of knowledge.

Table5 : Hierarchical multiple regression analyses（ n=92）

Results of Hypotheses Testing

Organizational commitment - affective - continuence - normative

After testing, Modified model about Innovation networks among Chinese knowledge workers

Innovative work

behavior

Guanxi quality toward - superiors- colleagues

Turnover intention

Sharing tacit knowledge intention

H1c

H2d

H3ab

H2a

H4b

H4cd

Discussion Eight hypotheses results in this study are consistent with our

propositions. The six not valid hypotheses suggest more theoretical reflections and methodology modifications are needed. The result of interviews with Chinese knowledge workers in this study consists partially with the opinion of Davenport (2005). However, the content of measurement concerning knowledge workers characteristics in this study does not totally involve Chinese knowledge workers’ characteristics which reported by the interviewees from different sectors. This distance suggests that the items of measurement about knowledge worker need to modify in future research.

As we know, China’s diversity is exceptional in the world. It is a very large country with considerable disparities among regions, cities, and provinces. In the cities of the east, extremely dynamic enterprises and universities operate in high tech parks benefiting from brand new infrastructure. On contrast, in nearby cities and in distant western provinces, poverty exists in varied degreed, not only in terms of income but also in knowledge, education, and information infrastructure. Hence, the results of this research might be limited, future research may be extends the areas of investigation to the west of China.

Conclusion In summary, conducting a research of knowledge workers’ organi

zational commitments in public sector, para-public sector and private sector in mainland China, not only support the extending organizational commitment theories in non-western culture, but also enrich the notion of organizational commitment in the framework of innovation management.

The results of this study suggest that, on the one hand, human resource managers need to pay more attention to enhance Chinese knowledge workers’ normative organizational commitments for sharing effectively their tacit knowledge. On the other hand, foreign managers who are trying to promote innovative work behaviors with Chinese knowledge workers should take notice of cultivating guanxi and maintaining guanxi quality.

A more compelling research of innovation networks in the future will support human resource practitioners in developing culturally sensitive interventions to manage knowledge workers effectively in a fast-moving world.

Thank you for your attention !