Prof. Zhen Wang
Professor, and Distinguished Young Scholar of Longma Scholar Program
Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics
39 South College Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China
wangzhen@cufe.edu.cn
Zhen Wang is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Business School of Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), and a Longma Young Scholar at CUFE. His academic affiliations include Associate Editor of Personnel Review (SSCI-Q1), Associate Editor of Human Resource Development Quarterly (SSCI-Q1), and Editorial Director of Human Resource Development of China. He serves as the Secretary-General of the Expert Committee at the China Human Resource Development Association (CHRD) and the Deputy Director of the Managerial Psychology Division within the Chinese Association of Social Psychology (CASP).
His research interests focus on business ethics, leadership, organizational behavior, and human resource management. He has published over 100 papers in leading domestic and international journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (OBHDP), Human Relations (HR), Human Resource Management (HRM), Leadership Quarterly (LQ), Journal of Business Ethics (JBE), Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (JOOP), Journal of Vocational Behavior (JVB), Acta Psychologica Sinica, and Journal of Management Sciences in China, among others. Of these, 10 papers have appeared in journals listed in the FT50.
He has led three projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, two sub-projects under the Major Projects of the National Social Science Fund of China, and three provincial and ministerial-level projects.
Professor Wang has received several honors, including the Beijing Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, the Academy of Management (AOM) Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) Award, and has been recognized as a Top 1% Highly Cited Scholar by CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure).
He has provided a range of management consulting services to various enterprises and public institutions. A talent analytics and training program he designed for a major commercial bank was nominated for the Excellence in Practice Award by the Association for Talent Development (ATD, formerly ASTD).
Education
Ph.D. in Human Resource Management (2012), Renmin University of China
Master of Human Resource Management (2009), Renmin University of China
Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and Bachelor of Business Administration (2007), Central China Normal University, and China University of Geosciences
Visiting Experience
Business School, Wake Forest University, with Sean T. Hannah (09/2018-09/2019)
College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, with Robert C. Liden (09/2010-09/2011)
Research Interests
Leadership, Business Ethics, Organizational Behavior, and Human Resource Management
Research Grants (PI)
[1] National Natural Science Fund (2022-2025): Are employees and the organization having mutual affinity or not? The antecedents and effects of human resource attributions (72172170)
[2] National Natural Science Fund (2018-2021): Service-oriented human resource management systems: The content structure, forming process, double-edged sword effect and governance mechanism (71772193)
[3] National Natural Science Fund (2014-2016): The impact of CEO ethical leadership on manager unethical behavior and its cascading effect: A social learning perspective (71302129)
[4] Beijing Social Science Fund (2016-2018): The determinants and intervention of employee service innovation in Beijing banking industry: A multi-level and multi-path study (16GLB035)
[5] Beijing Natural Science Fund (2015-2016): The contents, antecedents and consequences of employee feedback avoidance behavior in Chinese organizational context (9144035)
[6] Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education (2013-2016): The antecedents and consequences of leader-member exchange differentiation: A multilevel study from resource and resource allocation perspective (13YJC630176)
Professional Services
Associate Editor, Personnel Review (SSCI, Q1; ABDC-A)
Associate Editor, Human Resource Development Quarterly (SSCI, Q1)
Editorial Director, Human Resource Development of China (in Chinese, Q1)
Special Issue Guest Editor, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources (“HRM in China” SI, and “Frontiers in HR practice and process” SI); Personnel Review (“HRM in Asia”)
Secretary-General of the Expert Committee, China Human Resource Development Association (CHRD)
Deputy Director of the Division of Managerial Psychology, Chinese Association of Social Psychology (CASP)
Journal Articles in English (35 papers, including 10 in FT50 journals)
Wang, Z., Chen, H., Liu, X., & Zhong, H. (in press). You win some, you lose some: Toward a comprehensive understanding of the trade-off impacts of leader high performance expectations. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06004-x (FT50)
Wang, Z., & Chen, H. (in press). When leader expectations inspire and when they overwhelm: The role of growth mindset and prior performance in employee emotional and engagement responses to leader high performance expectations. Journal of Business and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-025-10040-9
Wang, Z., & Hannah, S. T. (in press). Organizational ethical pressure as a threat to employee health: The buffering roles of ethical leadership and employee ethical efficacy. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12743
Xu, T., Xu, H., & Wang, Z. (in press). Frontline fallout in Chinese healthcare: Does negative beneficiary contact harm nurses' mental health? Journal of Advanced Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.16760
Wang, Z., Zhu, Y., & Chen, H. (2025). Beyond the workplace and the benefits: Investigating the stress effects of leader high performance expectations on employees' families. International Journal of Stress Management, 32(2), 204–218.
