Employee performance : a view from the internal enterprise social capital

1

Employee Performance:

a View from the Internal Enterprise Social Capital

Program: Accountancy and Control (Control Track) Supervisor: dr. Bo Qin

Second supervisor: dr. Jeroen van Raak

Student: Cong Lin Student number: 10609458 Date: 23rd, June 2014

2

Content

1.3 Motivation of the study and its contribution ... 3

2. Literature and Theory ... 5

2.1 Social capital ... 5

2.2 Open and closed social network social capital ... 6

2.3 Employee performance ... 7

2.4 Relationship between internal social capital and employee performance ... 9

2.5 Enterprise internal social capital ... 10

2.6 Psychological Contract ... 12

3. Conceptual model and Hypothesis ... 13

3.1 Network ties and relational psychological contracts ... 13

3.2 General trust and relational psychological contracts ... 13

3.3 Shared codes and language and relational psychological contracts ... 14

3.4 Relational psychological contracts and task productivity and job dedication ... 14

3.5 Relational psychological contracts as a mediator... 15

4. Research methodology ... 15

4.1 Scale design: ... 15

4.2 Scale content: ... 16

4.3 Measurement ... 18

4.4 Sampling ... 19

4.5 Reliability test and validity test ... 21

4.6 Correlation test ... 23

5 Results ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 5.1 Hypotheses test ... 23

3

5.1.2 Theoretical modeling test... 25

5.1.3 Adjusted theoretical modeling test ... 26

6 Conclusions ... 27

7 Limitation and discussion ... 27

Appendix I: Reference ... 30

Appendix II: Survey Questionnaire Sample ... 32

1 Abstract

Social capital is regarded as a new concept in the field of accounting and has been studied by many researchers into its great impact of enterprise technology innovation and enhancing firm value. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of internal social capital on employee performance, which increases the ambiguity of internal social capital in relation to employee performance to some extent. On the other hand, internal social capital not only has the influence to the enterprise achievements, more importantly, the enterprise internal social capital originated from the social bond and inner standard as well as mutual trust with staff had reflected the reciprocal benefit, standard and duty that staff's social network relation and psychological environment in enterprise, as well as the staff’s psychological comfortable degree when expecting and requesting other people for help. Especially, in Chinese culture, the informal human sentiment relations in organizational standard have played stronger characters than those in western culture. Therefore, the research analysis the effect of Chinese enterprise internal social capital on the staff achievements not only may bridge the existing research insufficiency, but may also provide a theoretical guidance for the management practice. Based on ponder of theory and practice, various essential factors of enterprise internal social organization influence mechanism and influence relations to staff performance are being considered in this research and fivehypotheses are proposed.

This research applies a survey method to gather basic data and use SPSS analysis to test the results. After receiving a number of 110 valid inquiries, the result shows that the interpersonal network ties and the shared code and language play an important role in promoting the psychological contract. And with a stronger psychological contract, employees will have higher productivity and become more innovative when doing their jobs and achieve better contextual performance at the same time.

2 1. Introduction

1.1 Background

Social capital is a popular concept in sociology that has been “lent” to other fields like economics, politics, and organizational theory that use social capital to seek answers to the broader questions in their fields (Adler and Kwon, 2002). While numerous studies are giving widely attentions to social capital theory, the social capital theory are extended to the enterprise level, the concept of enterprise internal social capital is proposed, and the effectiveness of enterprise internal social capital are being discussed. The theory of organizational social capital was initially proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), who defined it as follows: “. . . the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit” (p. 243). Internal social capital not only impacts enterprise performance, more importantly, the internal social capital derived from connection, regulation and trusted social relationships among the employees reflects the psychological environment and the social network links among the staff. Moreover, it reflects the level of expectation, regulation, obligation, and the psychological comfort when asking for others help. Therefore, the impact of social capital context on the staff is the most direct and profound one, bring employee psychology and behavior change, while also lead to different employee performance results.

In the current trend that the competitive advantage are more and more originated from human capital and social capital, rather than the material capital, the Chinese corporate managers should pay special attention to the enterprise internal social capital under the Guanxi culture environment. Compares with the Western society, the individuals under Eastern cultural context is more loyal to the regulation and faith of the organization community. Staff has quite strong idea of “inner community”, so the formal working ties exists mutually with informal relationships, sometimes the informal relationship even surpassed the formal working relationship. The above characteristic of Chinese culture even more promoted the formation of enterprise

3 internal social capital, but the Chinese management practice nowadays has neglected this point relatively, and has further neglected positive role that the enterprise internal social capital played in generating the enterprise endogenous competitive advantage.

Based on the theory and practice, this study explores the mechanism of the elements of the internal social capital and its impact on employee performance.

1.2 Research question The research question is:

Does the internal social capital influence employee performance? This research mainly focuses on the following steps:

First, based on the literature and interviews, define and analyze the framework and measuring elements of the internal social capital: such as structural elements of network, trust between actors, etc;

Second, based on the psychology of individual behavior, psychological contract theory, principal-agent theory, social exchange theory, knowledge management theory, reveal the determinants of employee performance, so as to define the mediation variables in the relationship between elements of internal social capital and the performance of employees;

Third, through a systematic analysis of the impact mechanism of enterprise internal social capital on employee performance, establish the theory model of relationship between internal social capital and employee performance;

Fourth, conduct the survey research, verify the theoretical models and assumptions, examine and clarify the mechanism and relationship between internal social capital and employee performance.

1.3 Motivation of the study and its contribution

Human factors such as actions and interpersonal relationship are always interesting to look at. Internal social capital not only affects organizational performance, it also reflects the psychological environment and the social network links among the staff. Therefore, the impact of social capital context on the staff is

4 direct and profound, leading to different employee performance results. In recent years, numerous studies have discussed the positive role of internal social capital in the innovation of enterprise technology, knowledge and the enterprise growth, but little attention has been paid to the relationship between social capital and employee performance. On the other hand, in theoretical research and management practice, more attention is given to the formal system of organization and impact of individual characteristics on employee performance, whilst the social environment within firms are relatively neglected, especially the impact of social capital context on employee performance. Thus, the analysis of enterprise internal social capital influence on employee performance, can not only fill the gap of the existing research, but also provide theoretical guidance for management practice.

