Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change | Volume Five Number Two
Organisational Transformation
& Social Change 5.2
Volume 5 Number 2 – 2008
105–107 Editorial
Paul Iles
Articles
Journal of
Organisational
109–127 Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical
review of post-reform research
Jie Shen and Xin Deng
129–140 Applying the congruence model of organisational change in explaining
Transformation
the change in the Indian economic policies
Karabi C. Bezboruah
141–157 Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development
as predictors of support for change
Organisational Transformation
and Social Change
Volume 5 Number 2
Organisational Transformation and Social Change (OTASC) is an interna- Editors
tional English language, peer reviewed scholarly journal. It is dedicated Maurice Yolles
to an academically sound approach to enquiry and exploration into School of Business Information
change in organisations and social systems, and it seeks convergence of Liverpool John Moores University
98 Mount Pleasant
these and related disciplines so as to form a science of social communi-
Liverpool L3 5UZ UK
ties. This journal takes the view that situations involving people are nor-
m.yolles@livjm.ac.uk
mally highly complex, and hence it sees all human/social conditions and
processes in terms of the complexity paradigm. While OTASC particularly Paul Iles
encourages systemic, operational research and cybernetic approaches, it Running Stream Professor HRD
should also be seen as a general vehicle to explore theory and practice Leeds Business School
Leeds Metropolitan University
about change deriving from the more traditional academic disciplines.
Headingley Campus
OTASC encompasses the social sciences, including organizational and
Leeds
management science, management systems/operational research and LS6 3QS, UK
cybernetics, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, P.iles@leedsmet.ac.uk
psychohistory, as well as economics, law, mathematics and matters relat-
ing to the information or knowledge society. Assistant Editor
While preference will be given to papers that are well grounded in Ann Mulhaney
the scientific literature, OTASC will also consider more exploratory pieces a.mulhaney@livjm.ac.uk
of work that seek to provide an opening for alternative thought.
All articles will be submitted to two referees, nominated by the Editorial Administrator
Editorial Committee, for peer review. Nicky Hovell
Faculty of Business and Law
Editorial Board Liverpool John Moores University
Yochanan Altman Human Resource Development, UK 98 Mount Pleasant
Bela Banathy Systems, Social Evolution, USA Liverpool L3 5UZ
Soeren Brier Cybernetics and Semiotics, Denmark UK
Zhicheng Chen Strategic Management, OR, China N.G.Hovell@livjm.ac.uk
Keith Dowding Politics, UK
Daniel Dubois Complexity and Living Systems, Belgium
Sebastian Green Strategic Management, Ireland
Stig Holmberg Systemic Modelling, Sweden © 2008 Intellect Ltd. Authorisation
Hiroyuki Itami Knowledge, Invisible Assets, Japan to photocopy items for internal or
Mike Jackson Systems, UK personal use or the internal or personal
Devi Jancowicz Human Resource Development, UK use of specific clients is granted by
George Klir General Systems, USA Intellect Ltd for libraries and other
Alexander Laszlo Knowledge Evolution, Mexico users registered with the Copyright
Monica Lee Human Resource Development, UK Licensing Agency (CLA) in the UK or
Gerald Midgley Systems, OR, UK the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC)
Niculae Mihaita Cybernetics, Romania Transactional Reporting Service in the
Jan Owsinski Systems Social Change, Poland USA provided that the base fee is paid
Jose Perez Rios Systems Thinking and Cybernetics, Spain directly to the relevant organisation.
Rajesh K. Pillania Knowledge Management, IILM, India
Mark Rouncefield Ethnomethodology, UK
Juan Salcedo Social Migration, Spain Articles appearing in this journal are
Randall Schuler Human Resource Strategy, USA abstracted and indexed in Cambridge
Markus Schwaninger Managerial Cybernetics, Switzerland Scientific Abstracts, International
Jie Shen (International) Human Resources Management Bibliography of the Social Sciences
(ISBSS), and Journal of Economic
Organisational Transformation and Social Change is published three times per year Literature (EconLit).
by Intellect, PO Box 862, Bristol, BS99 1DE, UK. The current subscription rate-
sare £33 (personal) and £210 (institutional). A postage charge of £9 is made
for subscriptions of Europe (outside UK), and £12 for the rest of the world. ISSN 1477-9633
Subscriptions may also be paid for in Euros, by cheque only and at the discretion
of the subscriber for €50 (personal) or €240 (institutional). Subscriptions,
enquiries and bookings for advertising should be addressed to: Journals
Manager, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Journal website: http://www.intellectbooks.com/journals/otsc.htm 4edge, UK
OTSC_5-2-00-FM 5/31/08 10:14 AM Page 104
Any matters concerning the format and presentation of articles not covered by the above notes should be addressed to the Editor.
The guidance on this page is by no means comprehensive: it must be read in conjunction with Intellect Notes for Contributors.
These notes can be referred to by contributors to any of Intellect’s journals, and so are, in turn, not sufficient; contributors will also
need to refer to the guidance such as this given for each specific journal. Intellect Notes for Contributors is obtainable from
www.intellectbooks.com/journals, or on request from the Editor of this journal.
OTSC_5-2-01-Editorial 5/31/08 10:15 AM Page 105
Editorial
Paul Iles Co-Editor, JOTASC
This edition of JOTASC has five papers, three of which are about change in
emerging, transitional or developing economies whilst two concern infor-
mation and communication technologies in Western countries. Three are
literature reviews whilst two are based on empirical studies, one using
qualitative and one quantitative methodologies.
There has been much written recently on the shift in economic power
from West to East, and the emergence of the BRIC bloc of big, rich, indus-
trialising countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). This edition of the journal
is timely in that there are two articles on this bloc of countries.
Shen and Deng’s article on gender wage inequality in the transitional
Chinese economy explores through a thorough literature review one impact
of China’s economic reform, which has brought significant changes to its
income distribution system. This article critically and systematically reviews
a growing but scattered literature on gender wage inequality in post-
reform China. It concludes that, due to appropriate rewards of human
capital characteristics, marketisation has given rise to a gender wage dif-
ferential which is similar to or smaller than the differential in most indus-
trialised and developing nations. Moreover, the gender wage gap is smaller
in urban industries than in rural ones. Gender wage discrimination that
accounts for unexplained components is generally smaller than that of the
earnings differential. Increased market competition does not seem to have
reduced gender wage inequality. However, the current literature is incon-
clusive, as it examines the gender wage inequality of only a tiny fraction of
the country’s vast population and geography before China’s accelerated
reform programme in the late 1990s. Large-scale empirical research
which explores the effects of such reform on gender wage inequality is
therefore urgently needed. The article is particularly interesting in that it
brings together research by economists and sociologists, often employing
quite different methodologies. It has implications also for politics and HRM
in terms of its significance for HRM policies in organisations, especially
around diversity and equality, as well as government policy in this area. It
should also inspire research into other growing inequalties and disparities
in China, such as the growing gap between urban and rural, East and
West, and rich and poor, as well as the growing ethnic and regional
inequalities currently receiving much media interest.
India is often spoken as a rival to China for Asian economic leadership
and influence. Karabi Bezboruah’s article on applying the congruence
electronic mail and communication may have an adverse impact upon well-
being, stress and productivity. E-mail may act as a stress conduit, but is also
in itself a potential stressor, and may also impair productivity due to its com-
munication characteristics, affecting key operational aspects such as decision
making and team cohesion. It may escalate disputes, facilitate harassment
and encourage litigation. The article presents a framework identifying
antecedents and potential personal and organisational outcomes, and con-
cludes with an outline agenda for further research as a first step in develop-
ing strategies to overcome e-mail’s potential negative consequences.
In the final article by Asproth and Nystrom the results of a Swedish
pilot study on the ‘Arena for Sustainable Innovative Development of small
and medium-sized enterprises’ are discussed. The project aimed to create
and test a model for collaboration and sustainable development among
small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in local areas. This is an issue
facing many countries, especially those where SMEs are a dominant force
in the economy. The research question in this article is focussed on issues
concerning use of ICT, information exchange and communication among
the interested parties. The pilot study was accomplished in a qualitative
and explorative way with semi-structured interviews. As a result of the
study some questions are identified as needing further investigation.
Editorial 107
OTSC_5-2-01-Editorial 5/31/08 10:15 AM Page 108
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 109
Abstract Keywords
China’s economic reform has brought significant changes to its income distribu- gender wage inequality
tion system. This article critically and systematically reviews a growing but scat- gender wage gap
tered literature on gender wage inequality in post-reform China. It concludes that, gender wage differential
due to appropriate rewards of human capital characteristics, market liberation gender wage
gives rise to a gender wage differential which is similar to or smaller than the dif- discrimination
ferential in most industrialised and developing nations. Moreover, the gender gender wage difference
wage gap is smaller in urban industries than in rural ones. Gender wage discrim- China
ination that accounts for unexplained components is generally smaller than that
of the earnings differential. Increased market competition does not seem to reduce
gender wage inequality. However, the current literature is inconclusive, as it
examines the gender wage inequality of only a tiny fraction of the country’s vast
population and geography before China’s accelerated reform in the late 1990s.
Large-scale empirical research, exploring effects of such reform on gender wage
inequality is therefore urgently needed.
1. Introduction
The post-reform research on gender wage inequality in China is critically
and systematically reviewed in this article. Earnings inequality is mainly a
Chinese post-reform phenomenon. China has a long tradition of Confucianism
that discriminated against women. Such a tradition diminished during the
planned economy (1949–1978) when China was committed to gender
equality, particularly in the labour market. Prior to the reform, female
work participation in urban areas reached more than 90 per cent. Such a
level was matched by only a few developing countries (Croll 1995). The
Chinese central government adopted a system of national wage scales,
which was based on the principle of socialist egalitarianism and cradle-to-
grave ‘welfarism’ (Loscoco and Bose 1998; Warner 1995). The socialist
egalitarian ideology suppressed human capital characteristics and induced
equal pay between males and females (Liu, Meng and Zhang, 2000;
Meng and Miller, 1995). Although wage discrepancies in rural areas still
MOLSS 2005; Rozelle et al. 2002; World Bank 2002). China has a large
female population, which reached 630 million at the end of 2004, and
female employment accounts for nearly 45% of total employment (NBSC
2005; MOLSS 2005). Gender wage inequality in China is an important
topic for empirical research in order to determine the effect of reform of
the largest transitional economy on the largest female workforce in the
world.
China’s experience may have significant implications for other transi-
tional economies. Similar to China, many transition economies in East
Europe experienced widening wage gap, rising unemployment and declined
female labour force participation rates. Contrary to China where female
employees are paying higher price compared with their male counterparty
for such change, female employees fared relatively well in these countries.
The decline in male labour force participation in the early years of transi-
tion is reported to exceed that of female labour force participation, and
there has been a consistent increase in female relative wages across Eastern
Europe, despite a substantial decline in female relative wages in Russia and
Ukraine (Brainerd 2000).
Not surprisingly, there is a growing literature which examines gender
earnings inequality in China since the middle 1990s. This increase is also
largely due to the fact that the phenomenon of gender earnings inequality
contradicts the principle underlined in Mao’s famous slogan ‘Women hold
up half the sky’ (funu neng ding banbian tian), and in the Chinese constitu-
tion that guarantees women equal rights with men in all aspects of life
and equal pay for equal work.
