Research Of Total Rewards In Chinese Context And Its Impact On Employee Creativity

Total rewards include all the elements that employees attach importance to in their work,which is an overall compensation design system that can better cope with the changes in employees’ needs.In the era of digital economy when the needs of employees are more diversified,total rewards have become the core resource for enterprises to motivate employees.With the change of major social contradictions and the achievement of comprehensive poverty alleviation in China,total rewards have become the main means to level up employees’ sense of work happiness as well as to motivate employees.The role of total rewards in promoting enterprise development has become increasingly important.Especially with the rapid change in the economic situation and the increasing dynamics and complexity of the external environment,the survival and development of enterprises are more dependent on innovation.Therefore,enterprises need to make good use of the incentive function of total rewards to fully stimulate the creativity of employees,thereby enhancing the level of organizational innovation,and gaining competitive advantages.However,the theoretical research on total rewards is still immature,and it is difficult to provide effective guidance for the management practice of Chinese enterprises.On the one hand,the research on total rewards in Chinese context is still in its infancy.The theoretical basis for research on total rewards mainly comes from the total rewards model by Worldat Work,which is not completely consistent with the reality of China.In addition,academia mainly focuses on the total rewards at the practical level,leading to the misalignment of the structure and measurement of total rewards in extant research.Further,there is a lack of contextual research to deepen its theoretical implications.The lack of a localized total rewards scale restricts the localization research process of total rewards.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the conceptual connotation and structural dimensions of total rewards in the Chinese context and develop a localized measurement scale on this basis,which enriches the theoretical research on the localization of total rewards.On the other hand,the research on the mechanism of total rewards on employees’ creativity is still insufficient.There has been a long-term debate on the relationship between "reward and creativity" in academic circles,which may be due to the lack of distinguishing the type of reward and creativity in previous studies.Total rewards,as an integrated concept covering various types of reward,provides a new perspective for bridging the above disputes.However,there is still little known about the possible influence of total rewards.Whether and how total rewards can promote different types of creativity still needs further research.Therefore,a systematic analysis of the potential mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between total rewards and different types of creativity of employees is not only expected to reconcile the theoretical conflicts in the study of the "reward-creativity" relationship,but also to further promote the research on the mechanism of total rewards.In order to solve the above theoretical problems,this study carried out a combination of qualitative and quantitative research,including:(1)Research on conceptual connotation and the structural dimension of total rewards in Chinese context.Through the qualitative research method,the semi-structured in-depth interview data and the open questionnaire are theoretically coded,and the demand characteristics of Chinese employees and the specific contents of the corresponding human resource management practice are deeply analyzed,so as to abstract the structural factors of total rewards in Chinese context,construct the conceptual model of total rewards in Chinese context,and discuss the reasons for the differences between Chinese and western total rewards models.(2)Develops the total rewards measurement scale in the Chinese context.Combined with qualitative research results and relevant scale items,the initial items of the total rewards scale were compiled.Based on two rounds of the questionnaire survey,the initial scale was revised and tested for reliability and validity by empirical methods,and the 33 items of the overall reward scale was formed.(3)Research on the influence of total rewards on employees’ proactive and responsive creativity.The empirical analysis was conducted based on the research of three-wave field survey data collected from 317 dyads of employees and their immediate supervisors.Based on the conservation of resources theory.This paper constructs a theoretical model of how total rewards affect employees’ proactive and responsive creativity,and also discusses the mediate role of approach / avoidance motives and the moderate role of dual authoritarian leadership.(4)Research on the influence of total rewards on employees’ radical and incremental creativity.The empirical analysis was conducted based on the research of three-wave field survey data collected from 357 dyads of employees and their immediate supervisors.Under the framework of job demand-resource theory,this paper explores the mechanism that total rewards affect employees’ radical and incremental creativity through thriving at work,as well as the moderated effect of creative job requirement in this process.The conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)Total rewards is a multi-dimensional structure composed of the integration of interrelated factors.The total rewards in the Chinese context include seven dimensions: pay security,pay equity,workload,working experience,employee care,career growth and self-worth.(2)The localized total rewards scale,which is composed of 7 factors and 33 items,has good reliability and validity.(3)The theoretical perspective of work resources is an important way to explain the internal mechanism of the relationship between total rewards and employees’ creativity,employees’ approach / avoidance motives play a mediating role in the process that total rewards affect proactive and responsive creativity,thriving at work play a mediating role in the process that total rewards affect radical and incremental creativity.(4)Dual authoritarian leadership is an important boundary condition for total rewards to exert the effect of resource conservation.Shang-Yan leadership strengthens the positive influence of total rewards on approach motives,also enhances the indirect effect of total rewards on employees’ proactive and responsive creativity through approach motives;Zhuan-Quan leadership strengthens the positive influence of total rewards on avoidance motives,also enhances the indirect effect of total rewards on employees’ responsive creativity through avoidance motives.(5)Creative job requirement plays a “double-edged sword” effect on the promotion of employees’ creativity.It strengthens the positive influence of total rewards on thriving at work,also enhances the indirect effect of total rewards on employees’ incremental creativity through thriving at work;at the same time weakens the positive influence of thriving at work on radical creativity,and weakens the indirect effect of total rewards on employees’ radical creativity through thriving at work.Compared with previous studies,the innovation of this study is mainly reflected in the following four aspects:(1)Taking root in the realistic situation of Chinese enterprises,the paper clarifies the conceptual connotation and structural dimensions of total rewards in Chinese context,and constructs a total rewards model which is different from western experience.(2)Following the scientific scale development process,this paper develops the total rewards scale with good reliability and validity,which supplements and improves the measurement tools for China’s local total rewards theory,which laid the measurement foundation for the follow-up research.(3)This paper establishes a theoretical model of the effect of total rewards on employees’ proactive and responsive creativity,reveals the joint mechanism of approach/avoidance motives and dual authoritarian leadership on employee creativity,and expands the application scope of approach-avoidance framework and dual authoritarian leadership theory.(4)This paper discusses the "double-edged sword" moderating effect of creative job requirement.As a situational boundary,it affects the indirect effect of total rewards promoting the employees’ radical and incremental creativity through thriving at work,improves the applicability and explanatory power of the socially embedded model of thriving at work,and broadens the theoretical research perspective of creative job requirement.The management implications of this study are mainly reflected in:(1)Enterprises should grasp the satisfaction of employees’ needs and the implementation effect of relevant human resource management practices,constantly optimize the total rewards system,and realize the dynamic matching between total rewards and employees’ needs.By constantly meeting the needs of employees for a better life to continuously improve the level of organizational performance,thereby building cooperative and win-win labor relations.(2)To promote the simultaneous improvement of employees’ proactive and responsive creativity,it is necessary for enterprises to improve the total rewards incentive level and advocate Shang-Yan leadership style rather than Zhuan-Quan leadership style.(3)To achieve a balanced incentive for employees’ radical and incremental creativity depends on adequate total rewards incentives and reasonable creative job requirement.