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Chinese Leadership and Its Impacts on Innovative Work Behavior of the Thai Employees

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate Thai employees’ perceptions on their Chinese superiors and to comprehend how Chinese leadership has the impacts on innovative work behavior of the Thai employees. This is a pioneer study about the Chinese leadership in Thailand. In this study, the Chinese means only the expatriates from the mainland. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Thai senior executives who are working in a Chinese-Thai automotive company in Bangkok. This firm is a joint venture of the two largest firms from Thailand and China. The study revealed that the Chinese leaders were perceived as the dictators who usually apply the top-down managerial approach. While, trustworthiness and respect are also not able to gain because the leaders are not perceived as the moral role model. Sometimes, they are considered as the innovation thieves. For these main reasons, innovative work behavior is not exercised by the Thais.

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Correspondence to Opas Piansoongnern.

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Piansoongnern, O. Chinese Leadership and Its Impacts on Innovative Work Behavior of the Thai Employees. Glob J Flex Syst Manag 17, 15–27 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40171-015-0110-4

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