Guanxi

In collectivist East Asian settings, resilience emphasizes relational harmony, endurance, social obligations, and family or social support more than individual autonomy. Guanxi refers to informal workplace relationship networks based on reciprocity and mutual cooperation. Maintaining guanxi requires ongoing favor exchange, and violating implicit norms can harm standing in the academic community. Guanxi-related expectations may increase working hours beyond clinical or academic workload alone.