“Guanxi” is a Chinese term referring to the reciprocal nature of interpersonal relationships which is so complicated that it cannot be simply translated as ”relationship” in English. Individuals under the Guanxi environment tend to take the human communication and relational harmony seriously, its information acquisition psychology sensation is not only influenced by the formal contract and economic environment, but also the influence of Guanxi environment. Meanwhile, the Chinese Guanxi culture environment has been a natural history promoter to the formation of enterprise internal social capital. Therefore, it will be more meaningful to study the social capital under a Chinese culture background. The results of such study may appear to be far more significant and interesting than those in western countries.

Moreover, the research of the influencing factors of staff performance has been mostly focusing in the individual level and under formal system, but has not actually made the thorough discussion and explanation regarding the influence of social capital system. Looking from the correlation theories research, the social capital theory and knowledge management theory, as well as the employ performance theory have massive research results respectively, however, when we try to unify the existing theory to determine and analyzes the comprehensive influence for the performance, the results are relatively defective. Although many literatures have studied enterprise

5 internal social capital's effect from the angle of knowledge management on the staff knowledge share, there is an ultimate and more important goal to achieve-- Whether it causes the staff knowledge to increase with the productivity promoted. Therefore from the theory angle of view, it is necessary to make a more thorough discussion of the mechanism and relations of the internal social capital and employee performance, in order to fill the gap of current studies.

In terms of research model, this research has constructed theoretical relational model between various internal social capital essential factors and staff achievements targets, and has carried on comprehensive, systematical theoretical analysis and empirical test, which not only has consummated the existing fundamental research, but also causes the research of this domain systematized.

In the second part of the paper, some related literatures are referred. The concept of internal social capital, as well as the concept and measurement of employee performance are discussed in this part. In the third part, a model of this research is constructed and five hypotheses are proposed. In the fourth part, the methodology is explained by samples, measures and several data analysis tests. After that, in the fifth part, the result is illustrated and comes to the conclusion. Finally, in the last part, a discussion of the limitation of this research and shares a possible future prospect.

2. Literature and Theory 2.1 Social capital

Social capital is a series of informal values and norms and subjective feelings of obligations that social members share, which are instrumental in shaping the relationships that make group members work effectively (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Coleman, 1988; Fukuyama, 1995; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1999). The essence of social capital theory is that interpersonal relationships are the underlying drivers of measurable performance outcomes, and that fostering stronger connections within social networks by creating environments that promote trust, rapport and goodwill

6 yields positive outcomes (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Maurer & Ebers, 2006).

There are mainly three perspectives in the definitions of social capital: social resource, social norms, and ability to gain access to scare resources.

First, Bourdiew, Adler & Kwon, etc regard social capital as a kind of resource in the social structure, it can produce value to further improve the value of material and human resources. For instance, Bourdieu defines social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition.” (Bourdieu, 1986). Other scholars (Naphapiet and Ghosal, 1998) define social capital as “the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within value through, and derived from, the network of relations possessed by an individual or social unit. Social capital thus comprises both the network and the assets that may be mobilized through that network”.

Second, social regulation is a view that regarding social capital as regulation, trust in the society. Coleman(1988) holds the view that social capital is independent from the individuals and the production processes, it can only be seen when all the actors in the network are acting together.

Third, Portes(1998) sees social capital as an ability to gain access to scare resource, this ability is a result of the relationship with other people instead of inherent.

All in all, although there are different views about social capital discussed above, they do not conflict with each other. They basically understand the concept of social capital from different angle, some stressing the structure and objective, some focusing on the subject of social capital, and some define it within the framework of closed social network. Thus, we can define social capital as: a productive resource that can enhance cooperation among social actors, with focal elements of network, relationship, trust and regulation.

2.2 Open and closed social network social capital

7 causing the concept of social capital different, but the core of social capital "comes from the relationship between social networks" (Son & Lin, 2008) is undeniable. Summarizing the existing literature, social capital can be divided into two different perspectives: the perspective of open network social capital and closed network of social capital.

First, the researches of open network social capital view are mainly represented by Granovetter, Burt, etc. Granovetter (1973) explains that weak ties between smaller groups in the social network play important role in creating more effective bridge to transfer information. Burt (1992,1997) argues that with the links of social capital people get access to resources of financial and human capital; People who occupy the structure key position can dominate in the competitions.

On the other hand, Colman(1988), Putnam(1993,1995), Leana & Van Buren(1999) etc are of the view of closed social network study. Coleman(1988) argues that a closed network is helpful to form social regulation and rules. Putnam(1993) also see social capital as “a characteristic of the social group” which is an internal network, rule and trust within the social group, and it can enhance corporation. Fukuyama(1995) see social capital as trust in different layers, including the smallest and biggest groups in society: families and countries respectively.

2.3 Employee performance

When it comes to the determinate of employee performance, there are two waves of studies at first: on personality characteristics and the other one is concerning knowledge and capability. Actually, employee performance is affected by multiple factors, so some researchers combine the two together, but there is obvious flaw in the two perspectives: the understanding is too narrowed down to the individual level and ignore the systematic factors that affects performance, which includes working environment, communication between managers and subordinates, etc. However, these factors are again found not adequate to construct the model of employee performance. Hence, internal enterprise social capital has to be introduced in the study of employee performance.

8 There are different ways and goals to measure employee performance. Borman & Motowidlo(1993) divide performance into two dimensions: task performance and contextual performance. The former is mainly focusing on the technology inner core, while the latter one is mainly about the action in forming the social and psychological context.

In this research, the two aspects of employee performance are used as variables: task performance and contextual performance. First, task performance is related to technical core, regulated role, position duty, and which are working action and activity result to achieve the organizational goal. However, the modern technology and economic environment has led the origin of competition advantage more to the intangible assets like human resource, knowledge and innovation. Thus the innovation measurement in the performance evaluation is necessary for contemporary organizations. Second, unlike task performance, contextual performance does not directly contribute to the achievement of organizational goal. The function of contextual performance is more like “lubricating oil” since it can mitigate the friction and confliction during the task process, moreover, it can reduce the inter-personal transaction cost. Van Scotter & Motowidlo (1996) use two dimensions to measure contextual performance: job dedication and interpersonal facilitation.

