Impacts of traditional Chinese culture and Western
management theories and practices
A closer look at sources as well as practical manifestations of the philo-
sophical notions revealed that the Chinese executives drew insights
from Chinese traditional culture for philosophical thinking about
managing interpersonal relationships but turned to Western sources
to articulate their philosophies regarding business operations.
The influence of Chinese culture and experiences
Five of the thirteen holders of the notionharmony is preciousexplic-
itly stated that Chinese philosophical thoughts shaped the formation
of this notion. Five of the holders of notion of theGolden Mean
reported that it resulted from their exposure to Confucian thoughts.
Seven executives clearly linked their notion ofsocial responsibility
to their life experience in China, their parents’ teaching, their belief
that China is relatively poor and needs more support from enterprises,
and their being touched by the hardworking employees who deserve
better care from the companies. From these results, we can conclude
that the formation of three notions –harmony is precious, the Golden
Mean, andsocial responsibility –is influenced by Chinese culture and
experience. That these philosophical notions are rooted in Chinese
cultu re was seen in previou s chapte rs of this book, espec ially Chapter 1
on Confucian statesmanship.
Although there is a tradition of emphasizing social conscience in
Chinese culture, the understanding and the terminology of social
responsibility of modern organizations in a market economy may
be influenced to some extent by more recent Western management
theories, especially the stakeholder perspective (Crane, Dirk, and
Jeremy 2004 ; Rufet al., 2001).
The traditional Confucian social conscience gave primacy to the
welfare of the state, the community, and the clients instead of
the profit and wealth of the merchants, and the pre-reform Com-
munist Party gave primacy to social and political goals rather than
economic ones. The market-oriented economic reform (starting in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) set free the entrepreneurial spirit of
money-making and wealth creation of the Chinese that had long been
suppressed by a state-controlled economy and a leftist political ideol-
ogy. The Chinese business executives faced competing pressures from
262 Zhi-xue Zhanget al.