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Application and practice of Chinese traditional culture in Chinese enterprises
Introduction
Significance of Research
Socio-economic development is mainly driven by two forces, scientific progress and
humanistic spirit. The global economy is transferring from material economy to knowledge-based economy, with culture being the major driving force. Since the 1980s, Chinese economy has experienced a booming period. Study shows that one
of the main reasons of Chinese economic take-off is that Chinese traditional culture has played an important role. The core values of Chinese traditional culture are charity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and truth. Because of the five virtues, Chinese people have a strong sense of responsibility and sacrifice to their country and enterprise. Chinese traditional culture could become a driving force for economic development in China, making the way of economic growth so much different from that in the West.
The thesis attempts to analyze, identify and compare the positive impacts of Chinese traditional culture upon the corporate culture of Chinese enterprises from a cross-cultural perspective. The direct objective is to explore different absorptions and
assimilations of the Confucian ethics by the enterprises of these countries as well as the cultural differences reflected from those practices, to discover some universally valuable corporate culture originating from Confucianism not only applicable to the enterprises rooted in China, but also conducive to the enterprises of other countries. The fundamental motive of this research is to dig out the useful part of Chinese traditional culture, to inherit the excellent cultural tradition, and to contribute to the management of modern enterprises.
The thesis intends to help us have a better understanding of Confucianism and its
embodiment in corporate culture.
The thesis makes a study on Confucian culture's heritage and development in China, especially on its impacts on corporate culture.
Furthermore, it discusses that advantage of corporate culture of Japan and South Korea can be used as reference to cultural construction of Chinese enterprises.
Study on Chinese traditional culture gives a cultural and spiritual impetus to modern economic development.
Overview of Studies on Chinese traditional culture
The economic boom of East Asia which shocks the Western economic circles helps people see that all the revolutionary economic changes happened under the influence of Confucianism.
Many people exclaim that the traditional culture of the East has wakened up and released enormous energy in building a new economic life.
As for the economic booming of East Asian, it is an upsurge to study Confucianism in
the academic field. The International Confucian Merchants Conference was held in 1994 in Hainan province. Many scholars and experts got together to have a comprehensive study of Confucianism. They have published series books of Confucianism to enhance and glorify Chinese traditional culture and to make more contributions to human civilization. On December 1,2007,the International Symposium with the topic of "Confucian culture and economic development "was held by the international Confucianism forum at People's University of China. Since its first forum held in 2004,it has become an annual academic banquet. This year the forum has attracted a total of more than 120 experts and scholars from South Korea, Japan, the United States, Malaysia, Russia and Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other countries and regions to participate. More than 60 papers were presented.
In addition, many Confucius Institutes were set up to make the diversified research. Books and papers on Confucianism and economy that have been published: Confucius and the Modern Management by Pan Naiyue(1994，孔子与现代管理)，Management Wisdom of The Analects of Confucius by Ma Qianli (2005,论语的管理智慧),Confucius and the Modern Corporate culture by Wang Jing(2004,论语与现代企业文化),etc. Books and papers above discuss Confucianism and corporate culture of China from different aspects.
Ⅰ Brief Introduction of Chinese traditional culture
Chinese traditional culture is an ancient Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed by Confucius. Later on, Confucian ideology had a further development and was richen a lot by Zeng Zi, Zi Si and Mencius. Mencius inherited and developed Confucianism and carried it to a new high. His philosophy, together with Confucius’, is known as“the philosophies of Kong Zi and Meng Zi” in the history of Chinese culture. It primarily focus on secular ethics and morality, as well as the cultivation of the civilized individual that in turn would contribute to the establishment of a civilized society and ultimately world peace. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia. Some consider it to be the state religion of East Asian countries because of governmental promotion of Confucian values. Confucius himself had a simple moral and political teaching: to love others; to honor one's parents; to do what is right instead of what is profitable; to practice “reciprocity,” i.e. “don't do to others what you would not want yourself”; to rule by moral example instead of by force and violence; and so forth. Confucius thought that a ruler who had to resort to force had already failed as a ruler–“Your job is to govern, not to kill”. This was not a principle that Chinese rulers always obeyed, but it was the ideal of benevolent rule. It should be noted, however, that even such humane principles are paternalistic and statistic without a hint of the ideals of individual liberty that are the basis of modern liberal society. Nevertheless, the Confucian ideal avoids the worst of modern paternalism with the principle of government by example and by “Not Doing”, putting Confucianism closer to Taoism than to modern practices of authoritarian control. Confucius thought that government by laws and punishments could keep people in line, but government by example of virtue and good manners would enable them to control themselves.
1.1 Economic Concept of Chinese traditional culture
Chinese traditional culture is self-cultivation and governing the country which can not be separated from dealing with economic problems correctly, thus, the Confucian doctrine is rich in economic thought. Among the economic thought of ancient China, the Confucian school of economic thought has been the mainstream and takes the dominant place for a long time. And the thought of Mencious is the most complete and representative one.
Compared to the major works of Confucius “Analects”, economic thought of Mencius is more abundant and also more systematic. Although Mencius proposes the opinion king can't we limit our conversation to humaneness and due-giving? Why must we discuss profit?
at the beginning, he takes economic problems very important and has written seven articles discusses about economy. For instance, in his works he discusses that“If mulberry trees are planted around homesteads of an acre, then people fifty years old can be clothed in silk. If, in the raising of fowl, pigs, dogs and swine, their breeding times are not missed, then people seventy years old can eat meat. If you do not upset the farming schedule in a farm of twenty acres, then a large clan will never be hungry. Pay careful attention to education, basing it on the Rightness of filial piety and respect for elders, and the gray-haired people will not be in the streets carrying heavy burdens on their backs. There has never been a case where the people of seventy were eating meat and the black-haired people were free from cold and hunger, where the king was not well regarded.”
Mencius’s economic thought has formed a relatively complete ideological system, and Mencius is the one who can be able to fully embody the characteristics of Confucian economic thought in the writings of Confucian scholars.
The development of Mencius on Confucianism is mainly in the Original Goodness of Human Nature and benevolent, etc. on the issue of human nature, Confucius proposed that human natures are much the same while their habits become widely different. Later on, Mencius developed this theory into the theory of original goodness of human nature.
Mencius was a tender-minded philosopher. He believed that all men are born virtuous.
Every person can be a sage. They have the inclination towards goodness, just as natural as the inclination of water to flow downward. All the social corruptions and perversions are due to the distortion of human nature and the falling away of man’s character from its original goodness. It is the neglect and abuse of innate goodness that leads men into evil doings. Once the individual has recovered his original goodness and the state returned to the purity and order of ancient times, all the evils in the individual and in society will vanish. This is the core of Mencius’ doctrine, the orthodoxy of the Confucian school. However, the original goodness of human nature is only good starting point to become a good man. Whether a man can develop his natural goodness also depends on the cultivation and expansion in his life. Mencius proposed that if ordinary person want to become a good man, two conditions are needed: One is the basic necessities for living which means fixed land and property that can provide the basic source of livelihood. The second is to enrich the connotation of goodness through the moral education. The theory of original goodness of human nature is the basis of Mencius’s benevolent thought and also a prerequisite for economic thought.
1.2 Chinese traditional culture Concept of Righteousness and Profit
Chinese traditional culture’ idea of the economy is centered on how to deal with the relationship between righteousness and profit.
Chinese traditional culture’ viewpoint of “righteousness and profit” falls into the category of official morals, which originated from the view of “respecting the morality and protecting the common people” in the Zhou dynasty and was followed by the advocates of abstinence in Confucius' times. The purpose of it is to establish a benevolent government. In Confucius' opinions, both public and personal interests are important, with an emphasis on seeking profits for the common people instead of for the officials themselves. The master said, “the mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.”.The Sage must not neglect profit completely, but giving thought to personal gains and losses without deviating from the virtue of righteousness. He believes that one who puts profit before righteousness is shameful. In fact, this argues that “The Sage also loves profit, but gains it in moral ways”,that is, he opposes“gaining wealth and rank in immoral ways”,and rejects“ill-gotten profit”.According to Confucius, “riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held. Poverty and meanness are what men dislike. if they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided.”.Here “moral way” refers to the righteous modes to gain "wealth and rank". It corresponds to what Confucius said as follows: “Gaining wealth and rank in moral ways is not detestable in the eyes of the general public”.
Mencius also has a very high regard for the public and society benefit, and takes enriching the people as his basic thought of benevolent advocate. the basic purpose of Mencius benevolent propaganda is to satisfy the material interests of the legitimate needs of the people. With many parables, Mencius tries to persuade the rulers of different states to follow the way of the ancient sage kings and to rule with humanity and righteousness ,and to let the people take part in the wealth of the upper class. Mencius inherited Confucius’theory of ren，but he added to it a second concept—yi， meaning “righteousness”, “propriety” or “dutifulness”. He was even more insistent than Confucius on the moral qualities of humanity and the sense of duty that makes a true ruler.
He advocated that in the Constitution of a state, “the people rank the highest, the land and grain comes next, and the ruler counts the least”.It is very commendable of him to put forth such advanced thought in a time when the emperor was in the supreme position and all power was in his hands. According to Mencius, a governor exists for the sake of the governed, to give people peace and wealth and lead them by education and examples of virtue. If a ruler neglects his responsibility, or even misuses his power and oppresses the people, the people have the right to discontinue their loyalty to him or even rise against him.