Xu, H. (H.), Hannah, S. T., Wang, Z.*, Moss, S. E., Sumanth, J. J., & Song, M. (2025). Jekyll and Hyde leadership: Examining the direct and vicarious experiences of abusive and ethical leadership through a justice variability lens. Journal of Applied Psychology, 110(6), 831–845. (FT50)
Lee, B. Y., Wang, Y., Kim, S., & Wang, Z. (2025). Leader-subordinate HR attribution (dis)agreement and its impact on employee well-being: A frame-of-reference perspective. Human Resource Management, 64(3), 679–693. (FT50)
Jiang, F., Wang, Z.*, & Zhang, M. (2025). Proactive aggression or passive resistance: A face perspective on why and how illegitimate tasks in the workplace elicit various counterproductive work behaviors in employees. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 28(1), e70004.
Wang, Z., & Chen, H. (2024). Proactivity or withdrawal? The role of attributions in employee psychological and behavioral responses to leader high performance expectations. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 35(21), 3637–3671.
Wang, Z., Zhu, Y., & Jiang, F. (2024). "Who's to blame?" matters: The role of attributions in employees emotional and behavioral responses to career inaction. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 97(4), 1603–1631.
Wang, Z., Song, Y., & Jiang, F. (2024). Are they more proactive or less engaged? Understanding employees’ career proactivity after promotion failure through an attribution lens. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 155, 104061.
Wang, Z., & Chen, H. (2024). Balancing the performance benefits and health costs of leader high performance expectations: The role of servant leadership. Employee Relations, 46(5), 1172–1190.
Wang, Z., & Song, Y. (2024). Developmental leadership as a driver of employee feedback behaviors: The roles of learning goal orientation and leader high performance expectations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 45(5), 863–876.
Guo, L., Jia, S.*, Niu, X., & Wang, Z.* (2024). One who wishes to wear the crown, must bear its weight: How performance pressure benefits career prospective employees in organizations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 155, 104056.
Song, Y., Wang, Z.*, & Song, L. J. (2024). Going the extra mile for patients: Service-oriented high-performance work systems drive nurses’ job crafting and extra-role service behaviour. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 80(9), 3637–3652.
Jiang, F., & Wang, Z.* (2024). Craft it if you cannot avoid it: Job crafting alleviates the detrimental effects of illegitimate tasks on employee health. Current Psychology, 43(9), 7924–7935.
Wang, Z., & Jiang, F. (2023). It is not only what you do, but why you do it: The role of attribution in employees' emotional and behavioral responses to illegitimate tasks. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 142, 103860.
Song, M., Jiang, A., Wang, Z.*, & Hu, H. (2023). Can boundary-spanning leaders take good care of their families? A work-home resource model of leader boundary spanning behavior. Journal of Business Research, 156, 113517.
Sanders, K., Song, L. J., Wang, Z., & Bednall, T. (2022). New frontiers in HR practices and HR processes: Evidence from Asia. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 60(4), 703–720.
Wang, Z., Xing, L., Song, L. J., & Moss, S. E. (2022). Serving the customer, serving the family, and serving the employee: Toward a comprehensive understanding of the effects of service-oriented high-performance work systems. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(10), 2052–2082. (ABDC-A)
Peng, J., Li, M., Wang, Z., & Lin, Y. (2021). Transformational leadership and employees’ reactions to organizational change: Evidence from a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 57(3), 369–397.
Wang, Z., Xing, L., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Do high-performance work systems harm employees’ health? An investigation of service-oriented HPWS in the Chinese healthcare sector. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(10), 2264–2297.