However, there is a lack of research that summarises and assesses the
findings of existing scattered studies which would clarify whether past
research has scientifically and satisfactorily explained this new phenome-
non. Many questions are worth seeking answers to: How large is the
earning gap between men and women in China? What are the major
sources of gender wage inequality? Is western literature equally powerful
when applied to the Chinese context? Has past research on China’s gender
wage inequality advanced knowledge? What are the major limitations of
the existing literature?
To answer these questions, this article reviews post-reform research on
gender wage inequality in China, aiming to develop a better understand-
ing of its size and sources, the effects of economic reform, and to explore
avenues for further research. The databases searched represent virtually
all areas of academic study, economics and peer-reviewed business and
scholarly publications in English and Chinese. The period chosen was
1990–2007, as this represents the time when the early 1990s economic
restructuring in China began to make itself felt, and research on the topic
flowed as a result. The search terms are the same as the key words of this
article. The search term ‘wage difference China’ returns with more than
5,000 articles alone from Google Scholar alone, there were nearly 2000
articles found in JSTOR with the same term. Other databases that returned
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 111
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 112
with more than 50 articles are Blackwell Synergy (248) and Kluwer (89).
The titles and abstracts, where available, were screened to identify the
potentially relevant publications. Two reviewers independently identified
the publications and extracted the findings of the studies cited. Differences
were resolved through discussions, and 25 articles were selected for this
literature review. These articles were published between 1995 and 2007,
with eleven papers published between 1995 and 1999 and ten papers
published between 2000 and 2004. This indicates continuing interest in
this area since the mid-1990s. Majority of the research uses Oaxaca
decomposition method to test the existence of gender discrimination. As
shown in the sections below, these papers have covered a wide range of
areas and utilised data sources including nation-wide household survey
and surveys covering several cities, a group of firm and households.
To meet our objectives, the remaining article is structured as follows:
Firstly, it reviews western concepts explaining gender earnings inequality,
including earnings differential and gender discrimination, and the under-
lying sources. Secondly, it assesses by themes past studies on these issues
in China, including gender earnings inequality in both urban and rural
industry, across ownership sectors and across regions. Subsequently, it
revisits the research questions set for this article, discusses limitations of
past studies and further research directions, and draws some conclusions.
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 113
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 114
by the low possibility of one gender group finding jobs in a specific sector,
employers’ prejudice against one gender group over the other is an
example of gender wage discrimination.
However, many scholars are optimistic about the role of market forces
on reducing gender discrimination, suggesting that, in the long run,
gender wage discrimination is not sustainable under perfect market com-
petition, as firms that do not discriminate against females are able to
achieve higher productivity and efficiency than those that do (Arrow
1973; Becker 1957; Liu et al. 2000). Becker (1957) argued that market
forces may result in less gender wage discrimination if it becomes too
costly for employers to compete with those who do not discriminate
against females. Some authors find that wage discrimination is less likely
in more market-oriented enterprises and suggest that market liberalisation
will improve women’s economic position (Meng 1998b; Liu et al. 2000).
According to these authors, it can be argued, therefore, that in the long-
run, equality of wages can contribute to economic efficiency.
The methods of Oaxaca (Oaxaca 1973; Oaxaca and Ransom 1994),
Blinder (1973) and Neumark’s (1998) are well-known as Oaxaca-Blinder
decomposition for analysing the composition of the gender wage differ-
ence. According to these researchers, the total gender wage gap consists of
the gender wage differential – attributable to gender differences in observ-
able productive characteristics (explained component) – and the residual
gap – attributable to differences in the male and female returns to these
productive characteristics. This residual is an unexplained component
attributable to discrimination, but could also be due to differences in
unobserved productive characteristics. Nevertheless, critics of Oaxaca-
Blinder decomposition are concerned with the neglect of the remainder of
the distribution (Jenkins 1994; Millimet and Wang 2006).
If western concepts are equally applicable to the Chinese context,
China’s transition from a centrally controlled economy to a marketised
economy is most likely to exert two competing gender effects on wages. On
one hand, liberalisation of the market fosters efficiency and productivity,
which requires appropriate reward of human capital, and, consequently,
widens the gender wage gap, but on the other hand, increasing market
competition might function as a catalytic agent of gender equality, thus
reducing the incidence of gender wage inequality. Nevertheless, it is impor-
tant to clarify how the largest economic transition has actually affected
gender wage inequality.
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 115
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 116
revealed that the gender earnings gap increased slightly from 19 per cent
in 1988 to 20 per cent in 1994. The gender wage gap was reported as
about 10 per cent in the study of Shu and Bian (2003), which is smaller
than reported in other studies. Shu and Bian (2003) also disagreed on the
increase in the gender wage gap; instead, they argued that the gap was
stable from 1988 to 1995. Liu et al. (2000) concluded in their study that
there was increasing competition but no perfect competition, between
1988 and 1994, in the markets of the Chinese transitional economy. The
effect of marketisation on increasing wage differentials overwhelms any
discrimination reduction effect of competition.
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 117
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 118
industry. Women were more likely to become wage employed when the
household’s demand for agricultural labour input was low. Nevertheless,
there seems to be consensus that the relative share of wage discrimination
decreases in the rural industry over time (Dong et al. 2004; Meng 1998a;
Rozelle et al. 2003).
There is not much literature, except for Meng (1998a) and Xu et al.
(2006), devoted to the gender wage differential and discrimination of rural
migrants. Meng (1998a) argued that there was a significant gender wage
gap (34%) among migrants during the study period and it was mainly due
to occupational segregation, for example the unequal treatment of male
and female attributes in occupational assignment. The share of gender
wage differentials and discrimination accounted for 27 per cent and
73 per cent respectively of the total wage gap. However, while discrimina-
tion in occupational attainment was a very serious problem for migrants,
intra-occupational gender wage discrimination was lower for them than
for workers in the rural industry. Xu et al. (2006) reported that the gender
earnings gap was much less among migrants than among local residents,
and was biggest, before 2000, among those working as agricultural
labourers in rural areas.
8. Discussions
In this section, we revisit research questions set for this review study, and
discuss the limitations of past studies. Research Question 1 asked whether
Chinese women are financially disadvantaged in the wages they earn. Past
studies all agreed that economic reform, which has liberalised markets and
enterprise management, had resulted in widespread gender wage inequal-
ity replacing socialist egalitarianism in both urban and rural industries.
Yet, past studies did not reach consensus on the size of gender wage
inequality, which reportedly ranged from 10 per cent to 54 per cent in
urban industries and from 20 per cent to 45.7 per cent in the rural sector,
and on whether gender wage inequality increased over time. Among
migrants, the size of the gender earnings gap was about 34 per cent in the
early 1990s, which falls within the reported wide range (Meng 1998a).
Following the majority, including Bishop et al. (2005), Dong et al.
(2004); Hare (1999), Gustaffson and Li (2000), Hughes and Maurer-Fazio
(2002), Meng (1998a,b), Rozelle et al. (2003), Knight and Song (2003)
and Shu and Bian (2003), and referring to international literature, for
example Blau and Kahn (1992, 1994), Brainerd (2000) and Ogloblin
(1999), we are inclined to draw three conclusions with regard to the size
of gender wage inequality. First, the overall gender wage gap in China is
smaller than or similar to that of other industrialised and developing
nations. This indicates, to a certain extent, that Maoist gender equality
ideology has been maintained in the transition from a command economy
to a market economy. Second, the overall gender wage gap was stable in
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 119
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 120
the first two decades of economic reform. Third, the gender wage gap in
the urban industry is smaller than in its rural counterpart.
Research Question 2 dealt with the major sources of gender wage
inequality. Past studies are much divided in estimating relative sizes of the
gender wage differential and discrimination. While the reported sizes of
gender wage discrimination in the total earnings gap range from zero (in
the upper end of the distribution) to 71 per cent in the urban industry,
those in the rural industry vary from 16 per cent to 94 per cent (including
among migrants). Past studies found that education, work experience and
marital status are the universally accepted factors mostly associated with
the gender wage differential. The gender wage gap decreases with an
increase in a worker’s level of education and duration of employment.
Women generally lag behind men in their average number of years of
schooling (China Educational Commission, 1996) and often have a dis-
ruption in their careers due to child-bearing. In contrast to their unmar-
ried counterparts, married women’s intermittent labour force participation
is an important cause of gender wage gaps. There are variations in gender
wage gaps across ownership types, where they decrease from the self-
employed, to the state, to the collective, to FIE/JVs and to private enter-
prise. Also, all studies, except that of Gustaffson and Li (2000), argued
that the relative share of gender earnings discrimination had decreased
since China’s economic reform. Moreover, it is widely agreed that gender
wage discrimination is more serious in rural rather than urban indus-
tries, due to a deep-seated discriminatory culture that exists in rural
areas.
Research Question 3 dealt with whether western literature is equally
powerful when applied to the Chinese context, and research on China’s
gender wage inequality has indeed advanced knowledge in this area. As
discussed in Blau and Kahn (1992, 1995, 1997), western literature differ-
entiates wage differential from discrimination by examining the compo-
nents attributable to differences in productive characteristics (explained
factors) and in rewarding productive characteristics (unexplained factors).
Without exception, when analysing China’s gender wage differential and
discrimination, all past studies used western concepts proven to be equally
powerful when applied to the Chinese context. First, this review study
shows that there is a consensus in the literature that China’s economic
reform, which allows market-oriented wage determination system and free
selection of occupations and employees, has increased gender wage differ-
entials. This is because marketisation enables human capital, mainly edu-
cation and experience, to be appropriately rewarded. Second, market
liberalisation and the relaxation of socialist egalitarian control result in
gender wage discrimination in the workplace. However, due to the fact
that past studies have been mainly application of the Western concepts to
the Chinese context, they have developed a better understanding of gender
wage difference in China, but have contributed little in advancing the
theory. The only exception is the study of Hare (1999), which examined
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 121
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 122
higher incomes for rural residents compared to urban residents. The find-
ings of this study, however, are hardly universal and under-representative
in China. Meng (1998a) argued that gender wage discrimination is more
serious in the non-market group than in the market group. This finding
contradicts the well-agreed argument that gender earnings inequality is
less serious in a planned economy than in a market economy (Blau and
Kahn 1995; Gunderson 1994; Meng 1996), and, due to its sample bias, is
hardly universal. Therefore, one should be always cautious when using
the results of the past studies.
Third, there should be a concern for the quality of data used in past
studies. As Maurer-Fazio et al. (1999) pointed out, some studies extracted
data from yearbooks that do not provide information about individual
characteristics, for example education, experience and age breakdown.
Migrants, however, who have become an important labour force in the
urban industry, are often excluded from urban surveys. Unavailability of
some essential personal data makes it impossible to clarify the relative
importance of wage differentials and wage discrimination in a representa-
tive population. FIEs and JVs, an important part of the Chinese economy
that employs a large number of employees and has affected considerably
Chinese wage system, were often excluded in the analyses. So too was the
earnings gap of farmers. Moreover, ‘the reliability of Chinese official statis-
tics is often considered problematic’ (Warner 2002: 396).