1.3 Chinese traditional Economic Thought versus Western Economics
By the economic analysis on Mencius thought, we can see that Mencius economic thought has forms into a complete system. According to his theory, Original Goodness of Human Nature is one of the prerequisite conditions and the theoretical concept of justice and benefit is the core and the principle of moderation is the basic economic philosophy.
Benevolent advocate is its specific content of economic thought and a wise and benevolent government is an important prerequisite for the implementation. Although compared with the precision analysis on the economic operation of Western economics, Mencius’s analysis of economic problems seems simple and original, Mencius’s idea of economic thought has an important cultural value. China is currently constructing a harmonious society which is necessary to achieve social harmony and harmonious with the corresponding culture and also need to set up economic theory with harmonious cultural characteristics. Confucian and Mencius's economic thought provides an important ideological and cultural foundation to Chineselization of Western economics.
1.3.1Different study object.
Studies of Western economics are on the effective allocation of scarce resources and make full use of resources, and its goal is to achieve socio-economic welfare maximization.
As to western economics, Moral and ethical issues are excluded from the economics perspective. Although it is reasonable to a certain degree, one-sided pursuit of economic well-being are likely to damage social harmony, resulting in conflicts between nature and human, thereby reduce social welfare. However, Confucian idea of the economy is made up for the shortcomings of western economics. Confucian scholars link economic issues and moral questions together and provide an important guiding principle to the realization of economic harmony and organic unity of a harmonious society.
1.3.2On assumptions about people.
Assumptions about people are the most basic assumptions of economics by economists in the West. Western economic hypothesizes that people are economic-man.
The economic-man assumption can help to analyze the purely economic issues; however, this assumption is built on the basis of Western culture of individualism. As a person of individualism, what the economic-man pursues is the self-welfare. In this background of individualism culture, the application of economic-man assumption has inevitable limitations. The socialist concepts of honor and economic-man assumption are incompatible, and the construction of a harmonious society can not be analyzed by the economic-man assumption. While, the Original Goodness of Human Nature that Mencius proposes are fully reflects the Chinese culture and are widely accepted by the late Confucian scholars and became the foundation of Chinese culture. Compared with the abstract, static economic assumptions to people, Mencius’ concept of the Original Goodness of Human Nature is a manifestation of people's development and the level of demand. Original Goodness of Human Nature not only admits the legitimacy of the pursuit of personal interests, but also attaches great importance to the pursuit of moral. In Western economics, the economy people are usually expressed as a utility function. As a consumer, the fixed income will be distributed from buying different merchandise in order to achieve the total utility maximization. However, there’s only profit be contained in the utility function of economic-man. The concept of the Original Goodness of Human Nature can also be expressed as a similar utility function which not only contains good and virtue and morality but also contains the content of justice and righteousness. It can be seen that Mencius’s conception on the Original Goodness of Human Nature not only contains economic-man assumptions, but surpassed the economic assumptions. Thereby, Mencius’ economic thought can become the basic premise of the economic analysis. Western economics is based on the Western culture and economic-man assumption which gives too much emphasis on pursuing economic growth. On the contrary, the economic thought of Mencius is fully reflects the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean and harmonious economic philosophy, the pursuit of their goal is not just a one-sided economic growth, but the entire social harmony and development. The various economic policies proposed by Mencius will inevitably have a historical limitation. However, Mencius’ economic thought provides an important foundation for our country on research of the economics of ideology and culture at present.
1.4 Chinese traditional culture and Chinese traditional Merchant
One of the most difficult compromises for Confucian mandarins was how to control merchants. The mandarins did not regard merchants as offering society productive value. Successful businessmen had independent wealth that enhanced their personal political power, which the mandarins saw as disruptive. The Confucian idea of profit was double-edged. On the one hand, Confucius's disciple, Mencius, made it abundantly clear that it was immoral of rulers to concentrate on profits for their respective states. His advice stressed that the government should not think of profiting from competition with its own people. On the other hand, merchants were socially useful because their risk-taking trading activities could supply the people's different needs.
In a compromise, the Confucian mandarins tried to tightly control the activities of merchants, while still allowing them to engage in their businesses. They sought to eliminate excessive profits by preventing such activities as cheating, manipulating supply and demand to bring about higher prices, and corrupting public officials. By insisting that ethical behavior in the marketplace be governed by the same ethical principles that applied to homes, families and all social and political relationships, merchant classes were severely constrained. Such power to control ethical behavior in society led to an increasingly authoritarian government in China.
The application of Confucian culture to commercial economy is bound to create a group of Confucian merchant. Then, how should we define the Confucian merchant? Scholars with academic thought have different ideas. It is generally believed that a modern Confucian merchant should possess the following characteristics: He is not just businessman but also has a modern humanistic ethics, social responsibility with modern management ability and sense of innovation. The Confucian merchant is the merchant who uses Confucian thought as its main direction and uses Confucian ethics as its core morality and outlook of value. As a group, it has the inner essence which includes paying attention to kindheartedness, being particular about sincerity, “constant striving”, having the courage to bring forth new ideas, strictly restrict oneself, hard-work and thrifty, advocating using justice restrict interests, cherishing “harmony”, treasuring spouse's feeling. The Confucian Merchant must overall analyze its inner essence, develop its advancing factors and vest it with the new modern contents, overcome its negative factors in order to develop and improve itself in modern society. Modern Confucian merchant should have some key aspects of the following characteristics：1.Takes virtue as the foundation of business;2. Insist the practice unified values of“righteousness”and“profit”;.3 be courage in competition and enjoy the competition；4.To implement people-oriented management;5. has a pioneering and innovative awareness and ability. These are the most basic qualities modern Confucian merchants should possess, but not all. Besides, they should keep on studying just as The Master said, to learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure?(学而时习之，不亦悦乎？)Focus on learning, and constantly learn from the study of knowledge, update their knowledge reserves，has a positive significance for the development of enterprises. However, Confucian does not lie in how much knowledge they have possessed, but because of the extent of the practice of Confucian ethics.
In short, Chinese businessmen developed their own traditions about the relevance of Confucian ethics in their transactions and relationships during the past five centuries.
Through empirical means, they selected the concepts they found useful and integrated them into the corpus of business handbooks. These orthodox demands to be humane, righteous, correct, intelligent and trustworthy did not need much philosophical elaboration.
Like the aphorisms of Samuel Smiles, they formed the basis of business bonding both within and outside the kinships groups from which businesses were built. And, insofar as they were shown to contribute to a prosperous and responsible merchant class, they in turn modified Confucian strictures about them.
1.5 Chinese traditional culture and Economic Globalization
Economic globalization is the new trend of the development of human society in the 21st century and it brings new challenge and opportunity to people and countries all over the world. Economic globalization requires not only important economic resources but also important cultural resources. As the core value of Asia, Confucianism is not only of great historical significance, but also has an indispensable and practical significance and is bound to affect human society profoundly in the future. In the late Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Centuries, Confucian culture spread west to Europe and brought about a great shock. The “Four Books”and “Five Classics” were translated into many languages and the Chinese civil official system was adopted by some western countries. The advent of Confucianism resented to the eastern world an Oriental civilization, a culture completely different from Christian culture. Confucianism was accepted by European thinkers upholding rationality and it brought about even a greater impact in France. Confucius’ teachings and Confucianism inspired the thinkers of the Enlightenment and made an active contribution to the Enlightenment Movement. At the first session of the 1988 Nobel Prize
winners held in Paris, Sweden renowned physicist Dr .Elvin Martinez Khan made an appeal at the closing of the conference: “If mankind is to survive in the Twenty-first Century, it must go back 2,500 years and learn from the wisdom of Confucius.”
Economy in regions like Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan has prospered greatly. It’s the approach of “The Analects with abacus”---a way of integrating Confucianism and business administration---that these regions have adopted.
The author believes such approach is also worthy of reference for entrepreneurs of all countries. Confucianism can enhance world peace and up-lift the moral quality of all mankind. It can also co-exist and prosper with other pluralistic cultures in the world. The excellent Chinese culture, with Confucius as its representative, will go further towards the world and become understood and accepted by more and more people.
Chapter Ⅱ Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
2.1 Definition of Culture
The word “culture” has many different meanings, which all originates from its Latin origin where it refers to cultivating the soil. In the most western languages “culture” usually means “civilization” or “intellectual refinement”. This is “culture in the narrow sense”. From the aspect of anthropologists and psychologists, a common definition of culture is this:
A culture is the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. Over a century ago, Edward B. Tylor first gave us his most famous definition. Culture, he wrote, is “that complex whole which includes other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor 1924).Since then, hundreds of other definitions have been offered. In Cultural Consequences, Hofstede defines “culture” as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another”. At the same time, he admits the incompleteness of his own definition, but he says that his definition covers what he has been able to measure. Culture in that sense, he says, includes systems of values; and “values are among the building blocks of culture”.
Corporate culture cannot be separated from the culture since it is based on ideas, values, principles, and so on, all of which constitute “software of the mind”, since culture is “a customary term for such mental software”(Hofstede 1997).
