Chinese Values Survey

Abstract

The Chinese Values Survey (CVS) is a psychological instrument developed in 1987 by the Chinese Culture Connection, an international consortium of organizational researchers led by Michael H. Bond. The measure was meticulously developed using a robust methodology involving original development in Chinese, translation to English, and subsequent back-translation to ensure cross-cultural consistency and equivalence. The primary objective of the CVS is to quantify values related to work and social interaction within Chinese culture, differentiating these values across various Chinese and non-Chinese populations.

The CVS assesses four distinct value categories: Integration, Confucian work dynamism (CWD), Human-heartedness, and Moral discipline. These dimensions capture core aspects of traditional and modern Chinese cultural values, focusing on societal harmony, hierarchical order, interpersonal kindness, and personal self-control, respectively. The scale has been widely utilized in cross-cultural management and organizational research to compare value orientations globally, as demonstrated in seminal studies comparing managers from the United States, Hong Kong, and the People’s Republic of China.

Keywords

Chinese Values Survey, Cross-Cultural Psychology, Organizational Values, Confucian work dynamism, Integration, Human-heartedness, Moral discipline, Michael H. Bond, Managerial Values, Cultural comparison.

Authors

Chinese Culture Connection (CCC), led by Michael H. Bond.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Chinese Values Survey is to provide a standardized, culturally sensitive tool for measuring core values prevalent in Chinese society, particularly those influencing work environments, ethical conduct, and organizational behavior. It was specifically designed to identify and operationalize value dimensions derived from the Chinese cultural context that may be absent or obscured in Western-centric value frameworks.

The CVS facilitates critical cross-cultural research by enabling researchers to compare the relative importance of these four value categories across different national and regional groups, such as examining differences in value endorsement among managers in Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, and the United States. This application helps explain variations in work attitudes, job satisfaction, and management styles across cultures.

Construct

The CVS measures four distinct psychological constructs related to socio-cultural and work values, which collectively define the unique value orientation identified by the Chinese Culture Connection:

• Integration: This dimension reflects the importance placed on achieving social stability and internal harmony. It includes values that promote cohesion within the self, family, and social circles, such as non-competitiveness, tolerance of others, contentment, and filial piety.
• Confucian work dynamism (CWD): This construct, often associated with a long-term orientation, emphasizes traditional Confucian principles related to managing relationships and status over time. Key aspects include the preservation of social hierarchy, maintaining the status quo, possessing a strong sense of shame, and the crucial practice of reciprocation of favors and gifts.
• Human-heartedness: This construct centers on the importance of social awareness and altruistic interpersonal conduct. It encompasses values such as patience, kindness (forgiveness and compassion), courtesy, and maintaining a strong sense of righteousness.
• Moral discipline: This dimension pertains to the importance of personal control and ethical self-regulation, especially when operating within a group context. Values associated with moral discipline include moderation, carefulness (prudence), keeping oneself disinterested and pure, and the cultivation of few desires.

Validity

The construct validity of the Chinese Values Survey is supported by its ability to reliably differentiate between culturally distinct groups. Ralston et al. (1992) demonstrated that the CVS dimensions successfully distinguished managers from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong, as well as American managers, confirming the scale’s cultural sensitivity.

Empirical evidence showed that managers from Hong Kong scored significantly higher on the importance of Integration compared to PRC managers, a finding consistent with Hong Kong’s history of relative social stability, contrasting sharply with the societal disruptions experienced in the PRC, such as the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore, the Confucian work dynamism factor clearly differentiated all three groups: PRC managers placed the highest importance on CWD, followed by Hong Kong managers (medium importance), and American managers (low importance). Conversely, American managers prioritized Human-heartedness significantly higher than both groups of Chinese managers. Additionally, Pearson and Chong (1997) reported findings that support the predictive validity of the collective orientation dimensions, noting that employees who placed greater importance on collective CVS aspects (e.g., work group harmony) found that job characteristics had less effect on their overall satisfaction.

Reliability

Internal consistency reliability for the Chinese Values Survey was assessed using Coefficient alpha, based on the findings reported by Pearson and Chong (1997). The results indicate acceptable to moderate levels of internal consistency across the four subscales:

• Integration: .80
• Human-heartedness: .81
• Confucian work dynamism: .77
• Moral discipline: .55

The reliability coefficients for Integration, Human-heartedness, and Confucian work dynamism are generally considered robust for social science research. However, the Moral discipline subscale exhibits a lower coefficient alpha of .55, suggesting that this dimension may have internal consistency limitations and should be interpreted with caution in certain research contexts.

