Confucian nurturing doctrine of xin (heart‐mind)

"It's your Liangxin that tells you what to do": Interpreting workplace-induced emotions in a Chinese nursing home

How Direct Care Workers (DCWs) interpret their work and perform care activities undeniably impacts the well-being of institutionalized older adults. Despite the emotionally charged nature of paid care work, little is known about how Chinese DCWs talk about their work and construct meaning within China's unique social context of a burgeoning institutional care market and changing cultural expectations for long-term care. This study qualitatively explored Chinese DCWs' emotion work as they navigate among institutional pressures and low social recognition in an urban government-sponsored nursing home in central China. Results revealed that DCWs used Liangxin (the good heart/mind) - a ubiquitous Chinese moral notion emphasizing the unity of feeling, thought, and action - as an interpretive framework, including its four dimensions (ceyin, xiue, cirang, and shifei), to inform care practice, manage emotions, and find dignity within what can be personally demeaning and socially devalued work. Our study delineated the processes through which DCWs sympathized with the pain and struggles of the older adults in their care (ceyin xin), shamed unjust attitudes and behaviors embedded in institutional care (xiue xin), delivered family-like relational care (cirang xin), and formed and reinforced principles of good (versus bad) care (shifei xin). We also revealed the nuanced role that the cultural value of xiao (filial piety), working in tandem with liangxin, both shaped the emotional terrain of the institutional care setting and impacted how DCWs engaged in emotion work. While recognizing the effect of liangxin for incentivizing DCWs to provide relational care and renegotiate their role status, we were also alerted to the risks of overburdening and exploiting DCWs who relied solely on their liangxin to meet complex care needs.

Systematic Review of Socio-Emotional Values Within Organizations

The theory of separation assumes, with provocation, that an organization cannot reconcile profits and social function. Organizations can reconcile these two, apparently contrasting, missions, by considering emotions, especially moral emotions, to create a genuine motivation for focusing on goals beyond simple economic earnings and protecting organizations or groups of people from dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors, as well as considering the important role of the stakeholder accountability. Using the PRISMA method, we created a review of records using keywords relating to a socio-emotional value within organizations, with a particular focus on the last 20 years. We used the SCOPUS database and, after removing irrelevant records, we used the VOSviewer tool to create a cluster map of different areas in this topic. Some records cite the socio-emotional value that is related to organizational and employee suffering, while other articles consider it a positive factor that improves performance and prevents problems in organizations.

Managerial Perceptions of Leadership in Sri Lanka: Good Management and Leadership Excellence as Foundation for Sustainable Leadership Capacity Building in Post-Civil War Sri Lanka

In this paper, we examine cultural values that influence the leadership perceptions from a sample of 1140 managers in Sri Lankan organizations. Multivariate analysis such as regression, factor analysis and structural equation modeling was employed to explain leadership excellence. Trust and sustainability were found to be the most important ethical leadership characteristics with three distinct leadership perspectives—nurtured organization, good management and excellent leadership. Implications of this study suggest that trust, sustainability and loyalty should be emulated within a nurtured organization, and good management practice with less emphasis on morality should be emulated for developing HR capacity in Sri Lanka.

How Does Culture Matter? The Xin (Heart-Mind)-based Social Competence of Chinese Executives

In this study we explore the emotional and cognitive dimensions of Chinese business leaders’ social competence. We argue for a culturally inclusive conceptualization of leader social competence and its internal structure, which takes into account Chinese indigenous features. Data were collected by critical incident interviews from 42 top executives of small- and medium-sized private enterprises in China. A total of 302 competency episodes were included in the current study. Grounded theory was used for data analysis. The following xin (heart-mind)-based social competencies were referenced in episodes of effective Chinese competency-relevant social interactions: guanxi building and maintenance, empathy, inspiration with wisdom, empowerment and developing others, resilience, and appreciation of problem solving. Each of these competencies includes an emotional and a cognitive element and embodies dynamic interplay between the emotional and cognitive dimensions of social competence. Xin-based social competencies impact effective interactions in relational contexts that implicate the individual self, the organizational self, and their interactions. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings are discussed.