Thus, the employee performance in contemporary organization can be concluded as the following structure (Figure 2-1 )

Figure 2-1 employee performance task performance task productivity task innovation contextual performance job dedication interpersonal faciliation

9 2.4 Relationship between internal social capital and employee performance

Several research studies suggest that organizations can effectively create and retain positive social and human capital through managerial and human resource practices that emphasize and facilitate social networks (Ellinger et al 2013). Thus, research indicates that social capital affects career development and positive work-related outcomes (Leana & van Buren, 1999), and plays an important role in the creation of workplaces that are conducive to employee development and retention (Coleman, 1988; Dess & Shaw, 2001). Luthans & Youssef (2004) argue that organizations should put more emphasis on the development of latent resources, such as human, social, and psychological capital, to develop and maintain a competitive advantage. Batt (2002) also holds the views that building firm-specific human capital results in employee attachment and improved productivity. Shub & Stonebraker (2009) imply that relationship-based managerial strategies that focus on organizational structure, culture, and empowerment generate employee loyalty and promote long term relationships between the firm and its employees. Last but not least, in the current context, a recent empirical study indicates that retail organizations can create an internal culture that supports and encourages service employees by focusing on open communication, shared vision, and trust, which accompany building social capital (Merlo et al., 2006).

Contextual performance is a collaborative behavior in the organization to achieve the organizational goal. Watson & Papamarcos (2002) conducted a research by studying 469 sales clerks and conclude that psychological processes like trust and communication can affect the employee’s organizational commitment.

10 Nahapiet & Ghoshal(1998) made a conceptual model about internal social capital and intellectual capital (Figure 2-2). The mediator is the resource and knowledge exchange between individuals. That is to say, social capital can improve the production of intellectual capital by improving resource (especially knowledge) exchange.

2.5 Enterprise internal social capital

The foundation of the internal social capital is the social connection among the individuals within the organization. Adler& Kwon (2002) mark the significance of the relationship and cohesion of the inner collective network. The individual social capital is part of the organizational social capital and the organizational social capital is built on the employees’ network connection, regulation and trust in the organization (Kaasa, 2009).

On the other hand, the individual social connection cannot generate without the Figure 2-2

11 organization system. During the evolving of one organization, the unique and particular norm and structure of the organization is produced, and which promote or disturb the collaboration of individuals while they can be reflected by the relationship among the organization members.

Thus, the enterprise internal social capital can be defined as: A valuable asset that is determined by the social relationship and ability, as well as their quality of the internal social actors. First, the social relationship of actors is the premise for the internal social capital to develop. Second, the quality of the social connection can be referred to the trust, regulation, value system or other psychological conditions. Finally, the social ability is the functional foundation for the internal social capital, which includes communication ability, ability to receive and transfer knowledge, and so on. According to Nahapiet & Ghoshal(1998), the three aspect above can be concluded as three dimensions of social capital: structural social capital, relational social capital and cognitional social capital.

According to the previous research literature, this research uses network ties to measure the structural social capital, general trust for the relational social capital and shared code and language for the cognitional social capital. (Figure 2-3)

Figure 2-3 structural social capital •network ties relational social capital •general trust cognition al social capital

•shared codes and language

Internal social capital

12 2.6 Psychological Contract

Psychological contracts are individual beliefs in a reciprocal obligation between the individual and the organization (Rousseau 1989). There are two types of psychological contracts: transactional psychological contracts and relational psychological contracts (Rousseau & Parks 1992). Compared to transactional psychological contracts, relational psychological contracts are more forward-looking, and can develop the independency of the employees and the consistency of the goal. Moreover, relational dimension is a determination of the employees’ perception and their action (Thomas et al 2003).

Therefore, the psychological contract that formed by the individuals is the more direct reason for their spontaneous choice behavior. It is the reflection of the staff and organization's social emotion and performance of psychological sensation condition. It is based on social commutation relation, but not economic relationships, and it has directly decided the independent choice behavior of staff--The contextual performance. Taking the function of the individual characteristics in contextual performance into consideration can show us the relation in Figure 2-4.

Figure 2-4

Thus, relational psychological contracts can be defined as the employees’ perception and faith of the relational context of the organization.

individual characteristics contextual performance psychological contract

13 3. Conceptual model and Hypothesis

Based on the prior theories and literatures discussed above, the conceptual model in this research is show in Figure 3-1:

Independent variables Mediator (H5) Dependent variables

Internal social capital Individual psychological factor Employee performance

Therefore, according to the conceptual model, five hypotheses are proposed as follows:

3.1 Network ties and relational psychological contracts

Looking from the entire organization, the communication among different departments not only transfers the knowledge related to the tasks, but also exchanges information about the norms and faith of the organization. That is to say, a broader social connection can provide group member with greater chance of communication and more precise understanding of organizational environment.

[H1] Organizational network ties are positively related with the formation and development of the relational psychological contracts of the employees.

3.2 General trust and relational psychological contracts

The so-called general trust in the internal social capital is the trust for the coworkers, supervisors and subordinates, as well as the organization. It consists of the

Relational Psychological Contracts Network ties

General trust & identifications

Shared codes & language

Task productivity & job dedication H1

H2 H3

H4

14 emotional-based and capability-based trust. Trust can be regarded as the foundation of social exchange and formation of psychological contract. Atkinson (2007) conducts a case study showing that trust is the key determinate factor for the psychological contract. On the other hand, the focal point of trust subject appears to be different under different cultural background. In Chinese organizations, the trust of subordinates and the employee loyalty becomes a more important measurement for the psychological contract (Zheng, 1995).

Organizational identification is functional to make individuals seeing themselves as members in the social network within the organization. As a result, they share a positive feeling for the organization and other members that they belong together. Meanwhile, the emotional ties for the organization causes members to be more dependent with the group, and willing to cooperate and share the common goal with other members.

[H2] General trust and identification is positively related with the formation and development of the relational psychological contracts of the employees.

3.3 Shared codes and language and relational psychological contracts

The language or expression which can be understood by all the group members is not only the promoter of knowledge transfer, more importantly, it is also the constructor of good teamwork. Especially in Chinese culture, the communication pattern is less direct and sometimes hard to grasp. Which makes having the common code more necessary in order to ensure the effectiveness of communication.

[H3] Shared codes and language is positively related with the formation and development of the relational psychological contracts of the employees.

