Title: The mediating role of organisation support in effective delegation: the case of Chinese subordinate managers

Authors: Therese A. Joiner, Steve Bakalis, Jerome Choy

Addresses: School of Business, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086, Australia. ' School of Applied Economics, Faculty of Business and Law, Victoria University, Footscray Park Campus, 3011, Melbourne, Australia. ' School of Business, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086, Australia

Abstract: Delegation is widely accepted as an essential element of effective management in North American organisations; however, delegation may not be effective in other countries where employees hold different cultural values. We suggest that Chinese cultural values are inconsistent with delegation, and as such we develop a model in which organisation support mediates the relationship between delegation and, subordinate job satisfaction and performance in the Chinese context. Our sample comprised 136 Chinese subordinates working in a large transport company in Hong Kong. Our results show that organisation support partially mediates between delegation and job satisfaction while organisation support (with job satisfaction) fully mediates between delegation and subordinate performance. Implications for the theory and practice of delegation are discussed, particularly in the context of employees| national cultural differences.

Keywords: delegation; organisational support; job satisfaction; subordinate performance; Chinese managers; mediation; China; cultural values; culture; management; transport company; Hong Kong.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCCM.2007.016172

International Journal of Chinese Culture and Management, 2007 Vol.1 No.1, pp.126 - 139

Published online: 07 Dec 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article