مقاله سال ۲۰۱۷

In today’s career context characterized by rising work pressure due to overload of job demands and fast-changing role expectations (e.g. Hewlett & Luce, 2006; Parker & Liao, in press), employees are increasingly expected to be proactive in managing their career (De Vos et al., 2009; Fuller & Marler, 2009; Spurk et al., 2015). Against this backdrop, proactive skill development and career networking behavior are the ‘know how’ aspects of proactive career behaviors (Taber & Blankemeyer, 2015) that have been linked to employment, career success (Forret & Dougherty, 2004) and career adaptability in an age of boundaryless careers (Savickas, 2013). Prior research on proactive career behaviors has been concerned primarily with the influence of dispositional motivational antecedents such as personality (e.g. Reed et al., 2004), self-efficacy (e.g. Hirschi et al., 2013) and future work selves (e.g. Strauss et al., 2012; Taber & Blankemeyer, 2015), while overlooking important contextual factors. This oversight is a cause of concern because ‘work based decisions, transitions, and experiences are rooted in interactions in a broad array of external influences’ (Blustein, 2011, p. 1), which are becoming increasingly culturally-diverse (Savickas et al., 2009). Thus, there are reasons to believe that the extent to which employees respond to work pressure in relation to their career is influenced by national cultures. As such, investigating the role of the culturally-specific workplace practice in which proactive career behaviors are formed is of both theoretical and practical importance.

In the context of the Chinese workplace, guanxi human resource management (hereinafter guanxi HRM) is an example of culturally-specific work practices that can influence proactive career behaviors. Guanxi HRM refers to ‘HRM practices (e.g., staffing, promotion, and performance appraisal) that are influenced and driven by interpersonal connections rather than rules and regulations’ (Zhang, Long, Wu & Huang, 2015, p. 699). It is an application of the indigenous Chinese guanxi culture, rooted in Confucianism, that describes personal, non-work related, connections reinforced implicitly by reciprocity and exchange of favors (Chen, Chen & Huang, 2013). An important outcome of guanxi is increased attachment, personal-life inclusion and favorable treatment to guanxi beholders (Zhang, Long, Wu and Huang, 2015). Given that guanxi is an influential philosophy that is deeply-rooted in Chinese society, it is difficult to imagine the absence of guanxi in Chinese workplaces (see Chen et al., 2013; Warner, 2011).

This study therefore contextualizes proactive career behaviors in workplaces where employees simultaneously manage work pressure and culturally-specific HRM practices. It focuses on proactive skill development as a specific form of proactive career behavior given the vital role of continuous learning and personal development for one’s career (Warner, 2011; Wei, Liu, Chen & Wu, 2010). The aim of this study is to examine how (the mechanism) and under what conditions (the context) work pressure influences proactive skill development in China. Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 2001), it develops and tests a model which argues that the relationship between work pressure and proactive skill development is mediated by career networking behavior, contingent on guanxi HRM.