2.2 Perception of Chinese traditional culture in Terms of Hofstede’s Four Value Dimensions
Hofstede develops a four dimensional model, in which each dimension represents a basic question common to all societies. This section will probe Confucianism from the aspect of the four value dimensions.
Hofstede’s four value dimensions includes:(a)power distance,(b)individualism,(c) uncertainty avoidance, and (d)masculinity. The following paragraphs will analyze Confucianism characteristics by the four dimensions.
2.2.1 Power Distance
It focuses on the degree of equality, or inequality, between people in the country’s society. A High Power Distance ranking indicates that inequalities of power and wealth have been allowed to grow within the society. These societies are more likely to follow a caste system that does not allow significant upward mobility of its citizens.
Employees in high power-distance cultures need direction and discipline and they look to management to provide it. In low power-distance culture, workers will accept more responsibility. Low power-distance cultures tend to be more individualistic in nature.”(Mitchell,2002)
Hofstede has revealed, “in some cultures, those who hold power and those who are affected by power are significantly far apart(high power-distance)in many ways while in other cultures holders are significantly closer(low power-distance).”People in high power-distance culture believe “that power and authority are facts of life. Both consciously and unconsciously these cultures teach their members that people are not equal in this world and that everybody has a rightful place, which is clearly marked by countless vertical arrangements, social hierarchy is prevalent and institutionalizes inequality”.
A Low Power Distance ranking indicates the society de-emphasizes the differences between citizen’s power and wealth. In these societies equality and opportunity for everyone is stressed. People in low-power-distance culture believe “they are close to power and should have access to that power, to them, a hierarchy is an inequality of roles established for convenience, subordinates consider superiors to be the same kind of people as they are and superiors perceive their subordinates the same kind of people as they are and superiors perceive their subordinates the same way. People in power, be they supervisors or government officials, often interact with their constituents and try to look less powerful than they really are. The powerful and the powerless try to live in concert” (Samovar,2000).
The Chinese society, traditionally speaking, is hierarchical in nature. “Ren” and “Li”, in fact, is a system of moral codes in Chinese society in which relationship between leaders and subordinates is complementary, asymmetrical, and reciprocally obligatory. One party’s relationship is not identical with what is appropriate for the other party.
China is a country of Lunli, both in politics and morality. Under the influence of Ren and Yi, Lun li ethic principle has ruled over China for several thousands of years. The people in lower social positions are obedient to and respect those in higher positions, and the humble respect the noble, the younger respect the elder, as Li advocates the society should be in order. In fact, Li advocates nothing but vertical or hierarchical relationships; its essential function is to establish social order upon this hierarchical relationship. It functions in the society as law does in the western society.
Comparing with power distance traits, it is clear that Confucianism is biased towards high power distance culture.
2.2.2 Individualism vs. Collectivism
A High Individualism ranking indicates that individuality and individual rights are paramount within the society. Individuals in these societies may tend to form a larger number of looser relationships. A Low Individualism ranking typifies societies of a more collectivist nature with close ties between individuals. These cultures reinforce extended families and collectives where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group
Collectivism prevails in China owing to Confucianism’s impact. Confucius observed,
“If one wants to establish himself, he should help others to establish themselves at first”.
Collectivism is the most important part in Confucianism. Confucians stress “Harmony”, and lay importance on “we” rather than on “I”. It is this view of “ Harmony” that makes Chinese people believe that the interest of collective or state surpass one’s own.
If necessary, they would sacrifice their own profit and even their life bravely. Confucius Advocated “Neither the knight who has truly the heart of a knight nor the man of good stock who has the qualities that belong to good stock will never seek life at the expense of Goodness, and it may be that he has to give his life in order to achieve Goodness”(志士仁人无求生以害仁，有杀身以成仁《论语•卫灵公》).A norm to judge whether it is Ren depends on the group value orientation.
Confucianism emphases comity that is helpful to form a united country. People believe that a country or collective is like a big family, to which everyone has the obligation to contribute his or her power and knowledge. The emperor or the head of a collective is the father of the big family, who should have the responsibility for his members’ interest. Thus it has created a sort of friendly and peaceful atmosphere in China.
2.2.3 Uncertainty-Avoidance
It focuses on the level of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity within the society-i.e. unstructured situations. A High Uncertainty Avoidance ranking indicates the country has a low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. This creates a rule-oriented society that institutes laws, rules, regulations, and controls in order to reduce the amount of uncertainty.
Samovar and Porter pointed out that “At the core of uncertainty avoidance is the inescapable truism that the future is unknown”(Samovar,2000).Having pinpointed a range of attributes of uncertainty-avoidance, Scholars classify all cultures into two types---high-uncertainty-avoidance, and low-uncertainty-avoidance according to the extent to which a culture feels the threatened by or anxious about uncertain and ambiguous situations. High-uncertainty-avoidance cultures “try to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity by providing stability for their members, establishing more formal rules not tolerating deviant ideas and behaviors, seeking consensus and believing in absolute truths and the attainment of expertise, they are also characterized by a higher level of anxiety and stress: people think of the uncertainty inherent in life as a continuous hazard that must be avoided. There is a strong need for written rules, planning, regulations, rituals, and ceremonies.”(Samovar,2000).The social members would most likely want to move at a rather slow pace, and ask for a greater amount of detail and planning very carefully before taking an action.
A Low Uncertainty Avoidance ranking indicates the country has less concern about ambiguity and uncertainty and has more tolerance for a variety of opinions. This is reflected in a society that is less rule-oriented, more readily accepts change, and takes more and greater risks.
As a whole, members of low-uncertainty-avoidance cultures are less tense and more relaxed---traits reflected in the Irish proverb: Life should be a dance, not a race.”(Ibid,70).
In ordinary life, our parents always tell us to do the things on the condition that we have the 100%of success. They use a fragment of Confucius’ words--“-thinking three times before acting”. When college students hunt for a job before graduation, most of them have an eye on those official and stable jobs(such as, teachers and civil servants);a few people are willing to go to private enterprises, for they are unwilling to take the risk: if they do weak in work, they will surely lose their jobs.
2.2.4 Masculinity vs. Femininity
It focuses on the degree the society reinforces, or does not reinforce, the traditional masculine work role model of male achievement, control, and power. A High Masculinity ranking indicates the country experiences a high degree of gender differentiation. In these cultures, males dominate a significant portion of the society and power structure, with females being controlled by male domination. A Low Masculinity ranking indicates the country has a low level of differentiation and discrimination between genders. In these cultures, females are treated equally to males in all aspects of the society.
The words “masculinity” and “femininity” don’t refer to “men and women, but rather to degree to which masculine or femininity traits prevail. In a masculinity society the dominant values are male oriented and in favor of such behaviors as ambition,
differentiated sex roles, achievement, the acquisition of money, and signs of manliness:
men are taught to be domineering and assertive and women nurturing. In Japan, for instance, despite its highest level of economic development, the division of labors still finds most men in the role of provider and most women as homemaker and breeder”(Samovar，2000).
Cultures that values femininity as a trait stress caring and nurturing behaviors. A feminine world-view maintains that men need not be assertive and that they can assume nurturing roles; it also promotes sexual equality, and holds that people and the environment are important. Gender role in feminine societies are more fluid than in masculine societies. Interdependence and androgynous behavior are the ideal and people sympathize with the unfortunate.
Influenced by Confucianism, in China the sex-discrimination does still widely exist, not only at home but also in society. Even now the females find that they are very difficult to find a good job, comparing with males. Confucius once observed, “Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave to. If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. if you maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented”（《论语•阳货篇》）.Of course, this is the rubbish in Confucianism, but it has rooted in ordinary Chinese’s mind. In China, women have been treated as the weak sex group. It is a rampant saying that “Men take up the work outside, while women are in charge of the homework and routine family business.”
In ancient society, the ideal blue print of a family is that “husband cultivates corps in the fields and wife weaves cloth at home”(男耕女织).Based on the analysis above, it seems that China affected by Confucianism is mainly a masculinity society.
Chapter ⅢChinese traditional culture Related to Managerial Ethics
Chinese traditional culture about ethics traditionally have five aspects: humanity (仁),righteousness(义),propriety(礼),wisdom(智),and faithfulness(信)(Martin Liu 1983, 13).Based on the frameworks for ethical reasoning, Chinese traditional culture are identified as a deontological approach to ethics. If looked at from a flexible and developing perspective, many other aspects of Chinese traditional culture can also be adopted in our daily management besides the five traditional ones. However, it is impossible as well as unnecessary for us to list all of them in such a short thesis. They are:
①Confucius’ ideas on virtue
②Confucius’ ideas on humanity
③Confucius’ ideas on L&F
④Confucius’ ideas on leading
⑤Confucius’ ideas on righteousness
In the following parts, why Confucius is said to propose those ideas and how those ideas are related to the five aspects of managerial ethics, i.e. the general management, HRM, CRM, CSR and leadership, are explored one by one.
