Leadership development in the Hong Kong Civil Service: Accessing social resources through guanxi networks

Drawing on guanxi and conservation of resources theory we explore how close personal ties between middle managers who participated in leadership development, constitutes an important social resource in an East Asian public sector context. We contribute to studies exploring the importance of informal...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration and development 2024-05, Vol.44 (2), p.105-117
Main Authors: O’Neil, Jennifer J., McMillan, Janice, Garavan, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Civil service
Conservation
Data quality
Development programs
guanxi
Hong Kong
Leadership
leadership development
Middle managers
Peers
Professional development
Public sector
Resources
Social development
Social networks
Social resources
Tacit knowledge
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Drawing on guanxi and conservation of resources theory we explore how close personal ties between middle managers who participated in leadership development, constitutes an important social resource in an East Asian public sector context. We contribute to studies exploring the importance of informal leadership development opportunities and techniques, specifically utilised to overcome public sector structural barriers. We gathered qualitative data from 44 middle managers who had completed formal leadership development within the Hong Kong Civil Service. Our data revealed that high quality Superior‐to‐Subordinate Guanxi helped study participants to gain access to important development resources including further developmental opportunities, stretch assignments, developmental support and feedback. High quality Peer‐to‐Peer Guanxi helped them to gain access to peer tacit knowledge, participation in collaborative development projects and positive peer developmental feedback. Our findings inform future leadership development design and are relevant to East Asian public sector context's where guanxi ties are significant.
ISSN:0271-2075
1099-162X
DOI:10.1002/pad.2040