9. Conclusions
The ever-widening wage inequality, including gender earnings inequality,
is a major source of discontent for many ordinary Chinese people. This
article reviewed the post-reform research on gender wage inequality in
order to examine its size and sources, and applicability of western litera-
ture to the Chinese context. It is inferred that economic reform has
resulted in gender wage inequality attributable to both wage differential
(explained by appropriate rewards of human capital characteristics, such
as education, experience, marital status) and gender discrimination. The
size of the gender wage differential is relatively larger than that of gender
discrimination, but smaller than in most industrialised and developing
nations. Gender wage discrimination is much more serious in the urban
industry than in the rural industry, due to deep-seated discriminatory
culture existing in rural areas. However, it needs to be noted that the find-
ings of past studies are inconclusive and inconsistent. This is mainly due to
the current literature drawing a picture of gender wage inequality only of
the first two decades of reform, and then of a minor fraction of China’s
vast and diverse population. Past Chinese studies have mainly applied
western concepts which are proven very applicable to the Chinese context,
but made little theoretical contribution.
One of this study’s objectives is to identify avenues for further research
into gender wage differentials and discrimination. According to the perfect
market competition approach, with intensification of market competition
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 123
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 124
Works cited
Arrow, K. (1972), ‘Models of Job Discrimination and Some Mathematical Models of
Race Discrimination in the Labour Market’, in A.H. Pascal (ed.), Racial Discrim-
ination in Economic Life, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 83–102,
187–204.
Becker, G.S. (1957), The Economics of Discrimination, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Bishop, J.A., Luo, F.J. and Wang, F. (2005), ‘Economic Transition, Gender Bias, and
the Distribution of Earning in Urban China’, Economics of Transition, 13: 2,
pp. 239–260.
Blau, F.D. and Kahn, L.M. (1992), ‘The Gender Earnings Gap: Learning from
International Comparisons’, American Economic Review, 82: 2, pp. 533–538.
——— (1994), ‘Rising Wage Inequality and the U.S. Gender Gap’, American Eco-
nomic Review, 84: 1, pp. 23–28.
——— (1995), ‘The Gender Earnings Gap: Some International Evidence’, in
Richard Freeman and Lawrence F. Katz (ed.), Differences and Changes in Wage
Structures, Chicago: University Chicago Press (For NBER).
——— (1997), ‘Swimming Upstream: Trends in the Gender Wage Differential in
the 1980s’, Journal of Labour Economics, 15: 1, pp. 1–42.
Blinder, A.S. (1973), ‘Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural
Estimates’, Journal of Human Resource, 19, pp. 436–455.
Bound, J. and Johnson, G. (1992), ‘Changes in the Structure of Wages in the
1980s: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations’, American Economic Review,
82, pp. 371–392.
Brainerd, E. (2000), ‘Women in Transition: Changes in Gender Wage Differentials
in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union’, Industrial and Labour Relations
Review, 54: 1, pp. 138–162.
Chan, A., Madsen, R. and Unger, J. (1992), Chen Village Under Mao and Deng,
Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 125
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 126
Meng, X. and Miller, W.P. (1995), ‘Occupation Segregation and Its Impact on
Gender Wage Discrimination in China’s Rural Industrial Sector’, Oxford Eco-
nomic Papers, 47: 1, pp. 136–155.
Meng, X. (1996), ‘An Examination of Wage Determination in China’s Rural
Industrial Sector’, Applied Economics, 28: 1, pp. 715–724.
Meng, X. (1998a), ‘Male-female wage determination and gender wage discrimina-
tion in China’s Rural Industrial Sector’, Labour economies, 5, pp. 67–89.
Meng, X. (1998b), ‘Gender Occupational Segregation and Its Impact on the
Gender Wage Differential Among Rural-Urban Migrants: A Chinese Case
Study’, Applied Economics, 30, pp. 741–752.
Meng, X. (2003), ‘Unemployment, Income Inequality and Poverty in Urban
China’, in Kishor Sharma (ed.), Trade Policy Reform, Growth and Equality in Asian
Developing Countries, New York: Routledge.
Millimet, D.L. and Wang, L. (2006), ‘A Distributional Analysis of the Gender
Earnings Gap in Urban China’, Contributions to Economic Analysis and Policy, 5:
1, Article 5.
Mitsuhashi, H., Park, H.J., Wright, P.M. and Chua, R.S. (2000). ‘Line and HR exe-
cutives’ Perceptions of HR Effectiveness in Firms in the People’s Republic of
China’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11: 2,
pp. 197–217.
National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC) and Ministry of Labour and Social
Security (MOLSS) (2005), China Labour Statistical Yearbook, Beijing: China
Statistical Press.
Neumark, D. (1988), ‘Employer’s Discriminatory Behaviour and the Estimation of
Wage Discrimination’, The Journal of Human Resources, 23: 3, pp. 279–295.
——— (1998), ‘Employers’ Discriminatory Behaviour and the Estimation of Wage
Discrimination’, Human Resource Management, 23: 3, pp. 279–295.
Ng, Y.C. (2004), ‘Economic Development, Human Capital, and Gender Earnings
Differentials in China’, Economics of Education Review, 23: 6, pp. 587–603.
Ogloblin, C. (1999), ‘The Gender Earnings Differential in the Russian Transition
Economy’, Industrial and Labour Relations Review, 52, pp. 602–627.
Oaxaca, R. (1973), ‘Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labour Markets’,
International Economic Review, 14, pp. 693–709.
Oaxaca, R. and Ransom, M. (1994), ‘On Discrimination and the Decomposition of
Wage Differentials’, The Journal of Econometrics, 61, pp. 5–21.
Rozelle, S., Dong, X., Zhang, L. and Mason, A. (2002), ‘Gender Wage Gaps in Post-
Reform Rural China’, Pacific Economic Review, 7: 1, pp. 157–179.
Shen, J. (2007), Labour Disputes and Their Management in China. Oxford: Chandos
Publishing.
Shu, X.L. and Bian, Y.J. (2003), ‘Market Transition and Gender Gap in Earnings in
Urban China’, Social Forces, 81: 4, pp. 1107–1145.
The United Nations (UN) (2005), ‘The National Human Development Reports for
China’, http://www.undp.org.cn/modules.php?op⫽modload&name⫽News&file⫽
article&topic⫽40&sid⫽228. Accessed 17 August 2006.
Xie, Y. and Hannum, E. (1996), ‘Regional Variation in Earnings Inequality in
Reform Era Urban China’, American Journal of Sociology, 101: 4, 950–992.
Xinhua News Agency (2007), China Suffers Widening Income Gap, China Daily:
Beijing, January 2007.
Xu, W., Tan, K.-C. and Wang, G.X. (2006), ‘Segmented Local Labour Markets in
Post-Reform China: Gender Earnings Inequality in the Case Of Two Towns in
Zhejiang Province’, Environment and Planning A, 38, pp. 85–109.
Suggested citation
Shen, J., & Deng, X. (2008), ‘Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese
economy: A critical review of post-reform research’, Journal of Organisational
Transformation and Social Change 5: 2, pp. 109–127, doi: 10.1386/jots.5.2.109/1
Contributor details
Jie Shen (Dr) is Associate Professor in International Human Resource Management,
Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash
University, Melbourne, Australia. He is Adjunct Associate Professor at University of
South Australia, Guest Professor at Southwest Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
University and Fujian Normal University. His main research interests are
International Human Resource Management (IHRM) and HR and industrial rela-
tions (IR) in China. Contact: Jie Shen (Dr), Associate Professor in International
Business, Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management,
Monash University, Melbourne, 3000, Australia. Tel: 0061-3-99055465, Fax:
0061-3-9905 5412.
E-mail: jie.shen@buseco.monash.edu.au
Dr. Xin Deng is Lecturer in Economics at University of South Australia. Her
research is in applied Microeconomics areas, and her previous publications cover a
wide range of topics including state owned enterprises reform in China, taxation
modelling and cost evaluation of non-market goods. Contact: Xin Deng (Dr),
Lecturer, School of Commerce, Division of Business, University of South Australia.
Tel: 61-8-83020743, Fax: 61-8-83020992.
E-mail: xin.deng@unisa.edu.au
Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical review . . . 127
OTSC_5-2-02-Shen 5/31/08 10:16 AM Page 128
OTSC_5-2-03-Bezboruah 5/31/08 10:18 AM Page 129
Abstract Keywords
Faced with a dynamic and globalised external economic environment and a deterio- congruence model
rating internal economic environment, the Indian government decided to reform its Nadler–Tushman’s
economic policies. The changes meant overhauling India’s economic system by model
making it more market oriented. This article applies Nadler–Tushman’s Congruence Indian economic
Model of organisational change to the changes in the Indian economic system and reforms
attempts to examine the model’s validity in large-scale organisational settings. The change management
findings show that although the change process is consistent with the model’s fea- organisational change
tures, the model does not recommend any action strategies to handle resistances.
Resistances being a significant part of any change process, inclusion of strategies to
manage resistances would enhance the applicability of the congruence model.
1. Introduction
The economic system of a country is the backbone on which the country
designs its development. A large-scale transition involving the economy of
a nation of a billion people is not only merely a process but it also means
changing the identity as well as future of the country. Models for explain-
ing organisational changes have been espoused by several scholars over
the years (Weisbrod 1976; Nadler and Tushman 1988; Burke 2002;
Bolman and Deal 2003). The purpose of this article is to evaluate the policy
change process implemented by the Government of India in the early 1990s
by applying the congruence model developed by Nadler and Tushman in
1997. This article, by examining the policy reforms in the framework of
the congruence model, seeks to assess the validity of this model in large-
scale economic transitions. The economic reforms of India initiated as a
result of severe economic crisis have, over the years, led to increased
foreign investment, growth in entrepreneurial ability, higher collaboration
with multi-national corporations, and an increased importance of India in
international economics. Because of these achievements post-reform, the
change process merits scholarly study. Such massive policy changes of a
nation have not been previously studied in the framework of any organisa-
tional change model.
2. Literature review
2.1. Overview of the organisational change management
Change is a permanent feature and an ongoing process in organisations
and institutions. Change can be proactive or reactive, incremental or
the states; high tariff levels among the developing countries; low export rate
due to India being a high-cost producer; and rigid laws relating to employ-
ment and retrenchment of labour resulted in high production costs and low
productivity (Ahluwalia 2002). The effects of the gradual changes were
mixed. For example, the primary sector lagged behind the secondary and
tertiary sectors, and the non-uniform implementation of the reforms led to
uneven growth across states. The services sector, especially the information
technology enabled services enjoyed the greatest surge due to the deregula-
tion. Employment in this sector also increased due to the presence of large
numbers of well-educated and English speaking people. According to Datt
and Ravallion (2002), in spite of a strong national rate of growth, this sec-
toral and geographic imbalance of growth hampered an equivalent reduc-
tion of the poverty rate. However, the cumulative effect of the changes was
very significant to the Indian economy. This is reflected in India’s increas-
ing gross domestic product (GDP). The Indian economy has posted an
average growth rate of more than 7 per cent in the decade since 1996 and
achieved an 8.5 per cent GDP growth in 2006. Exports of merchandise, ser-
vices and industry increased 23 per cent, 10.3 per cent and 7.6 per cent,
respectively (World Bank 2007).
and Akin 2006). The inputs towards the transformation process include the
external environment, internal resources and the organisation’s history.