3.1 Ethics for General Management: Managing by Virtue
Confucius emphasizes the importance of virtue, which can be seen from one of the Confucian classics: The Great Learning. At its very beginning, “manifesting the clear character of man” is put forward as the first of the three items(三纲领)that are accepted as the foundation of Confucian orthodoxy. The clear character is the moral character or the character as it ought to be if man simply acts in accordance with his heaven-bestowed nature(Martin Liu 1983,8).
The second item is the further extension of the first one, which is “renovating the people”. As the people are fully renovated with the moral cultivation, there is the complete realization of humanity(ren,仁),which is equivalent to“abiding in the highest good”(止于至善),the third item. According to the three items, Confucian moral cultivation is a matter of working from within and extending to external human relationships.
Besides the three items, there are eight steps(八条目)which indicate more specific ways of implementing the aims of the three items: investigation of principles(格物)13,extension of knowledge(致知),sincerity of the will(诚意),rectification of the mind（正心）,cultivation of the personal life（修身）,regulation of the family（齐家）,national order（治国）,and world peace（平天下）(Martin Liu 1983,9).The first four steps are performed in order to reach the fifth step: cultivation of personal life. All the first five steps together help people to fulfill the aim of the first item, i.e. manifesting the clear character of man. Correspondingly, the last three steps lead to the second item: renovating the people. When one has successfully manifested his clear character and fully renovated the people through extending his clear character and love to them, he has abided in the highest good.
According to the three items and eight steps, Confucian moral cultivation is a matter of working from within and extending to external human relationships. All the other teachings of Confucius center on the further elaborations upon these aims. If a Confucianist wants to achieve his ambition of bringing peace and order throughout the world, he must first of all manifest his clear character, i.e. virtue, through cultivating his personal life(Martin Liu 1983, 9).The following quotations from Analects also prove Confucius’ ideas about managing by virtue:
The Master said, “A ruler who governs his state by virtue is like the north polar star, which remains in place while the others revolve around it”(Khu 1991,40).
The Master said, “Lead the people with governmental measures and regulate them by law and punishment, and they will avoid wrong-doing but have no sense of honor or shame.
Lead them by virtue and regulate them by the rules of propriety and they will have a
sense of shame, and moreover, set themselves right”(Khu 1991,40).
The Master said,“The noble leader is concerned about virtue;the common person is
concerned about(wealth from the)land.……”(Khu 1991,71).
Among Robbins’ five factors affecting managerial ethics(2002,125),the first two are the manager’s stage of moral development and individual characteristics. According to him, the highest stage of moral development is the principled level. About 2500 years ago, Confucius already proposed to cultivate self in order to reach the principled level. Confucius’ ideas are also considered one of the origins of the modern theory of virtue ethics, which emerged in 1958 with the publication of a paper entitled “Modern Moral Philosophy” by Elizabeth Anscombe14.As a matter of fact, there were a lot of similarities between Confucius and his western counterparts in this respect. Aristotle, though decades later than Confucius, also put forward his own theory about morality. He admonished that virtue require practice, and through doing young people could learn what to be virtuous and how to do the virtuous thing.
The ancient sages from both east and west happened to have the same view on practicing virtue in life, and now modern theorists have rediscovered its significance in managerial ethics. All those facts prove the values of Confucius’ ideas. As a general principle of managerial ethics, Confucius’ ideas on virtue contribute to today’s management.
3.2 Ethics for HRM: Managing by Humanity
Teachings from Confucius attach great importance to people. “In studying Confucius’ humanism, the most crucial concept is humanity(ren,仁)”(Martin Liu 1983,6).From the words of Confucius himself and his followers like Mencius, we can see that the Confucianists treated humanity as the core of people’s virtue:
Only the man of ren knows how to love people and hate people(Martin Liu 1983,6). A humane person, in wishing to establish self, establishes others; in wishing to develop self, develops others. To be capable of appraising self in order to comprehend others can be regarded as the key to humaneness”(Khu 1991,109).
When his stable caught fire, the Master took leave from Court and said, “Anyone injured?” He didn’t ask about horses(Khu 1991,162).
The people are the most important. The country is less important, and the emperor is least important(Mencius,312).
To sum up, humanity(仁)is the central doctrine in Confucian ethics(Martin Liu 1983,82).
Later, as an all-inclusive virtue, humanity was much developed by Neo-Confucianists. Cheng Hao(1032-1085A.D.)of Song Dynasty said, “The man of humanity forms one body with all things without any differentiation. Righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness are all (expressions of)humanity”(Chan 1963,523).To attain that ideal, a person must develop his moral potential as fully as possible, and then he should try to establish rapport with others through love and considerateness(Martin Liu 1983,94).
Influenced by Confucius’ ideas on humanity, Chinese management is people-oriented. As a result, harmony is generated among staff, and loyalty of employees to the company is also cultivated. Only last century did western management experts begin to notice the elements of people as a result of the Hawthorne Experiments and the resulting human relations movement (Robbins 2002,38).Nowadays, with further development of the managerial theory, managers ever-increasingly realize it completely wrong to think that “employees were no different from any other machines that the organization used”(Robbins 2002,40).Through centuries’ practices, investigations and researches, western managers finally realize the importance of people in an organization and begin to treat them with all kinds of measures which embody their “humanity”. However, about 2500 years ago, Confucius, our great master, already advocated and practiced this principle. Undoubtedly, his ideas can be served as very useful intellectual resources in establishing our own managerial ethics.
3.3 Ethics for CRM: Winning Customers by L&F
In dealing with human relations, Confucius mentioned three concepts: loyalty, trustworthiness and harmony. Confucius once told Zeng Zi, one of his disciples, that all his doctrines are linked together by one principle: loyalty(zhong,忠)and Forgiveness(shu,恕).According to Martin Liu(1983,7),loyalty means “desiring to establish oneself, one also establish others”, which is equivalent to what we generally regard as the Golden Rule, “Do to others what you would like others do to you”. This is also considered by Tu Weiming as the philosophical basis for group solidarity which serves to minimize the conflicts in an organization(1991,37).
In other words, loyalty is basis of “harmony”, and harmony and trustworthiness is the aim of loyalty. Forgiveness can be interpreted as “Do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you”, which is considered as the Silver Rule in that it addresses itself to the negative aspect of Golden Rule(Martin Liu 1983,7).Loyalty and forgiveness are another two practical ways to carry out humanity.
The aim of loyalty and forgiveness is to achieve trustworthiness and harmony among people; the three virtues actually form a trinity. As one aspect of Confucian ethics, Confucius attached great importance to these three virtues, which is shown as follows:
Zeng Zi said, “I daily examine my personal conduct on three points: in planning for other people, whether or not I have been loyal; in relationships with friends, whether or not I have been trustworthy; and, whether or not I have practiced what I preached” (Khu 1991, 31).
Zi Zhang asked about(good) government. The Master said, “Occupy it tirelessly and
conduct it with loyalty” (Khu 1991,194).
The Master said: “I don’t know how humans can get along without being trustworthy. A large carriage without a yoke and a small cart without a harness——how can they move?”(Khu 1991,50).
The Master used four topics for educating(students):culture, conduct, loyalty, and trustworthiness(Khu 1991,120).
Zi Gong asked about government. The Master said, “Sufficient food, an adequate army, and the masses’ trust in their government.” Zi Gong then asked, “If one were compelled to eliminate one requirement, which of the three should go first?” “Eliminate the army,” replied the Master. Zi Gong continued, “If one were compelled to eliminate another requirement, which one of the remaining two should go first?” “Eliminate food,” said the Master. “Since antiquity, people must die, but without the masses’ trust, the government will not stand”(Khu 1991,190).
Harmony, according to Confucius, is valuable because it is the most important function of propriety——another important aspect of Confucian ethics but ignored in this thesis due to limited time. Interestingly, Confucius also encouraged diversity of views while he did emphasize harmony:
The Master said, “A noble person achieves harmony without being an echo; common
persons echo but lack harmony”(Khu 1991,215).
This quotation implies that morally superior people are able to maintain harmonious
relationships even though they may have different opinions, while the narrow-minded people echo another’s opinions while secretly disagreeing, which is not real harmony. Confucius’ own experience, which was characterized by active advocacy of his views and public debates with authority figures, also exemplified his view of harmony. In short, a careful review of Confucian doctrines makes it clear that Confucius’ emphasis on harmony is better understood as the need to maintain a mutually respectful relationship and a common concern for humanity and morality rather than the need to avoid disagreement and confrontation, and to arrive at uniform views. Therefore, we can infer that what Confucius advocated is the principled harmony on the basis of humanity and righteousness.
The principle of harmony can be applied to adjust not only human relations, but also the relations between humans and society, humans and nature, organizations themselves, or organizations and society, etc. The Confucian concept of harmony and union between heaven and man, that is, oneness between heaven and man(天人合一)(Martin Liu 1983,48),is always quoted to prove the significance of traditional culture upon the present environment protection.
From Confucius’ own words, the importance of loyalty and forgiveness is made very clear. The present society is a society of market economy. It is unimaginable to live in a society without loyalty, trustworthiness and harmony. Without them, the market economy is not feasible or of malfunction. Therefore ,in order to survive in the market, enterprises spare no effort to establish an image of trustworthiness to attract and retain customers. No Chinese and Japanese enterprises deemphasize these virtues in their managerial ethics. The only difference between them is that one party might value some factor more than the other due to different national cultures or some other reasons. The combination of the traditional culture and realistic demand makes them realize the values of Confucius’ ideas more keenly.
