Investigating the Relationship Between Protestant Work Ethic and Confucian Dynamism: An Empirical Test in Mainland China

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• 作者：Suchuan Zhang (1) sue.zhsu555@gmail.com
  Weiqi Liu (2) liuwq@sxu.edu.cn
  Xiaolang Liu (1) liuxiaolang0507@163.com
• 关键词：Protestant Work Ethic – ; Confucian Dynamism – ; Values – ; Chinese culture – ; Guanxi
• 刊名：Journal of Business Ethics
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：March 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：106
• 期：2
• 页码：243-252
• 全文大小：213.9 KB
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• 作者单位：1. School of Economic and Business, Shanxi University, No. 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, 030006 China2. School of Management, Shanxi University, No. 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, 030006 China
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Philosophy
  Ethics
  Economic Growth
  Management
  Quality of Life Research
  
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1573-0697

文摘

This study examined the relationship between the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) and Confucian Dynamism in a sample of 1,757 respondents from several provinces in mainland China. Mirels and Garrett’s (J Consult Clin Psychol 36:40–44, 1971) PWE Scale and Robertson’s (Manag Int Rev 40:253–268, 2000) Confucian Dynamism Scale were used to measure the work ethics. The 16 items of the PWE Scale and eight items of the Confucian Dynamism Scale were initially subjected to a principal components analysis. Factor analysis produced four factors of the PWE, which were labeled as follows: hard work, internal motive, admiration of work itself, and negative attitude to leisure; and three factors of the Confucian Dynamism, which were labeled: long-term orientation, short-term orientation, and guanxi orientation. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that all the dimensions of PWE were positively related to Confucian Dynamism, but negatively to guanxi orientation. The results also indicated that three PWE dimensions (“hard work,” “internal motive,” and “admiration of work itself”) were positively and significantly related to long-term orientation, but two of them were related negatively and significantly to the short-term orientation of Confucian Dynamism. In addition, the results showed that the dimension—admiration of work itself—of PWE was significantly and negatively associated with the guanxi orientation, but significantly and positively to the short-term orientation.