The Research On Protestant Work Ethic And Its Compared Study Under Chinese Situation

This present study both examined the nature of the protestant work ethic on the Chinese cultural differences and the relationships between the Protestant work ethic and other cultural work ethics. This paper contained main five issues including (1) the content and structure of the Protestant work ethic;(2) the interaction mechanisms of Protestant work ethic;(3) the demographic correlates of Protestant work ethic;(4) the correlation between the Protestant work ethic and Confucian work ethic;(5) the correlation between the Protestant work ethic and Chinese Marxist work ethic. The present study employed several methods to research. These methods include literature reviewed method, empirical method and content analysis method. In a sample of1,546respondents and a sample of1,100respondents from several provinces in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guangdong, Inner Mongolia, and Shanxi in mainland China were collected. Employing the questionnaire of a sample of1100the present study explored several issues such as the content and structure of the content and structure of the Protestant work ethic, the interaction mechanisms of Protestant work ethic and the demographic correlates of Protestant work ethic. And using questionnaire of a sample of1546respondents this paper studied the relationship between the protestant work ethic and Confucian work ethic. Through the method of content analysis, this study explored the relationship between the Protestant work ethic and Chinese Marxist work ethic taking102samples of excellent Chinese communists for examples. The results were showed in this study follows.1. There are four dimensions of the Protestant work ethic. Throng the process including literature reviewing, translating the scale of Protestant work ethic from English into Chinese, pre-test and formal test, the study employed the methods of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and so on to explore the dimensions of PWE. The result showed that there are four dimensions of PWE including work hard, success from diligence, hardships and abstinence, inner control.2. The interaction mechanisms of Protestant work ethic. The Protestant work ethic was positively and significantly respectively related to organizational citizen behavior, job performance, job involvement and normative commitment. Also every dimensions of PWE are significantly related with the four variables, but the impacts for PWE as overall on the four variables was very different from the impact of the dimensions of PWE on them. The result also showed that organizational citizen behavior, job involvement and normative commitment respectively played significant mediator role between PWE and job performance and other variables of attitude and behavior.3. PWE and its four dimensions were related to a number of demographic variables and the histological variables such as sex, age, work experience, unit affiliation, party affiliation, position, education and income.4. The correlation between the Protestant work ethic and Confucian work ethic. Firstly, this study compared the PWE and Confucian dynamism. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that all the dimensions of PWE were positively related to Confucian Dynamism, but negatively to guanxi orientation. The results also indicated that three PWE dimensions were positively and significantly related to long-term orientation, but two of them were related negatively and significantly to the short-term orientation of Confucian Dynamism. In addition, this present study explored the relationships between PWE and four variables. These four variables represented Confucian work ethic, which were labeled diligence, enterprising, interpersonal harmony and leisure values. The results showed that PWE was positively and significantly with three of them including diligence, enterprising, interpersonal harmony, but negatively and significantly with leisure values. Moreover, the four dimensions of PWE were correlated significantly positively or negatively with the four variables of Confucian work ethic. 5. The correlation between the Protestant work ethic and Chinese Marxism work ethic. There existed six factors in Chinese Marxism work ethic. They were labeled Selfless dedication, love one’s work and be devoted to it, service society, Hard struggle, hard work, discharge one’s duty. There were four common factors between Protestant work ethic and Chinese Marxism work ethic including "love one’s work and be devoted to it"," Hard struggle"," hard work","discharge one’s duty", while two factors such as "Selfless dedication","service society," were just in Chinese Marxism work ethic rather than the Protestant work ethic. At the same time, the present study also explored the correlation between Protestant work ethic and Chinese Marxism work ethic in the other eight factors.