3.4 Relational psychological contracts and task productivity and job dedication The determinate factor for an employee to have a high productivity is that he or she has adequate knowledge to accomplish the task. However, an employee equipped with sufficient knowledge or skill does not necessarily shows a high productivity and innovation ability due to the affect of psychological motivation. The incentive from

15 the satisfaction generated from social connection and psychological contract can significantly enhance the productivity and innovation activities of the employees.

[H4] Relational psychological contract of the employee is positively related with the task productivity and job dedication.

3.5 Relational psychological contracts as a mediator

According to the previous analysis, the construction of employee psychological contracts is related with internal social capital. The stronger the interaction among the employees, the better emotional perception, furthermore, the easier to get a high productivity and innovation activity to accomplish the goals of the organization. Once the trust and loyalty in social network is stronger, the psychological contracts will be stronger, so that the employee will be more productive and innovative. Meanwhile, the shared codes and language produce healthy environment for the psychological contract to generate.

[H5] Relational psychological contract of the employee plays the mediate role in the relationship between the internal social capital and employee performance.

4. Research methodology 4.1 Scale design:

All items are measured on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The scale design is based on the principles of Churchill (1979), Hinkin (1995)’s study about scale development and questionnaire develop. The interviewees shall choose one answer from number 1 to number 7 (shown as table 4-1) to describe their attitudes towards the situation mentioned in each question.

Fully disagree Partly disagree Slightly disagree Neither agree nor disagree Slightly agree Partly agree Fully agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Table 4-1

16 4.2 Scale content:

Independent variables

According to some previous research, the network tie is used as the first independent variable to measure the structural factor of internal social capital. Network tie is used to measure the feeling of close and the diversity of the social connections among the members.

Second, general trust describes the next dimension of internal social capital- relational factor. General trust does not equal to dualistic interpersonal trust. It refer to the expectation of other members’ actions based on the regulation, morality and norms in the organization. The trust for colleagues (coworkers, supervisors and subordinates) includes the faith for other members’ ability, sympathy, integrity and reliability. The trust for the organization as a whole means believing in the organizational regulation, norms and goals, and believing that the organization would be fair for everybody, etc.

Third, the shared code and language refer to the language, term, symbol, implied assumption that the employees use during the process of daily communication and professional activities.

Dependent variables

Task productivity is the condition of the employee capable to accomplish the task assigned by the supervisor effectively and in time by using their professional skill and knowledge. Task performance also contains the factor of innovation ability. The employee would use new idea and procedure to achieve the goals.

On the other hand, work dedication is a reflection of contextual performance. Work dedication is usually observed as self regulation, such as follow the rules, work hard, volunteer to solve the problems at work, obey the order and regulation, and so on.

Mediator

The psychological contract refer to the faith that the employee holds towards the social contextual provided by the organization, including the undertaking and

17 accomplish of agreed organizational and peer-worker obligation, as well as the support from the organization from the aspect of social relationship. This contract determines the believed responsibilities and obligations by the employees. The psychological contract is the security for the employees to have a satisfactory social environment and sufficient humanistic concern.

Independent variables: Mediator Dependent variables Network Ties ( N T )

Relational Psychological Contracts ( R P C)

Task productivity and Work Dedication ( T P W D )

NT1: The colleagues, including superior and subordinates in your department often communicate with each other.

RPC1: The organization has a harmonious

superior-subordinates relationship.

TPWD1: I can finish my tasks before the

deadlines.

NT2: The colleagues, including superior and subordinates in your department have a close relationship with each other.

RPC2: Members of your organization are

respected.

TPWD2: I can achieve the goals of my

assignments.

NT3: It is usual that employees exchange opinions

on decision making within the organization.

RPC3: An atmosphere of teamwork and

collaboration is provided in the organization.

TPWD3: My working efficiency is improving.

General Trust ( G T )

RPC4: The individual development and

personal life is well considered by the organization.

TPWD4: I am willing to keep learning and try

to be innovative during work.

GT1: The colleagues in your department can be straightforward when expressing their thoughts.

RPC5: Your contribution and achievements

are valued and awarded.

TPWD5: I am often willing to offer to work

overtime.

GT2: It is encouraged to be open and honest in the organization.

TPWD6: I am self-controlled and well

disciplined at workplace.

GT3: Your superior is honest and straightforward. TPWD7: I will stop any behavior I observe that

can be harmful to our organization.

GT4: The instruction made by your superior of his/her decision making process is satisfactory for me.

TPWD8: I protect the instruments and facilities

at workplace and always aware of saving resources (paper, electricity, water, etc).

GT5: I will be informed in advance when there are changes in the work.

TPWD9: I am willing to take responsibilities

for extra work.

GT6: My opinions about operational decision making will be considered by my superior.

TPWD10: I pay special attention and eager to

give advice to the essential decisions made in the organizational operation.

Shared codes and language ( S C L )

SCL1: People in your organization use mutual

technical terms or jargon.

SCL2: The communication pattern between

organization members is generally accepted and understandable.

SCL3: Organization members are always highly

agreed on the focal points at work.

18 4.3 Measurement

Usually, the performance measurement consists of objective measurement and subjective measurement. In this survey, the employee performance is measured by the employees themselves subjectively. Backer et al. (1994) claimed that the subjective measurement in the explicit and implicit contract can eliminate the distortion of performance measurement. Xu et al. (2002) conduct analysis for different measurement source in practical environment and get the conclusion that the self evaluation can be effective under turbulence organizational environment or dependable job design.

Other words to say, employee self evaluation is closely related to adequate authorization, employee self management and self control. On the aspect of employees, the employee can get better grasp of their own ability, working activities to conduct and action results. Thus, the self evaluation based on the objective reality can be more precise.

What’s more, it is proved by prior research that when the result of self evaluation is not used for administration purposes but for employee development plan, the results will be much more reliable and “objective”. With the instruction at the beginning of the questionnaire, the declaration that the results are only used for scientific research and has nothing to do with their performance measurements and employees bonus, so that the interviewees would be honest with the answers.

On the other hand, the results of the measurement when applying self evaluation may have the interference from social desirability bias1 and common variance2

. In order to avoid such errors, several measures are taken: First of all, make clear operational definition of the variables. Second of all, use the sophisticated and proved effective variables and scaling measures in previous researches. What’s more, translate the terms into Chinese by undertaking the usual expression rules. Last but

1

Social desirability bias is the tendency of respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed

favorably by others. It can take the form of over-reporting "good behavior" or under-reporting "bad" or undesirable behavior.