Based on these inputs, the organisation’s leaders formulate the strategy for
initiating changes. The outputs are the performance of the various sectors
of the organisation after the changes are implemented.
The economic policy reforms initiated by the Indian government were a
gradual process involving a period of about 6 years from 1991 to 1997.
These changes can be categorised as a first-order, incremental change that
involves maintaining and developing the continuity of the organisation as
opposed to second-order, discontinuous change involving radical transfor-
mation in the nature of the organisation. Nadler and Tushman (1995)
added another dimension to this distinction between the incremental and
discontinuous change by incorporating the concepts of anticipatory or reac-
tive of changes to the external environment (Palmer, Dunford and Akin
2006). In the case of changes in the Indian policies, the changes were pri-
marily reactive in nature. The impending economic crisis faced by India was
due to the Gulf War between Iraq and the United States in the early 1990s
that led to a short-term rise in the prices of oil. The collapse of the Soviet
Union, India’s largest trading partner in 1991 was another cause of India’s
economic crisis (Nagaraj 1997). Similarly, there were demands from inter-
national lenders such as the international monetary fund (IMF) to deregu-
late and liberalise India’s economy in order to avoid a debt crisis and
maintain economic stability (Basu 1993). In addition, weak economic poli-
cies by earlier governments whereby expenditures exceeded revenue leading
to high fiscal deficits and heavy borrowing by the government were also
responsible for the economic crisis (Nayar 1998). The economic reforms
brought about by the government were, thus, a reaction of these pressures to
bring about change in the national policies. Moreover, these incremental
changes in the policies were adaptive to the pressures of India’s deteriorating
economic situation as well as the dictates of international lenders.
The congruence model outlines eight steps while analyzing organisa-
tional problems. Table 1 lists the eight steps and then analyses them in the
context of the changes.
7. Research implications
The analysis of the Indian economic reforms suggests that the components
involved in the transformation process were consistent with each other as
per the congruence model. However, this model might not be able to
explain all aspects of such a large-scale change that involves the economy
and future of a whole nation. This is because the model leaves out an
important aspect of any transformation, that is, resistance from those
affected by the change. On the other hand, the model provides a holistic
view as it encompasses the various elements of the organisation.
Diagnostic models of change management assist in explaining how the
change process works out. Congruence model is one such explicit model
that tries to link the causal relationship of any change. Yet, the question
arises regarding the necessity or usefulness of models to explain organisa-
tional change. According to Burke (2002), as cited in Palmer, Dunford and
Akin (2006: 108–109), organisational change models help in reducing
complex situations into more manageable categories and also identify the
activities that needs the most attention. The models also bring out the inter-
connectedness of the elements and processes which highlights the sequence
of events that were involved in the change process. Although application
of these models to nations and economic transformations is not common,
these models can be useful to analyse changes in the national context. Such
application can provide insight to the change processes from the planning
stage so that the complex processes are categorised into more manageable
units. Further, this can also help in extending and modifying the model by
evaluating its applicability in all aspects of large-scale transitions.
This article provides a gateway for future research on economic transi-
tions of nations by applying change management tools and models. Future
studies would assist in proving a change model’s applicability and validity
as well as evaluate its usefulness and shortcomings in different organisa-
tional environments. This could assist in modifying and refining the
change models in order to enhance their characteristics.
Works cited
Ahluwalia, M.S. (2002), ‘Economic Reforms in India since 1991: Has Gradualism
Worked?’, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16: 3, pp. 67–88.
Argyris, C. (2000), Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know
When They’re Getting Good Advice and When They’re Not, New York: Oxford
University Press.
Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1974), Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional
Effectiveness, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Basu, K. (1993), ‘Structural Reform in India, 1991–93: Experience and Agenda’,
Economic and Political Weekly, 28: 48, pp. 2599–2605.
Bhalla, A.S. (1995), ‘Recent Economic Reforms in China and India’, Asian Survey,
35: 6, pp. 555–572.
Burke, W.W. (2002), Organization Change: Theory and Practice, Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E. (2003), Reframing Organizations, 3rd ed., San
Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Datt, G. and Ravallion, M. (2002), ‘Is India’s Economic Growth Leaving the Poor
Behind?’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16: 3, pp. 89–108.
Gardner, H. (2006), Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing our Own and
Other People’s Minds, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Hendrickson, L.U. (1992), ‘Bridging the Gap between Organization Theory and
The Practice of Managing Growth: The Dynamic System Planning Model’,
Journal of Organizational Change Management, 5: 3, pp. 18–37.
Meyer, C.B. and Stensaker, I.G. (2006), ‘Developing Capacity for Change’, Journal of
Change Management, 6: 2, pp. 217–231.
Nadler, D.A. and Tushman, M.L. (1995), ‘Types of Organizational Change: From
Incremental Improvement to Discontinuous Transformation’, in D.A. Nadler,
R.B. Shaw, A.E. Walton and Associates (eds.), Discontinuous Change: Leading
Organizational Transformation, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 15–34.
——— (1997), Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture, New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
——— (1988), ‘Strategic Organization Design: Concepts, Tools, and Processes’, Glenview:
Scott Foresman.
Nagaraj, R. (1997), ‘What has Happened Since 1991? Assessment of India’s
Economic Reforms’, Economic and Political Weekly, 32: 44/45, pp. 2869–2879.
Nayar, B.R. (1998), ‘Political Structure and India’s Economic Reforms of the
1990s’, Pacific Affairs, 71: 3, pp. 335–358.
Palmer, I., Dunford, R. and Akin, G. (2006), ‘Managing Organizational Change: A
Multiple Perspectives Approach’, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rogers, E.M. (1983), Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press.
Singh, M. (1997), ‘Interview: Liberalization and Globalization: Where is India
Heading?’, World Affairs, 1: 1, pp. 16–42.
Weisbrod, M.R. (1976), ‘Organizational Diagnosis: Six Places to Look for Trouble
With or Without a Theory’, Group and Organization Studies, 1, pp. 430–447.
World Bank (2007), ‘India Country Overview (2006)’, http://go.worldbank.org/
NLCX7C1VC0. Accessed 12 November 2007.
Suggested citation
Bezboruah, K. (2008), ‘Applying the congruence model of organisational change in
explaining the change in the Indian economic policies’, Journal of Organisational
Transformation and Social Change 5: 2, pp. 129–140, doi: 10.1386/jots.5.2.129/1
Contributor details
Karabi C. Bezboruah is a doctoral candidate in the Public Affairs programme at the
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas. She
also teaches courses in Public Administration such as bureaucracy and nonprofit
organisations at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her interests include organisa-
tional change and behaviour, corporate philanthropy, nonprofit management and
emotional intelligence. Contact: Karabi C. Bezboruah, EPPS – Public Affairs, Mail
Station WT 17, University of Texas at Dallas, 2601 N. Floyd Rd., Richardson, TX
75080, USA.
E-mail: kcb051000@utdallas.edu
Abstract Keywords
For the most part, studies on change management have attempted to determine change management
the factors that influence employee resistance to change. The focus of the present downsizing
study is to test whether job motivation and self-confidence for learning and devel- job motivation
opment influence employee support for downsizing. Data were gathered from a learning
sample of 86 teachers at one private school in Bangkok, Thailand. The analysis support for change
was carried out using multinomial ordered probit regression. The results suggest
that the level of job motivation is negatively associated with the level of support
for change, and that the level of self-confidence for learning and development is not
associated with the level of support for change. These results are counterintuitive,
and they refute our initial hypotheses.
1. Introduction
Greater competition, rapid technological and social changes in an emerg-
ing market economy have made efficiency improvement a crucial manage-
rial challenge for firms to remain competitive in the marketplace. However,
authors on organisational change have pointed out that managerial
choices may be influenced by pressures from employees and institutional
inertia (e.g., Barnett and Carroll 1995). Firms with poor performance tend
to be shrinking; downsizing is then either a consequence of poor perfor-
mance or one of to the options for improving performance. According to
resource-based and dynamic capabilities views, it is essential for a firm to
actively manage internal resources in order to sustain competitive advan-
tages over time (Teece, Pisano and Shuen 1997). A key issue with respect
to the management of firm performance is the use of downsizing. In a narrow
view, downsizing has been defined as the planned reduction in a firm’s
personnel intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm
(Alien et al. 1995; Cascio 1993; Freeman and Cameron 1993; Wayhan and
Werner 2000); in a broader perspective, downsizing has been defined as a
reduction in the use of a firm’s resources to improve its performance
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 143
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 144
(Komaki, 1982). Hackman and Oldham, (1976) suggest that key character-
istics that induce intrinsic motivation include task variety, task significance,
task identity, and task feedback. Guerrero and Barraud-Didier (2004)
suggest that job motivation can result in the high involvement in the
company that will increase effectiveness and productivity. However, age
can account for the degree of job motivation. In this respect, Kanfer and
Ackerman (2004) argue that the attractiveness of higher levels of effort is
a negative function of age, because the perceived utility of effort is expected
to decline with age.
Empirically, Stumpf and Hartman (1984) find that work motivation
has improved perceived work performance, and has lowered the intention
to quit. Recently, Halbesleben and Bowler (2007) find that work motiva-
tion (e.g., achieving striving motivation, status striving motivation and
communion striving motivation) mediates the relationship between emo-
tional exhaustion and job performance in the sample of professional fire-
fighters. It is logical to argue that the more job motivation a person has,
the greater his/her effort to adapt to organisational change, and the
greater her support for change. Employees are likely to ascertain that their
job motivation and work effort are aligned; the alignment process might
have some implications for their decision. For example, if employees have
low job motivation, it should be relatively more difficult to increase their
support for change and build trust between managers and employees in
the context of downsizing. On the other hand, employees with high job
motivation are more likely to be adaptive to and support downsizing, other
things being equal. In sum, we hypothesise that:
H1: Higher levels of job motivation are positively associated with support for
change.
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 145
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 146
knowledge and/or develop new skills. Therefore, it is unlikely that they will
support the change. On the other hand, employees with high levels of self-
confidence for learning and development tend to consider learning new
skills resulting from organisational change as achievable. In this view,
they may see the change as an opportunity to improve their career
prospects rather than a threat, leading them to support the change. Based
on this argumentation we present the following hypothesis.
3. Methodology
3.1 Data collection and sample
The setting for this study was a private school in Thailand employing 108
full-time teachers at the time of the survey in 2004. Declining numbers of
enrolled (both new and current) students over past few years (e.g., from
approximately 200 new students per year in 1990 to around 100 new
students per year in 2004) had caused the management team to make
multiple efforts to improve the school’s efficiency and profitability. However,
the numbers of enrolled students still continued to decline each year, pres-
surising the management team to engage in workforce reductions. The
downsizing programme was initially aimed to lay off approximately ten
teachers by the start of the next academic year (i.e., 2005–2006) so as to
improve the student/teacher ratio and cash flows. Teachers were informed
about the downsizing decision in August 2004. At the time of the survey
(during the first two weeks of September 2004), teachers did not know the
full details of the downsizing programme (e.g., the involuntary nature of
the workforce reductions programme).