3.4 Ethics for Leadership: Leading by Example
Robbins puts forward several ways to improve ethical behavior, among which is “lead by example”. According to him, doing business ethically requires a commitment from top managers. The reason for doing so is that it’s the top managers who set the cultural tone.
“They are role models in terms of both words and actions, though what they do is far more important than what they say”(2002,133).Then what are Confucius’ ideas about leading people, let’s see his own speech first:
Ji Kangzi consulted Confucius about government. Confucius replied, “To govern means to be upright. If you lead the people with uprightness, who will dare not to be upright?” (Khu 1991,195).
The Master said, “For one who is personally upright, policies will be implemented without having to issue orders. For one who is not personally upright, though orders are issued, they will not be followed”(Khu 1991,206).
The Master said: “If a person can be personally upright, what difficulty is there in government? But if a person cannot be personally upright, how can others be made upright?”(Khu 1991,209).
From his speech mentioned above, what could be characterized as the “preferred leadership style” in Confucius’ ideas can be inferred. Leaders ought to be upright, steady and virtuous, and their behavior should provide guidance for subordinates. Also, some of those so-called modern managerial theories, no matter they are from west or east, seem to have their roots in ancient wisdom. They are far from being original. Confucius had already preached those ideas and toured around the then states in order to implement them thousands of years before. When we try to acquire some useful inspirations from the western management books, we always forget that some of those “principles” have already existed in China for thousands of years.
Here it isn’t implied that we don’t need to learn from the west. On the contrary, we must learn from the west. However, only by learning, comparing, and then establishing our own ones can we make progress. It is skin-deep to admire the west blindly, and we shouldn’t forget our own valuable things while learning from the west. At the very least, Confucius’ ideas in this respect are completely the same as western experts, and surprising coincidences are always found in their proposals during the study.
3.5 Ethics for CSR: Uniting Righteousness and Interests
According to Confucius,“righteousness”(yi，义)is what is proper(in a particular situation)”(Martin Liu 1983,13).The struggle between the pursuit of material interest and the adherence to moral values is a perennial problem of human existence, and to put moral precepts into practice constitutes a central issue in managerial ethics. In Analects, Confucius mentioned a lot about how to deal with the relationship between righteousness and interest.
However, in China, many people have misunderstood Confucius’ view on them intentionally or unintentionally, considering that he only valued righteousness but despised interest. If we have a careful study of Confucius’ speech in Analects, we find that it is not the case. In order to analyze Confucius’ true ideas about righteousness and interest, we can study his own words first:
The gentleman can be reasoned with what is righteous. The common man can be reasoned with what is profitable(Khu 1991,73)
The Master said: “Wealth and high office are what people desire; but if one got them not following the Way, one should not live with them. Poverty and baseness are what people dislike; but if one got rid of them through not following the Way, one should not eliminate them”(Khu 1991,68).
The Master said, “To be motivated solely by profit is to invite much resentment” (Khu
1991,71).
The Master went on to say,“…One who on seeing profit reflects on righteousness, who when seeing danger is ready to give away one’s life, and who during longstanding poverty does not forget what was his previous ambition can also be an accomplished person”(Khu 1991,225).
From his own words, we can infer that Confucius himself didn’t oppose to make profits. What he opposed is to gain profits not in a righteous way, and what he advocated is “reflecting on righteousness while seeing profit”. His following words especially show that he proposed to become rich as long as the means was righteous:
The Master said, “If wealth were seekable, even as a whip-cracking groom I would also do it. But if it were not seekable, I would follow my likings”(Khu 1991,68). “….When the state is orderly, to be poor and base is shameful…….” (Khu 1991,134).
When Confucius entered Wei with Ran You driving his carriage, he said, “So populous indeed!” Ran You said, “Since it is already populous, what more?” The Master replied,“Make them wealthy.” The disciple asked, “After making them wealthy, what more?” The Master said, “Educate them” (Khu 1991,207).
Those words illustrate very clearly his attitude towards wealth. If the means was righteous, he even didn’t object to doing such a mean work as a whip-cracking groom. He not only proposed to be rich, but also emphasized to make all the masses become rich. His comments about Wei’s population proved this point. According to Xia Nai-ru, Confucius was the earliest one who put forward the issue of relationship between righteousness and interest. The basic characteristic is “first righteousness, second interest and unity of righteousness and interest”. Once again, Xia’s words show that Confucius didn’t reject interest at all.
His praise for his disciple Zi Gong, a brilliant merchant, also showed his appreciation towards the merchants who became wealthy in a righteous way. Once Zi Gong asked Confucius what he was like, Confucius replied that he was like a Hu Lian, a richly jeweled vessel for holding grains during sacrificial ceremonies in ancestral temples(Khu 1991,31). We know that ancient people always praised those talented and high-ranked officials as the utensils of ancestral temples. At ages when agriculture was valued much more than commerce, his comments were rather unusual. Therefore, the unity of righteous and interest is the true meaning of Confucius’ ideas on the relationship between them.
Confucius’ ideas on righteousness and interests help to build companies of CSR.A company of CSR not only performs the duties stipulated by law and rules, but also does something good to society, sometimes even at the cost of its economic benefits, which is the typical feature of righteousness. Most often, moral commitment and profits do go hand in hand in business activities. For example, honesty lays the foundation for interpersonal trust, which in turn minimizes transaction costs and helps to establish a brand name in the long run.
Entrepreneurs may find themselves in a disadvantageous market position if they insist on their moral principles in some situations. However, if they always do business abiding by that principle, they will establish a good image and reputation among customers as well as in the society sooner or later, which greatly increases the intangible assets of their companies in the long term. All in all, a company of CSR ought to be the one which manages its employees by humanity, treats customers and society by righteousness and trustworthiness, leads by its leaders’ own uprightness, and abides by propriety(the laws and rules of society).In addition, it must be environment friendly, observing Confucius’ ideas of harmony or oneness between man and nature. Confucius’ ideas on righteousness and interest are filled with great wisdom and offer us a good inspiration for the establishment of managerial ethics, especially for the setup of companies of CSR.
Chapter Ⅳ Corporate Culture of China: Core Value
4.1 Features of Chinese Corporate Culture and Western Corporate Culture
Due to the impact of Confucian thought, corporate Culture in East Asia shows the different characteristics to the Western corporate Culture.
4.1.1 Business Objectives and Social Responsibility
For the operational objectives, the Eastern and Western companies are undoubtedly
pursue the profit maximization, and the performance of enterprises in the West focuses on the core idea of “corporate profits for the first, social benefits for the second place” This is important basis for them to draw up a code of conduct for all the management. Although Western firms also emphasize corporate “social responsibility” and spare no effort to improve efficiency, more entrepreneurs believe that they must first improve the level of equity dividends. On the contrary, East Asia's entrepreneurs believe that the first job is to achieve long-term development of enterprises and to achieve the object of stable employment and improving the livelihood of staff, and the second is to enhance revenue only. They claim that the profitability of society should take first place rather than corporate profitability.
4.1.2 Harmonious Relationship and Group Cooperation
Because of the unique features of the history and culture, enterprises in East Asia do not pay much attention to the absolute difference between white-collar staff and blue-collar staff but attach importance to people's feelings of sympathy and interdependence. It is advocated that cooperation between each other is the foundation of complement. This is the environment for the formation of family groups and European and American-style individualism will not be appreciated in East Asian enterprises. Activities such as Groups of Enterprise Quality Management, groups of self-management are flourishing which express dependence relations between staffs in Asian cultures. Some entrepreneurs even state that new employees should have a one-year dormitory life in order to cultivate awareness of cooperation and develop a rapport with other staffs. In East Asian enterprises, staff has a strong sense of belonging with a loyal heart; this is the operating foundation of familism management in East Asian enterprises. For instance, the trade unions, wage system and life-long employment system in Japanese companies are aroused from the family operation in order to adapt to this kind of “family collectivism”. While in Europe and the United States and other countries, there is a strict distinction and grade boundaries between shareholders, managers, managers and production workers. Generally speaking, managers and workers of enterprises do not have a sense of belonging and both strive to work through their own independent to achievement. Thus, in Europe and the United States enterprises, there’s only a simple working relationship between enterprises and trade unions, trade unions and workers. Lacking of deeper intimacy, staffs would not like to maintain the status quo and always want to take greater risk to seek new opportunities.
However, In Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and other places patriarchal management
style takes the prevalence place, and medium-sized enterprises controlled by the family of the consortium. In the family Consortium Patriarchal system management are very typical.
The whole enterprise was seen as a big family and corporate board chairman and general manager are heads of households and family members also ranked positions. Some experts make conclusion that the Japanese take the enterprise as family, and “Four Little Dragons” put the family into enterprise and this is mystery of the rise of East Asia. East Asian companies give priority to the genetic relationship in recruitment. such relationships in business management has a very delicate effect because enterprises can have a virtually cohesion which is not only facilitate monitoring of day-to-day job, but also enables enterprises to use this network of relationships to resolve labor disputes.
