Yu-Ping Chen
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Research Statement
Overview
My research interests span three major areas: global work experiences, interpersonal
relationships at work, and workplace emotions. Underlying these interests are two
common threads: (1) a desire to understand how multinational companies can more
effectively manage both traditional (e.g., expatriates) and emerging types (e.g., selfinitiated expatriates-SIEs) of global employees and (2) an interest in untangling how
interpersonal relationships at work can influence individuals and organizations in
different domains. I summarize my work and my future research plans below.
Global Work Experiences
My interest in global work experiences stems from observing the dynamic global work
environment and growing range of global work alternatives. In a manuscript which has
been invited for a 2nd R&R at the Journal of Management, I am working with three
eminent scholars (Shaffer, Kraimer, & Bolino) and taking a lead role in reviewing
research that explains how various global work experiences require different levels of
physical mobility, psychological mobility, and family separation, all of which impose
different choices, challenges, and career consequences for global employees.
I have also been involved in several projects focused on career development of global
employees. In one paper currently under review at the International Journal of Human
Resource Management, my colleagues and I (Shaffer, Singh, & Chen) focused on the
importance of fair organizational practices on pay satisfaction and psychological
withdrawal of corporate expatriates. In another paper, I (Chen, 2009) identified how
expatriate spouses' cross-cultural adjustment is contingent on the coping strategies they
adopt and their expatriate partners' adjustment. In another project, my colleagues and I
(Fu & Chen, 2008) explicated the relationship between expatriate adjustment and SIEs’
fit to work group and host community. Working on a large-scale research project with
three well-known international scholars (Shaffer, Westman, & Lazarova), I am currently
exploring the positive influence of the work-family interface on global work experiences.
My dissertation topic was inspired by my own global experiences as an international
graduate student who desires to pursue an academic career in a host country. My
dissertation seeks to elucidate the influences of relational supports, personal resources,
and institutional influences on self-initiated expatriates’ psychological needs, motivation,
and well-being at each stage of their career transition. I am planning to send a conceptual
paper based on my research model to the Academy of Management Review.
Interpersonal Relationships at Work
Managing interpersonal relationships at work is an inescapable reality for all employees.
In my recent publication (Chen, Hsu, & Yip, 2011) in the International Journal of
Human Resource Management, we found that interpersonal relationships between HR
and line managers significantly influenced both HR and line managers’ perceived firm
performance. I actively contributed to the theoretical arguments and data analysis in this
paper.
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Yu-Ping Chen
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Research Statement
In a manuscript now under review at the Journal of Organizational Behavior, I played a
lead role in writing the manuscript in which my colleagues and I (Shaffer, Joplin, Chan,
Chen, & Posthuma) examined the influences of an etic job demand (organizational
politics) and two emic job resources (guanxi and participative management) on the
United States and Hong Kong nurses' attitudinal, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes.
Adopting a person-environment fit lens on interpersonal relationships, my colleague and I
(Hsu & Chen, 2010) proposed a theoretical model in which individuals with higher
degrees of fit with the organization, family, and community were more likely to receive
social support from others. In addition, my current research (Ren, Chen, & Zhang, 2011)
also indicates that when individuals feel separated at work, they experience negative
psychosomatic symptoms which in turn impact their performance negatively.
Workplace Emotions
I am also interested in exploring how interpersonal relationships could influence
employees’ emotions at work. In a theoretical paper presented at the SIOP conference
(Chen, 2010), I proposed that both group- and individual-level factors could influence
individuals’ feelings of envy, which in turn impacts various individual and group
outcomes. In another paper, (Chen & Hsu, 2011), I also proposed that employees’
attachment styles and organized emotional care from organizations enhances employees’
psychological safety, which in turn directs employees’ emotional regulation at work.
Future Research
My future research will expand upon my research interests on global work experiences,
interpersonal relationships at work, and workplace emotions. First, I plan to collect more
data on the longitudinal element that is built into my dissertation model. Specifically, as
specified in my model, I plan to examine the well-being of SIE’s and its linking role at
three different stages of their transition. With a full assessment of this longitudinal
process, I expect to empirically validate my theoretical model and use the data to publish
several papers in top-tier journals.
Second, I plan to expand my research on workplace emotions by embedding it within the
context of global work experiences. Specifically, I am formulating a project that explores
the impact of social comparison processes on the emotional dynamics and prosocial
behavior between expatriates and HCNs.
Third, given that HR and line managers do not always think and act in sync with one
another, (Chen, Hsu, & Yip, 2011), I am developing a project that investigates whether
organizational practices (i.e., high-performance work systems) can satisfy both HR and
line managers' psychological needs at work which in turn can motivate them to engage in
greater relational coordination and information sharing behaviors. The conceptual model
driving this project is targeted for submission to the Human Resource Management
Review and I plan to apply for the SHRM Foundation Research Grants this October to
support the empirical execution of this research project.
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