When researchers investigate factors that enhance employee job performance and commitment, they face an important constraint: much of the theory and findings are based in the US, where the culture is less traditional and less accepting of unequal distributions of power in the workplace. What happens, then, when you apply the same theories to a society with very different cultural characteristics, such as China?

This question was at the heart of a study by Jiing-Lih Farh, Rick D. Hackett and Jian Liang, who wanted to see whether employees in China were motivated in similar ways to their American colleagues by "perceived organisational support" (POS) - the belief that their organisation valued their contributions and cared about their well-being.

US-based research has shown POS can result in positive job outcomes and organisational commitment. When an organisation provides POS, the employee is motivated to do more, thus benefiting the organisation. This reciprocal exchange works best when there is room for negotiation and the power and social gaps are not large. However, in China, this is not always true because Chinese employees differ markedly in their orientation toward power distance or traditional values. For Chinese employees who have high power distance or traditional values, the gaps may be bigger because "power distance" is viewed more favourably and traditional views adhere to a strict hierarchy in society. POS in this environment can have a very different outcome.

"Subordinates who score high in power distance measures are, because of their strong deference to authority figures, likely to be less reliant on the reciprocity norm with respect to their performance contributions. Their role expectations bind them to show deference, respect, loyalty and dutifulness to authority figures," the authors say.

"Moreover, high traditionalists are less likely than low traditionalists to base their attitudes and behavioural responses on how authority figures treat them. Rather, they are governed by their felt obligation to fulfil the expectations and responsibilities of their prescribed social roles."

The authors' surveys of Chinese workers and supervisors in 27 companies in Beijing and Tianjin support these ideas. For subordinates of high power distance value or holding traditionalist beliefs, POS did not have a significant impact on worker outcome measures, which included job performance and organisational citizenship behaviour. In contrast, for subordinates of low power distance value or holding less traditionalist beliefs, POS had a strong positive impact on worker outcomes, just like their US counterparts.

The study also found that POS related positively to organisational commitment regardless of one's power distance or traditionality orientation, suggesting that "Even though employees with high ratings for one or both values are likely to continue to keep up their performance when they perceive low organisational support, they are also likely to feel less loyalty, which may be expressed in less confrontational ways such as turnover."

The authors also examine whether power distance or traditionality is the more important influence and find that attitudes towards power distance matter more, perhaps because it relates more directly to a workplace context.

The findings can help guide companies on how and when to use POS to motivate their employees.

"We are not dismissing entirely the importance of POS for traditionalist or high power distance Chinese. However, organisations that employ such individuals in high numbers and that themselves have a conservative traditionalist culture - as do many companies in the PRCs inland cities and many state-owned enterprises - should consider other strategies for motivating higher levels of performance.

"One alternative is to emphasise employees' duty to meet work role responsibilities and remain loyal to their supervisors in the interest of maintaining social harmony; such a strategy would be not unlike the frequent propaganda campaigns the PRC government has used to prompt Chinese to fulfil their civic duties through moral persuasion."

For those firms that are more egalitarian, participatory and involving - and there are examples of these emerging in China's coastal regions - the authors suggest they seek to hire workers who are not strongly oriented toward power distance or traditional values so as to have a better person-organisation fit.