A multiple-item survey in Thai was administered during working
hours to a random sample of 100 employees at the school. The original
questionnaire written in English was translated into the Thai language
by one of the authors. In order to determine the clarity and the readability
of the original questionnaire written in the Thai language, three other
Thais had reviewed and revised the questionnaire. Then, a professional
Thai–English translator back-translated the questionnaire into the English
and the authors examined each item for translation error. The inspection
did not find any instances where an item’s meaning had significantly
changed because of the translation. Survey instructions stressed that it
was a survey about the planned downsizing of the school and the partici-
pation in this survey was voluntary and confidential. Ninety-one question-
naires were returned, presenting a response rate of 91 per cent. Of these,
three questionnaires were excluded from the analysis because of those
respondents who did not complete the main part of the questionnaires.
The final sample comprised 88 cases.
According to the Office of the Primary Education Committee, Ministry
of Education (Thai Ministry of Education, 2006), the number of primary
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 147
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 148
1 Factor analysis has and secondary public school teachers in Bangkok for the academic year
not been chosen 2006–2007 was 12,682 teachers, 77 per cent of which held a bachelor’s
because interval data
were not assumed. degree or an equivalent. Nonetheless, there was no information on the dis-
The use of ordinal tribution of the teachers by gender and tenure. The structure of the
data in factor analysis
may substantially sample was representative of both the population of the 108 teachers at
alter the underlying this school and the population of school teachers in Bangkok and
metric scaling
(Kim and Mueller, Thailand, at least with regard to the distribution of the school teachers by
1978). In addition, educational background. Eighty per cent of the sample had a bachelor’s
a three-point scale is
likely to result in the
degree or an equivalent, mean age ⫽ 44.1 years, mean position tenure ⫽
departure from the 14.8 years, mean organisational tenure ⫽ 17.8 years. In comparison with
normal distribution other schools in Bangkok on the basis of the number of teachers, the
assumption.
sample school can be considered as a large school.
Listwise deletion of missing values of the remaining sample reduced the
sample size to 86 respondents (for further data analysis with two control
variables: education and gender). It should be noted that the data used in
this article were part of a larger survey that included 22 variables mea-
sured by 66 questionnaire items. It was a trade-off between the number of
variables studied and the comprehensiveness of variable measurement in
the above-mentioned survey; thus, only three items were used to measure
each variable to increase the response rate. The focus of this article is on
job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development because
both variables seem to be closely related in terms of conceptual construct,
and thus should be discussed together in this article. Other variables under
study (e.g., perceived change in status, commitment, perceived organisa-
tional support, power, pride as a consequence of change, etc.) will be dis-
cussed in more details in our other papers. An overview of the survey
items is given in the Appendix.
3.2 Measures
Unlike other studies that treated the ordinal data as the matrix data and
employed a factor analysis, this study examined whether the indicators for
each variable were internally consistent, that is whether it was possible to
reduce the number of indicators, with the following procedures, for the
use of the multinomial ordered probit model.1 We averaged across the
original indicators to form an average indicator, plotted the average indi-
cator along with the original indicators in a graph, and examined the
pattern of directions of the indicators. Using this procedure, it could be
observed whether the indicators for each variable followed the same
pattern of directions or not. In addition to applying the graphical analyses,
we also examined the Spearman correlation coefficient.
Support for change was measured using a three-item scale. Because
there is no consensus on a definition of support for change, three newly
developed items were used to measure the degree of behaviours that were
conceived of representing employees’ support for change. The three items
were similar in spirit to those used by Bovey and Hede (2001). These items
were measured using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)
4. Results
Because the sample size was relatively small and might cause the estima-
tion problem for the multinomial ordered probit regressions, measurement
scales for dependent variables and independent variables were recorded
(i.e., the original scales ‘1’ and ‘2’ were recoded as ‘1’; the original scales
‘3’ was recoded as ‘2’; and the original scales ‘4’ and ‘5’ were recoded as
‘3’) to alleviate the estimation problem before the multinomial ordered
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 149
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 150
Mean S.D. 1 2 3 4 5
1. Support for change 2.16 0.81 .70
2. Job motivation 2.66 0.63 .26* .81
3. Self-confidence for learning 2.50 0.66 .21* .38** .83
and development
4. Education 0.94 0.44 .12 .05 .15 -
5. Gender 0.74 0.44 .11 .06 ⫺.09 ⫺.19 -
Notes: N ⫽ 86. Correlations typed in bold are significant at the 0.01 level or the 0.05 level
(2-tailed).
*p ⬍ .05, **p ⬍ .01. Scale reliabilities (Cronbach’s alpha) are shown along the diagonal.
probit regression was computed. Table 1 presents the results of the descrip-
tive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficients and scale reliabilities
(Cronbach’s alpha) of the study variables. Respondents reported a mean
support for change of 2.16 (SD ⫽ 0.81), indicating support for change to
be relative prevalent in the school. Support for change was related to all
variables under study (with the exception of the education and gender vari-
ables) and showed the positive correlation with job motivation (r ⫽ 0.26,
p ⬍ 0.05) and the positive correlation with self-confidence for careering-
relevant learning and competence development (r ⫽ 0.21, p ⬍ 0.05).
The results of the multinomial ordered probit models are presented in
Table 2. Model 1 (Table 2) is a baseline model containing control variables.
It shows that education and gender have statistically significant coeffi-
cients suggesting that teachers with higher education and female teachers
are likely to have lower levels of support for change when the organisa-
tions announce downsizing. Models 2 and 3 individually add the variable
of interest to test the hypotheses. Model 4 is a full model that includes all
the variables of the study to check for robustness of the results.
Model 2 provides results that test Hypothesis 1, which proposes that
job motivation would be positively associated with support for change. In
Model 2, the coefficients for job motivation are however negative and sta-
tistically significant. These results provide no support for Hypothesis 1,
suggesting that teachers with high levels of job motivation are less likely to
support the change. Model 3 provides results that test Hypothesis 2, which
proposes that self-confidence would be positively related to support for
change. In Model 3, self-confidence for learning and development are neg-
atively and partially predictive of support for change, suggesting that
higher levels of self-confidence for learning and development increase the
likelihood of having lower levels of support for change. Thus, Hypothesis 2
receives no support.
The results of Models 2 and 3 are contradictory to those of the results
of Spearman correlations. That is, on the basis of the correlation coefficients,
support for change was positively and significantly correlated with job
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 151
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 152
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 153
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 154
support the downsizing that will negatively affect his or her colleagues. As
suggested before, future research should look more closely at the dynamic
interplay between job motivation and self-confidence for learning and
development in order to tease out more subtle effects on the development
of human resource potential. More specifically, job motivation and self-
confidence for learning and development not only improve work perfor-
mance but also decrease support for change. Are there differences in the
effects of job motivation on support for change in the context of asset
expansion versus downsizing programmes? At the same time, it should be
examined whether the different types of data analysis methods signifi-
cantly influence the outcomes of the study. This is particularly important
because scholars in management studies tend to adopt the ordinary
regression analysis in their study of dependent variables that are measured
on ordinal scale. McKelvey and Zavoina (1975), for example, suggest that
using regression models that do not appropriately account for the nature
of ordinal data may provide misleading results. Therefore, we might want
to revisit our analysis in order to examine the extent to which employees’
job motivation and self-confidence in learning and development are likely
to have negative effects on employees’ attitudes and behaviours in other
contexts. Finally, longer-term implications of job motivation and self-
confidence for learning and development should be studied. This should be
set alongside further work on the processes that create employees’ job
motivation and self-confidence for learning and development. This should
lead to a more comprehensive account of the processes that govern
employee reaction to a variety of organisational initiatives.
Works cited
Alien, T.D., Freeman, D.M., Reizenstein, R.C. and Rentz, J.O. (1995), ‘Just Another
Transition? Examining Survivor’s Attitudes Over Time’, Academy of Management
Journal (Best Papers Proceedings), pp. 78–82.
Alvarez, R.M. and Nagler, J. (1998), ‘When Politics and Models Collide: Estimating
Models of Multiparty Elections’, American Journal of Political Science, 42: 1,
pp. 55–96.
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 155
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 156
Suggested citation
Vithessonthi, C., & Schwaninger, M. (2008), ‘Job motivation and self-confidence for
learning and development as predictors of support for change’, Journal of
Organisational Transformation and Social Change 5: 2, pp. 141–157, doi: 10.1386/
jots.5.2.141/1
Contributor details
Chaiporn Vithessonthi is a visiting lecturer in the Faculty of Accountancy and
Management at Mahasarakham University. He received his doctorate degree from
the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. His research interests include interna-
tional management, corporate finance and competitive strategy. Contact: Chaiporn
Vithessonthi, Faculty of Accountancy and Management, Mahasarakham University,
Kantarawichai, Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand.
E-mail: chaiporn.vithessonthi@gmx.ch
Markus Schwaninger is a Professor of Management at the University of St. Gallen,
Switzerland. His research focuses on issues of general management, namely strat-
egy and organisational transformation. Methodologically, his works are oriented
towards innovative approaches to dealing with complexity. Contact: Markus
Schwaninger, Institute of Management, University of St. Gallen, Dufourstrasse
40a, CH-9000 St Gallen, Switzerland.
E-mail: markus.schwaninger@unisg.ch
Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development as predictors . . . 157
OTSC_5-2-04-Vithessonthi 5/31/08 10:19 AM Page 158
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 159
Abstract Keywords
With the rapid and decisive impact electronic communication has had on our lives e-mail
in general, and the work place in particular, notably e-mail as the preferred com- electronic
munication medium, this literature review paper examines the available evidence communication
of its potential negative effects. Even though the benefits of e-mail communication well being
for individuals and organisations are well noted, it is argued that the particular stress
characteristics of electronic mail and communication may have an adverse impact productivity
upon well-being, stress and productivity. E-mail may act as a stress conduit but is
also in itself a potential stressor. It may impair productivity too due to its com-
munication characteristics, affecting key operational aspects such a decision
making and team cohesion; it may escalate disputes, facilitate harassment and
encourage litigation. We present a framework delineating antecedents and poten-
tial personal and organisational outcomes and conclude with an outline agenda
for further research as a first step in developing strategies to overcome e-mail’s
potential negative consequences.
