TY - JOUR PY - 2008// TI - Whose side are you on? Relational orientations and their impacts on side‐taking among Dutch and Chinese employees JO - Journal of occupational and organizational psychology A1 - Yang, Huadong A1 - Vliert, Evert A1 - Shi, Kan A1 - Huang, Xu SP - 713 EP - 731 VL - 81 IS - 4 N2 - Informal relationships often influence employees who intervene in an interpersonal conflict between colleagues. We investigate and report the effects of relational orientations (reciprocity orientation and communal orientation) on employee preference of choosing sides between an acquaintance and a friend in a workplace dispute in The Netherlands and China. A scenario study was conducted among 104 Dutch and 105 Chinese employees. As hypothesized, the results indicate that employees, especially Dutch employees, with an interest-concerned reciprocity orientation tend to side with the acquaintance who has a greater potential to return the favour. By contrast, employees, especially Chinese, with a sharing-concerned communal orientation tend to side with their workplace friend. Explanations and implications of the findings are discussed.

LA - SN - 0963-1798 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317907X247960 ID - ref1 ER -