2

Common variance is the systematic error variance shared among variables measured with and introduced as a function of the same method and/or source

19 not least, requires anonymous during the survey.

4.4 Sampling

To answer the research questions, this research conducts a quantitative method by doing survey to gather data for the results. Samples will be selected randomly across different sections and areas, but mainly focus on big firms to ensure the quality and reliability of the data. The interviewees are mainly from corporations in Shandong, Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai and other 20 provinces (totally 24 provinces) across China. (Source statistics see Appendix III.)

The questionnaires are delivered mainly through the Internet (website: sojump.com). In the instruction of the questionnaire, I clearly explained several points of the survey: First, the purpose of the study. Second, the survey requires anonymous so that the interviewees can feel free to fill in their real message about social capital and their performance. Third, no commercial confidential information is involved. Last, I sincerely convey my appreciation for the interviewee’s kindly support. After month of gathering in May and June of 2014, I managed to receive 110 valid questionnaires, which can be regarded as adequate sample.

First of all, the test of normality shows that the variables’ value of Skewness and

Kurtosis are tending to be 0(see Table 4 - 3), proving that the data accords normality

distribution, further analysis is allowed. The following table illustrates the general statistics of the sample. From which we can see the sample quality accords with the expectation: mainly consists of young and middle aged employees with relatively high educational level. As a result, many of them are managers and are in R & D position. As a result, the questionnaires received have satisfactory respond quality.

The descriptive statistics indicates that there are no abnormal values in the scaling variables (See Table 4 - 3 & Table 4 - 4).

20

Table 4 – 3

Question Frequency Rate

Age A. 2 4 or below 1 3 11.82% B. 2 5 – 3 4 8 4 76.36% C. 3 5 – 4 5 8 7.27% D. 4 5 or above 5 4.55% Total 1 1 0 Gender A. Male 4 6 41.82% B. Female 6 4 58.18% Total 1 1 0 Education level

A. Secondary school or below 0 0%

B. Junior high school 0 0%

C. Junior college 7 6.36%

D. Bachelor degree 8 1 73.64%

E. Master degree or beyond 2 2 20%

Total 1 1 0 Position A. Operating Worker 0 0% B. Technical worker 9 8.18% C. General Staff 4 5 40.91% D. Line manager 3 0 27.27% E. Mid-level manager 2 6 23.64% F. Senior Manager 0 0% Total 1 1 0 Years of employment A. 1 year or less 2 1 19.09% B. 2 - 4 years 3 3 30.00% C. 5 – 10 years 3 9 35.45% D. 1 1 – 1 5 years 9 8.18% E. 1 6 - 1 9 years 2 1.82% F. 2 0 years or longer 6 5.45% Total 1 1 0 Table 4 - 4

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Std. Error NetworkTies(NT) 110 1.00 7.00 5.35150 1.12323 -0.923 0.230 0.610 0.457 GeneralTrust(GT) 110 2.00 7.00 5.25760 1.11807 -0.882 0.230 0.502 0.457 SharedCodeLanguage(SCL) 110 2.00 7.00 5.54240 1.05105 -0.908 0.230 0.836 0.457 RelationPsychoConstr(RPC) 110 1.00 7.00 5.38730 1.09621 -1.121 0.230 1.642 0.457 TaskProdWorkDedicat(TPWD) 110 2.00 7.00 5.37880 0.86320 -0.842 0.230 1.408 0.457 Valid N (listwise) 110 Descriptive Statistics Skewness Kurtosis

21 4.5 Reliability test and validity test

Reliability test measures the possibility to replicate the study by using the same tool or method. Any observation result contains measure error and actual value. The smaller the error is, the higher the reliability is. Therefore, I use the SPSS to run the reliability first and get the value of Cronbach alpha of 0.928 ( α＞ 0.7 is acceptable), which is a rather high level of reliability. The detailed data are shown intable 4-5 and table 4-6. Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected Item - Total Correlation Cronbach 's Alpha if Item Deleted Cronbach 's alpha N T 1 42 .260 74 .031 0 .793 0 .927 0 .936 N T 2 42 .320 75 .595 0 .746 0 .929 N T 3 42 .160 75 .991 0 .767 0 .928 G T 1 42 .540 75 .682 0 .673 0 .934 G T 2 42 .280 72 .993 0 .792 0 .927 G T 3 42 .350 73 .240 0 .766 0 .928 G T 4 42 .410 76 .079 0 .762 0 .929 G T 5 42 .180 75 .214 0 .703 0 .932 G T 6 42 .290 72 .098 0 .836 0 .924 S C L 1 58 .720 132 .663 0 .656 0 .946 S C L 2 58 .550 131 .406 0 .746 0 .943 S C L 3 58 .790 129 .286 0 .787 0 .942 Table 4 - 5 N T G T S C L Cronbach 's alpha 0.870 0.908 0.843 Table 4 - 6

However, a high reliability cannot guarantee a high validity so that validity test is the necessary step of the analysis since it measures the accuracy and validity of the scaling. It usually contains content validity3 and construct validity4 in this kind of research. Generally, the method can be considered with content validity as long as the

3

Content validity (also known as logical validity) refers to the extent to which a measure represents all facets of

a given social construct. 4

22 measurement covers the representative items of the concept. In this case, the content validity is considered to be achieved in this analysis. On the other hand, factor analysis5 can be regarded as an effective test method to measure the construct validity. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a technique within factor analysis whose overarching goal is to identify the underlying relationships between measured variables (Norris et al, 2009). On the other hand, confirmative factor analysis (CFA) is used to test whether measures of a construct are consistent with a researcher's understanding of the nature of that construct (or factor) (Kline, 2010).

First, the result of KMO and Barlett’s test shows that the sample is capable of conducting factor analysis6. Second, the EFA test shows that there is one component in independent variables which accords with the assumption (Table 4-7).

Table 4 - 7

Therefore, by applying the EFA and CFA validity test, the factors and structures of scaling is confirmed to meet the expectation.

5_{Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in}

terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved variables called factors.

6

As long as the KMO value is greater than 0.7, the factor analysis is allowed.