1. Introduction
In all areas of work and work-related domains, electronic-mail has become * At Thomas Edison’s
the primary source of communication in the workplace (APS 2003) with Ontario home, the
birthplace of the
98% of ‘business-to-business’ communication worldwide employing it telephone, there is a
(Business Communicator 2004). E-mail is also rapidly becoming the pre- small plaque depicting
instructions to the
ferred medium of personal to organisational communication, evidenced by users of the then new
the steep rise in personal computers and home-based Internet communi- medium: how to
speak, at what voice
cation (Levitt and Mahowald 2003; Rosenberg 2003). However, it seems level and intonation,
that the move to this new era of communication is driven more by the at what distance from
the receiver, key
immediate, practical advantages, and the availability of the technology, phrases, etc. At the
rather than a rational assessment of its advantages and disadvantages. time these made a
The use of e-mail and electronic messaging is the biggest change in the necessary manual;
nowadays, one reads medium of communication since the introduction of the telephone, which
the notes with a wry became an integral part of the development of the modern business era of
smile: surely everyone
knows what one can the last century. It is likely that communication in the new millennium
and can’t do with a will present new concerns and challenges.
telephone? As we are
at the onset of a world The apparent advantages in using e-mail as the preferred medium of
e-mail dominated communicating, as well as other forms of electronic messaging (mobile
epoch, we likewise
could do with some phone texts, Internet chat rooms), have opened up immense opportunities
user instructions, for work-related communication and derived efficiencies. The technology
deployment
conventions, and best
is easy to use and cost-effective, facilitating networking and access (Garton
practice. That may be and Wellman 1995), as is indeed manifested in it being so readily, rapidly
no mean task. and universally embraced in a wide range of occupations and services. For
example, in the legal profession, Horton Flaherty (2001) discloses that
attorneys are now negotiating, advising, exchanging documents and
responding to clients via e-mail. In the medical profession Neville (2004)
reported a major impact of e-mail on doctor-patient relations. E-mail com-
munication now dominates such diverse areas as after sales service and
local government – resident contacts (Riquelme 2004). E-mail is even
being used in psychotherapy (McDaniel 2003) and counselling (Nakada
and Masayuki 2000) – a traditional domain of face-to-face interaction.
Indeed, The transfer from a manufacturing-based economy to a
service-based economy, and more recently to a knowledge-based economy
(OECD, 1996), may have stirred a fundamental and irreversible shift in the
nature of workplace communications (Castells 2001). Improved commu-
nication technology means, for example, that it is now much easier to
work in a location that is physically detached from other workers for long
periods (as well as in multi locations) and still be a formal member of a sin-
gular team (Arnold et al., 2005). This change in working practice as a
consequence of advances in technology has added to the discourse on
work-related stress an important new interface: that of work and home life
(e.g. Sutherland and Cooper 2000). But are these changes all positive?
Now that e-mail use has become so ubiquitous, perhaps it is time to begin
to ask questions about the possible disadvantages and perhaps even nega-
tive consequences for this form of communication. In line with Hart and
Cooper (2001) who argue that viewing any work experience as either
stress-positive or stress-negative is too simplistic, we believe the time has
come to question e-mail, not discounting its considerable advantages, as to
its potentiality as a source of stress in the work context, as well as assess its
possible negative effect on related productivity.
The aim of this article therefore is to highlight areas of concern that
have emerged and examine the divergent positions voiced as evidenced in
the extant literature, concerning the impact of computer-mediated com-
munication (CMC) in the form of e-mail. We will outline the impact that
e-mail is having on people at work, especially in the areas of wellbeing and
health, on the one hand, and for productivity and efficiency, on the other.
The literature was derived from a comprehensive search of manage-
ment psychology databases, for example, Psychinfo (covers 1,900 journals
E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of the new communication . . . 161
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 162
E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of the new communication . . . 163
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 164
E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of the new communication . . . 165
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 166
empowering effect for people with a related anxiety. The anxiety may be a
consequence of the communicator having lower status than the recipient
or it may be that the communicator is intimidated by the recipient, or
simply that the communicator is more generally anxious about social
contact. On the other hand, from the early days of experimental psychol-
ogy we know that interruptions may be disruptive to people engaged on a
task. Furthermore, modern broadband ‘always-on’ technology allows per-
sonal computers to check for new e-mail every minute, and the applica-
tion can be set to provide an audible alert upon receipt of a new message.
These innovations provide opportunities for frequent interruptions, which
may be detrimental to work productivity.
Table 1. E-mail characteristics and their negative effects on personal and organisational outcomes.
interpersonal bonds that in turn may act as a trigger for conflict escalation.
According to Kiesler and Sproull (1992), when disagreements occur elec-
tronically, social behaviours such as politeness and acknowledgement of
the other’s perspective decrease and participants engage in deeper conflict.
One of the key features that comprise the stress response is the con-
comitant emotional reaction. To understand the impact of e-mail on stress
at work, we need to understand how e-mail affects the communication of
emotion. Acceptance theory (Hayes 1987; Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson
1999) may provide a useful framework for understanding how emotions
are affected by electronic mail. Psychological acceptance refers to a will-
ingness to experience feelings, especially negative feelings such as fear,
without having to avoid them or let them determine one’s actions. Bond
and Bunce (2003) have shown that acceptance predicts levels of mental
health. The lack of conversational communication embedded in e-mail
communication may hinder the effective processing of negative feelings
and consequently increase stress.
Summary model: e-mail, stress and productivity outcomes.
The model shown in Table 1 summarises the relationships proposed in
the literature between particular e-mail characteristics, the changes in the
work setting that these characteristics produce, and subsequent poten-
tially negative personal and organisational outcomes.
there are potential dangers in opening up policy making to the will of the
majority – we may not like the direction the majority want to take.
Acknowledgement
We gratefully acknowledge the help of Frank Bournois, Jacques Rojot and two
anonymous reviewers. All the authors contributed equally to this work.
Works cited
Altman, Y. (2005), Personal Communication, Israel: Bank Ha’Poalim (January).
Argyle, M., Salter, U., Nicholson, H., Williams, M. and Burgess, P. (1970), ‘The
Communication of Inferior and Superior Attitudes by Verbal and Nonverbal
Signals’, British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, pp. 222–231.
Arnold, J., Silvester, J., Patterson, F., Robertson, I., Cooper, C. and Burnes, B.
(2005), Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace, 4th
edn., Harlow: Pearson.
Arunachalam, V. and Dilla, W. (1995), ‘Judgement Accuracy and Outcomes in
Negotiation: A Causal Modelling Analysis of Decision-Aiding Effects’, Organiza-
tional Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 61, pp. 289–304.
APS (2003), Survey of e-mail stress, Melbourne: Australian Psychological Society.
Baruch, Y. (2004), ‘Bullying on the Net: Adverse Behaviour on e-mail and Its
Impact’, Information & Management, 42: 2, pp. 361–371.
Barsness, Z. and Tenbrunsel, A.E. (1998), ‘Technologically-Mediated Communication
and Negotiation: Do Relationships Matter’? International Association of Conflict
Management conference, College Park, MD. June.
Boje, D.M., Oswick, C. and Ford, J.D. (2004), ‘Language and Organization: The
Doing of Discourse’, Academy of Management Review, 29, pp. 571–577.
Bond, F.W. and Bunce, D. (2003), ‘The role of acceptance and job control in mental
health, job satisfaction, and work performance’, Journal of Applied Psychology,
88, pp. 1057–1067.
Bordia, P. (1997), ‘Face-To-Face Versus Computer Mediated Communication: A
Synthesis of the Experimental Literature’, Journal of Business Communication,
34, pp. 99–120.
Borkovec, T.D. (2005), ‘The Importance of the Present in Being a Human Being:
Lessons from Generalized Anxiety Disorder’, Journal of Management, Spirituality
& Religion, 2: 1, pp. 136–153.
Business Communicator (2004), ‘What Channels Do Companies Use’? Business
Communicator, 5: 5, pp. 6–10.
Castells, M. (2001), The Internet Galaxy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chaiken, S. and Eagly, A.H. (1983), ‘Communication Modality as a Determinant of
Persuasion: The Role of Communicator Salience’, Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 45, pp. 241–265.
Cohen, S. and Wills, T. (1985), ‘Stress, social support and the buffering hypothe-
sis’, Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310–357.
Cooper, C.L. and Clarke, S. (2003), Managing the Risk of Workplace Stress, London:
Routledge.
Cooper, C.L. and Marshall, J. (1978), Understanding Executive Stress, London:
Macmillan.
Croson, R.T.A. (1999), ‘Look at Me When You Say That: An Electronic Negotiation
Simulation’, Simulation and Gaming, 30, pp. 23–37.
E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of the new communication . . . 169
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 170
Davidson, K.P., Pennebacker, J.W. and Dickerson, S.S. (2000), ‘Who Talks? The Social
Psychology of Illness Support Groups’, American Psychologist, 55, pp. 205–217.
Friedman, R.A. and Currall, S.C. (2003), ‘Conflict Escalation: Dispute-
Exacerbating Elements of e-mail Communication’, Human relations, 56: 11,
pp. 1325–1347.
Garton, L. and Wellman, B. (1995), ‘Social Impacts of Electronic Mail In
Organizations: A Review of the Research Literature’, Communications Yearbook,
18, pp. 434–453.
Gatzenbrucker, G. (2004), ‘Social Networks at Work: Case Studies into Importance
of Computer-Supported Social Networks in a Mobile Phone Company’, Commu-
nications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 29: 4, pp. 467–495.
Griffin, R. (2004), ‘That settles it’! Risk & Insurance, April.
Guadagno, R.E. and Cialdini, R.B. (2002), ‘Online Persuasion: An Examination of
Gender Differences in Computer-Mediated Interpersonal Influence’, Group
Dynamics 6: 1, 38–51.
Guest, D. and Conway, N. (2002), ‘Communicating the psychological contract: an
employer perspective’, Human Resource Management Journal, 12, pp. 22–38.
Hacker, K.L., Goss, B., Townley, C. and Horton, V. (1998), ‘Employee Attitudes
Regarding Electronic Mail Policies’, Management Communication Quarterly, 11:
3, pp. 422–451
Hart, P.M. and Cooper, C.L. (2001), ‘Occupational Stress: Toward a More
Integrated Framework’, in Anderson, N., Ones, D.S., Sinangil, H.K. and
Viswesvaran, C. (eds.), Handbook of Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychol-
ogy 2, London: Sage, pp. 93–114.
Hayes, S.C. (1987), ‘A Contextual Approach to Therapeutic Change’, in Jacobson,
N. (ed.), Psychotherapists in clinical practice, New York: Guildford Press.
Hayes, S.C., Strosahl, K. and Wilson, K.G. (1999), Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behaviour Change, New York: Guildford Press.
Haynes, S.G. and Feinleib, M. (1980), ‘Women, Work, and Coronary Heart
Disease: Prospective Findings from the Framingham Heart Study’, American
Journal of Public Health, 70, pp. 133–141.
Holmes, L. and Grieco, M. (2002), ‘Relational Identity and Relational Technology:
Implications for Everyday Life’, in Grieco, M., Holmes. L. and Hosking, D.M.
(eds.), Organising in the Information Age: Distributed Technology, Distributed Lead-
ership, Distributed Identity, Distributed Discourse, London: Ashgate Press.
Horton Flaherty, K. (2001), ‘E-mail: Does it Simplify Lawyers’ Lives or Just Increase
the Stress’? California Bar Journal. www.calbar.gov/calbar/2cbj/01may/ index.htm.
House, J.S., Landis, K.R. and Umberson, D. (1988), ‘Social Relationships and
Health’, Science, 241, pp. 540–545.
HSE (2004), Work Related Stress: A Short Guide, Sudbury: HSE Books.
Johnson J.V. and Hall E.M. (1988), ‘Job Strain, Work Place Social Support, and
Cardiovascular Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study of a Random Sample of
the Swedish Working Population’, American Journal of Public Health, 78,
pp. 1336–1342.