4.1.3 Human-centered Management
Administrative behaviors of Europe and the United States attach great importance to management system, technical standards and technical knowledge and emphasis on the issue of management structures and procedures of standardization. While East Asian corporate behavior pay more attention to talents rather than the standards of management systems and attention. Many entrepreneurs believe that all business plans and problems should be considered human-centered, if the entrepreneurs’ politicians really apply human-centered management, many political and economic problems can be avoided.
4.1.4 Obey Authority and comply with Norms
People of East Asia have been influenced by Confucian ideas for life time and develop a sense of being afraid of power. The master said, “abroad, to serve the high
ministers and nobles; at home, to serve one's father and elder brothers”.(出则事公卿，入则事父兄《论语•子罕》)Young people who grow up in this environment must inevitably been affected by this concept. People keep a power distance. D.A.Foster(1992)offers a clear and condensed explanation of this value: what G. Hofstede discovered was that in some cultures, those who hold power and those who are affected by power are significantly far apart(high power-distance)in many ways, while in other cultures, the power holders and those affected by the power holders are significantly closer(low power-distance).This value is reflected in the values of the less powerful members of society as well as in those of the more powerful ones. People in high power distance countries such as China, Japan and Korea believe that power and authority are the fact of life. Both consciously and unconsciously, these cultures teach their members that people are not equal in this world and that everybody has rightful place, which is clearly marked by countless vertical arrangements. Social hierarchy is prevalent and institutionalizes inequality.
We can observe the signs of this value in nearly every organization in Japan and China. For instance, we find a greater centralization of power, a large proportion of supervisory personnel, and a rigid value system that determines the worth of each job in those organizations. With this relationship, leaders are free to give orders without fear of being subordinate to resist. If one has ever worked for a Chinese-owned company, chances are that one would find its operation bears much resemblance to a Chinese dynastic empire that existed hundreds or thousands of years ago. A patriarchal and totalitarian system is central to corporate management style in a Chinese-owned company. Similarities abound between the empire and the company in areas ranging from the power core set-up, to emperor-minister (boss-manager)relationship, to behavioral patterns amongst ministers (managers).The Chinese corporate boss is the sole decision-making person and is accountable to no one within the company’s management hierarchy. Concept of subordinating to authority makes employees adaptable to different circumstances, follow different norms, and make corresponding change in its code of ethics in accordance with the status. It comes that employees are more dedicated and tolerable and internal personal frictions are reduced.
Low power distance countries such as the United States and European countries hold that inequality in society should be minimized. People in these cultures believe they are close to power and should have access to that power. To them, a hierarchy is an inequality of roles established for convenience. Subordinates consider superiors to be the same kind of people as they are, and superiors perceive their subordinates in the same way. People in power, be the supervisors or government officials, often interact with their constituents and try to look less powerful than what they really are. Therefore, in the American companies, horizontal organization structure is usually predominant.
4.2 Chinese traditional culture and Chinese Enterprise
4.2.1 Impacts of Analects on Chinese Enterprises
The Chinese culture, represented by Confucian culture, with several thousand years of
glorious history has deeply influenced the character of the Chinese nation. Such profound impact is bound to infiltrate the enterprise and reflected by corporate Culture. Chinese corporate culture is deeply influenced by Confucianism and has following characteristics:
1)cooperative and harmonious
Chinese culture emphasizes the importance of group. Confucianism encourages Chinese people to appreciate collectivism and relationships. There’s an old Chinese saying Birds of a feather flock together, people of a mind fall into the same group(物以类聚，人以群分）.According to Confucianism, people are members of a group, instead of individuals. Social stability is based on relationships between people as in families.
The master said, “A youth, when at home, should be filial, and, abroad, respectful to his elders. He should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow in love to all, and cultivate the friendship of the good”.(弟子入则孝，出则悌，谨而信，泛爱众，而亲仁《论语•学而篇》)。Chinese people are concerned about establishing a good relationship between each other and prefer to seek social harmony and cohesion. They make friend with ethics and are strict with themselves. They respect the old and care for the young and show their sympathy to the life of the poor. All these are reflection of the concept of appreciating groups and valuing harmony.
Hofstede’s research indicated that China is a society that has a collectivism orientation. Harmony can only be achieved when people share and implement a spirit of cooperation. If a person does not observe the principal of being cooperative, he or she will be regarded as arrogant and looked down on by others in society. Confucianism also encourages Chinese to pursue reputation. The Chinese notion of reputation is symbolized by the concept of “face”. People pay great attention to “face”, an idea that could be loosely defined as “status” or “self-respect.” Nothing could be worse than for a Chinese person to lose face.
Criticism should be delivered privately, discreetly, and tactfully so as to prevent someone from losing face. The concept of face is tied with how Chinese people feel and communicate with others. It goes far beyond mere personal embarrassment to incorporate emotional, communicative and personhood dimensions that govern interaction within the Chinese culture. “Face” reflects the Chinese people’s unique view of what a person should be.
Confucianism also established the doctrine of the “Mean”. The “Mean” refers to taking the middle ground and to being constant. It proposes that people should avoid
extremes; instead people should constantly keep themselves and their behaviors moderate.
This doctrine brings balance and harmony. As a result, Chinese firms conduct HRM process mainly by ethical and moral standards instead of by objective economic outcomes.
2)honest and trustworthy
For the Confucian ideology, honesty is considered as basic virtue of human being and
requirement of doing business. Trustworthiness is being honest, telling the truth, keeping promises, and being loyal so people can trust you. Trustworthy people don't lie, cheat or steal. They have integrity and the moral courage to do the right thing and to stand up for their beliefs even when it is difficult to do so. Confucius said that: “I do not know how a man without truthfulness is to get on. How can a large carriage be made to go without the crossbar for yoking the oxen to, or a small carriage without the arrangement for yoking the horses?...if the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state.”(《论语•为政》,《论语•颜渊》)Integrity is not only norms of ethics of making friends but also extended to all the ethical relationship. With the increasingly fierce market competition, whether an enterprise is honest and trustworthy or not plays an important role for its survival and development. To some extent, sincerity and trustworthiness is one of competitiveness of enterprises. Sincerity and trustworthiness are the Chinese nation’s fine qualities, and can be a magic weapon for success of the internationalization development of China’s family business. Now more and more family businesses have established spirit of sincerity and trustworthiness as the corporate culture.
3)ethics supremacy
Chinese culture is deeply influenced by Confucianism historically. In traditional Chinese values, ethics pay attention to benevolence(仁),righteousness(义), propriety(礼),wisdom(智),and truth(信)harmonious(和)and so on. Ethical standards are regarded as the first criteria of judging and confirmation is a secondary factor. Chinese people who have been deeply influenced by Confucianism also inevitably be affected by Confucian culture when establishing corporate culture. For this kind of corporate culture, ethical issues are put in the center place and everything will be judged and measured by moral and ethical standards. For instance, whether the leaders and employees are capable or not should be judged by moral and ethical standards and even the feasibility of enterprise strategy and administrative behavior. Thus formed a kind of concept that is righteousness more important than profits, working attitude is more important than efficiency.
4)politically oriented
Confucius was primarily concerned with the ethics of political leaders, not business
leaders.
Political-oriented means that judgment standard of production efficiency in the enterprise is political rather than economic indicators. In the socialist planned economy for a long period of time, state-owned enterprise is subsidiary of National government. Value orientation, behavior, target selection and business plans of enterprises are controlled by the government. In this business management system, the enterprises are not commodity producers and operators, but only government department subordinate units. In this way, enterprises with strong political overtones, also has a strong political orientation in corporate Culture. In the enterprise, economic sector and non-economic department exist together; the enterprise's economic goal should be coordinated with the political objectives and be commanded by political objectives as well.
5)focus on personnel relationship
The Chinese corporate culture is a kind of culture that focuses on personnel. What is taken as the most important by employees is to set up good relations between colleagues, society and organizations in order to obtain the recognition and respect for the internal. However, productivity, production of technological capabilities is not considered as priority position. Management team of an enterprise is also concerned about setting up on a good relationship between the leaders and the lower level and setting a good image to employees, enhancing their prestige among the masses. They concern less on the production. In specific management, human feelings is more important than legal, management in not in a scientific level.
4.2.2 Case study
1)FOTILE
Ningbo Fotile kitchen ware Co., Ltd is a typical family company in China. FOTILE was honored the titles of “China famous brand” and “China well-known trademark”. The brand value of 3.862 billion RMB certified by “The world brand laboratory” has enabled FOTILE to become the market leader in the China kitchen appliance industry. FOTILE has become one of the 500 most valuable brands in China for the past four years. FOTILE's brand is regarded as the most famous brand of Zhejiang province and is honored the recommended export brand in 2007 by the Electronic Appliance Association. Confirmed by a Chinese consumer newspaper and a Chinese consumer website, the rate of settled complaints by FOTILE throughout 2006 is 100%.