Factor Analysis

The Chinese Values Survey is structured around four empirically derived factors identified through factor analysis of the collected items: Integration, Confucian work dynamism, Human-heartedness, and Moral discipline. This four-factor structure forms the basis of the scale and represents the core cultural dimensions identified as salient within the Chinese cultural sphere by the Chinese Culture Connection study.

It is important to note that the survey includes a substantial number of items that did not load cleanly or significantly onto these four primary factors. These twelve remaining items are typically listed separately and may represent either highly individualistic values or values that cross traditional factor boundaries. Researchers often focus exclusively on the four primary factor scores when utilizing the CVS for comparative analysis.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report measure (Cross-Cultural Values Assessment)

Format: 9-point Likert-type scale

Language Available: Chinese (Original), English (Translated and Back-translated)

Population Group: Cross-cultural populations, primarily focusing on Chinese managers and employees, but used for international comparison.

Age Group: Adults (specifically employed managers in initial studies).

Population Details: Initial validation studies compared managerial samples from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong, and the United States.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate the importance of each value item using a 9-point scale, where 1 represents no importance and 9 represents extreme importance.

Keywords

Cross-Cultural Management, Organizational Behavior, Value Orientation, Managerial Research, Chinese Culture Connection, Filial Piety, Coefficient alpha, Likert Scale, Cultural Comparison.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Scale developed by a consortium, Chinese Culture Connection)

Affiliation Email addresses: Contact Michael H. Bond (Affiliation details required for specific correspondence)

Correspondence Address: Refer to the original publication source for corresponding author details (Ralston, D. A., et al., 1992).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1987 (Development by Chinese Culture Connection)

Permissions: The items were published in the 1992 article in the Journal of Applied Psychology and are explicitly noted as being reprinted with permission from the American Psychological Association (APA). Researchers wishing to utilize the scale must seek appropriate permission from the APA and/or the original authors (Chinese Culture Connection) for use in academic or commercial research settings.

Fee: Information regarding current licensing fees is not provided in the source material and must be obtained directly from the copyright holder.

Reference’s

Chinese Culture Connection (1987). Chinese values and the search for culture-free dimensions of culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 18, 143-164.

Pearson, C. A. L., & Chong, J. (1997). The moderating effect of cultural values on the job satisfaction-job characteristic relationship: A study of Chinese managers in Hong Kong. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 21(4), 487-501.

Ralston, D. A., Gustafson, D. J., Elsass, P. M., Cheung, F., & Terpstra, R. H. (1992). Eastern values: A comparison of managers in the United States, Hong Kong, and the People’s Republic of China. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 664-671. Items were taken from Table 2, p. 667. Copyright© 1992 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

Items of the Chinese Values Survey

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Responses are obtained using a 9-point Likert-type scale where I= no impor­tance and 9 = extreme importance.

Integration items:

1. Tolerance of others
2. Harmony with others
3. Solidarity with others
4. Noncompetitiveness
5. Trustworthiness
6. Contentedness
7. Being conservative
8. A close, intimate friend
9. Filial piety
10. Patriotism
11. Chastity in women

Confucian work dynamism items:

1. Ordering relationships by status and observing order
2. Thrift
3. Persistence (perseverance)
4. Having a sense of shame
5. Reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts
6. Personal steadiness
7. Protecting your face
8. Respect for tradition

Human-heartedness items:

1. Kindness (forgiveness, compassion)
2. Sense of righteousness
3. Patience
4. Courtesy

Moral discipline items:

1. Moderation, following the middle way
2. Keeping oneself disinterested and pure
3. Adaptability
4. Prudence (carefulness)
5. Having few desires

Remaining items that did not load on the four factors:

1. Industry (working hard)
2. Humbleness
3. Loyalty to superior
4. Observation of rites and social rituals
5. Knowledge (education)
6. Self-cultivation
7. Benevolent authority
8. Resistance to corruption
9. Sincerity
10. Repayment of both the good or the evil that another person has caused you
11. A sense of cultural superiority
12. Wealth