Component Independent variables 1 NT1 0.821 NT2 0.765 NT3 0.825 GT1 0.755 GT2 0.837 GT3 0.790 GT4 0.805 GT5 0.778 GT6 0.862 SCL1 0.708 SCL2 0.791 SCL3 0.828 KMO 0.925

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity 1040.812665

df 66

Sig. .000

23 4.6 Correlation test

Correlation among the variables indicates that the variables are related with one another. Correlation test is the precondition of testing the hypotheses model. The result of the test is shown in Table 4-8, so that we can safely conclude that the correlation values are all significant at the level of 0.001. That is to say, the modeling and further analysis is allowed.

Table 4 - 8

5 Results

5.1 Hypotheses test

After gathering sufficient data (110 samples), building Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in AMOS17.0 is estimated to confirm or examine the hypothesis raised in the section of research questions.

The SEM is an extended model based on linear regression: y = i + Xb + e. The index I use for the model fit test are: CMIN (χ2 - distribution), DF, CMIN/DF, RMSEA, GFI, CFI, IFI, and TLI. The expected values for these indexes are:

CMIN/DF RMSEA GFI CFI IFI TLI

< 5 <0.08 >0.9 Table 5- 1 Network Ties(NT) Generall Trust (GT) Sharedd Code Language (SCL) RelationPs Psycho Constract (RPC) Task Prodductivity and work Dedicat(TP WD) Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation 0.824 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 Pearson Correlation 0.707 0.806 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 Pearson Correlation 0.755 0.806 0.791 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 Pearson Correlation 0.697 0.775 0.715 0.743 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 a. Listwise N=110 Sharedd Code Language (SCL) RelationPs Psycho Constract (RPC) Task Prodductivity and work Dedicat(TPWD) Correlationsa Network Ties(NT) 1 Generall Trust (GT) 1 1 1 1

24 The model graph is show in the following chart (see Chart 5-1).

Chart 5 - 1

5.1.1 Direct model test

Direct model is the model without the mediator. With the SEM analysis, the result shows that all the fit indexes (RMSEA, GFI, CFI, IFI, and TLI) do not meet the value of 0.9(See Table 5-2). And more importantly, the P value is not significant at 0.01.Which indicate that when we get rid of the mediator of relational psychological contract (RPC), the model fit does not have good value. Thus, the internal social capital does not have direct effects on the employee performance. There should be a mediator that affects the action and activity results of the employees.

Thus, Hypothesis 5 is true.

Path Estimate S.E. C.R. P

TPWD <--- NT .049 .209 .233 .816

TPWD <--- GT .404 .290 1.392 .164 TPWD <--- SCL .228 .148 1.544 .123 CMIN=505.738 DF=203 CMIN/DF=2.491 RMSEA=0.116 GFI=0.703 CFI=0.837 IFI=0.840 TLI=0.815 Table 5 - 2 RlPsCn NwT GnTr ShCdL TskPWD NT3 e1 1 1 NT2 e2 1 NT1 e3 1 GT5 e4 1 1 GT4 e5 1 GT3 e6 1 GT2 e7 1 GT1 e8 1 SCL3 e9 1 1 SCL2 e10 1 SCL1 e11 1 GT6 e12 1 RPC5 e13 1 1 RPC4 e14 1 RPC3 e15 1 RPC2 e16 1 RPC1 e17 1 TPWD1 e18 1 1 TPWD21 e19 TPWD31 e20 TPWD41 e21 TPWD51 e22 TPWD6 1 e23 TPWD71 e24 TPWD81 e25 TPWD91 e26 TPWD101 e27 e28 1 e29 1

25

Chart 5- 2

5.1.2 Theoretical modeling test

First the result of SEM analysis in AMOS17.0 indicates that the models fit well. Except that the analysis value of first and second hypothesis (H1 & H2) are not significantly different from zero at the level of 0.05.

Therefore, an analysis of testing the adjusted model needs to be applied by deducting the less significant path.

Path Estimate S.E. C.R. P

(H1)RPC <--- NT .301 .250 1.202 .229

(H2)RPC <--- GT .264 .338 .782 .434

(H3)RPC <--- SCL .486 .177 2.747 .006

(H4)TPWD <--- RPC .616 .073 8.389 ***

CMIN=717.338 DF=317 CMIN/DF=2.263 RMSEA=0.108 GFI=0.679 CFI=0.840 IFI=0.842 TLI=0.823 Table 5 - 3 NwT GnTr ShCdL .74 TskPWD .61 NT3 e1 .78 .72 NT2 e2 .85 .79 NT1 e3 .89 .58 GT5 e4 .76 .62 GT4 e5 .79 .61 GT3 e6 .78 .67 GT2 e7 _.82 .53 GT1 e8 .73 .81 SCL3 e9 .90 .74 SCL2 e10 .86 .47 SCL1 e11 .68 .74 GT6 e12 .86 .58 TPWD1 e18 .76 .59 TPWD2 e19 .77 .71 TPWD3 e20 .84 .54 TPWD4 e21 .74 .25 TPWD5 e22 .50 .37 TPWD6 e23 .61 .47 TPWD7 e24 .69 .52 TPWD8 e25 .72 .34 TPWD9 e26 .58 .55 TPWD10 e27 .74 e29 .06 .52 .31 .91 .88 .76

26

Chart 5 - 3

5.1.3 Adjusted theoretical modeling test

First, I get rid of the most insignificant path: H2. Then we get a series of perfect P value. Meanwhile the fitness indexes does not change from the original theoretical model (shown in Table 5 - 4).

Path Estimate S.E. C.R. P

(H1)RPC <--- NT .477 .124 3.849 ***

(H3)RPC <--- SCL .596 .110 5.438 ***

(H4)TPWD <--- RPC .616 .073 8.392 *** CMIN=717.829 DF=318 CMIN/DF=2.257

RMSEA=1.107 GFI=0.679 CFI=0.840 IFI=0.842 TLI=0.823

Table 5 - 4

Second, when I delete the less insignificant path (H1), the result is not as lovely as the one above (Table 5-5). The path of H3 becomes insignificant, leading to the conclusion that the first hypothesis cannot be deleted.

Therefore, the second hypothesis cannot be testified. At the same time, although the first one is not yet so significant, considering the complexity of the model and human factor, the value of the index with the first adjusted model is acceptable.