Kahn, H.A., Medalie, J.H., Neufeld, H.N., Riss, E. and Goldhourt, U. (1972), ‘The
Incident of Hypertension and Associated Factors: The Israeli Ischemic Heart
Disease Study’, American Heart Journal, 84, pp. 171–182.
Karasek, R.A. and Theorell, T. (1990), Healthy Work: Stress, productivity and the
reconstruction of working life, New York: Basic Books.
Kiesler, S., Zubrow, D., Moses, A.M. and Geller, V. (1985), ‘Affect in Computer-
Mediated Communication: An Experiment in Synchronous Terminal-To-
Terminal Discussion’, Human-Computer Interaction, 1, pp. 77–107.
Kiesler, S. and Sproull, L. (1992), ‘Group Decision Making and Communication
Technology’, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 52, pp. 96–123.
Krohn, F.B. (2004), ‘A Generational Approach to Using Emoticons as Nonverbal
Communication’, Journal of Technical Writing & Communication, 34: 4, pp. 321–328.
Le Blanc, P., de Jonge, J. and Schaufeli, W. (2000), ‘Job stress and health’, in
Chmiel, N. (ed.), Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology: A European
Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.
Levitt, M. and Mahowald, R.P. (2003), Worldwide E-Mail Usage Forecast,
2003–2007: Spam and Instant Messaging Take a Bite Out of E-Mail. IDC Doc #
30195, market analysis.
Mathews, K.A., Cottington, E.M., Talbott, E., Kuller, L.H. and Siegel, J.M. (1987),
‘Stressful Work Conditions and Diastolic Blood Pressure Among Blue Collar
Factory Workers’, American Journal of Epidemiology, 126, pp. 280–291.
McDaniel, S.H. (2003), ‘E-mail Communication as an Adjunct to Systemic
Psychotherapy’, Journal of Systemic Therapies, 22: 3, pp. 4–13.
McGuire, T.W., Kiesler, S. and Siegel, J. (1987), ‘Group and Computer-Mediated
Discussion Effects in Risk Decision Making’, Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 52, pp. 917–930.
Moran, S.K., Wolff, S.C. and Green, J.E. (1995), ‘Workers’ Compensation and
Occupational Stress: Gaining Control’, in Murphy, L.R., Hurrell, J.J. Jr., Sauter,
S.L. and Keita, G.P. (eds.), Job Stress Interventions, Washington: American
Psychological Association.
Morris, M., Nadler, J., Kurtzberg, T., and Thompson, L. (2002), ‘Schmooze or Lose:
Social Friction and Lubrication in E-mail Negotiations’, Group Dynamics, 6: 1,
pp. 89–100.
Nakada, H. and Masayuki, K. (2000), ‘A Review on Counselling Services Via
Electrical Communication Media: Counselling Applications on the Internet’,
Japanese Journal of Counselling Science, 32: 3, pp. 320–330.
Nakamura, M., Buck, R. and Kenny, D.A. (1990), ‘Relative Contributions of Expressive
Behaviour and Contextual Information to the Judgement of the Emotional State of
Another’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, pp. 1032–1039.
Neville, R. (2004), ‘E-mail Consultations in General Practice’, Journal of General
Practice, 54: 504, pp. 546–546.
OECD (1996), The Knowledge Based Economy. Organisation for economic co-opera-
tion and development report OCDE/GD(96)102.
Poole, M.S., Shannon, D.L. and DeSanctis, G. (1992), ‘Communication Media and
Negotiation Processes’, in Putnam, L.L. and Roloff, M.E. (eds.), Communication
and Negotiation: Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research, Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, pp. 46–66.
Preece, J. (1999), ‘Empathic Communities: Balancing Emotional and Factual
Communication’, Interacting with Computers, 12, pp. 63–77.
Purdy, J.M., Nye, P. and Balakrishnan, P.V. (1997), ‘The impact of communication
media on negotiation outcomes’, Academy of Management Annual Meeting,
Boston, MA, August.
Quick, J.C., Jones, N., Kulisch, T. and Gerloff, E. (1981), ‘Dyadic goal setting, par-
ticipation levels, and stress’, American Institute for Decision Sciences national con-
ference, Boston, MA.
E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of the new communication . . . 171
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 172
Quick, J.C., Quick, J.D., Nelson, D.L. and Hurrell, J.J. Jr. (1997), Preventive Stress Man-
agement in Organizations, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Riquelme, H. and Buranasantikul, P. (2004), ‘Lecture motes in computer science’,
in Traunmuller, G. (ed.), E-Government in Australia: A Citizen’s Perspective, EGOV
2004, LNCS 3183, pp. 317–327.
Romm, C.T. and Pliskin, N. (1999), ‘The office tyrant – social control through
e-mail’, Information Technology and People, 12: 1, pp. 27–43.
Rosenberg, N. (2003), Outwitting Stress. A Practical Guide to Conquering Stress Before
You Crack. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press.
Schwartz, D.G. (2003), ‘When Bad Email Happens to Good People: A Case of
Information Technology Mismanagement’, in Sagie, A., Stashevsky, S. and
koslowsky, M. (eds.), Misbehaviour and Dysfunctional Attitudes in Organizations.
NY: Palgrave, pp. 138–153.
Seaberry, J. (2000), ‘Deals Still Done Face to Face in Internet Age’, The Star Ledger,
January 3, p. 36.
Searle, B., Bright, J.E.H. and Bochner, S. (2001), ‘Helping People to Sort it Out:
The Role of Social Support in the Job Strain Model’, Work & Stress, 15,
pp. 328–346.
Siegal, H.A., Fisher, J.H., Rapp, R.C., Kelliher, C.W., Wagner, J.H., O’Brien, W.F. and
Cole, P.A. (1996), ‘Enhancing Substance Abuse Treatment with Case
Management: Its Impact on Employment’, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment,
13, pp. 93–98.
Smith, K. (2004), ‘E-Democracy: the Future for Voting’? Sociology Review, 13: 3,
pp. 8–10.
Sproull, L., and Kiesler, S. (1986), ‘Reducing Social Context Cues: Electronic Mail in
Organizational Communication’, Management Science, 32: 11, pp. 1492–1512.
Stansfield, S., Head, J. and Marmot, M. (2000), Work Related Factors and Ill Health:
The Whitehall II study, Sudbury: HSE books.
Straus, S.G. and McGrath, J.E. (1994), ‘Does the Medium Matter? The Interaction
of Task Type and Technology on Group Performance and Member Reactions’,
Journal of Applied Psychology, 79: 1, pp. 87–97.
Straus, S.G. (1996), ‘Getting a Clue: The Effects of Communication Media and
Information Distribution on Participation and Performance in Computer-
Mediated and Face-To-Face Groups’, Small Group Research, 27, pp. 115–142.
Sutherland, V.J. and Cooper, C.L. (1988), ‘Sources of Work Stress’, in Hurrell, J.J.,
Murphy, L.R., Sauter, S.L. and Cooper, C.L. (eds.), Occupational Stress: Issues and
Developments in Research, New York: Taylor & Francis.
——— (2000), Strategic stress management: An organizational approach, Basingstoke:
Palgrave.
Tardy, C.H. (1992), ‘Assessing the Functions of Supportive Messages’, Communica-
tion Research, 19, pp. 175–192.
Taylor, H.R., Fieldman, G. and Lahlou, S. (2005), ‘The Impact of a Threatening
E-mail Reprimand on the Recipient’s Blood Pressure’, Journal of Managerial Psy-
chology, 20: 1, pp. 43–50.
Thompson, L.F. and Coovert, M.D. (2002), ‘Stepping up to the Challenge: A Critical
Examination of Face-To-Face and Computer-Mediated Team Decision Making’,
Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6, pp. 52–64.
Wager, N., Fieldman, G. and Hussey, T. (2003), ‘The Effect on Ambulatory Blood
Pressure of Working Under Favourably and Unfavourably Perceived
Supervisors’, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 60, pp. 468–474.
Suggested citation
Taylor, H., Fieldman, G., & Altman, Y. (2008), ‘E-mail at work: A cause for
concern? The implications of the new communication technologies for health,
wellbeing and productivity at work’, Journal of Organisational Transformation and
Social Change 5: 2, pp. 159–173, doi: 10.1386/jots.5.2.159/1
Contributor details
Yochanan Altman is Research Professor of International HRM and Comparative
Management at London Metropolitan University and Visiting Professor of International
HRM with CIFFOP, University of Paris (Panthéon-Assas). Educated in occupational
psychology and organisational anthropology he is also a trained psychotherapist.
Yochanan is Founding Editor of the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion,
European Editor of the journal Human Resource Planning and past Editor of Journal of
Managerial Psychology. Yochanan’s research interests are in international human
resource management, careers, gender, change management, creativity and organisa-
tional spirituality. Contact: 262 Shakespeare Tower, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DR, UK.
E-mail: y_altman@hotmail.com
Dr. George Fieldman is Principal Lecturer in Psychology at Buckinghamshire New
University. He obtained his BSc and PhD degrees from King’s College London. His
research interests are in Health and Evolutionary Psychology. He has various
entries on BBC News online regarding his own research and invited commentary
upon the research of others. He is a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist
in practice in London. Contact: Buckinghamshire New University is High
Wycombe, HP11 2JZ, UK.
E-mail: gf@george-fieldman.co.uk
Howard Taylor’s PhD research is titled ‘The effects of communication style on task
performance and well being’. Howard is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at
Buckinghamshire New University. He has presented papers relating to the negative
effects of certain communication styles and is involved in ongoing research
into effective communications, especially electronic communication. Contact:
Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe, HP11 2JZ, UK.
E-mail: howard.taylor1@virgin.net
E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of the new communication . . . 173
OTSC_5-2-05-Altman 5/31/08 10:20 AM Page 174
OTSC_5-2-06-Nystrom 5/31/08 10:21 AM Page 175
Abstract Keywords
In this article the results from a Swedish pilot study in the project ‘Arena for Sus- communication
tainable Innovative Development of small and medium-sized enterprises’ is pre- SME
sented. The project in a whole aims to create and test a model for collaboration and collaboration
sustainable development among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in information exchange
local areas. The research question in this article is delimited to issues concerning ICT
use of ICT, information exchange and communication among the interested
parties. The pilot study was accomplished in a qualitative and explorative way
with semi-structured interviews. As a result of the study some questions are iden-
tified as urgent to further investigate.
1. Introduction
Collaboration between different kinds of organisations such as companies is
resulting in a range of important outcomes for the collaborating parts.
Collaboration not only transfers existing knowledge among organisations but
also facilitates the creation of new knowledge and produce synergistic solu-
tions. Organisations can also achieve a more central and influential position
in relation to other organisations through the collaboration (Hardy et al.
2003). To achieve the positive effects with collaboration, communication and
information exchange between the organisations must be efficient. Much of
today’s communication and information exchange between organisations are
often sporadic and isolated. Virtual teams can bridge the inter-organisational
boundaries and provide a considerable competitive advantage (Lipnack and
Stamps 1997; Townsend et al. 1998). The term Virtual team can be used for
teams that are separated in time and/or in space and teams bridging organi-
sational boarders (Watson-Manheim, Chudoba and Crowston 2002).
