H2.3. Work-related "relationships"

H2.3. Work-related "relationships" would be a more important predictor of strain for the PRC than Taiwanese workers.

In sum, the general work stress-strain relationship should hold for both the PRC and Taiwanese employees, however, the relative significance as empirical indicators of this relationship may vary across these two societies.

Control beliefs and work stress

Recently, there has been a growing amount of research on individual differences factors involved in the work-stress process. Locus of control (LOC) was originally conceptualized as a generalized expectancy of the contingency between one's action and consequences of an event (Rotter, 1966). This dimension of individual differences is perhaps the most extensively researched moderator in the general stress literature (Cohen and Edwards, 1989). In the domain of work, internal control has been found to help people to adapt successfully to stressful work settings (Parkes, 1986), to achieve better job performance (Peterson and Albrecht, 1996), to retain higher job satisfaction (Rees and Cooper, 1992). Perceived control is found to relate to less physical and psychological strain as shown in Spector's (1986) meta-analysis. Other studies have also revealed that internal locus of control was related to a lowered perception of work stress (Lu et al., 1999a; Siu and Cooper, 1998). A recent international collaborative project has found that at both the individual employee level and ecological group mean level, work LOC was related to job satisfaction, physical and psychological well-being across most of the 24 nations/territories (Spector et al., 2001, 2002).

However, there is an ongoing debate on the dimensionality of the LOC construct (Levenson, 1974; Paulhus, 1983; Farnham and Steele, 1993). Other more fundamental theoretical problems also beset the LOC construct. For instance, whether the source of control equates the motivation for control is debatable. In other words, we may retain the motivation for control even if the source of control is ostensibly external. The question is how.

Rothbaum et al. (1982) distinguished two general paths to a feeling of control. In primary control, individuals enhance their rewards by influencing existing realities, attempting direct control over situations through personal action. In secondary control, individuals enhance their rewards by accommodating existing realities and maximizing satisfaction or goodness of fit with things as they are. In other words, the individual experiences control indirectly. This two-process model of perceived control has moved beyond the discussion of sources of control (i.e. LOC), and proposed a dichotomy on the direction of control (internal/external or self/the world) instead. According to this model, one may retain the motivation for control and achieve a sense of control through changing oneself even if the source of control is ostensibly external. Hence human agency is emphasized, and perceived control is more closely linked to coping efforts and consequences of adaptation. However, culture prescribes different desired ways in which a person can exercise control (Weisz et al., 1984). Individualist cultures stress self-actualization and self-resilience, whereas the collectivist ones stress fitting in with the social environment and harmonious interpersonal relationships (Hofstede, 1980; Triandis, 1994). Therefore, it is generally viewed that in the West, primary control is more heavily emphasized whereas in the East, secondary control assumes a more central role. A recent study indeed found that the Chinese Americans scored lower on primary control but higher on secondary control than Americans (Peng, 1995).

However, we believe that it is too simplistic to label Chinese as passive and pessimistic. In fact, the Chinese conception of control is closely linked to the sophisticated Chinese cosmology. According to Confucius and his most influential successor Mencius, humans as biological beings have to face the inescapable fate of living, aging, illness and death. However, as a moral being, "yen" (man) must practice the transcendental "moral principles" to fulfill his "destiny" (Lao, 1968). Morality is the defining feature of the Confucian ideal of personhood (Bauer, 1976), and practicing the "heavenly fate" is to do everything according to "yi" (righteousness), and only to "yi" (wei yi shi chong) (Tang, 1986). The Confucian idea of separating "yi" (righteousness) and "ming" (fate) has profoundly influenced traditional Chinese attitudes towards the outer world. Confucius regarded affairs out of human control as the realm of "ming" (fate), whereas those under the human control as the realm of "yi" (righteousness). It is clear that the separation the "yi" and "ming" has left ample space for human agency to operate, albeit the Confucian style human agency has a clear boundary and a heavy moral tone unlike the almost unrestrained human agency nurtured in Western cultural traditions. The Chinese proverbs such as "Man should do his work first, then leave the rest to Heaven" and "It is up to man to strive, but up to Heaven to grant" reflect a rather proactive attitude towards life in general.

In sum, the Chinese cultural tradition does emphasize a harmonious relation between humans and Nature. However, a certain form of primary control beliefs are also fostered and even emphasized in the traditional Chinese culture. The Chinese primary control beliefs refer to a set of general convictions that individuals should achieve their goals by influencing existing realities, attempting direct control over situations through personal action. The Chinese secondary control beliefs refer to a set of general convictions that individuals should achieve their goals by accommodating existing realities and maximizing the goodness of fit with the environment. It must be said that the Chinese notion of human agency is fundamentally different from that advocated in the Western culture, and is pre-determined by fate. The Chinese strategies of executing human agency are also different from the Western ones, as they focus on accepting and coming to terms with the results, no matter how good or bad (Lu, 2001a, b). We therefore hypothesized that the Chinese primary control beliefs would be protective in the work-stress context, demonstrating both direct and indirect effects (H3):
H3.1. Employees with high Chinese primary control beliefs would report higher job satisfaction, mental and physical well-being.
H3.2. Chinese primary control beliefs would moderate (buffer) the stress-strain relationship.
For some time now there have been suggestions and various pieces of empirical evidence showing that the Chinese are becoming increasingly self-assertive as a result of societal modernization (Yang, 1996; Lu and Kao, 2002). A recent cross-cultural study (Taiwan-UK) examining roles of primary and secondary control beliefs found that whereas primary control promotes SWB, secondary control is detrimental to SWB (Lu, 2001a, b). It seems that the current social milieu of cultural fusion and societal modernization have on the one hand provided Chinese with a stronger impetus to exercise more primary control over the surrounding environment, on the other hand, de-valued and rendered secondary control as over-pessimistic and maladaptive. Therefore, we hypothesized that the Chinese secondary control beliefs would be a vulnerability factor in the work-stress context, demonstrating both direct and indirect effects (H4):
H4.1. Employees with high Chinese secondary control beliefs would report lower job satisfaction, mental and physical well-being.
H4.2. Chinese secondary control beliefs would moderate (exacerbate) the stress-strain relationship.