ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a workplace phenomenon in which a supervisor categorizes his staff into in-group and out-group members, using different rules of social exchange with the different groups. It presents a novel comprehensive methodology to quantify guanxi in workplaces, which incorporates both quantitative data and qualitative results in a complementary manner. The chapter identifies informal leaders’ guanxi circles and check for overlapping areas among various circles, that is, bridges. Guanxi circles are actually pseudofamilies in a person’s working life and at work usually develop from ego-centered social networks around one focal person. The main guanxi circle in a workplace is generally centered on the supervisor at the highest level. The concept of guanxi circles is similar to action sets rather than a closed group or an association. Flexible guanxi operation usually makes a guanxi circle’s boundary open.
