The relationship between person–team fit with supervisor–subordinate guanxi and organizational justice in a Chinese state‐owned enterprise

Abstract The study examines how subordinates’ perceptions of justice in Chinese working teams are influenced by the person–team fit (or the misfit) of the supervisor–subordinate guanxi ( SSG ). We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 1,086 employees from 149 work groups in one state‐owned enterprise; using a combination of cross‐level polynomial regression and response surface analysis. The results showed that subordinates’ perceptions of justice, in terms of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice, were higher when individual SSG was congruent with the average SSG in the team ( TSSG ) at a high level than when an individual SSG was congruent with TSSG at a low level . Meanwhile, in the misfit situation, subordinates’ perceptions of the three dimensions of justice were higher when the individual SSG relative to TSSG (relative SSG , or RSSG ) was surplus (individual SSG exceeded TSSG ) versus RSSG deficient ( TSSG exceeded individual SSG ). Nevertheless, the subordinates’ perceptions of distributive justice were the highest when SSG and TSSG were almost equal in high level, as observed by integrating the fit with the misfit line. These findings highlight the important boundary cultural conditions of the psychological processes of justice and provide useful insights for international managers conducting their business in China.