Zhao, C., Cooke, F. L., & Wang, Z.* (2021). Human resource management in China: What are the key issues confronting organizations and how can research help? Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 59(3), 355–531. (Wiley Top Downloaded Article 2021-2022)
Wang, Z., Xing, L., Xu, H., & Hannah, S. T. (2021). Not all followers socially learn from ethical leaders: The roles of followers’ moral identity and leader identification in the ethical leadership process. Journal of Business Ethics, 170(3), 449–469. (FT50)
Wang, Z., Xu, H., & Song, M. (2021). Exploring how and when ethical conflict impairs employee organizational commitment: A stress perspective investigation. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 30(2), 172–187.
Peng, J., Chen, X., Nie, Q., & Wang, Z. (2020). Proactive personality congruence and creativity: A leader identification perspective. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 35(7-8), 543–558.
Moss, S. E., Song, M., Hannah, S. T., Wang, Z., & Sumanth, J. J. (2020). The duty to improve oneself: How duty orientation mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and followers’ feedback seeking and avoiding behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 165(4), 615–631. (FT50)
Feng, Z., Liu, Y., Wang, Z., & Savani, K. (2020). Let’s choose one of each: Using the partition dependence effect to increase diversity in organizations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 158, 11–26. (FT50)
Feng, Z., Liu, Y., Wang, Z., & Savani, K. (2020). Research: A method for overcoming implicit bias when considering job candidates. Harvard Business Review (digital article), July 21, 2020. https://hbr.org/2020/07/research-a-method-for-overcoming-implicit-bias-when-considering-job-candidates.
Peng, J., Wang, Z.*, & Chen, X.* (2019). Does self-serving leadership hinder team creativity? A moderated dual-path model. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(2), 419–433. (FT50)
Wang, Z., & Xu, H. (2019). When and for whom ethical leadership is more effective in eliciting work meaningfulness and positive attitudes: The moderating roles of core self-evaluation and perceived organizational support. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(4), 919–940. (FT50)
Wang, Z., Xu, H., & Liu, Y. (2018). How does ethical leadership trickle down? Test of an integrative dual-process model. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(3), 691–705. (FT50)
Wang, Z., Xu, H., & Liu, Y. (2018). Servant leadership as a driver of employee service performance: Test of a trickle-down model and its boundary conditions. Human Relations, 71(9), 1179–1203. (FT50)
Wang, Z., & Xu, H. (2017). How and when service-oriented high-performance work systems foster employee service performance: A test of mediating and moderating processes. Employee Relations, 39(4), 523–540.
Yang, J., Ming, X., Wang, Z., & Adam, S. M. (2017). Are sex effects on ethical decision-making fake or real? A meta-analysis on the contaminating role of social desirability response bias. Psychological Reports, 120(1), 25–48.
Hu, J., Wang, Z., Liden, R. C., & Sun, J. (2012). The influence of leader core self-evaluation on follower reports of transformational leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 23(5), 860–868.
Honors and Awards (Teaching)
2025 Most Popular MBA Instructor Award, CUFE Business School 2023–24 Academic Year
2023 Director of the National First-Class Undergraduate Program in Human Resource Management
2023 Outstanding Graduate Supervisor Award, CUFE
2023 Head, National First-Class Undergraduate Major Construction Points (HRM major at CUFE)
2022 Teaching Achievement First Prize Award, Chinese Association of Human Resource Development
2021 Higher Education Teaching Achievement First Prize Award, CUFE
2015 Best Teaching Presentation Award of the 10th CUFE Young Teachers’ Basic Teaching Skills Competition
Honors and Awards (Research and General)
2024 Top 1% Highly Cited Scholar by CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure).
2021 Responsible Research in Management Award, AOM
2021 Saroj Parasuraman Award of Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of AOM
2021 Excellent Paper Award, CUFE
2018/2022/2023 Excellent Award, CUFE Business School
2017/2019/2020/2021 Excellent Research Award, CUFE Business School
2013 Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of Beijing (The only one in the Business Administration field)
2013 Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of RUC
2011 Wu Yuzhang Scholarship of RUC (The highest honor for students at RUC)
2009 Excellent Master’s Thesis of RUC
2007 Excellent Bachelor’s Thesis of Hubei Province