Why can Fotile create so many miracles? Fotile Chairman Mao Lixiang, outstanding
entrepreneur, part-time professor of Beijing Normal University, believes that the success of the enterprise should be attributed to success of corporate culture. Corporate culture is considered as the soul of an enterprise, and enterprise without corporate culture has no vitality. Mao Lixiang said that a lot of merchants in Zhejiang are Confucian merchants, and nearly every entrepreneur is being affected by Confucian culture. Although he has not studied Confucianism systematically, the five classics values of Confucian are deeply rooted in his mind: loyalty, honesty, trust worthiness, righteousness and harmonious. The core culture of Fotile is the integration of three values: the people, the company and the product.
a)The quality of people:
Professional morality: abide by the rules, be honest and self-disciplinary and act impartially.
Professional spirit: earnest, responsible, innovative and perfect.
b)The quality of enterprise:
Social responsibility: legal liability, developing liability, moral liability.
Excellent management: strategy, employee, operation.
Top-ranking performance: profit, satisfaction, growth.
c)The quality of Products:
leading design: appearance, function and taste.
preeminent quality: masterly workmanship, absolute safety, reliability and consistency
Value-added service: professional service, timely visiting service and persistent care Only by advancing the three parts together, which supplementing each other, can FOTILE be developed into a super-first-rate brand and a genuine No.1 brand in the industry, and can the mission and prospect of FOTILE be ultimately realized.
The manager only with a strong sense of social responsibility and a good public image can bring out a team with a strong spirit of professionalism and innovative and high efficiency. For the value of people, the quality of entrepreneurs and employees is of paramount importance; because of the cultural cultivation of entrepreneurs are the key point of brand strategy which determines the employment direction and level of enterprise.
Quality of employees is profound factor which determines the basis of brand strategy and development speed. The team of Fotile cadres and staff is a learning team. Regardless of which level of cadres and positions, leaders and staffs consciously put themselves into the orbit of the development of enterprises and enhance the training simultaneously. Thus helps them to put the domestic and foreign advanced management theory into practice. It can be said that integration of three values is the culture that apply Confucian thought into modern management and it is the inheritance and implement of the spirit of innovation from strategic to tactical, quality management, advertising planning and customer service.
The Vision of Fotile also reflects the Confucian thought: to become a respectable world first-class enterprise. Model of top-end brand: to build the No.1 brand of high-end kitchen appliances in China,No.1 brand of high-end integrated kitchens in China and the international famous brand of kitchen appliances; Model of outstanding management: to become the benchmark and model for Chinese enterprises, with a standard administrative mechanism, outstanding business management, first-class management performance and eminent employees; Model of excellent employer: to respect, trust and care for every employee, to ensure every employee feels to be respected; to effectively link up employees’ salaries with their performance, to inspire them to better achievements; to enable every employee at FOTILE to grow and develop, and realize his/her life values and dreams on this platform; Model of responsible enterprise: to actively take social responsibilities, including legal responsibilities, responsibilities for development and responsibilities for morality and justice; legal responsibilities include product responsibility, employee responsibility, environment responsibility and revenue responsibility etc.; responsibilities for development include responsibilities for promoting the scientific and harmonious development of the enterprise and building a harmonious enterprise; responsibilities for morality and justice include responsibilities for compliance with social morality and business ethics, generation of win-win results for all parties concerned, and active participation in charity and public welfare causes.
To create a famous brand, the enterprise must have good products and capable leadership and qualified staff. The achievement only can be reached through the way of “getting profit from righteousness” and “doing business with honesty”. So we can see that core value of Fotile is the practical application of Confucian culture.
2)HAIER
Haier is the world’s fourth largest white goods manufacturer and is the official home appliances sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
As of 2007,the Haier Group has established a total of 64 trading companies(19 located overseas),29 manufacturing plants(24 overseas),8 design centers(5 overseas)and 16 industrial parks(4 overseas).Consistent with Haier’s position as a global brand, the company employs over 50,000 people around the world. In addition, Haier boasts a 58,800-strong sales network which last year accounted for a global turnover of 118 billion RMB(16.2 billion USD).
Guided by the branding strategy of CEO Zhang Ruimin, Haier has advanced through The “brand building,” “diversification,” and “internationalization” stages, and since 2005 has embarked on the fourth stage: Global Branding. Haier has enjoyed a growing international reputation over the past 24 years.19 of the companies products, including refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, televisions, water heaters, personal computers, mobile phones, and kitchen appliances have been rated as “Top Brands” in China, and China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has named Haier refrigerators and washing machines as among China’s “Top Global Brands.” In 2006,for the fourth consecutive year, Haier was ranked first in terms of overall leadership among mainland Chinese companies in the Wall Street Journal Asia's annual survey of Asia’s 200 Most Admired Companies. In March 2008,the Financial Times once again added Haier to its list of Top 10 Chinese Global Brand Names with survey respondents ranking Haier number one in terms of product quality, trust, innovation, management, and branding. In May 2008,Haier ranked 13th on Forbes' Reputation Institute Global 200 list.
As of June 2008,the company has been awarded 8333 patents, with 1996 for Haier design team inventions. In 2007 alone Haier obtained 875 patents; 502 were invention patents. Haier has participated in the institution and modification of nine international standards, as well as 152 national and 425 industry standards, with three international standards set to launch in the near future. Of all the Chinese household appliance companies, Haier by far leads the way in the creation of international, national, and industry standards.
Haier management models such as OEC, “market chain,” and “Integration of Individuals and Goals” have been case studies at Harvard Business School, the University of Southern California; IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland; INSEAD in France, and Kobe University. Haier’s “market chain” management model has been included in the European Union's case study library.
Haier’s Code of Conduct:
Haier doesn’t state its code of ethics or code of conduct on its website or in any other form definitely, but its code of ethics is reflected in its managerial principles like Haier’s values and philosophy, Haier’s proverbs and its CEO’s speeches and so on. Through careful and strenuous research, we sum up its code of ethics in the following five respects, which will apparently illustrate the influence of Confucius’ ideas upon Haier’s managerial ethics:
Managing by Virtue Haier attaches great importance to the morality of their people can also be shown from its slogans like “No discount in quality, no discount in service, and no discount in credit standing”; “Sincere forever” and so on. It also put some specific principles for employees’ self-cultivation, such as “Manage yourself, challenge yourself”, “One should not forget who he is when elated, nor should he lose his manners when frustrated”, etc. In summary, Haier spirit fully embodies Confucius’ ideas about managing by self-cultivation and virtue.
Managing by Humanity
HRM is based on such principles as “Each individual is a talent, and promotion is based upon excellence, not appearance”, firstly training people and then creating a brand”.
The aim of HRM is to build up a HR mechanism and a policy with the function of how to research and develop individual potentiality. It provides its staff with three kinds of career designing: 1.For administrators;2.For professionals; 3. For workers. Each of them has one direction towards his promotion. In that wavy-Haired provides each of its employees with opportunities to develop and demonstrate talents. The responsibility of a manager is said to establish a “race track”, i.e. personality development opportunity for every employee to become a SBU(Strategical Business Unit).
In order to develop its employees to their full potentiality, Haier has developed a theory of Market Chain Effect.
Haier’s Market Chain Effect results in “individual-goal combination management”, which adequately demonstrates its “people-oriented” principle. People-oriented principle is the core of Confucius’ humanity. “A person of humanity loves people” is always advocated by Confucianists, and Haier achieves that point by developing itself through developing its employees. No Haier’s proverbs about HRM fail to show its orientation towards people and people’s development.
All Haier’s statements and practices show that it establishes mechanisms and systems, and makes policies to develop its employees’ potentiality to the full, which proves that its managerial ethics for HRM is people-oriented, while orientation towards people and their development is the direct reflection of Confucius’ ideas about humanity.
Winning Customers by trustworthiness Haier has a famous slogan, “Sincere for ever”.
In Haier’s service philosophy, it treats customers as the soil for business growth. Based on this philosophy, it develops its own principles of dealing with customers:
a).Build good impression
To build good impression is to be fully devoted to work,and to spare no effort to
satisfy personalized needs of and care for customers.
b).Build good reputation
To build good reputation is to keep a close eye on changes and take proactive actions
to satisfy customer needs and exceed customer expectations. Haier believes that reputation is more important than sales volume. Quality is the essence of a product, so is reputation to a business. A product should be deemed as acceptable only when it satisfies the customer very well. The point of marketing is buying rather than selling, that is, securing customer loyalty by building good reputation in the process of selling.
c).Never say “No” to the market.
Here it’s not a specific market, but a market in a broad sense. Whether people in Haier
are from assembly line, marketing department, service center or even from security, they should never say “No” to the market but satisfy all their customers. The yardstick used to measure the performance is customer satisfaction. Never say “No” to customers.
d).Customer is always right
In 1995,Haier put forth the concept of ”Star Service” based on the principle that customer is always right. Haier insists that its business relies on customers for success, and only when the customers are satisfied will the business be successful.
At Haier, a technically acceptable product is not necessarily a qualified product. Only
products of customer satisfaction are qualified. Products fail to meet customer needs are of little marketability and thus of little profitability. Therefore, the yardstick used to measure the performance is customer satisfaction. Never say “No” to customers.
e).Be trustworthy to customer
It uses its “trustworthiness” to win customer loyalty. All the above-mentioned principles and practices show that Haier spares no effort to establish its image of “trustworthiness” and to win the customer loyalty. It says that “only loyalty of global customers can bring about global prestige and only acquiring global prestige can you take part in the competition of the New Economy. Therefore, from the very beginning Haier wasn’t shortsighted. With such an ambitious objective, it has done everything it can to satisfy its customers, to create convenience and comfort for its customers. As what it says of itself, it does more than what customers expect, applying “pleasant surprise” to win the customers’ favor. The examples for that are too numerous to mention one by one, so only the following case is chosen to show Haier’s efforts to build its “trustworthy” image and to win the customers’ favor.