.85 RlPsCn NwT GnTr ShCdL .75 TskPWD .61 NT3 e1 .78 .72 NT2 e2 .85 .78 NT1 e3 .88 .60 GT5 e4 .77 .63 GT4 e5 .79 .60 GT3 e6 .78 .67 GT2 e7 _.82 .52 GT1 e8 .72 .82 SCL3 e9 .90 .74 SCL2 e10 .86 .45 SCL1 e11 .67 .73 GT6 e12 .86 .73 RPC5 e13 .85 .63 RPC4 e14 .79 .76 RPC3 e15 .87 .81 RPC2 e16 .90 .68 RPC1 e17 .82 .59 TPWD1 e18 .77 .57 TPWD2 e19 .76 .71 TPWD3 e20 .84 .53 TPWD4 e21 .73 .23 TPWD5 e22 .48 .37 TPWD6 e23 .61 .47 TPWD7 e24 .69 .52 TPWD8 e25 .72 .34 TPWD9 e26 .58 .56 TPWD10 e27 .75 .87 .47 .92 .88 .76 e28 _e29 .25 .24

27

Path Estimate S.E. C.R. P

(H2)RlPsCn <--- GnTr .633 .160 3.947 *** (H3)RlPsCn <--- ShCdL .366 .148 2.478 .013 (H4)TskPWD <--- RlPsCn .616 .073 8.386 *** Q6_3 <--- NwT 1.000 Table 5- 5 6 Conclusions

All in all, there are 4 hypotheses being testified as a result of the previous analysis whilst the second one is rejected.

Hypotheses Result

[H1] Organizational network ties are positively related with the formation and

development of the relational psychological contracts of the employees. √

[H2]

General trust and identification is positively related with the formation and development of the relational psychological contracts of the employees.

×

[H3] Shared codes and language is positively related with the formation and

development of the relational psychological contracts of the employees. √ [H4] Relational psychological contract of the employee is positively related

with the task productivity and job dedication. √

[H5]

[H5] Relational psychological contract of the employee plays the mediate role in the relationship between the internal social capital and employee performance.

√ Table 6 – 1

According to the previous analysis data in Table 5-4, the variable of Network Tie has the greatest influence for the relational psychological contract since its SE index equals to 0.124. While the shared code and language has influence index value of 0.110. This indicates that the high quality of network relationship among employees is the real driver for building the psychological contracts.

What’s more, the mediator has the influence value of 0.073 for the dependent variable. That is to say, the constructed psychological contracts in employees’ perception have a direct impact on their job productivity and contextual performance. Causing the staff performance higher.

7 Limitation and discussion

28 should not be related with psychological contract formation process, which is far from the existing research conclusions. What’s more, it is generally known that trust promotes the relationship among group member, and is really fundamental in the team construction. This unusual result may due to the sampling bias. The interviewees may feel that their connective ties for other colleagues not so strong as long as they work in a relatively big company. Even though they share the same language and have clear communication channel. Looking at the sample data, it’s not hard to find that most of the interviewees come from big firms.

Readers should view the research of some inevitable limits. Firstly, this study uses a convenience sample instead of random sample, which may not be representative. Random sampling is not feasible in the research because no comprehensive and exhaustive list of employees in organizations available. However, an advantage of the study is that the responses are from varieties of industries, the sample consists of employees only. While numerous studies have proved the validity of the self-report key informant data collection method (Chan, 2009), self-reported measures are not purely objective. However, an advantage of self-report evaluation is that the method is most accurately capture perceptual data. Therefore, many researchers argue that self-report approaches are necessary when assessing self-referential responses like job satisfaction, mood, and organizational support perception (Chan, 2009). Furthermore, Podsakoff & Organ (1986) contend that self-reports may represent more accurate estimates of population parameters than behavioral measures. Thus it is virtually indispensible in many organizational researches.

Last but not least, despite these advantages, I have to consider that the use of self-report performance data is a potential limitation of this research because respondents may provide biased judges of their own work-related attitudes and performance.

For future research, more attention should be draw on to the micro layer of the effectiveness of internal social capital. As for financial department, the controllers in the organization should take the psychological factors more seriously so that the

29 internal social capital can play a positive role in enhancing the employee performance. As a result, for sure, the organizational goal will be guaranteed, leading into the growth of firm value.

30

Appendix I: Reference

1 Adler, P. S., & Kwon, S. W. (2002). Social capital: Prospects for a new concept. Academy of management review, 27(1), 17-40.

2 Atkinson, C. (2007). Trust and the psychological contract. Employee Relations, 29(3), 227-246.

3 Batt, R. (2002). Managing customer services: Human resource practices, quit rates, and sales growth. Academy of management Journal, 45(3), 587-597.

4 Borman, W. C., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. Personnel selection in organizations, 71(1993), 98.

5 Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital,(w:) Handbook of theory and research for the sociology and education, red. JG Richardson.

6 Burt, R. S. (1992). The social structure of competition. Networks and organizations: Structure, form, and action, 57-91.

7 Chan, D. (2009). So why ask me? Are self-report data really that bad.Statistical and methodological myths and urban legends: Doctrine, verity and fable in the organizational and social sciences, 309-336.

8 Churchill Jr, G. A. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of marketing research, 64-73.

9 Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital.American journal of sociology, S95-S120.

10 Cronbach, L. J.; Meehl, P.E. (1955). "Construct Validity in Psychological Tests". Psychological Bulletin 52: 281–302

11 Dess, G. G., & Shaw, J. D. (2001). Voluntary turnover, social capital, and organizational performance. Academy of Management Review, 26(3), 446-456.

12 Ellinger, A. E., Musgrove, C. C. F., Ellinger, A. D., Bachrach, D. G., Elmadağ Baş, A. B., & Wang, Y. L. (2012). Influences of organizational investments in social capital on service employee commitment and performance. Journal of Business Research.

13 Fukuyama, F. (1995). Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity(pp. 457-457). New York: Free Press.

14 Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American journal of sociology, 1360-1380.

15 Hinkin, T. R. (1995). A review of scale development practices in the study of organizations. Journal of Management, 21(5), 967-988.

16 Kline, R. B. (2010). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). New York, New York: Guilford Press.

17 Leana, C. R., & Van Buren, H. J. (1999). Organizational social capital and employment practices. Academy of management review, 24(3), 538-555.

