ABSTRACT
In societies where personal relationships are the basic unit of social structure, employees are more likely to conceptualize their employment as a relationship with specific organization members (Hui, Lee and Rousseau 2004). For example, compared with Westerners, Chinese have a stronger sense of responsibility and obligation toward those who have close relationships with them (Wong, Wong and Ngo 2002). The studies of loyalty to a supervisor and supervisor-subordinate relationship (Law, Wong, Wang and Wang 2000) have shed light on the practice of human resource management in Chinese companies. However, the linkage with significant others in the Chinese context has not been thoroughly examined. In a society where personal relationships are emphasized in the social life of individuals, pleasant relationships with other kinds of close members such as co-workers might also play an important role in ameliorating relationships in the workplace. Thus far, the influence of the linkage between an employee and co-workers has not yet received sufficient attention.