Ethics for Leadership: Leading by Example Haier says, “You needn’t be responsible for the poor quality of your subordinates, but you should be responsible for the failure to improve your subordinates’ quality”, which clearly illustrates Haier’s demand for the duty of leaders. On the basis of this, it develops“80/20”principle,also called the principle of “leaders are the key”, which declares that “the key minority controls the secondary majority. Administrators are few, but pivotal, employees are many, but subordinate from the perspective of management”.
Therefore, leaders must set a good example for employees, and be responsible for the
faults of their subordinates.
According to its principle, what Haier focuses on is customers’ need, not competitors.
Its principle says, “In market competition, it is impossible for you to deal with and overwhelm all your competitors, but it is possible for you to lead among your competitors”.
On the basis of those principles, it puts forward a new concept——co-optition, which is compounded by two words: “co-operation” and “competition”, and based on competency complementation which is enabled through exchange of resources and aimed at win-win cooperation. On January 8, 2002,Haier announced the co-optition with Sanyo Japan. Later on February 20,2002,Haier announced the co-optition with Sampo Taiwan. Haier’s righteousness to its competitors is clearly demonstrated by the meaning of that term: cooperating and competing with competitors in order to achieve the win-win.
Chapter ⅤEnlightenments for Corporate Cultures in China
Culture is the soul of management, and any enterprise of each country has its corporate culture with its own cultural characteristics. Economic modernization process of a nation is definitely rooted in this nation's historical and cultural tradition.
Confucianism founded by Confucius is a profound ideological system with a long history of 2500years,and maintains its dominant status. Confucianism places emphasis on the importance of education, the importance of knowledge, importance of human capital, and therefore is best suited to a culture of knowledge-based society. However, the Culture and management models of the developed capitalist countries have something useful to learn from. Our country's modernization of enterprise management should be based on the excellent tradition of Chinese culture as well as absorb the advantages of the management of foreign enterprises.
In the fierce market competition, any enterprise which can build advanced Culture will be able to establish an enterprise competitive advantage. Haier's success is that they create their own development management model-OEC(Overall Every Control And Clear) management model with the concept of combining Confucianism with western management conception.
Appreciating the Confucian culture in Japan and South Korea at the same time, we should deeply think over on our own. As the hometown of Confucius, China should be better inherit and carry forward the Confucian spirit. China is named as country of
etiquette. But Confucianism has experienced the events of “beating down Confucianism” of the May Fourth Movement and “Cultural Revolution” and “breaking up four old fashions(old-fashioned mind, culture, custom and habits)of 1960s.However, Confucianism has been well developed in Japan and South Korea. There comes up a clear gap of traditional Confucian culture between China and Japan and South Korea. Because of the crisis of the value chaos that contemporary society faces with multiple values, it is difficult to find the standard norms of life for individuals. So, in the conflicts of traditional spiritual and cultural modern material civilization the traditional Confucian ethics still has a practical significance.
Although China, Japan and South Korea are different in social systems, environments
and way of development, they have shared a common historical and cultural background which is subject to the impact of Confucian culture. Today, it is necessary for Chinese enterprise to draw useful corporate culture and management ideas of Japan and South Korea in order to have a better development.
1)Corporate culture is the whole spirit of enterprise; it is not gorgeous packaging, but
tireless pursuit of entrepreneurs and all staff. This culture is a consistent business strategy and should be recognized by all staff. Culture is the common values and common behavior patterns and habits formed in the long-term production and management activities of an enterprise and it reflects the corporate spirit of the staff. It determines the vitality of enterprises and utilization of human resources which is the advantages of enterprise competitiveness. It is believed that human resource is the most important one and corporate culture should be people-oriented. Nowadays, “people-oriented” has become the trend of modern enterprise culture, that is, enterprise should be concerned with the value orientation of staff, make career planning for staff, and create a cultural atmosphere and reasonable guide employees to create value. The development of modern science and technology established an important position of intellectual factors in economic development.
Enterprise richen in natural resources is not necessarily having the strong market competition, only those who can master technology and has talents are able to have a real advantage.
For instance, Matsushita proposes the concept of “being benevolent to staff” and believes human resource is the most important resource. In 1929,Japan suffered the influence of the Great Depression. Many businesses were forced to reduce salary and even sheared the employees. Economic downturn has also led to the backlog of inventory of Matsushita. Directors of Matsushita made a proposal of “halved production, halved workers ".However, the CEO Konosuke Matsushita insisted: "we reduce production by half from today, but should not dismiss a worker. "Staffs were called on to sell products.
Through the joint efforts of everyone, the company finally sold out inventory and passed the hard time.
It should be noted that Matsushita corporation established a commercial college which has four Confucian courses of the Great Learning(大学),the analects(论语),The Book of Mencius（孟子）The Book on Filial Piety（孝经）.China is the birthplace of the East Asian culture. In the process of building a corporate culture, Chinese enterprise should inherit and carry forward the excellent tradition of Chinese culture. Chinese enterprises should be able to put into a harmonious, comfortable, clean enterprise and be the family of staffs, and to form a community of common interest and destiny. There is no fundamental contradiction between Confucianism's “benevolence”, and “harmony” and the concept advocated by Chinese communist morality and professional ethics. Chinese managers should be good at grasping their essence, removing feudal dross and giving them new meaning of time. At the same time, Chinese enterprises should learn from excellent and advanced enterprises abroad and draw on all the fine culture, so that they can be innovative and can have a better development in the future.
2)To build corporate Culture, entrepreneurs must set an example to their employees. An entrepreneur is the strict supervisor but also good friend to employees. Entrepreneurs should be the representative of entrepreneurship, and only unless entrepreneurs set an example to staff they can establish leader’s image in order to truly become the core of leadership and authority. First of all, enterprise should strengthen the cultural construction and implement “benevolent”. This put forward two demands to business leaders: on the one hand, business leaders should take the lead to set an example. For running the country, Confucius put forward a number of requirements to leadership. Confucius said that:
“employ first the services of your various officers, pardon small faults, and raise to office men of virtue and talents”which show the basic quality that a leader should posses.(先有司，赦小过，举贤才《论语•子路》)“when a prince’s personal conduct is correct, his government is effective without the issuing of orders. if his personal conducts not correct, he may issue orders, but they will not be followed”(其身正，不令而行，其身不正，虽令不从《论语•子路》)fully affirms the impact on staff of the conduct of leader. It can be seen that establishing a high quality leadership is the key point of corporate culture construction.
On the other hand, leading officials should have the insight to identify the talents, the resolve to use them, the passion to love them and the ways to get them together and should know how to judge and use people and pool the talents together. Confucius proposed that “advance the upright and set aside the crooked, then the people will submit”(举直错诸枉，则民服《论语•为政》).For Family enterprises, it is necessary to achieve“family members” and “outsiders” an equal status, when the family members are not competent, they should use non-family members, and talent must be carefully evaluated and properly placed. Business leaders should not only be good at selecting talent but also should change the paternalistic management style. Enterprises must set up a scientific and fair employment mechanism and implement the “rule of law” instead of “rule of man”.
3)If Chinese enterprises want to achieve their own development and growth, they should study the Western advanced management experience and absorb traditional culture at the same time. It should learn from the “Analects of Confucius” about the management of intelligence and establish a people-centered concept of corporate culture. They should combine “rule of man” and “rule of law” together and to build a learning organization; spare no efforts to integrate into the social capital; build a harmonious internal and external business environment, and set up material culture, spiritual and cultural, behavioral and institutional culture in all aspects, and eventually develop enterprise culture adapted to the requirements of time and sustainable development.
Conclusion
Today, China is experiencing the in-depth development of reform and opening up and
building a socialist market economy. The development of a modern business management and the training of new Confucian merchants of 21st century are inseparable from the reasonable absorption and the transformation of tradition of Chinese culture. Stones from other hills may serve to polish the jade of this one. If China wants to finish the transformation from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy and evolve into giant of the East in the 21st century, we should learn from culture and management of active ingredients of developed countries. Based on the effects of traditional Chinese culture and the combination of the new situation, new demands, the awareness and concepts of modern management of our country can be formed. We should promote the success of Chinese enterprises management methods and experience to set up the corporate Culture with Chinese characteristics. It is true that the Chinese enterprises are faced with many difficult at this stage, but with the advent of the era of knowledge economy, modern entrepreneurs should establish the overall ideas and concepts co-coordinated on their own from now and put the modernization of enterprise management in the first place.
Entrepreneurs should pay great attention to knowledge-based economy, and constantly improve their own ideological and cultural quality, establish people-oriented management concept, and strive to explore and improve the corporate culture with Chinese characteristics and pursue suitable management mode of their own in order to promote the continuous development of Chinese enterprises.