Influence of work pressure on proactive skill development in China: The role of career networking behavior and Guanxi HRM

•Career networking behavior provides a coping mechanism to attenuate potential resource loss of work pressure.•Career networking behavior motivates proactive skill development.•The effects of work pressure on proactive skill development are mediated by career networking behavior.•Guanxi HRM positively moderates the work pressure-career networking relationship.

This research examines how work pressure influences proactive skill development in the context of the Chinese workplace. Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, we develop a model which argues that career networking behavior serves as the mechanism that allows employees to transform work pressure into proactive skill development. We further argue that in the context of the Chinese workplace, guanxi HRM, which is a culturally-specific workplace practice deeply-rooted in Chinese tradition, plays a contingency role in influencing the extent to which work pressure influences career networking behavior. We test our model using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for a sample of employees (N = 392) in China. The results show that career networking behavior positively mediates the influence of work pressure on proactive skill development and that guanxi HRM positively and significantly moderates the influence of work pressure on career networking behavior. The overall findings provide empirical support for the relevance of contextual and motivational factors in explaining employee proactive skill development. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are fully discussed.