Paradoxical Relationships Between Cultural Norms of Particularism and Attitudes Toward Relational Favoritism: A Cultural Reflectivity Perspective

Chao C. Chen (), Joseph P. Gaspar (), Ray Friedman (), William Newburry (), Michael C. Nippa (), Katherine Xin () and Ronaldo Parente ()
Additional contact information
Chao C. Chen: Rutgers University
Joseph P. Gaspar: Quinnipiac University
Ray Friedman: Vanderbilt University
William Newburry: Florida International University
Michael C. Nippa: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Katherine Xin: China–Europe International Business School
Ronaldo Parente: Florida International University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2017, vol. 145, issue 1, No 5, 63-79

Abstract: Abstract We examined how the cultural dimension of universalism–particularism influences managers’ attitudes toward relational favoritism (such as favoring friends or relatives in HR decisions). Paradoxically, we found in a survey study that Brazilian and Chinese managers perceived more negative consequences of relational favoritism than did American managers—even though the Brazilians and the Chinese perceived stronger particularistic cultural norms in their countries than Americans did in the United States. We attribute this pattern of results to “cultural reflexivity”—the ability of people from transforming economies to be culturally self-critical during a period of dramatic societal change. This pattern of results also emerged in a scenario study in which we asked these same Brazilian, Chinese, and American participants to assess managerial succession decisions made by a General Manager. We varied the scenarios so that the promoted manager was either a colleague with no pre-existing relation with the GM or a colleague who was a relative, a close friend, from the same town, or from the same school. Consistent with the results of the survey study, we found that perceived cultural norms of particularism were negatively related to perceptions of fairness. In other words, Brazilians and Chinese, even while living in more particularistic cultures, were more harsh in judging relational favoritism. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of these paradoxical relationships.

Keywords: Culture; Cultural reflectivity; Ethical judgment; Guanxi; Jeitinho; Universalism–particularism; Procedural justice; Relational favoritism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-015-2843-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:145:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2843-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2843-6

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().