China Speaks Out: How and Why Chinese Employees Use Their Voice toward German Managers

• Author: Annette Metz,Marjaana Gunkel
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21880
• Date: 01 May 2018

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*Correspondence to: Marjaana Gunkel, Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, Universitaetsplatz 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy, +39 0471 013221 (phone), +39 0471 013009

(fax), E-mail: marjaana.gunkel@unibz.it

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. • DOI: 10.1002/tie.21880

China Speaks Out:

How and Why Chinese

Employees Use Their

Voice toward German

Managers

By

Annette Metz

Marjaana Gunkel

*

Existing management literature on voice has primarily focused on examining who uses their voice and

when it is used, ignoring why employees speak out and how they do so. We examine the conditions

under which Chinese employees use their voice toward their German managers at German compa-

nies in Mainland China. The  ndings from our empirical study emphasize the importance of Chinese

employees’ personal identi cation with their German managers as a precondition for voice behaviors.

Our results suggest that Chinese employees utilize indirect voice behavior in addition to direct voice

behavior when interacting with their German managers. This indirect guanxi -voice behavior has neither

been recognized nor investigated in the literature. The theoretical and managerial implications of the

results are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Thunderbird International Business Review Vol. 60, No. 3 May/June 2018 DOI: 10.1002/tie

Introduction

T he management literature suggests that the use of

voice positively affects the economic and manage-

rial efficiency of organizations. Voice supports

quality decision making, thereby helping to strengthen

organizational efficiency, productivity (Budd, Gollan,

& Wilkinson, 2010 ), and stability as a result of reduced

vulnerability (Milliken & Lam, 2009 ). In addition, voice

positively influences the implementation of organizational

changes and development as part of a learning process

that involves discussion and that capitalizes on pluralism

(Edmondson, 2003 ). Both organizational learning and

quality decisions are crucial components of establishing

businesses in a constantly changing global environment.

Moreover, China represents an important market for

Western companies, as it has assumed a critical role in

the global economy in recent decades (Lin, 2012 ; Sohm,

Linke, & Klossek, 2009 ; D. Y. H. Wei, Zhou Yu, & Lin, 2012 ).

Although China has lost some of its attractive emerging-

market traits, multinational corporations (MNCs) have

grown increasingly dependent on China as a business

partner (Das, 2015 ). Within the Western-Chinese context,

German-Chinese business ties merit special attention, as

China is Germany ’ s most important business partner in

Asia, and Germany is China ’ s biggest trading partner in

Europe. As a consequence, investigating the interactions

between Chinese employees and their German managers

reveals a particularly fascinating intercultural context.

Multinational companies based in Germany often send

German expatriates to their subsidiaries in China. German

expatriates are mainly sent as experts to support knowl-

edge transfer from the home country to the host country,

that is, from Germany to China (Deutsche Handelskam-

mer in China, 2013 ). However, with regard to situations

in which personal interactions with Chinese coworkers

or Chinese peers is required (e.g., leading Chinese team

members, negotiating with Chinese clients), German

expatriates sometimes exhibit their ignorance regarding

the Chinese market and Chinese social customs and tradi-

tions. Indeed, many German representatives urgently need

such knowledge, and their Chinese employees represent

a crucial source of such information and perspectives for

global activities (Tröster & van Knippenberg, 2012 ). None-

theless, German managers frequently receive little or no

input from their Chinese employees because speaking up

to supervisors is not commonly accepted behavior in Chi-

nese culture (Liu, Zhu, & Yang, 2010 ). In such an intercul-

tural setting, research findings on national cultural values

(such as power distance) can help explain the observed

phenomenon in corporate life that Chinese employees

do not voice their thoughts (Huang, van de Vliert, & van

der Vegt, 2005 ). Despite the lack of open communication

between German leaders and their Chinese employees,

a small number of German managers have been able to

encourage their Chinese employees to speak up, but this

phenomenon has thus far remained unexplained. The

voice literature has mainly investigated who is voicing and

when employees voice, with reference to contextual factors

such as company culture. However, observations from cor-

porate life indicate, at least in part, that the same Chinese

employees present different voice behaviors in identical

company contexts. Therefore, the questions of why and

how employees voice their ideas are becoming particularly

relevant. Unsurprisingly, these two questions are currently

the subject of research in the voice literature (Morrison,

2011). In addition to contributing to the voice literature,

answering those two questions will help Western managers

to better explore China ’ s potential—which is far more than

simply a source of cheap labor, as it was 15 years ago—by

building on the input of their Chinese team members, who

are experts in the Chinese market. We respond to this gap

in the literature by seeking to answer the research ques-

tions regarding why and how Chinese employees voice their

thoughts, ideas, and opinions to their German managers.

We approach these research questions in a qualitative

study that combines grounded theory with action research

and contributes to the previous voice literature in three

ways. First, we extend the previous literature by examining

voice in an intercultural setting, whereas the majority of

previous voice studies have remained within monocultural

settings (Milliken & Lam, 2009 ; Liu, Zhu, & Yang, 2010 ).

The Chinese-German context in particular represents

a mostly unexplored field in intercultural voice-related

research (Y. F. Chen & Tjosvold, 2007 ). Second, this

study contributes to the literature by examining two less

researched questions in the voice literature: specifically,

why and how voice is used. Third, in contradistinction to

the previous literature, our study combines the theoretical

framework of self-concept–based motivational theory with

the concept of supervisor-subordinate guanxi to examine

the specific context of Chinese-German voice behavior.

Thus far, neither concept has been widely researched or

used in the Western management literature.

Literature Review and Theoretical

Orientation

Literature Review on Employees Speaking Out

The literature recognizes various forms of voice, and

these can be distinguished by different dimensions. One