According to Zakaria, Amelinckx and Wilemon (2004), the human
challenges of virtual teams are:
Figure 1: The connection between the aim of the different parts – the overall
research project – ARENA – the Pilot project and the part study.
1 The concept ICT is The overall aim with the ‘Arena project’ (see figure 1) is to create and
an abbreviation for test a model for collaboration and sustainable development among small
Information and
Communications and medium sized companies in local areas.
Technology. The Questions to be answered in the ‘Arena project’ are:
difference from the
concept IT is that
the focus of • What kind of problems and requirements can be found in small enter-
communication has
been highlighted in prises with respect to information exchange and communication with
the first concept others?
whereas it was
implicit in the latter
• Which information is needed to promote active engagement among the
definition. interested parties?
• How does the knowledge creation and exchange work between the
actors?
2. Method
This section presents the used Method in the pilot study.
The method used in the pilot study was qualitative and explorative. The
study was carried through with help of analysis of background information
such as brochures, annual reports and homepages. Opinions and experi-
ences concerning collaboration were collected by semi-structured inter-
views. Fifteen representatives for the trade and industry representing the
three company clusters, representatives for the local authorities and seven
representatives for the University have been interviewed. The participants
from the three company clusters have been selected mainly based on their
representation of not only either enterprises belonging to service sector, pro-
duction or trading but also the fact that they represent different enterprises
sizes. Representatives from the local authorities and the University have been
selected with respect to their experiences with collaboration with SMEs. An
interview guide was constructed. The guide was divided into questions
about collaboration between companies, co-operation with the university
and support from the local authorities and questions about communication
and information exchange. The part of the guide containing questions con-
cerning co-operation with the university was used for the university inter-
views as well as the part of the guide containing questions about support
from the local authorities was used for the local authority interviews.
World Wide Web (WWW) offers great opportunities for SMEs to extend
their customer base into the global marketplace (Tetteh and Burn 2001).
However, there is a need to adopt a different approach to strategic plan-
ning and management which can enable an extensive infrastructure
network based on shared resources with other firms. Accordingly, SMEs
could save costs if they share resources with others and carefully analyse
and plan for e-businesses. Internet technology offers general advantages
for businesses to collaborate (Power and Singh 2007).
Organisations using Intranets to support the internal communication
can reach great advantages with the use of this technology because it
supports communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing (e.g. Bank
and Nyström 2005; Nyström 2006b). Well-functioning external commu-
nication demands well-functioning internal communication. The Intranet
can be extended in order to allow special groups – e.g. customers and
suppliers – to share a delimited part of the Intranet. The Intranet is extended
with an Extranet with the main aim to support external communication
with specific stakeholders (Nyström 2006b; Telleen 1999).
The study of trust and its impact on cooperative relationships at all levels
may be particularly fruitful area of future research.
4.2. Communication
Personal meetings, cellular phones and e-mail were mentioned as very
important when the interviewees were communicating with external
parties. Communication through e-mail should be preceded by a personal
meeting if the contact would remain and long-term collaboration will be
established. Personal meeting must be effective with a clearly outspoken
purpose, and end with a plain contract. The contract must also contain
questions left to the next meeting, and meetings must be documented.
Contact with customers was experienced as more and more important
and the number of personal contacts increased. Some of the interviewees
adapt new technology. ICTs are supposed to be effective, but what is effec-
tivity? Quality is not especially effective and vice versa. It is difficult to
measure effectiveness in ICTs.
6. Concluding remarks
Several questions were identified in the study. Some of these questions con-
cerned issues about knowledge management, adoption of ICTs, maturing
Further research should focus on the questions above and issues concerning
the transformation of organisations/enterprises from one state to another in
order to guarantee viability. A model supporting collaboration among SMEs
with respect to their special problems should therefore be developed.
Acknowledgements
This article is part of the project ‘Arena for Sustainable Innovative Development of
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises’. The authors thank the project leaders and
the interviewees in the participating constellation of SMEs.
Works cited
Asproth, V. (2006), ‘Inter-Organizational Management and Decision-Making’, Sys-
temist, 28: 2, pp. 4–12.
Bank, B. and Nyström, C.A. (2005), ‘Intranet Use – A study of Five Swedish
Organisations’, Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, 2: 2,
pp. 153–180.
Barki, H., Rivard, S. and Talbot, J. (1993), ‘A Key-Word Classification Scheme for IS
Research Literature: An Update’, MIS Quarterly, 17: 1, pp. 209–226.
Berthon, P., Ewing, M., Pitt, L. and Naude, P. (2003), ‘Understanding B2b and the
Web: The Acceleration of Coordination and Motivation’, Industrial Marketing
Management, 32: 7, pp. 553–562.
Cagliano, R., Caniato, F. and Spina, G. (2003), ‘E-businness Strategy: How Companies
are Shaping Their Supply Chain Through the Internet’, International Journal of
Operations and Production Management, 23: 10, pp. 1142–1162.
Carbonara, N. (2005), ‘Information and Communication Technology and
Geographical Clusters: Opportunities and Spread’, Technovation, 25,
pp. 213–222.
Coleman, D. (1999), ‘Groupware, Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing’, Chapter
12, in J. Liebowitz (ed.), Knowledge management handbook , pp. 12.1–12.15. New
York: CRC Press.
Crossman, A. and Lee-Kelley, L. (2004), ‘Trust, Commitment and Team Working:
The Paradox of Virtual Organizations’, Global Networks, 4, pp. 375–390.
Enright, M. (1995), ‘Organisation and Co-ordination in Geographically Concentrated
Industries’, in D. Raff and N. Lamoreux (eds.), Coordination and Information His-
torical Perspectives on the Organisation of Enterprise, pp. 103–142. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Eurostat (2002), ‘E-commerce in Europe’, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/
ict/statistics/e-commerce.htm Accessed 22 March 2007.
Granovetter, M. (1985), ‘Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of
Embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology, 91: 3, pp. 481–510.
Handy, C. (1995), ‘Trust and Virtual Organization’, Harvard Business Review,
May/June, pp. 40–50.
Hardy, C., Phillips, N. and Lawrence, T.B. (2003), ‘Resources, Knowledge and
Influence: The Organizational Effects of Inter-organizational Collaboration’,
Journal of Management Studies 40: 2, pp. 321–347.
Holmberg, S.C. (2001), ‘Taking Syntegrity-4 from Assumption Mode to Reflection
Mode’, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 18, pp. 127–135.
Holmqvist, M. (2003), ‘A Dynamic Model of Intra- and Inter-Organizational Learning’,
Organizational Studies, 24: 1, pp. 95–123.
IDC (2000), ‘Adoption of the internet by SMEs in Western Europe’.
Jayaram, J., Vickery, S.K. and Droge, C. (2000), ‘The Effects of Information System
Infrastructure and Process Improvements on Supply Chain Time Performance’,
International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 30: 3/4,
pp. 304–330.
Johnson, J.L. and Cullen, J.B. (2002), ‘Trust in Cross-Cultural Relationship’, in
M.J. Cannon and K.L. Newman (eds.), The Blackwell Handbook of Cross-Cultural
Management, pp. 335–360. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Kendall, K.E. (1997), ‘The Significance of Information Systems Research on
Emerging Technologies: Seven Information Technologies That Promise to
Improve Managerial Effectiveness’, Decision Sciences, 28: 4, pp. 1–29.
Krumwiede, K.R., Swain, M.R. and Stocks, K.D. (2003), ‘10 Ways e-Business Can
Reduce Costs’, Strategic Finance, 85: 1, pp. 24–29.
Kulkarni, S.P. and Heriot, K.C. (1999), ‘Transaction Costs and Information Costs as
Determinants of the Organizational Form: A Conceptual Synthesis’, American
Business Review, 17: 2, p. 43.
Lipnack, J. and Stamps, J. (1997), Virtual teams: Reaching Across Space, Time and
Organizations with Technology, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Macauley, S. (1963), ‘Non-Contractual Relations in Business’, American Sociological
Review, 28, pp. 55–67.
Maillat, D., Lecoq, B., Nemeti, F. and Pfister, M. (1995), ‘Technology District and
Innovation: The Case of the Swiss Jura Arc’, Regional Studies, 29, pp. 251–263.
Townsend, A.M., DeMarie, S.M. and Hendrickson, A.R. (1998), ‘Virtual Teams:
Technology and the Workplace of the Future’, Academy of Management Executive,
12, pp. 17–29.
Vescovi, T. (2000), ‘Internet Communication: the Italian SME Case’, Corporate
Communication: An International Journal, 5: 2, pp. 107–112.
Watson-Manheim, M.B., Chudoba, K.M. and Crowston, K. (2002), ‘Discontinuities
and Continuities: A New Way to Understand Virtual Work’, Information Tech-
nology & People, 15: 3, pp. 191–209.
Wong, K.Y. and Aspinwall, E. (2005), ‘An Empirical Study of the Important Factors
for Knowledge-Management Adoption in the SME Sector’, Journal of knowledge
management, 9: 3, pp. 64–82.
Zaheer, A., McEvily, B. and Perrone, V. (1998), ‘Does Trust Matter? Exploring the
Effects of Interorganizational and Interpersonal Trust and Performance’, Orga-
nizational Science, 9: 2, pp. 141–159.
Zakaria, N., Amelinckx, A. and Wilemon, D. (2004), ‘Working Together Apart?
Building a Knowledge-Sharing Culture for Global Virtual Teams’, Creativity and
Innovation Management, 13, pp. 15–29.
Zand, D.E. (1997), The Leadership Triad: Knowledge, Trust, and Power, New York:
Oxford University press.
Suggested citation
Asproth, V., & Nyström, C. (2008), ‘Communication and information exchange
among SMEs and their local environment’, Journal of Organisational Transformation
and Social Change 5: 2, pp. 175–189, doi: 10.1386/jots.5.2.175/1
Contributor details
Viveca Asproth is a Professor in Informatics at Mid Sweden University in Öster-
sund, Sweden. She has published papers on visualisation, spatial systems, decision
support, anticipation and fuzzy systems. In her current research, she is focusing on
inter-organisational issues. Contact: Department of Information Technology and
Media, Mid Sweden University, Akademigatan 1, S-831 25 Östersund, Sweden.
E-mail: viveca.asproth@miun.se
Christina Amcoff Nyström is a PhD/Senior lecturer in Informatics at Mid Sweden
University in Östersund, Sweden. Her current research and interests concerns
Intranets and their impact on organisations. Example of sub-questions: power,
empowerment, influence, philosophy of technology and strategies related to
Intranets and organisations. Contact: Department of Information Technology and
Media, Mid Sweden University, Akademigatan 1, S-831 25 Östersund, Sweden.
E-mail: Christina.amcoff@miun.se
Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change | Volume Five Number Two
Organisational Transformation
& Social Change 5.2
Volume 5 Number 2 – 2008
105–107 Editorial
Paul Iles
Articles
Journal of
Organisational
109–127 Gender wage inequality in the transitional Chinese economy: A critical
review of post-reform research
Jie Shen and Xin Deng
129–140 Applying the congruence model of organisational change in explaining
Transformation
the change in the Indian economic policies
Karabi C. Bezboruah
141–157 Job motivation and self-confidence for learning and development
as predictors of support for change