18 Luthans, F., & Youssef, C. M. (2004). Human, Social, and Now Positive Psychological Capital Management:: Investing in People for Competitive Advantage. Organizational Dynamics, 33(2), 143-160.

31 19 Merlo, O., Bell, S. J., Mengüç, B., & Whitwell, G. J. (2006). Social capital, customer service orientation and creativity in retail stores. Journal of Business Research, 59(12), 1214-1221.

20 Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of management review, 23(2), 242-266.

21 Norris, Megan; Lecavalier, Luc (17 July 2009). "Evaluating the Use of Exploratory Factor Analysis in Developmental Disability Psychological Research". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 40 (1): 8–20.

22 Podsakoff, P. M., & Organ, D. W. (1986). Self-reports in organizational research: Problems and prospects. Journal of management, 12(4), 531-544.

23 Portes, A. (2000). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. LESSER, Eric L. Knowledge and Social Capital. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 43-67.

24 Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling alone: America's declining social capital.Journal of democracy, 6(1), 65-78.

25 Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee responsibilities and rights journal, 2(2), 121-139.

26 Rousseau, D. M., & Parks, J. M. (1992). The contracts of individuals and organizations. Research in organizational behavior, 15, 1-43.

27 Son, J., & Lin, N. (2008). Social capital and civic action: A network-based approach. Social Science Research, 37(1), 330-349.

28 Thomas, D. C., Au, K., & Ravlin, E. C. (2003). Cultural variation and the psychological contract. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24(5), 451-471.

29 Van Scotter, J. R., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1996). Interpersonal facilitation and job dedication as separate facets of contextual performance. Journal of applied psychology, 81(5), 525.

30 Watson, G. W., & Papamarcos, S. D. (2002). Social capital and organizational commitment. Journal of Business and Psychology, 16(4), 537-552.

31 Xu, Q.R., Wang, Y., Chen J.(2002). Performance measurement and multi-dimensional evaluation. Scientific Management, 23(3), 84-89.

32 Zheng,B.S.(1995) .Different regulation and Chinese organizational behavior. Local psychological research,3,142-219

32

Appendix II: Survey Questionnaire Sample

RESEARCH SURVEY UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

Dear Sir/ Madam：

It’s been great appreciation to have you in this Master program research. The survey aims at analyzing the relationship between organizational social capital and employee performance. The questionnaire is not involved with commercial confidential information and is anonymous, so that you can answer the questions as honest as possible. Your objective and real message is of great important for the research result, if there is any questions and answers that cannot reflect your opinion, please choose the most close one. I promise that the result of the survey will be only used for scientific research for integral analysis.

Cong Lin (Master program accountancy and control of UVA) May 2014

1. General information

Age：（1）Below 24 （2）25-34（3）35-45（4）Above 45 Gender：（1）Male （2）Female

Educational level：（1）Secondary school or below（2）Junior high school （3）Junior college（4）Bachelor degree

（5）Master degree or beyond

Position：（1）Operating Worker ( 2 ) Technical worker ( 3 ) General Staff ( 4 ) line manager ( 5 ) Mid-level manager ( 6 ) Senior Manager Years of employment：（1）1 year or less（2）2-4years（3）5-10yars

（4）11-15years（5）16-19years（6）20years or longer * * * *How to answer the fowling parts: choose one number from 1 to 7.* * * *

Fully disagree Partly disagree Slightly disagree Neither agree nor disagree Slightly agree Partly agree Fully agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

33

1. Enterprise internal social capital

Network Ties ( N T ) Fully disagree---Fully agree

(1) The colleagues, including superior and subordinates in your department often communicate with each other.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(2) The colleagues, including superior and subordinates in your department have a close relationship with each other.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(3) It is usual that employees exchange opinions on decision making within the organization.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

General Trust ( G T ) Fully disagree---Fully agree

(4) The colleagues in your department can be straightforward when expressing their thoughts.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(5) It is encouraged to be open and honest in the organization. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (6)Your superior is honest and straightforward. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (7)The instruction made by your superior of his/her decision

making process is satisfactory for me.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(8) I will be informed in advance when there are changes in the work.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(9) My opinions about operational decision making will be considered by my superior.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Shared codes and language ( S C L ) Fully disagree---Fully agree

(10) People in your organization use mutual technical terms or jargon.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(11) The communication pattern between organization members is generally accepted and understandable.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(12) Organization members are always highly agreed on the

focal points at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. Relational Psychological Contracts ( R P C ) Fully disagree---Fully agree

(13) The organization has a harmonious superior-subordinates relationship.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(14) Members of your organization are respected. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(15) An atmosphere of teamwork and collaboration is provided in the organization.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(16) The individual development and personal life is well considered by the organization.

34 (17) Your contribution and achievements are valued and

awarded.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. Task productivity and Work Dedication ( T P W D ) Fully disagree---Fully agree

(18) I can finish my tasks before the deadlines. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(19) I can achieve the goals of my assignments. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(20) My working efficiency is improving. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(21) I am willing to keep learning and try to be innovative during work.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(22) I am often willing to offer to work overtime. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(23) I am self-controlled and well disciplined at workplace. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(24) I will stop any behavior I observe that can be harmful to our organization.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(25) I protect the instruments and facilities at workplace and always aware of saving resources (paper, electricity, water, etc).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(26) I am willing to take responsibilities for extra work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(27) I pay special attention and eager to give advice to the essential decisions made in the organizational operation.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *End of questionnaire* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

35

Appendix III: Sample Source

Source Frequency Rate

Shandong 38 34.55% Beijing 12 10.73% Guangdong 8 7.27% Shanghai 8 7.27% Jiangsu 8 7.27% Hebei 6 4.37% Guangxi 4 3.46% Zhejiang 4 3.46% Hubei 3 2.73% Hunan 3 2.73% Sichuan 2 1.82% Henan 2 1.82% Heilongjiang 2 1.82% Anhui 2 1.82% Jiangxi 1 0.91% Liaoning 1 0.91% Neimenggu 1 0.91% Hainan 1 0.91% Fujian 1 0.91% Gansu 1 0.91% Tianjin 1 0.91% Shaanxi 1 0.91% Chongqing 1 0.91% Total 110 100.00%